Review: Stealing Hearts by Lex Martin (Wild at Heart #1)
Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Grey's Promotions.
Stealing Hearts is an age-gap, falling-for-your-sibling's-best-friend, marriage-of-convenience romance from Lex Martin, and it's the first in her brand-new Wild at Heart small-town romance series which features the Walker brothers. This series starter has a female main character who may be familiar to longtime readers of the author or have read her Varsity Dads series--Paige Lewis, student at Lone Star State and cheerleader for the school's football team, the Broncos. Well, the twenty-two-year-old now has her degree in communications and she was headed to Austin for a coaching job--that is, until she twists her ankle. She needs therapy but doesn't have insurance, and what she doesn't need is a boyfriend who doesn't think she's good enough to meet his family. Heading back to her hometown of Wild Heart, Texas to contemplate her next move, the second to the last thing Paige expects is to end up having to sleep in her car AND for her late brother's best friend to make both his presence and his opinion on her situation known. The VERY last thing she expects? For Rhett Walker--ten years her senior and single dad to his two young sons--to become her husband. But in exchange for his insurance to help her get therapy on her ankle, she'll exchange vows with him so that he can save his family's ranch--and his family's legacy. Can she save her heart from being broken in the process or will the guy she's loved for years steal it again?
I enjoyed the heck out of this series starter! Paige was a notable supporting character in Blindside Beauty, the sixth and final book in Lex Martin's Varsity Dad series, and I'm glad that she got her much deserved happily-ever-after with Rhett. He was the grump to her sunshine, and goodness, but how these two needed to work on their communication. Rhett was very much set in his ways, and while his boys and his family's ranch had been his priorities for years, it took him a while to realize that Paige was not someone he could set aside in hopes that she would understand any and all circumstances that came their way. While things were not necessarily easy for them, I appreciated that the struggles made them grow closer and allowed for Rhett to recognize that Paige was a true partner in the life they were living and continuing to create as a family. Rhett's brothers--Beau, Jace, and Maverick (who was also part of the Varsity Dads series--were notable supporting characters, as was Baylee Reyes, Paige's best friend. I hope we get more of Isaiah in future books because I'm curious as to his absence on the family homestead. It was also fun to have a bit of Abby Dawson in this book, what with me being a sucker for cameos from other series I enjoyed. Stealing Hearts indeed stole my heart and is a 4.5-starred beginning to the series.
Release Date: 30 January 2025
Date Read: 27 January 2025
Learn more about Lex Martin.
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