Heartless by Elsie Silver - A Book Review
Synopsis:
Working as a nanny for the world’s grumpiest single dad should have been simple. Except I can’t keep my eyes off him. And he can’t keep his hands off of me.
Cade Eaton is thirteen years older than I am and barely looks my way. Until I get him into the hot tub one night for a game of truth or dare. Then all bets are off—and so are our clothes.
He’s gruff, a little rough around the edges. But broad-shouldered ranchers with calloused hands and filthy mouths are this city girl’s kryptonite. So who am I to resist?
But it’s in our quiet moments together that he softens. It’s when he takes care of me that I realize his hardened exterior is just a façade. It’s when I watch him go all sweet with his little boy that I really fall for him.
Someone convinced him once that his best wasn’t good enough. But I’ve never felt more cherished than I do in his arms.
My contract may say this arrangement is only for two months.
But my heart says this is forever.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Single Dad
- Small Town
- Age Gap
- Opposites Attract
- Cowboy X Nanny
- Slow Burn
- Unexpected Pregnancy
I knew when planning out my A-Z Reading Challenge that The Chestnut Spring series had to be incorporated – in fact, I’m pretty sure I started my choices with the Chestnut Spring series and worked the other letters around them.
Elsie Silver’s Chestnut Spring series blew up over TikTok towards the end of 2023, but I was faintly familiar with her work beforehand. I read the first book in the series Flawless, back in 2022 as a book club choice. I rated that book 4 ⭐️ and absolutely loved it. I’m not sure why I never got round to reading the rest of the books of the series, but I’m glad I didn’t because now I can join in with the TikTok hype.
The whole hype on TikTok has got me seriously considering buying the physical versions of the series and cute cowboy/girl decor accessories – but, I’m holding out buying the full physical series until I’ve read it on my kindle.
Prior to starting my A-Z challenge, I was eager to start with the Chestnut Springs series, but I ultimately decided to go in alphabetical order. So I was super excited to finally get to join the TikTok hype.
Heartless follows single father Cade, in his hunt to find a temporary nanny to look after his five year old son Luke, over the summer while school is on break, which Cade is unable to do as he’s got loads of work cut out for him on his families farm.
Cade is extremely picky towards picking a nanny for Luke, only wanting the best for his son and also to find someone who won’t pine after him. This leads him and Summer, his sister in law with no options, due to his pickiness. When Cade persistently asks Summer to look after Luke, she declines due to having her own busy schedule – but has the perfect person in mind, who’s similar to herself.
Cade visits his local coffee shop, where he’s entranced with the ginger haired woman in front of him and her loveable laugh. When the woman in front attempts to find her purse, she accidentally drops her underwear on the floor, leading Cade to do the gentleman thing and retrieve them for her – not realising what they are.
The pair exchange a laugh between what they are, before the lady rushes out the shop leaving her underwear in Cade’s hands.
Summer meets with her friend Willa and desperately persuades her to take the nanny job to help her brother in law Cade. Willa is initially apprehensive knowing that Cade is a grumpy cowboy, but with no plans over the summer due to her brother closing the bar she works at, she decides to give it a go.
When Summer introduces the friend that she believed would be perfect to look after Luke, Willa and Cade realise they know each other from the coffee shop. This realisation had grumpy Cade refusing to accept Willa’s help, after the underwear incident they exchanged. However, he’s left with no choice when Luke wants to spend time with Summer and Willa.
The story follows the navigation between Cade’s busy working life on the farm and Willa’s nannying for Luke. Despite his initial attraction to Willa, Cade makes a promise to himself not to pursue his son’s nanny, due to the 13 year age gap they share and because of the burns that Luke’s mother Talia left on him.
Only with the close and forced proximity, Cade and Willa are unable to deny their lustful feelings towards one another – especially with Willa frequently teasing, flirting and sharing of her underwear habits to Cade. Willa slowly breaks through Cade’s grumpy exterior, after he set out determined for Willa to fail.
The tension between the pair continues to develop, where their feelings are laid on the table after a truth and dare session in Cade’s hot tub. However, Cade painfully sticks to his promise of staying clear of Willa, but in doing so, his rejection pushes Willa away from him.
Following their truth and dare session, Cade pushes Willa towards a fellow cowboy, encouraging her to go out with him, which she follows through on. Only she returns home early after not enjoying their company and only wanting Cade. The two exchange a heated argument that eventually leads to the slow burn exploding and the tension snapping.
The pair attempt to ignore their feelings with one another, while they step into a familiar routine of Willa teaching Luke new skills, whilst Cade comes home to them after a long day at the ranch. Willa becomes fully immersed in the Eaton family lifestyle, making thoughts of returning to her city lifestyle even harder to think about.
