🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 3.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | Book 2 in the Rush Series
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Rebel Heart yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
The man who got Gia pregnant goes by Harland. Except his name is actually Elliot. Except Elliot is Rush’s half-brother. If you finished Book 1 thinking things could not possibly get more complicated, Book 2 has a lot of thoughts about that.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
Picking Up Right Where We Left Off
Rebel Heart opens exactly where the cliffhanger dropped us: Gia across the room from Rush’s half-brother, her stomach in her throat, needing to know for certain that this is the same man before she can even move. He says she looks familiar. She says no. But she can’t walk away without being one hundred percent sure, so she turns back around and says he looks familiar to her too. He confirms it. So that’s the situation. Gia is pregnant with Elliot’s baby, Elliot is Rush’s half-brother, and the two of them have to figure out how to exist in the same orbit now.
What follows over the course of Book 2 is a lot of will-they-won’t-they, some genuinely tender moments, some questionable decisions over and over again, and a whole lot of both of them being unable to just say what they mean. Whether that works for you or frustrates you is probably going to determine how you feel about this one overall, and I’ll say upfront: it got a little long for me.
Elliot Shows His Whole Personality
Rush still has to deal with Elliot on the business side of things, and Elliot is not subtle about who he is. He approaches Rush at a meeting and pressures him to sign off on a Costa Rica property deal that needs to go through as a cash transaction, no financing, because if it’s financed the funds will get confiscated due to a lien against one of the sellers. Rush doesn’t like any of that and refuses to be part of something shady. Elliot loses his temper and says his trash girlfriend wasn’t even that good of a lay anyway, which is how he ends up accidentally confirming to Rush that he slept with Gia and that he is the one who got Gia pregnant — though Elliot doesn’t know that little tidbit.
Rush goes to a bar, gets drunk, and ends up talking to a woman named Amanda for the night — trading terrible stories, her about losing a promotion, him about everything with Gia. Amanda hits on him. Nothing happens, but Gia doesn’t know that.
The Phone Call That Changes Everything
Gia finally calls Rush back. He demands to know who the father of her baby is. She admits it’s Elliot. He hangs up. She calls back that night and the next morning, keeps calling, and eventually someone picks up. It’s Amanda. From the bar. Amanda tells Gia she lost a good one, and then the door is basically shut.
The next time Gia sees Rush at work he is hiding in his office, clearly a mess, and he tells her he’s leaving town for a bit because he doesn’t know how to deal with any of this and he needs to get his head straight. An old friend named Beth just called, her dad died, and Rush was close with both of them growing up. So he goes.
Rush Figures Things Out From Afar
Rush is back in the town where he grew up, spending time with Beth and her son Owen. Beth is divorced. Rush ends up playing a surrogate dad role with Owen, and you get the sense it’s helping him realize what he actually wants. Beth is sharp enough to notice that he is clearly in love with someone, and when she pushes him on it he talks about how hard it is that Gia is pregnant with his brother’s child. She basically tells him: we both know you love this girl, so are you really going to let this stop you? Being a dad to this baby doesn’t make you less. It’s a good moment for him, and you can feel the shift.
Meanwhile Gia finds out that Rush and Beth have a history together, and suddenly she is not just sad about Rush being gone, she’s also uncomfortable about where he is and who he’s with. She still thinks of him as her boyfriend at this point even though THEY ARE NOT TOGETHER.
He Comes Back, She’s Already Leaving
Rush has been gone a couple of weeks when he just shows up. Gia is in the middle of selling her stuff because she has decided to move back to Queens and doesn’t need everything she has. He is not pleased to walk in and discover she is packing up her life without having said a word. She asks him if he can honestly tell her he actually wants to be with her and raise this baby. He says “I wish I could.”
And here is where I started to feel a little conflicted, because he spent two weeks away — just gone, no real communication — and then he comes back and is bothered that she’s making plans, just taking off. Seems like a double standard to me. He can take off for weeks, but she can’t go back home? Again, let me remind you dear reader, they are not together.
That night, things get genuinely scary: Gia starts spotting and calls her doctor, who tells her to come in. She picks up her phone to call Rush, then puts it down. He’s not part of this anymore, she tells herself. She goes alone. The doctor admits her overnight.
