Book review: HALE BOUND, by Abbi Glines

Mississippi Smoke #11

Hale & Bay

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When I reached the end and realized this book ended on a cliffhanger, I was actually relieved. There was no way this addictive, delicious story could end yet. It still needed more time to simmer.

Hale is a gorgeous, sexy, fifty-year-old man (thank you for the silver fox, Abbi Glines!), and I knew he couldn't fall without a little more resistance. His life is completely settled. His children are grown and independent, his company is thriving under the leadership of his sons, Ransom and Than, and he enjoys his work in the Southern Mafia under Linc's direction. Everything is exactly as it should be. Then along comes Bay and turns his perfectly ordered world upside down.

Bay is thirty-four and carrying the scars of a bad experience from years ago. To feel safe, she has built herself a carefully scheduled, predictable life. Hale takes her to emotional heights she never imagined, and while she's clearly falling for him, she still doesn't feel entirely secure. Then there is the small matter of his criminal activities, which understandably make her more than a little uneasy.

This story was delicious. It's the classic setup: man kidnaps woman, falls for her but struggles with it, while she finds herself falling for him and wondering if it's Stockholm syndrome. She calls herself crazy for lusting after her kidnapper, and honestly, it was all wildly entertaining. I loved being inside both of their heads as they tried to make sense of what they were feeling.

What I especially loved was how focused the story remained on Hale and Bay, with just enough involvement from Hale's children to enrich the story without overshadowing it.  I loved Slash, the supposedly guard dog, who melted like wax for Bay, and disgruntled Hale.  It was sweet, sexy, and surprisingly tender, without getting pulled too deeply into the darker, more violent side of this world. It felt like a refreshing interlude among the grittier installments in the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed the slower pace and the sweeter romance.

Now bring me the next book!

Purchase links

https://geni.us/halebound

About the author

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Field Party, and Existence series. She never cooks unless baking during the Christmas holiday counts. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She finally moved to New England into a home that is 200 + years old with it's own ghosts. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she being born in Alabama, her life in New England is as close as she will get. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is reading, and/or watching Netflix like the introvert that she is. 

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways:

www.abbiglinesbooks.com

TikTok @abbiglines

Twitter: @abbiglines

Instagram: @abbiglines

Snapchat: abbiglines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbiglinesauthor

Book review: UP TO NO GOOD, by Abbi Glines

Mississippi Smoke #10

Forge & Elsie

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story delivers that perfect blend of angst, vulnerability, and slow‑burn emotional intimacy that I love reading. It follows two people, Forge and Elsie, who are each carrying their own brand of heartbreak, and the magic is in how they slowly—almost reluctantly—become each other’s safe place. The author captures grief and anxiety with such clarity that you feel it in your chest, but she balances it with moments of warmth, humor, and family reunions that make the heaviness worth it.

What really worked for me is how naturally the relationship unfolds. There’s no insta‑love, no forced drama—just two wounded souls finding unexpected comfort in each other. Watching one character rediscover laughter and the other finally breathe without feeling like the world is collapsing… it’s tender, intimate, and deeply satisfying. And yes, the sexy times are potent, but it never overshadows the emotional core. It enhances it.

The pacing is tight, the tension delicious, and the emotional payoff absolutely worth the ride. My only complaint? I could’ve used a few more pages of pure, indulgent swoon at the end—but that’s just because I wasn’t ready to let them go.

A heartfelt, addictive romance that leaves you warm, delighted, and wanting just one more chapter.

Purchase links

https://geni.us/UTNG

About the author

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Field Party, and Existence series. She never cooks unless baking during the Christmas holiday counts. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She finally moved to New England into a home that is 200 + years old with it's own ghosts. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she being born in Alabama, her life in New England is as close as she will get. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is reading, and/or watching Netflix like the introvert that she is. 

