I received this book for free from the Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Beau Eaton is the town prince, a handsome military hero with a tortured past.
I’m the outcast bartender, a shy girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
He’s thirty-five and all man, and I’m twenty-two and all… virgin.
He’s also my fiancé. Correction: my fake fiancé.
We start out as a bet. He doesn’t believe that anyone holds my last name against me. So he offers me his to prove a point.
It’s win-win. He gets a break from his concerned family’s prying, and I get a chance to shed my family’s reputation while I save up to ditch this small town.
He says all I have to do is wear his ring, follow his lead, and pretend I can’t keep my hands off of him in public.
But it’s what happens between us in private that blurs all those carefully drawn lines.
It’s what transpires behind closed doors that doesn’t feel like pretending at all.
This engagement was supposed to be for show. This agreement? It has an end date.
He once told me he’d never fall in love.
And yet here I am, head over heels for my fake fiancé.

Elsie Silver is one of those authors that I just simple adore. I’ve read almost every book she has written and I loved them all. Lucky enough I’m a part of her ARC team and so when I received Hopeless, I started reading as soon as I could. In Hopeless we finally get to read the story of Beau Easton. We read a little bit about Beau in the previous books in the series and I was so ready for his book. And it was more than I hoped for.

Beau is struggling after having returned from a mission that went horribly wrong. Everyone sees him as a hero, but all he wants it to escape all those town people that seem to want a piece of him. The only place he feels comfortable is at the bar where Bailey works.

Bailey.. has been trying to escape her family’s reputation for as long as she can remember. But the town isn’t giving her a lot of help. Luckily her job in the bar is the one steady thing going for her. And then there is Beau. He has always been kind to her, and lately he has been coming to ‘her’ bar more and more. And then one evening Beau and Bailey end agreeing on a bet that changes everything. They’ll pretend to be fiancée’s so people will leave Beau alone and so they’ll give Bailey a chance. But the more time they spend together, the harder it is to keep things fake.

How can I describe this book in a way that fits?! It’s almost impossible! This book was so good I devoured every single page and had a hard time putting it away. Beau is just the perfect book boyfriend! Handsome, protective, mysterious and just a good guy. Sure he has his flaws, and being in a war zone has definitely changed him. But he is a good guy! And the way he was with Bailey.. Sigh. I couldn’t get enough.

Then there is Bailey! Wow. She has had a rough life. She has been alone almost all her life. No family to stand up for her. There aren’t a lot of people kind to her. And she has had to live with people being rude to her all her life. And then there is Beau. He is kind to her.. but it’s hard for her to believe he is kind to her because he cares. And strangely he might be the only person she trusts.

I dropped everything to read this book. And I read it in less than a day. And now I’m sad because I already finished reading it! LOL!. It was just so good. I laughed, I swooned, I wiped a tear.. I felt it all in this book. The Easton’s are definitely one of my favorite families and I’ve loved this series so much. Now it’s time to wait for my paperback to arrive.

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About Elsie Silver

Elsie Silver is a Canadian author of sassy, sexy, small town romance who loves a good book boyfriend and the strong heroines who bring them to their knees. She lives just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, son, and three dogs and has been voraciously reading romance books since before she was probably supposed to.

She loves cooking and trying new foods, traveling, and spending time with her boys–especially outdoors. Elsie has also become a big fan of her quiet five am mornings, which is when most of her writing happens. It’s during this time that she can sip a cup of hot coffee and dream up a fictional world full of romantic stories to share with her readers.

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Maureen Bakker

Maureen is a mom, wife, nurse, and Ravenclaw living in the Netherlands. She spends her days juggling mom-life, reading, blogging, planning date nights with her husband and working as a nurse. Maureen also is a big Anglophile, loves cooking, Gilmore Girls, Bridgerton and Harry Potter.. Always!  Facebook | Instagram