After Luke becomes sick passing his sickness onto Willa, Cade becomes protective and caring for Willa despite his grumpy exterior he’d been putting on. With Willa seeing Cade’s soft side, her feelings are further reinforced; resulting in the pair to finally give into their feelings whilst keeping their new relationship on the down low, due to Cade’s worries she’ll eventually return back to her city life, that will leave him devastated.
With Luke’s birthday approaching, Cade begins preparing for the annual arrival of Luke’s estranged mother Talia. When Talia arrives, she attempts to make her presence known, by having her hands all over Cade, who’s aware it’s for show due to her running out on their family when Luke was two years old. Willa begins to observe Talia’s behaviour and when the two finally converse, snide comments are made by Talia about how she’ll always be the mother of Cade’s child and she’ll always have a hold on him. This anger’s Willa, in which Cade calms her down – reminding Willa that he has no feelings for Talia and that he tolerates her only for his son.
Not long after Luke’s birthday celebration, Cade is involved in a ranching accident that leaves him with broken fingers, resulting in him to go to hospital. When Cade and Willa arrive at the small town hospital, they are met with Summer’s sister Winter who’s their doctor. It is revealed that Summer and Winter have become estranged due to Winter’s mother, resulting in them to have a strained relationship. Willa attempts to encourage Winter to return Summer’s messages and to mend their relationship, only Winter is apprehensive, believing it’s been left too long. When catching up, Winter reveals her miscarriage, which prompts Willa to realise she late. After undergoing tests, Winter confirms that Willa is pregnant as a result of her sickness that made her pill ineffective.
On the way home, Cade observes the change in Willa’s behaviour and begins questioning what is wrong. Willa is initially apprehensive about revealing her pregnancy news to Cade, but eventually does. Upon hearing the news, Cade is shocked and presents not the best reaction, which makes Willa believe they need time apart to think about everything, due to her not wanting to make Cade feel trapped like Talia had done.
Willa returns to the city to think through what she wants and while there, received messages from her friend Summer informing her that Cade is miserable without her. This prompts Willa to return home and for the pair to rejoin together.
The story comes to an end with Cade, Willa and Luke being a family of three preparing for the arrival of the new baby. Willa and Luke exchange a sweet and endearing conversation where Luke asks if he can also call Willa Mum, like the new baby eventually will, before Willa goes into labour.
The story ends with Willa and Cade welcoming their baby girl, who they’ve named after Cade’s late mother, Emma, before being joined by Luke, completing their family.
I read this book in two nights, which probably could’ve been one night if I had’ve started it earlier on the first day. I absolutely devoured this book – I loved it!
Waiting so long to read it paid off because I throughly enjoyed it – I loved everything about it, it was literally *chefs kiss*.
It had all the tropes that I absolutely love, so I felt like Elsie Silver well and truly fed me and delivered with this book! It was just what I needed after my slumpy reading habits recently.
In heartless, I highlighted so much – more than I’ve ever done for any other book. The whole story had me giggling, awh-ing, kicking my legs in excitement and my heartwarming with love for all the loveable characters. Heartless was such a wholesome read and I really enjoyed being able to immerse myself into the cowboy world with characters that I genuinely cared for and loved – where’s my cowboy at?
I can’t even narrow down my special character mention because every character that was featured had something I loved.
I absolutely fell in love with little Luke and his sweetness, I just wanted to protect him from the pain his mother’s absence caused. I fell in love with Willa’s love for him and how Cade fell in love with Willa’s love for his son. I do wish we had’ve seen Willa turn into protective mother mode towards Luke’s mother Talia, by causing a scene, but I equally love that Luke and Willa had their special moment with him asking to start calling her Mum too.
I loved seeing Summer and Rhett’s relationship in Flawless and their wittiness. I loved Rhett’s one liners and Summer’s smart comments.
I loved Cade’s father and his innuendos that he purposely made towards blowing the grass.
The story ended perfectly in my opinion – pregnancy. I love a good pregnancy trope and seeing the characters fulfil life goals. I feared that heartless would end without an engagement or pregnancy, which would be revealed in the following book – sometimes I enjoy this, especially when it’s nice to have mentions in a new book of characters from previous books you loved, but because I loved this book so much, I wanted to know everything in this book.
I love how Willa had a girl, it was something I was hoping for. I just felt like a girl would feel right because Cade already had a boy, so it needed to be a girl who would have Cade wrapped around her finger. With the mention of Cade’s mother who had died in childbirth, I also felt like Willa and Cade needed to have a girl so that they could name her after Cade’s late mother.
I loved how Elsie subtly set up the following books of the series, by sprinkling in the other characters and hinting towards what their storylines would be. It had me excited to get to know the other characters of the Chestnut Springs world.
Devoured, loved and desperately eager to read the following books of the series. Well and truly in my cowboy era.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
♥
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