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways:

www.abbiglinesbooks.com

TikTok @abbiglines

Twitter: @abbiglines

Instagram: @abbiglines

Snapchat: abbiglines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbiglinesauthor

Book review: FORCEFUL GOD, by Michelle Heard

Kings of Mafia #7

Christiano & Sienna

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story swept me into the whirlwind that is Sienna and Christiano—two people who loved each other so fiercely that even a bullet couldn’t sever the bond between them. Their engagement party turns into a nightmare when the Irish mafia opens fire, and the moment Christiano throws himself over Sienna, taking a bullet in the back, becomes the fracture line of her entire life. Her terror in that hospital room—his bloody jacket, the white sheet—shattered her, and her diagnosis of Thanatophobia felt like heartbreak.

What I loved is how the book treats her fear not as weakness, but as a wound that deserves care. Sienna leaves him because she thinks loving him will kill her, and for seven long years they orbit each other like two stars refusing to burn out. Christiano grows darker, more violent, but the only thing that soothes him is her scent. And when he finally decides her time is up? Cue tension, obsession, inevitability. And lots of panic attacks!

Their reunion is messy, tender, and scorching. Sienna still believes she’s too fragile to be a mafia wife, but Christiano refuses to let her hide. When he discovers her medication and the truth behind her fear, he doesn’t recoil—he softens. He learns. He protects. He becomes the safe place she never thought she could have. Watching him build systems, routines, and even tech to help her manage her anxiety was unexpectedly beautiful.

And once they settle into married life, the story becomes this warm, intimate portrait of two people healing each other. There’s family, laughter, deliciously steamy moments, and a sense of safety Sienna never imagined she could feel. I kept waiting for the big attack or kidnapping, but the real conflict was internal—and once her secret was out, she finally understood that vulnerability doesn’t diminish love; it deepens it.

Michelle Heard always gives me couples who love with their whole souls—obsessive men, sensitive women with steel cores—and this one felt especially tender. Sienna’s anxiety made her human, and Christiano’s devotion made their love feel inevitable. A compelling, emotional, unexpectedly feel‑good romance that proves that with the right person, even your darkest fear can be met with understanding and unwavering love.

Purchase links

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTV51QN2

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FTV51QN2

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FTV51QN2

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0FTV51QN2

About the author

Michelle Heard is a Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling Author who loves creating stories her readers can get lost in. She resides in South Africa with her son where she's always planning her next book to write, and trip to take.

 

Connect w/Michelle:

Website: https://michelleheardauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHeardAuthor

FB Readers Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/118971435201074

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormichelleheard

Amazon: https://amazon.com/author/michellehorst

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18108320.Michelle_Heard

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/michelle-heard

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michelleheard_author

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Book review: HELL OF A CHRISTMAS, by Abbi Glines

Mississippi Smoke # 9

Kash & Cressida

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Abbi Glines really knows how to grab me by the throat and the heart at the same time. She’s one of the few authors who can make me drop every other book I’m reading, sit down, and disappear into her world until I’ve inhaled the last page. And this story reminded me exactly why.

Kash and Cressida were the kind of high school sweethearts who burned too hot, too fast, and then detonated in spectacular fashion. One betrayal, one night, and suddenly he’s exiled to Alabama and she’s shipped off to Arizona, both of them shattered in ways they didn’t have the language for at seventeen.

Fast‑forward four years, and Cressida is back in Madison, Mississippi, not as the ambitious girl she once was, but as a waitress in a greasy spoon, scraping together enough money to survive. She’s running from a home that stopped being safe a long time ago, and you feel that ache in your bones. Then a glamorous woman walks into the diner and offers her a lifeline—room, board, a salary, and a chance to breathe again. Of course she takes it. Who wouldn’t?

And then Kash sees her. One moment on the street, one look, and everything they buried comes roaring back. Nothing is said, but everything is felt. And that’s the thing about first loves that never healed — they don’t stay dead. They wait.

But Madison is still controlled by the Southern Mafia, and when an anonymous text hits her new phone telling her to stay away from Kash, Cressida realizes she’s not just living quietly… she’s being monitored. Tracked. Controlled. Again.

What follows is a tangle of midnight visits, half-truths, and the kind of emotional tension that makes you want to shake both of them. Kash breaks into her room, demanding answers. She gives him pieces, but not the whole truth — not yet. And when they finally fall into each other again, it’s raw, painful, and so full of history that you can feel the weight of every unsaid word. He calls it closure. She’s left alone on the patio, heart cracked open all over again.

