HEARTLAND BY SARINA BOWEN

A standalone romance in the USA Today best-selling True North world.

 

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Blurb

Expect: cute goats, college parties, caramels, a hot, broody farm boy and a broken girl who can’t stop loving him.

An emotional friends to lovers romance full of risky secrets and late-night lessons in seduction.

Dylan is my best friend, and the only person in my life who understands me. He doesn’t mind my social awkwardness or my weird history. The only glitch? He doesn’t know that I’ve been hopelessly, desperately in love with him since the first day we picked apples together in his family’s orchard.

But I know better than to confess.

Now that we’re both in college together, I’m seeing a new side of him. College Dylan drinks and has a lot of sex. None of it with me. Until the night I foolishly ask him to tutor me in more than algebra…and he actually says yes.

But the cool morning light shows me how badly I’ve endangered our friendship. And I don’t know if anything will be the same again.

 

Heartland is a standalone college romance set in the True North world. Expect: a young, broody farmer, a giant crush, tasty caramels, cute goats and late night confessions.

 

 

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Review

5 stars!

Oh, what a story! A beautifully heartfelt friends-to-lovers romance that is sweet and sexy with lots of feels, this book absolutely owned my heart and I loved it so much!

This is the seventh book in the True North series, and is the story of Dylan Shipley. Dylan is the youngest son of the Shipley farming family that make up the heart of this series, and while I loved the opportunity to be back in this world, you could also read this as a standalone.

Dylan is now 20 years old and a college student, but is still travelling home on the weekends to help out on the family farm. He’s not sure what his future holds but he is living in the moment, staying commitment free, and has a reputation as a bit of a ladies man.

I’m not the most reliable guy. But I am a good time. Sometimes it’s enough.

Chastity was raised in a cult and ran away as a teenager and found her way to Vermont. Now 21, she lives with other ex-cult members, Isaac and Leah, next door to the Shipleys, and the two families are closely interwoven. Chastity is attending college and embracing her freedom, and she is learning a lot about life, but what she craves more than anything is to experience affection, love and intimacy with somebody… one person in particular, her best friend, Dylan.

“I have the same dirty mind as everyone else. And I just want what everyone else has.”

Dylan and Chastity are at College together, and Dylan helps Chastity out with tutoring, and the two of them even enter into a side business together. They laugh and joke, and Dylan is always there to protect and support his friend. But she wants more. She’s developed strong feelings for her best friend, and when she suggests he tutor her in all of the things she’s been desperate to explore, he is helpless to resist.

I really loved this relationship. Dylan and Chastity’s friendship is beautiful, and their shift to ‘friends with something more’ is natural and realistic. Their chemistry is insane, but there is confusion and doubt, which is understandable, but they work to overcome it and throw themselves into exploring their mad attraction, and it’s all kinds of sexy. They still joke and laugh, but there is an added dimension to their relationship now, and it’s so much fun watching them together.

I’m very helpful until she’s finished with problem thirty-one.
“How’d I do?” she asks.
“Groovy. Once you’ve divided by Y, you didn’t have any more problems.”
She beams down at her paper.
“Also? You look really touchable in that sweater. Just saying.”

Dylan has never had any interest in a long-term relationship, and though they went into their arrangement knowing that it wouldn’t last forever, it’s just so good between them, and his changing feelings for Chastity knock him completely off his feet.

I forget how to breathe for a second, because I just love her so hard.

It’s beautiful! These characters are both amazing, and so well-written, and I loved watching the progression of everything between them. Chastity’s feelings are strong from the beginning, but she’s still figuring herself out, and Dylan has a whole lot of soul searching to do as he decides what he wants and where his future lay. It’s beautifully written with lots of emotion, and their journey is realistic as they work it all out.

Loving Chastity isn’t a big decision I made. It just happened. And as for the rest of the big decisions coming my way, they aren’t as scary as they were a few hours ago.
So long as we’re together, I think I can handle all the other stuff.

This is a fantastic addition to the True North series, and I loved catching up with some of the characters from previous books. The exploration of the relationship between Dylan and his big brother, Griff (hero of book #1), is an unexpected cornerstone of the story – I loved seeing it from Dylan’s POV and, again, I thought it was really beautifully written.

I loved this story so much! I laughed and swooned, and it was just the story that I wanted for these two.

5 stars!

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

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True North series

 

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Excerpt

“So why were you having a bad day, anyway?” Ellie asks. “Man trouble?”

“Not exactly. It’s more like a lack of man trouble. I kissed my hot algebra tutor. And I wasn’t supposed to.”

Her big eyes widen. “Which hot algebra tutor? You never said.”

“He doesn’t work at the lab,” I say hastily. “He’s a friend. And he wants to stay that way.”

