Save a horse, read a cowboy romance.
Chestnut Springs is a five book contemporary romance series by Elsie Silver set in a small town of the same name. While the books mostly are recommended on cowboy romance reading lists, this isn’t true for all books in the series.
I have already reviewed each of these books individually. If you would like to read reviews more individualized for each story, click the following links: Flawless, Heartless, Powerless, Reckless, and Hopeless. Today, however, I will be reviewing the Chestnut Springs series as a whole.
First, I have included a brief synopsis of each book within the series. To read an individual review of each book, you can click the link on the book’s title:
SYNOPSES
Flawless follows Summer Hamilton, who works at her father’s public relations company after she is tasked to follow around a professional bull rider whose recent remarks generated a lot of controversy. Rhett is less-than-thrilled that the seemingly prissy Summer is acting as his babysitter throughout the season. However, the more than the two spend their time together their professional relationship veers towards a personal one.
Heartless follows Willa, Summer’s city girl best friend, who takes a job as a nanny at Chestnut Spring for Cade, Rhett’s Type-A older brother. Despite their differences, Willa and Cade begin to develop feelings each other.
Powerless follows Sloane, a ballerina dancer turned runaway bride after she discovered that her fiancee cheated on her. Jasper, a childhood friend and professional hockey player, comes to her rescue. In order to escape their own troubles, Sloane and Jasper embark on a road trip to assist another ranch. Meanwhile, their feelings for each other begin to resurface.
Reckless follows Winter, Summer’s estranged sister, who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with bull rider Theo Silva. When Theo doesn’t return her calls, Summer assumes she will never see him again. However, after an injury forces him to take some time off in Chestnut Springs, her feelings for him resurface.
Hopeless follows Bailey Jensen, who has big city dreams but struggles to leave town due to her outcast status. Beau Eaton, a military veteran with PTSD, doesn’t believe her last name should get in the way of achieving her dreams. As a result, Bailey and Beau decide to get fake engaged so her can bolster her reputation. However, the lines quickly become blurred when the two develop feelings for each other.
Now, onto the review! For my review, I will focus on several categories: setting, characters, plots, and romance.
SETTING
One of the most interesting aspects of the Chestnut Springs series would have to be the setting. Although cowboy romances are now gaining in popularity, Chestnut Springs is one of the first series in this sub-genre to really take off on social media. In the past, I feel like sports romances or billionaire romances have been more popular, which often have more city-based settings.
For me, Chestnut Springs was a breath of fresh air in reading contemporaries, largely due to the setting. Not only is Chestnut Springs a rural, cowboy romance, but it also takes place in Canada. It was interesting to read a story in a different setting than books I usually pick up. Since most of the books in the series take place in various parts of town, the books also aren’t as repetitive as one would expect. While there are familiar people and places who pop up, readers get to experience every part of Chestnut Springs, which makes it so sad to leave once you finish the series.
That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of how the setting was included in Powerless or Hopeless. In Powerless, much of the book doesn’t take place in Chestnut Springs due to the romance plot. However, it does feature a setting in one of the author’s other series, Gold Rush Ranch. That being said, if you haven’t picked up other books by the author, that won’t be a selling points. Hopeless also offers a different perspective on Chestnut Springs. The setting is often viewed as a charming small town in the other books, but the main character who is considered an outcast sees the town in a completely different way. Although I appreciate another perspective which is realistic for a book which takes place in a small town, I wish this wouldn’t have occurred in the final book (Hopeless) as it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and there’s no other stories in the series to see the town grow and change.
PLOT
The plots within the individual stories of Chestnut Springs are mixed in terms of my engagement and their execution. Some books, like Flawless, don’t necessarily stand-out, but serve their purpose within the series, such as drawing in readers to Chestnut Springs. Other books like Heartless and Reckless seem to be very thought out in the way that the tropes are well utilized and all the situations in the books challenge the main characters which make way for interesting and engaging stories.
However, other books in the series (Powerless and Hopeless) have weaker plots which be identified even from their synopses. Powerless, which takes place in the middle of the series, can seem a little disjointed. From going from a jilted wedding to a road trip to a setting from the author’s previous series, there is a lot going on that takes place away from the setting which ties in the series. Hopeless contains two characters that readers see throughout the entire series, but the fake engagement plot inside the novel just doesn’t work. While these books had some interesting ideas, they weren’t as well executed as the other three books in the series.
CHARACTERS
Overall, the characters in the Chestnut Springs series are well-thought out. The author provides interesting backstories from each characters. The author is strategic in planning out the love interests for each character, as they challenge each other to grow throughout the novels. Typically, the characters act in a way which is consistent to their histories and motivations.
That being said there are definitely characters that I liked more than others and characters that I feel are more fleshed out than others. Out of the bunch, Bailey and Beau were the weakest for me. Both had such interesting backstories, but it lacked the needed execution in the story.
ROMANCE
Like with the characters, the romance aspect of the story was typically strong. Even if the plot wasn’t as interesting to me, I felt that Elsie Silver usually did a good job with the romance aspect. Her careful selections of pairings put together characters who really challenged each other on their views of love and the world. The couples were put in situations which grew their relationships and made me believe that they would last even when their book finished.
Also, like the characters, there were some relationships I enjoyed more than others. Winter and Theo from Reckless were by far my favorite in the series. On the other hand, I wasn’t a fan of Bailey and Beau. Since their characters weren’t well-executed, I didn’t see as strong of a connection between them as I did others in the series.
Overall, the Chestnut Springs series is a fun contemporary romance series. While there are definitely some books that I liked more than others, it was an easy and engaging series to read. I give this series as a whole 3.5 stars.
Beauty and the Bean Boots 