GENTRY
Ashley James
Release Date: March 17
Blurb:
I’ve spent my life doing the right thing.
Wanting him is the first thing that’s ever felt impossible to resist.
Remington Buchanan is the golden-boy firefighter everyone in town trusts with their lives. He’s wears a dimply smile that doesn’t seem to dim for anyone and makes me forget that he’s off limits. Because not only is he half my age, he’s also my son’s best friend.
I’ve built my world on responsibility. On early mornings, hard work, and putting my family first. There’s no room in it for reckless desire. And yet, every time he walks into a room smelling like smoke and sunshine and looking at me like I’m more than just his best friend’s dad, my carefully built restraint starts to crack.
When he takes in a thirteen-year-old boy who just lost his whole world, I tell myself I’m only helping because it’s the right thing to do. Nothing more.
But late nights together in secret turn into shared glances and accidental touches that linger too long. The space between us grows heavy with everything I’m pretending not to feel.
Loving him would mean risking my relationship with my son. It would mean admitting that after years of playing it safe, I want something that could burn my whole life to the ground.
Wanting him feels like crossing a line I can’t uncross.
Because if this goes wrong, I don’t just lose him—I lose my son. My family. My quiet, comfortable life I’ve spent decades building.
But when Remington looks at me like I’m not too old, not too closed off—just his—I start to wonder if doing the right thing has kept me safe… Or just kept me alone.
Some things are worth the risk.
And this time, I’m not sure I’m ready to walk away from the life, and the love, taking shape right in front of me.
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 4 Stars
So usually, the best-friend’s-dad trope is not one I generally enjoy, but since I liked the other books in this series (and the breadcrumbs that were dropped of what was to come in the last book, knowing Remi was crushing on Gentry), I wanted to check out this story, especially since it was going to be a high-stakes, risky romance.
Remi is kind of an over-the-top character, and I enjoyed the contrast in his golden retriever energy to Gentry’s grumpy personality. Both characters showed so much vulnerability with one another, and those were some of my favorite scenes in this book.
Overall, I enjoyed this story, but I felt it was lacking some oomph that the previous books had. Parts of the story felt rushed, and other parts felt glossed over. I think I would have liked to have seen how Gentry bonded with Lukas more, and more of Remi and Gentry being an actual couple. So much was in secret — which I get, because of the forbidden factors of their age gap and Gentry being the father of Remi’s best friend. I liked the emotional layer that gave their story, and I thought the characters navigated those obstacles well, but I just really wanted to see more than what we got of them out and about together, and navigating that aspect of their relationship after spending so much time together in secret. But this story really delivered on the high emotional stakes, so that was a win for me.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Ashley James:
Ashley James is a romance author who enjoys writing (and reading) LGBTQIA+ books. She is from Washington State—and no, not Seattle—and currently resides in South Carolina with her two kids and hairless kitties, Goose, Maverick, and Houston. Ashley is introverted and slightly (okay, majorly) awkward. She refuses to make this section sound like a tacky dating app profile, so she won’t be telling you how much she enjoys music, how she thoroughly enjoys dancing and singing in her kitchen, despite not being able to carry a tune, and she won’t be telling you about her love of toxic and broken fictional men.
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