She falls asleep and wakes up to Rush sitting in her room. He’d been asking her friend Riley at the bar how Gia was doing, and Riley was being very cagey about it, so he told her she’d miss out on her bonus if she didn’t tell him the truth. Riley gave it up: Gia was in the hospital. Rush asks why Gia didn’t call him. She says it’s because he’s not part of this anymore. Rush calls her dad, who comes down and very calmly tells Rush he’ll take it from here.
Three days later, Rush is miserable. Gia’s dad comes by to see him. They talk about Gia’s mom, the one who left when she was two. Something about that conversation shifts something in Rush, and he shows up at Gia’s door with supper.
Small Gestures That Actually Mean a Lot
Meanwhile Gia is in the city and happens to walk past the same portrait studio Rush had noticed on a trip in. She goes in to book a pregnancy shoot, and the woman behind the counter tells her someone has already booked one under her name. Rush had gone ahead and done it quietly on his last trip to Manhattan, without telling her. She calls him and leaves a voicemail about how much she loves him. It’s sweet.
At the bar, Oak finally gets curious enough to ask what is actually going on. He had been assuming the baby was Rush’s. Rush explains the whole thing. Oak is completely mind-blown.
The Back and Forth Continues
Gia, bless her, decides to try a different approach at work: she’s going to make Rush look, and then make things difficult for him on purpose. She has fun with it, he’s watching her and looking away every time she catches him, and things are heading somewhere when Oak knocks on the office door with an emergency. Lauren, Elliot’s wife, is calling. Rush answers expecting the worst. What’s actually happening: Rush’s biological father Edward has had a brain aneurysm and collapsed. Elliot is stuck in Florida and can’t get back until the next day. Lauren doesn’t want Edward to be alone, so she’s asking Rush to come to the hospital.
Rush goes, why, I have no idea. His father has been downright nasty to him. Elliot eventually shows up, and the pattern is exactly what you’d expect from him: cruel and dismissive with Rush, suddenly sweet as pie the second Lauren walks into the room. Rush is watching this and does not understand how Lauren cannot see it. When they’re leaving, Gia mentions she understands why Rush slept with that woman. Rush is confused. She means the one who answered his phone, Amanda, the morning after he found out about Elliot being the father. He tells her he didn’t sleep with Amanda.
He is also really bothered that Gia thought he had cheated and didn’t say anything to him. She tells him she doesn’t even know what they are. He says something to the effect of: so what is his plan then, celibacy forever, because they’re nOt ToGeThEr? It’s one of those conversations that would fix everything if anyone would just say one clear direct sentence, which they absolutely do not. Like I said, the will they won’t they goes on forever!!
Rush Goes Full Problem-Solver Mode
Gia’s card gets declined while she’s shopping for maternity clothes. Then her car breaks down. Rush shows up on the side of the road because the woman at the shop called him, and he went and bought everything Gia had picked out plus more. Then he decides to drive her car home himself. The car starts smoking on the way. He completely loses it, starts kicking it, and then announces he is buying her a new car. He takes her to a Mercedes dealership. This man, pick a lane buddy!
The next day Lauren comes into the bar because Edward needs another surgery and they need Rush’s permission to proceed. Not Elliot’s — Rush’s. She also quietly mentions that Elliot hasn’t been at the hospital at all. He’s been drunk and pounding on her door because she found out he cheated on her and she kicked him out. The hospital can’t get him to call them back. And then Lauren tells Rush she is seven weeks pregnant.
Rush signs the surgery consent. Edward pulls through. Then Elliot shows up drunk and ready to start something.
The Goodbye That Isn’t
There’s a year-end party at the bar and Gia goes to find Oak before the night is over. She tells him how great it was to work with him. Oak says that sounds a lot like goodbye. Well, she’s leaving in a couple days. He tells her he refuses to believe Rush isn’t going to stop her. And here’s where I have to be a little honest — this felt a bit like Gia was banking on Rush showing up to stop her, rather than actually deciding for herself what she wanted. If leaving was truly what was best for her and the baby, she would leave regardless of what Rush does. But the way she’s talking about him, it really seems like she’s only going if he lets her go. I don’t know, it’s a little cringy.
Rush takes her outside at the end of the party and they spend time alone, just the two of them and her bump. His mom comes over to Gia and Gia tells her they’re not together. His mom says she knows. Trust me, WE ALL KNOW!
