Narration by Stephen Dexter & Vanessa Edwin
Chestnut Springs, Book 2
From the author:
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 13 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.
I borrowed this series from my library using the Hoopla app, and I have to say if they had the covers that Amazon is using, I probably would have skipped over it. I’m not sure how these things are determined, but I much prefer the one pictured at the top of this post to this:
At the center of this book is Cade Eaton — single dad to the adorable Luke and desperately in need of a summer nanny. Enter Willa Grant. With her show horse sidelined by an injury and her bartending gig at her brother’s place unexpectedly on hold while he renovates, Willa decides to visit her best friend Summer — who readers will remember from Book 1, Flawless — now living on the ranch.
Cade has already suffered through a parade of truly awful nanny candidates, so when Summer insists she knows the perfect person for the job, he trusts her judgment. But the moment Willa arrives, he knows he’s in trouble. The chemistry between them is instant and undeniable — which is exactly the problem. He’s not looking for a girlfriend, and she has zero childcare experience. Still, watching Willa and Luke hit it off immediately, he relents, telling himself he’ll simply keep things professional. Best laid plans…
The real heart of the story is the growing bond between Willa and Luke, which is both charming and genuinely moving — and not lost on Cade, even as he fights his feelings. There’s also an age gap that Cade seems to focus on, but eventually he moves past it. The romance itself is steamy, with an occasional moment that veers into ick territory, though I found it easy to look past thanks to the warmth of the father-son dynamic. I have a soft spot for devoted single dads — and I’ll admit that’s probably not unrelated to the fact that my own father remarried the same week he divorced my mother and largely checked out on his first family.
This is an enjoyable sequel to Flawless, elevated further by excellent narrators. Fair warning, though: if spice isn’t your thing, this series isn’t for you — these books sit squarely on the edge of erotic romance. Meanwhile, I’m moving on to Powerless.
4/2026 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
HEARTLESS by Elsie Silver. Narrators: Stephen Dexter & Vanessa Edwin. Self-published. (January 18, 2023). ASIN: B0BSK3GDJ7. Listening Length: 9 hours and 51 minutes.
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