Book Review: Heartland by Sarina Bowen

Heartland (True North #7) by Sarina Bowen

Pages: 239
Publish date: January 28th 2020
Publisher: Tuxbury Publishing LLC
ASIN: B07ZD8WWLZ
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

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:

I received an e-arc of Heartland by Sarina Bowen in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I’ve been reading Sarina Bowen for a couple of years now, and I’m always excited to read something new, especially about someone that I really enjoy. So when I heard that she was writing a book about Dylan and Chastity, I was intrigued. It wasn’t the matchup I was expecting, but I wanted to know more.

Jens Johnsson

Heartland by Sarina Bowen follows Dylan and Chastity as their once seemly easy friendship turns into something more that could change both of their lives. Chastity has always thought about Dylan as her best friend. He accepted her for who she was, where she came from and why she is a little different. When they were both on their farm’s things were easier. But now away at college, Chastity gets to see Dylan, the party boy. But then things start to change between them and both Chastity and Dylan see different sides of one another and life is about to get a little different.

I’m not going to lie, it took me some time to really like Chastity. I understood where she came from and where she grew it, but it also made it really hard to read at times. Her thoughts were very ‘childlike.’ But as the novel went on and Chastity came out of her shell, I really enjoyed getting to know her. I felt like her character arc was fantastic. Seriously, I loved it so much. The reader truly gets to see Chastity grow throughout Heartland. She becomes this strong, independent woman who can stand up on her own. That doesn’t let her past define her. And that was so fantastic to see.

Dylan was a pretty entertaining protagonist. Readers have gotten to see Dylan grow quite a bit and it’s finally time for him to shine and boy he does. There were so many times that the reader will want to scream at him, get him to face what’s in front of him. But he eventually got it. Dylan is a lot of fun to be around and while sometimes he acted like a dickhead, it wasn’t that bad. Throughout Heartland, the reader really gets to see Dylan grow. He comes into himself, he starts to understand and know what he wants, but he also has to face his past. And that comes with a lot of emotions. One of my favourite things about Sarina Bowen is that she can write male leads that are able to show their emotions that don’t hide from them. Stijn te Strake

The romance in Heartland for me had its ups and downs. For the most part, I loved it. Dylan and Chastity were totally adorable together. From the start, the reader is able to see how much they like and care for one another. But they can also see that there is a lot of push back from both Dylan and Chastity. It was really nice seeing them fall for one another, to see them go from friends to lovers, to something more. There were times throughout Heartland that both Dylan and Chastity had a lot of doubt, not just with their relationships but with themselves. And it was great seeing them work through that.

There are a lot of other themes that pop up throughout Heartland one of those guilt/regret. This was really interesting to see and I loved that it was looked into. This also caused a lot of tension between Dylan and Griffin. This really brought out a lot of issues that they have with one another, but it was also great to see them work through it all.

Laura Fuhrman

Overall, I really did enjoy Heartland by Sarina Bowen. It’s not my favourite in this series, but I really enjoyed getting to know Dylan a whole lot more. The reader gets to see them grow throughout the series and really come into himself in this one. The reader also gets to see Chastity put her life back together, to try and find a new normal. Heartland explores family and changing relationships. It has friends to lovers romance that is adorable and just put a smile on my face. I love the Shipley family so much and this really looks into a different side of them. If you’ve read the rest of the True North series, pick this one because it will melt your heart.