Review: “The Bluff” by Willa Nash

Series: Calamity Montana, #2

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Release Date: 

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As Calamity’s newest resident, Everly Christian thought life in small-town Montana would be dull and tame—and she needs a little mundane after the last few chaotic years. But one night, boredom drives her to the local bar, where she finds herself sitting beside a handsome and mysterious artist.

The man is anything but dull and tame, especially in the bedroom, and when she steps out of his shower and overhears his conversation, life gets interesting again.

Reese Huxley needs a wife.

And why shouldn’t Everly be the bride?

She’s got her reasons for agreeing to the hasty nuptials—reasons she’s keeping to herself. As long as she can stop herself from falling in love with her husband, she’ll make it out of this sham marriage in one piece. But Everly has a weakness for wayward men, and the more Hux pushes her away, the more she realizes this bluff is anything but a lie.

 

“Life with Everly had taken me by surprise. She had taken me by surprise.”

Let me start by saying that you’ll need a tall glass of cold water, a fan and privacy to read this book. Because holy smokes, it is so damn hot. The second in the Calamity Montana series by Devney Perry, writing as Willa Nash, it is recommended that you read the first book so that everything that happens in this one makes sense. There’s a lot of mentions to what happens in book one and having that knowledge helps. 

In The Bluff, we not only get the most intense and delicious steam I’ve read this year, but also a fake relationship and a marriage of convenience and a grumpy/sunshine pairing. And oh man, it’s all so damn good and I love how beautifully this story was crafted.

Everly Christian, best friends with Lucy Ross from The Bribe, has been in town since the attack that changed the course of their lives. She’s wandering around a little aimlessly and with parents who are indifferent and unsupportive, Everly doesn’t know where to go. Besides, the most important person in her life is Lucy and since her best friend is now settling down in Calamity with her husband (the hunky Sheriff Duke Evans), Everly doesn’t want to leave. She does end up at Calamity Jane’s for a drink and then ends up in bed with the hunkiest, broodiest man in town – Reese Huxley. And oh boy, Reese is a treat.

Reese Huxley hasn’t had an easy life, he’s struggled to get to where he is now and he’s not looking to upset that balance. With a prison record and an estranged daughter, Reese wants to keep some things at level in his life. He wants to get Savannah, his daughter, out of the home she shares with Hux’s ex, but being a single man with a record, the court isn’t looking at him favourably. And Hux is running out of ways to convince them that he’d be good for Savannah. Till he runs into Everly.

“I wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship, but my body had come alive under that man’s skilled fingers. If he wanted a repeat, he’d get no protests from me.”

It starts out as just sex and lots of it. They run into each other and then run out of their clothes and into bed together. And they’re both imprinted on each other, almost. It’s like this magnetic attraction and it’s so beautifully hot and steamy. Their relationship is so heavily based on the physical side of things that you almost forget that it’s meant to be a marriage of convenience trope.

Hux confides in Everly, telling her things that he hasn’t told anyone else. And when Everly sees a way to help him, she suggests they get married. Honestly, the only thing she’s getting out of it is lots of sex. And Hux gets to show a united front for the court so that he can bring Savannah home and have more time with her than when she’s sneaking out and getting into trouble all the time.

“The tether between us wasn’t only physical. Not anymore. Here, in this moment, we were raw and vulnerable. Two wounded hearts. Bruised and battered and broken, their ragged pieces fit together into a piece of art. Tonight, we were real.”

I loved everything about their relationship and how this trope worked out, because it wasn’t like they were both getting anything out of it. For Everly, it was a way to help Hux and to ease his mind and to help Savannah too. But that’s where it began and ended. But thanks to Everly’s influence, Hux stops being so broody and grumpy all the time. I seriously can’t remember the last time I read a marriage of convenience that started out this way. It’s not a case of them falling in love later or even growing physically attracted to each other – Everly and Hux have the latter already down pat. And the sex is seriously so hot.

While Everly and Hux’s relationship is important, the one relationship that really won me over was Hux and Savannah. She’s your typical teenager out to upset her parents and stress everyone out all the time. But it’s just her way of acting out and getting attention and yet, Hux loves his daughter so much, he would do anything to protect her. That relationship was so precious and so perfect, it brought tears to my eyes every time they were together. 

Devney Perry’s Calamity Montana series under her pen name Willa Nash is becoming a personal favourite. I’m really looking forward to Kerrigan’s book, because if the first two are anything to go by, The Brazen is going to be just as explosive.

Thanks to Willa Nash/Devney Perry & Valentine PR for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.