The next morning at the staff brunch, her dad comes. And he’s the one who drops it on Rush: she called me last night, she’s moving out today, she’s already on her way out. Rush goes to his car. His car won’t start.
So he runs.
He actually runs after her, tells her he wants to be with her and be the father of her baby, and moves her in.
The Decision That Confused Me
Once they are finally together and things are settled, Rush decides he wants to tell Elliot about the baby right away. And I genuinely could not figure out the logic. These two don’t want Elliot in the baby’s life. Elliot is not a good person. He doesn’t need to know. But Rush feels he should, so they go to the hospital on the day of the maternity shoot, bump into a drunk Elliot in the hallway, and Gia falls. Rush is right there, she’s okay, and Elliot asks if she’s always been that curvy. Rush tells him she’s pregnant. You idiot.
Later that night, Elliot calls Rush sober. He’s done the math. He wants to know if Rush was lying about being the father. They decide to tell him together, Rush is not the father, Elliot is, and they do not want him involved. Elliot responds by telling them Lauren is filing for divorce. He has nothing to lose, so if the baby is his, he’s going to protect his parental rights. He wants a paternity test.
Which is exactly what you’d expect from someone who didn’t need to know in the first place. Seriously.
The Buyout
Rush decides he’s going to give everything to Elliot, he signs over almost everything he has except the house and the bar. Elliot’s initial response is essentially that holding a baby over Rush’s head for the rest of his life sounds more fun than money. And then Edward, Rush’s bio dad, still recovering, tells Elliot: it’s bad enough to have a baby you don’t want, take this deal and get it off your hands. Elliot signs.
Now Elliot doesn’t need Rush’s vote in anything, and he should never have to deal with him again.
While Rush is out buying Gia a ring, she goes into labor. By the time he gets to the hospital, the baby is already born. And shortly after, Edward shows up. He tells Rush he only said what he said about regretting Rush’s birth because he knew it was what Elliot needed to hear to sign the papers. He was playing him. He doesn’t mean any of it. He’s set up a trust for their daughter.
And then in the epilogue: Elliot and Lauren get back together, have a daughter, and seem to be doing fine. Gia and Rush have a second baby.
I want to come back to the buyout because it stuck with me: if they had just waited, Elliot would have reconciled with Lauren and had something to lose. He would have had every reason to walk away from the paternity situation quietly. All of the dramatic rushed buyout where Rush gave up almost everything, the stress, the confrontations, none of it was necessary. All it would have taken was patience. That felt like one of the less satisfying threads to follow to its conclusion.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
Same as Book 1 — this is a 🔥🔥🔥. The heat is there, it fits the emotional state of the story.
The Ending Explained — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Satisfied with the HEA, and honestly, the ending is sweet. Rush literally runs after her because his car won’t start, which is such a good detail. And Edward clearing the air at the end adds a layer to the family dynamic that I appreciated. But getting there took longer than it needed to, and there was a stretch in the middle where both Rush and Gia had so many opportunities to just say what they meant and chose not to, repeatedly. When that’s the engine driving the second half of the book it can wear on you a little.
Would I Reread It?
No. But I’d still recommend the series as a duet — just read both books before you take a breath. Book 1 was good, but Book 2, I just couldn’t get there.
A Note on Reading Order
Start with Rebel Heir. This book assumes you know everything from Book 1 and drops you directly into the fallout of that ending.
Who Is This For
If you liked the setup and the characters in Book 1 and you need to see how Rush and Gia get their HEA, this is your book. The family drama with Elliot and the family business gives it some real teeth beyond just the romance, and watching Rush quietly do things for Gia without telling her — the pregnancy shoot, running after her when his car dies — those are the moments that make this worth it. Just be prepared for the slow stretch in the middle.
Where to Get This Book
📖 Physical Book
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible US | Audible CA | Libro.fm
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📚 More from the Rush Series
- Book 1 — Rebel Heir | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — Read the Review
- Book 2 — Rebel Heart | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 3.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — You are here!
- Full Series Review — Is the Rush Series Worth Reading? — Read the review
Ready for more from LD? Find them here
Plot Twisted. 🔥
🎧 | Series: Rush Series Book 2 | Genre: Contemporary Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