Narration was superb!

Love Angelina's narration. Her voice is soothing and her reading style makes the story more gripping than it would have been without her intonations.

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perfect ending to the chestnut springs series

this series has my entire heart and i know i’m gonna revisit this universe often. it’s been such a fun journey and i absolutely loved every second of it!! 🤍

the narrators were perfectly casted for beau and bailey. they brought out all the intense emotions and vulnerability of these two complex characters with their incredible performances. they even captured elsie silver’s humor which made my reading experience so much more fun!

beau and bailey’s story has been long awaited and it’s the perfect ending with a bow on top. their story is incredibly heartwarming.

the town hero and the town outcast. bailey thinks that having an eaton last name will have the townspeople treat her differently. while beau needs his family to get off his back after returning from his last mission. he proposes the idea of fake engagement as a bet to prove bailey wrong and to spend more time with the girl that might just give him his sense of purpose back.

beau and bailey are two kindred souls. they bonded on an emotional level, helped one another heal from past trauma and find their way to life together. i loveddd how beau is so protective of bailey, he’d sit at the bar until her shift ends to make sure she’s safe. beau being an acts of service man is just so perfect and swoony.

going into this book blind had me giggling and kicking my feet when i found out it was fake engagement!! soo good! the spice was spicing with this one 🤭 and bailey being quick witted and having no filter is just the cherry on top!

there is something so special about this universe that elsie has created. all these characters feel like home and family <3 flipping to the last page and seeing the end was soo bittersweet, but i can’t wait for what’s next in rose hill!

tropes: small town, age gap, fake engagement/fiance, forced proximity, cowboy romance, found family, tortured hero

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Beautiful love story

This was a great read! You could feel Beau’s walls slowly fall as he fell more in love with Bailey.

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Amazing narration for an over 5 stars book!

This was amazing. Once again, Elsie Silver's give us an incredible, heartwarming, funny, touching romance with extremely entertaining banter and the most lovable, real , relatable and wholesome characters. And all of this, in the perfect dosage.
Elsie Silver is one if not my favorite author, and this once again proves why.

In Hopeless, you will find a tortured ex-military hero, a town pariah who is trying to get out from her family name's shadow, a fake engagement and an age-gap small town spicy romance.

The narration by Jason Clarke and Angelia Rocca definitely gives justice to the amazing book that is Hopeless. I always loved Jason Clarke's narration, but I was impressed by his acting in Hopeless. He can narrate female and male character without it feeling weird. He also is able to adjust his voice depending on the scene in a way that gives us a feeling of the setting of the action, which adds an immersive aspect to his narration. On top of that, Jason Clarke's low and husky voice is just a delight to listen to. Angelina Rocca's breathy voice had a lower tone than I would have expected Bailey to have, but this brought another light on this character that I liked and didn't just keep her in the good shy girl box. I don't feel like her acting was as good as Jason Clarke's, but I still appreciated her performance.

One of Elsie Silver's strength is building characters that will feel believable, coherent, that will make sense to the reader in the way they think, feel and act and to whom you'll get attached to.
The humor is delectable, especially in the characters' interactions. This group of characters that you get to know from book one are just so fun and I am so sad that this series is coming to an end. Elsie Silver definitely was able to create an immersive world from which we didn't want to get out of.
In Hopeless, I especially loved to see Jasper and Beau's friendship.
I've read most of Elsie Silver's books and she is still able to surprise me. Beau was an interesting character and I loved his many facets. He was the cutest with Bailey and had, at the same time, a "dangerous" side that was, I have to say, really hot. And if caring is your love language, you will definitely be served in this romance.

To conclude, I can't hep but talk about the text messages at the beginning of every chapter. They've been there from book one in this series, and Elsie Silver was able to re-use them but adapt them to each book without making them feel repetitive and, in my opinion, they highlighted the author's genius. In Hopeless, not only they were entertaining, they added to the story as a kind of behind the scenes excerpt, they got us to know a bit more about the characters, we got to see interactions between characters that we wouldn't have seen otherwise and they made me cackle so many times.

I will always highly recommend Elsie Silver's books and Hopeless is no exception.

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Favorite of the series!

Absolutely loved this one! As sad as I am for the series to come to an end. Loved the genuine vulnerability of Beau and Bailey. Soooo good!

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Fantastic!

It’s not a secret that I’m a huge Elsie Silver fan. This Chestnut Springs series, which is set where I live (!!!), is one of my favourite all time series. I had high expectations for this book and it did not disappoint.

I did a tandem audio/ kindle read and then went out and bought the physical copy when I was done. The narrators did an utterly fantastic job.

This book is an age gap, fake relationship, opposites attract, small town romance where he falls first. The banter is beyond swoony. The spice is perfect. I love Bailey’s honesty. She’s a tell-it-like-it-is and ask the awkward questions you really want answers to kinda girl. She doesn’t beat around the bush, she’s young and knows it but has the wisdom of someone much older and I love her for it. Beau’s quiet but protective presence had me sighing out loud. He’s supportive but tortured and I loved digging into his character since he seemed like such a mystery in the other books in this series.

I loved it. I highly recommend it. All the stars for this great book!

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Goodbye Chestnut Springs

It’s sad to see this series end. Beau definitely evolved a lot from book one. He started out as the life of the party and I think his family just couldn’t reconcile that Beau, with post military Beau. Instead of therapy, he found Bailey. She didn’t treat him like a hero or an invalid and pushed him to take the steps out of the darkness. I liked how slowly their relationship grew. They were attracted right away and could have slept together, but the building of trust and friendship first, is what gave them a spiked foundation to build on.

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Another amazing addition to Chestnut Springs

This time around we have broody Beau, the recovering special forces military man who is struggling and failing to keep his usual happy go lucky mask in place, and bartender Bailey, the town pariah struggling to distance herself from her deadbeat family that everyone hates. Beau befriends Bailey, and they get into a fake fiance situation with the hope of shifting the town's opinion of her.

I just love this trope, it is never not fun for me. The way Bailey quietly cares for Beau and his ongoing struggles as a new civilian is just heart melting, and watching her discover what it's like to finally have someone care about her just takes that melty heart and twists it all up. Somewhere, Elsie Silver is cackling and rubbing her hands together in glee at the emotional turmoil she causes and I'm here for it (with tears streaming down my face).

Give this a try if you like:
Fake fiance
Age gap
Forced proximity
Tortured hero

Jason Clarke is such a versatile actor. His voice for Beau is so gravelly and deep, and the first time he abruptly switches to light and bubbly to portray a friendly female voice my mouth dropped. I was not expecting that whiplash and I was left impressed and wondering how people can be so talented.

Angelina Rocca is equally talented and did such an amazing job portraying the firey Bailey with absolutely no filter. Her voice is sultry and soothing and just so easy to listen to. The emotion she puts into her performance gets me right in the feels.

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Ohh my heart!!

This book… is everything!! The characters relationship was built together so perfectly, not rushed at all. The twist was incredibly unexpected which was so good!! The author keeps your on your toes throughout the whole read. Love love love!! Definitely will be relistening to this one

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Beau & Bailey 🥹 narrators did amazing job

This book was much more emotional then the rest of the series but it was just as good.

My heart was breaking for both Beau and Bailey on more then one occasion. What started off as a deal grew into something so much more.

There wasn’t as much spice but the spice that was there was damn good.

This was a great ending to the series but sad that it’s all over.

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