This book took its time, and I liked that about it. Crimson Hearts follows Elizabeth Hollingsworth and Jameson Blackwell, two people caught in a decades-old family feud, tangled in vines and secrets and things left unsaid for far too long. They’re not just trying to figure each other out, they’re unearthing a whole mess of history buried beneath generations of hurt. Love doesn’t come easy here. It has to fight through grief, pride, silence, and a past that won’t stay put. And the land is more than just where things grow. It’s where things fall apart and come together again.

The writing is not flashy or heavy-handed. There’s this kind of quiet confidence in the way Susan Reed-Flores writes that lets emotions build naturally. Nothing gets forced. The characters stumble, they second-guess, they say the wrong thing, they say nothing at all, and somehow, that feels more real than anything else. Elizabeth, especially, felt solid to me. Not in a loud, dramatic way. Just in how she kept pushing through, eyes open, even when the ground beneath her shifted. And Jameson surprised me. He starts off guarded, sure, but there’s softness there. You just have to wait for it.

There’s a quiet patience to the story that I really appreciated. It doesn’t chase after shock or twist for the sake of drama. Instead, it leans into a steady, deliberate pace, letting emotions build slowly, layer by layer. Some plot turns felt familiar, but in a comforting way, like hearing a well-loved song played just a little differently. And because the story doesn’t force anything, the emotional moments when they do come feel earned. The calm makes the breakthroughs matter more.

Would I recommend Crimson Hearts? Absolutely. If you’re into romance that digs through memory and soil and doesn’t give you all the answers up front, you’ll probably fall into this one the way I did. It’s gentle, it’s patient, and somehow it lingers longer than you expect.

Pages: 186 | ASIN: B0FHG1MX4H