Spitfire Reads

By: Ashley Marie

Spicy: 4

Rating: 5

OOOO Im slowly becoming a sucker for this micro trope, or at least what I am calling a micro trope. Chapters that aren’t from the MC’s perspective. But read this book and se what I mean because this is what I want to see. This is the second book I’ve read that had this and I loved every minute of it! 

I couldn’t have loved this book any more than I do right now. I saw this book and thought it would be cute to change it up and read about a small town romance. What I didn’t expect was this was full of more than just small town vibes. You watch as the FMC builds herself back up after her break up to then have the MMC come in and show her how she should properly be loved. 

You see the FMC was hurt badly by her ex. He was mentally and verbally abusive. He did not get physically because she saw the signs and left before that happened. (Please check trigger warnings before reading this) What I have to say is that I was so darn proud to see how far she got in her life since she left. She made those dreams come true and was running her own business. Ok so secretly I have an obsession with gardening and aquaponics so while reading this I was very much so smiling ear to ear about it. Any who, she kicks butt and brings the small town community together even more than before. She showed that it didn’t have to be a competition between companies but instead a tag team! 

When the MMC moves to town he is instantly falling for her and decides to try to ask her out. With the help of their friends he has a secretive date with her and from there he nicely pushed for more to their relationship. Yet ever step of the way he made sure to reassure her that he was actually there for her and he just wanted to be her partner. He didn’t want to change her or tell her how to live life. He was ready to just be with her. Slowly she opens up and starts to get comfortable with this new normal. 

Now I am going to stop here with this because there is a lot more I’m not saying but that is because you need to read to get those juicy details. There’s a bit of darkness to this story and you gotta find out what the drama is all about. There is no third act break up or misunderstanding tropes in this book. I will say that was such a refresher. Once they started the relationship, it was set and that was end goals type stuff. So don’t worry yourself on that front, its everything else that you have to worry about. Haha

Author Ashley Marie wrote a phenomenal first book! I kid you not, the entire time I was reading this book it felt like I was reading a seasoned writers work. It felt like the plot, concept, story line, characters, everything was built with such strong foundation that from there everything else just fell in place. This book was written to capture your attention and keep it the entire way through your reading time. It did just that. The characters were strong and while there was a decent amount of supportive characters, I felt like the MC’s stood out the most. I do think this was set up that we could venture back into this world a few times with different characters we met in this book. I mean the epilogue kinda hints to that but still it felt like we have many directions to lean into as Ashley Marie continues to write. 

Even for not being a big small town romance or rom com kind of reader, I personally loved this book and will be recommending it to my non dark romance lovers. I know a few that will surely eat this up! I hope we see some more books from Ashley Marie, no pressure, but I will be waiting to see what you’re planning!