REVIEW: Sunlight by Devney Perry

In Sunlight by Devney Perry, There were a lot of rough days and hard work that led up to Sasha Vaughn moving to Montana for a job at Haven River Ranch. And of course, it was one of the owners of the resort who just had to see her at a bad moment in the parking lot of the grocery store. Jax Haven seemed to get a kick out of it. Sasha, not so much. But they did share a strong attraction…right up until she learned who Jax was. Knowing how much is riding on her job as manager at the resort, she’s kept him at arm’s length as much as possible. But seeing Jax in his cowboy best for a party at the ranch makes Sasha’s guard disappear. Their one night together was spectacular. Although when she ends up pregnant, there will certainly be lasting consequences for their shared passion.

‘All of the hard days I’d endured had been for a reason: to get me to Montana. To bring me to Jax.’

The very first day Jax ran into Sasha in town he knew they had something special between them. And he honestly got a chuckle out of her pretending not to know him when they met again at his family’s ranch. He can play the game, too. But as time wears on and Jax lays on the charm, Sasha still doesn’t budge. He wonders if there’s something holding her back, maybe someone from her past that keeps her guarded. Then the night of the employee party everything changes. They flirt. They watch each other across the room. And Sasha goes home with Jax, making it one of the best nights of his life. When he finds out weeks later that she’s pregnant? Yeah, he freaks out a bit. But he figures, if he’s going to become a dad, Jax can’t think of anyone else on the planet he’d rather be with than Sasha.

‘She wasn’t alone in this. She knew that, right? I was here. Maybe all we really needed was time. Time for her to see I wasn’t going anywhere.’

A book that will have you falling in love with the hero and heroine as well as the gorgeous Montana setting, SUNLIGHT was a heartfelt look at complex family dynamics and a passionate romance written in the stars.

‘Secrets were heavy, especially when you carried them alone.’

CW: View Spoiler »Cheating (secondary cast), domestic abuse (secondary cast), physical assault. « Hide Spoiler

Devney Perry can do no wrong with her romances. Flat out. No matter what tropes she uses, no matter the setting or the conflicts her characters face, I breeze through her books and always want more time with each couple. SUNLIGHT was the perfect example of this. The second book in Perry’s Haven River Ranch series, it can easily be read as a standalone. Although if you are new to Haven River Ranch then I think you’ll want to go back and read book one, Crossroads, because you’ll likely love the family and locals so much.

From their meet-cute in a small-town grocery store parking lot to their bickering at the ranch all while sparks of attraction flew, Jax and Sasha made a terrific couple. But boy didn’t Sasha make Jax work hard to win her over! She most definitely had her reasons. And Perry parsed those details out via letters that Sasha wrote to someone from her life in California which was honestly fun as a reader to decipher. There was a fair amount of past trauma for both Sasha and Jax to overcome–and they did so by the end in the sweetest, most heartwarming of ways. But it was how sexy Jax laid on the cowboy charm and got prim & proper Sasha all flustered every time he was in her orbit that had me chuckling, smoothing over some of the darker elements of their story.

As the book synopsis points out, this was a surprise pregnancy story which doesn’t always work for me, depending on how the author handles it. In this case, I was wholly on board from the first moment Sasha found out she was pregnant. I might not have always agreed with the choices she made after that. But she and Jax handled things like adults, communicated (most of the time), and really seemed to have a partnership regarding the pregnancy that made things work. It was the romance department where they couldn’t seem to get on the same page. Tough for them but entertaining for us readers! And I think their journey will be one that is relatable and sigh-worthy.

QOTD: Are you a fan of a surprise pregnancy trope in romances?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: October 15th, 2024 |  Montlake | Haven River Ranch #2

From USA Today bestselling author Devney Perry comes a sweeping Western romance about undeniable attraction, unforeseen circumstances, and seemingly unbeatable odds.

My first day in Montana, I got into a tug-of-war over a grocery store shopping cart. The most handsome man I’d ever seen broke up the scuffle before he asked me on a date. I was seconds away from accepting but then he told me his name.

As an owner of the Haven River Ranch, Jax Haven wasn’t my boss. But he wasn’t not my boss either.

Obviously, my only option was to turn him down, scurry away, then pretend like he was a stranger on my first day of work. And obviously, I could never, ever admit that he was my secret crush.

For as hard as I work at my job, I work twice as hard to pretend Jax doesn’t exist. I don’t let myself think about his dazzling eyes or charming smile. I refuse to acknowledge how good he looks in a pair of faded Wrangler jeans. And as tempting as he is in a cowboy hat, Jax is a distraction I cannot afford.

Everything was going according to plan until the annual holiday party. Until I drank one too many flutes of champagne and let him sweep me off my feet. After a night in his bed, there was no more ignoring Jax Haven. Not when I’m pregnant with his baby.