A Sweeping Romance, Themes of Grief, with a Wonderful HEA
Crossroads
Haven River Ranch (Book 1)
Contemporary Romance, Western & Frontier Romance,
Montlake
June 4, 2024
ebook, paperback, audiobook
287
A sweeping small-town romance about love, loss, and a Montana legacy from USA Today bestselling author Devney Perry.
I met West Haven when I was eight years old. He taught me to play poker when I was nine, and we made paper airplanes together when I was eleven. He kissed me when I was sixteen. He was the best part about my family’s summer vacations to Montana. He was the boy who stole my heart. I was twenty-three when life ripped us apart.
Years later, I’m breaking my vow and returning to the ranch, not as a guest but its new owner. West might want me gone, but even he has to admit the only way to save his family’s legacy is with my help.
It’s not easy working side by side and facing those old memories. But this situation is only temporary. We’re at a crossroads. And as long as I don’t let myself fall in love with West Haven again, maybe this is our chance to put those ghosts to rest. Maybe this time we’ll finally be able to say goodbye.
West and I were nothing but collisions on crossroads. Sooner or later our paths would drift apart again.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I truly adore any story that comes from the brilliant mind of Devney Perry. Her latest release, Crossroads, is no different. Told in flashbacks from the present timeline through our heroine (with an ‘e’) and hero’s alternating POV along with flashbacks told from the POV of Indya during trips spent in Montana from her childhood and through her adolescence.
Indya is our heroine. She’s an only child to a loving set of parents, although throughout her flashbacks we see her grapple with her father’s cancer diagnosis. At the young age of 8, Indya spends her first vacation in Montana on a ranch. There she meets West, who teaches her how to play poker and genuinely helps distract her from the overwhelming feelings that come with having a parent with a severe illness.
We were like kindling. All we needed was an ember, and we went up in flames.
In the present timeline, Indya isn’t as welcome to the ranch as she was when she was a kid. As the new owner, she isn’t getting the warm welcome either. West, his brother Jax, their father, and the rest of the workers on the ranch are less than thrilled at the prospect of having an outsider in their midst. Even with all their history, West isn’t just hurt by his father’s deception by selling out his legacy, West is also unprepared to be so close to Indya with so much that was left unspoken between them.
Crossroads is a beautiful title and a wonderful metaphor for so many themes within this gorgeous romance. I immediately fell for both Indya and West and the intense magnetism that occurs between them. I loved that not only was this a makeover for the ranch, but it was also a transformation for Indya as well. The romance that rekindles between both West and Indya as well as the love that Indya holds for the ranch becomes more apparent the deeper into Crossroads readers travel.
It felt like I’d been missing India my whole life.
I am hard-pressed to put any novel by Devney Perry down and this story was no different. I was easily and quickly swept away by the story, the characters, and the love of the land that is felt by all characters. If Crossroads is just the start of a new series, then I cannot wait to see what Devney Perry has in store for us all with the rest of the Haven River Ranch series.
Jes is a self-proclaimed bookworm, who recently moved from the PNW back to the Midwest. When her nose isn’t in a book, she’s spending time with her husband, two kids, and her three fur babies, or exploring the globe. She also firmly believes that you should start the day with coffee, and end the day in bed with a good book.