Cressida’s journey is especially compelling. She’s strong in that quiet, resilient way that makes you root for her from page one. Kash is the morally gray, emotionally intense hero Glines writes so well — the kind who loves with his whole soul and doesn’t always know what to do with that much feeling.

And the chemistry? Off the charts. The kind that makes you pause, breathe, and then dive right back in.

By the end, you’re left with that signature Abbi Glines cocktail: angst, passion, loyalty, and a love that feels both hard‑won and deeply deserved. Abbi Glines is one of those authors who hijacks my entire life the moment I open one of her books. Her morally gray heroes are deliciously unhinged in the best way. Her heroines are strong, vulnerable, and fighting for their own survival. The angst and passion hit at the same intensity, and the emotional bonds she builds between her couples feel like lifelines.

Purchase links

https://geni.us/HellofaChristmas

About the author

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Field Party, and Existence series. She never cooks unless baking during the Christmas holiday counts. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She finally moved to New England into a home that is 200 + years old with it's own ghosts. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she being born in Alabama, her life in New England is as close as she will get. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is reading, and/or watching Netflix like the introvert that she is. 

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways:

www.abbiglinesbooks.com

TikTok @abbiglines

Twitter: @abbiglines

Instagram: @abbiglines

Snapchat: abbiglines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbiglinesauthor

Book review: HELL OF A MESS, by Abbi Glines

Mississippi Smoke #8

Luther & Lace

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Abbi Glines books are so addictive and I am having a great time with this Southern Mafia series.  The stories are enthralling, there’s passion, love, humor, sex, and some gritty Mafia stuff just to make it more spicy and dark.  However, this book was more of a love story, how a man who was completely against marriage and being tied to only one woman, falls hard for a woman who sees him as a hero.

This story stars Luther, one of the old guys in the group, Linc’s and Garret’s contemporary, and a grandfather.  But that doesn’t take away his sex appeal, and it’s amply shown by how fast Lace gets stuck on him, despite the age gap.

After being badly beaten and dumped behind a dumpster, Luther and Locke rescue her, take her to Luther’s and Linc’s mansion, and have the doctor they have on call attend to her.  She spends days in the hospital room they have in the basement, Luther accompanies her every morning, reading to her while drinking his morning coffee.  And getting roasted by the guys for it!

I loved how they connected, Lace sees Luther as her savior, and Luther feels a strange compulsion to protect her.  In spite of the strange circumstances, there’s trust on both parts, and Luther starts to like her, to like being with her and have conversations.  She feels safe with Luther, and in spite of having amnesia from her trauma, she knows this is the first time she gets affection from someone, after her mother died.  Once she recovers her memory, she remembers that she only had abuse from her father and he used her for his purposes.

There’s some action, but there’s more love and sex and feelings, and I enjoyed it hugely.  I was indifferent to Luther before in the series, but now I think he’s a wonderful person and just right to bring Lace to life.  The story has a huge plot twist midway through and it completely blows everything we thought was going to happen.  Kudos to the author for making it so fantastic!  There’s some angst and some scenes that made me want to cry.  So you could say that this book has everything and is a whole experience.

Purchase links

https://geni.us/HoMAG

About the author

Abbi Glines is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Field Party, and Existence series. She never cooks unless baking during the Christmas holiday counts. She believes in ghosts and has a habit of asking people if their house is haunted before she goes in it. She finally moved to New England into a home that is 200 + years old with it's own ghosts. She drinks afternoon tea because she wants to be British but alas she being born in Alabama, her life in New England is as close as she will get. When asked how many books she has written she has to stop and count on her fingers. When she’s not locked away writing, she is reading, and/or watching Netflix like the introvert that she is. 

You can connect with Abbi online in several different ways:

www.abbiglinesbooks.com

TikTok @abbiglines

Twitter: @abbiglines

Instagram: @abbiglines

Snapchat: abbiglines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abbiglinesauthor