“Oh.” She looks deflated. “That is a bummer.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.” She makes a face. “It would be nice, though. This year is kind of lonely. My roommate is a total bitch.”

“Oh, I have one of those, too.” 

“Yeah?” Ellie’s eyes brighten. “Does yours steal your clothes and then lie about it?”

“Um, no. She wouldn’t want any of my things. We have singles, anyway. Just a common bathroom.”

“Lucky! She must be easier to stand, then.”

“You’d think.” I take a gulp of mint tea. 

“My roommate took my brand-new scarf. With the tags still on! And when I called her out on it, she tried to gaslight me.”

“Gaslight?” I feel my cheeks flush like they sometimes do when I don’t understand the idioms that people use.

“You don’t know Gaslight? It’s a movie from the forties.”

“Ingrid Bergman,” says Dylan’s voice. “We haven’t got around to the classics yet.”

I startle, sloshing my tea over my hand. And when I look up, Dylan is right there. Clear brown eyes. Tousled hair. Tight, muscular body that’s clothed in a nice sweater and ripped jeans. A handsome face that I finally kissed.

Pain slices through me. Because I’m never going to get over him. There will never be a day when I look at Dylan and don’t wish for more.

“Can I talk to you for a quick second?” he asks, taking the mug and grabbing a napkin off the table. He wipes the tea off my hand.

“Now is not a good time,” I say quickly. Because I don’t want to cry in the coffee shop in front of my only new friend.

Dylan actually rolls his eyes. “Fifteen seconds, Chass. Give a man a break.”

“I’d talk to you.” Ellie raises her hand like a school girl. “Pick me.”

And that’s just what I need—another girl in my life who’s swooning for Dylan. Because that always turns out well. 

“Fine. Fifteen seconds.” I jump to my feet. Let’s get this over with.

Dylan takes my arm and tows me gently over toward the bulletin board, where nobody is currently reading the flyers for meditation circles and ski equipment sales. 

“Look, I’m sorry,” is his opener. “You’re avoiding me. Not that I blame you. I’m sorry things got so out of control.”

“Which things?” I ask warily. Because I don’t want an apology for fooling around with me.

“Pick one!” Dylan raises his hands. “All the things. I shouldn’t have been so inappropriate.”

“But…” I know Dylan was in a serious state of drunken depression when he kissed me. It’s not like I was expecting to hear those kisses made him as happy as they made me. But would it kill him to be a little less patronizing? “Dylan, I’m not twelve years old. It was just a kiss or two. I don’t think I’ll need a full course of therapy to recover.”

He blinks. “Okay. Good?”

“So did you really need to drag me over here to apologize a third time? Did you apologize to all the girls you kissed during Spin the Bottle in seventh grade?” 

I heard about Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven only last year, by eavesdropping on Debbie and her buddies at another bonfire. I’d been transfixed by their tales of who’d kissed whom over the years and how often. 

At thirteen, Spin the Bottle would have sounded like heaven to me. Seven minutes in a closet with a boy? I would have lobbied for eight. I was always the most inappropriate girl in the bunch. 

Yet somehow Dylan sees me as some kind of innocent child. 

“No. Good point.” He crosses his delicious arms and smiles at me. “You are in a feisty mood today.”

“Is that so wrong?”

“No.” He shakes his handsome head. “Not at all. Are we going to hug it out?” He opens his big arms wide.

Oh boy. I can’t resist stepping into them. And when he pulls me in, I experience the familiar hormone rush that always happens when I’m close to him. Rapid heartbeat? Check. Goosebumps? Check. My nose lands against his flannel shirt. 

My mouth is mere inches from his, of course. But this time he has no interest in kissing me. It takes all my willpower to give him a squeeze and then step back.

“Be well, Chass. I’ll leave you to your tutoring session, even if you’re basically cheating on me right now. But we’re still making caramels this weekend, right? I told Griffin we could use six gallons of goat’s milk. Don’t make a liar out of me.”

“I won’t,” I say quickly. I might be slightly irritated at him, but it will blow over. My capacity to forgive him for not loving me back is basically infinite. “We’ll leave right after Friday classes?”

“You got it. And this is for you. Share it with your friend.” He pulls something out of his pocket. “More market research.”

He puts a little box in my hand and then walks away.

As always, it takes me a second to get over my hormone rush. I stand there blinking for a long moment until I realize Ellie is grinning at me from the sofa. So I go back over to her and sit down.

“Wow…” she says, stealing a glance at Dylan’s retreating backside. “Is that hot hunk of Vermont male your algebra tutor?”

“Yes.” My voice is gravel.

“And your future ex-boyfriend?”

“Nope. I’ll never get that chance. He’s my best friend, but…” There’s no tidy explanation.

“But you want more. I would if it were me.”

I nod, miserable. 

 

 

 

For more great reads, check out our Sarina Bowen Author Spotlight