Book 2 in the Starlight Grove Series
Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
📖 Physical
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Into the Fading Twilight yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done. You can find a spoiler-free version here, over on Plot Approved
OPENING HOOK
Four months post-rescue and Nova is not okay, and really? That’s completely understandable. This book takes the “happily ever after” you think you’re owed after a survival story and says nope, actually, here’s the part nobody talks about, the part where you’re supposed to be grateful and healed and instead you’re riding a dirt bike at reckless speeds because it’s the only thing that makes you feel like you’re still alive. Buckle up.
THE FULL STORY — SPOILERS INCLUDED
Nova survived 413 days of captivity in Book 1, and now she’s stuck in the part of the story nobody wants to think about: the after. Brae means well, but her mothering and hovering is suffocating, leaving Nova in the impossible position of not wanting to let Brae down while also just… not being able to breathe. So she starts thrill-seeking. Dirt biking, cliff jumping, chasing something – anything – that makes her feel like she’s still in her body.
Kol’s been quietly building her an apartment above his garage since the moment she said she needed space months earlier, and when someone leaves an envelope of news clippings about the vehicle drove to bike at the trail, he speeds the move-in process up. Reese, the reporter who’s been sniffing around and snapping pictures of her at her worst, private moments all book, is the obvious suspect, though we’re not sure at this point.
Nova moving in with Kol kicks off the actual love story, and it’s a good one. There’s barely any push-pull between them because they’re a little smitten with each other from the get-go despite the horrific circumstance. He hesitates for about five seconds because getting involved with a victim/witness is a real professional line, but he makes the call to step down from lead on the investigation early on, and thank god. Dragging that out any longer would’ve wrecked the pacing and my patience both.
Meanwhile the investigation itself is a mess. Two more women go missing, one of them worked at Wylder’s bar (Kol’s oldest brother), and another seemingly random camper although both resemble Nova more than anyone is comfortable with. Leading the investigation is Roger, the interim sheriff and Travis’s (tNova’s kidnapper and one of Starlight Grove’s deputies) former best friend, Kol who is most qualified and in charge but falling in love with the only surviving witness, and Pete, Kol’s douche-canoe co-worker with an unhealthy excitement over every new development and an inability to read the room. You can see why Kol needed to step away and disclose his relationship with Nova before things becamse more muddled.
Then, all hell breaks loose when Cora (Travis’s fiancée and Nova’s co-worker) shows up at Kol and Nova’s door in the middle of the night, stabbed, claiming Reese did it just outside their door but that she stabbed him back as he ran away. Kol takes off to track Reese down, leaving Nova alone with Cora who turns out to be Travis’s accomplice the whole damn time. Didn’t see it coming, and I’ve read enough of these to usually pick up on that. I was suspicious of her going into this, because that seems like a lot of red flags to miss, but her growing friendhip with Nova and Wylder gave me a false sense of security.
Nova fights for her life. Kol gets back just as Cora’s got a knife to her throat, Nova wrestles free, and Kol shoots Cora dead. But Nova’s been stabbed too, and Kol ends up doing CPR to bring her back. A callback to the exact way they first met, with Nova left chained to a tree for dead by Travis and being resuscitated by Kol in the woods. Full circle, so they say.
We learn Cora and Travis’s whole thing started with them killing Cora’s abusive mother, a dark origin story with no happy scene, but it recontextualizes everything.
Nova recovers, comes home, moves into a main floor recovery room in Kol’s house instead of her garage apartment, and he proposes not long after. Skylar, his daughter, is over the moon as is the rest of the wild but lovable Archer clan. Next thing we know, Nova’s pregnant, and Maverick (Kol’s youngest brother) walks in with Aster on his arm and a ring on her finger, after two books of “Satan” and “ice queen” bickering between them. Turns out there’s history there as childhood best friends who both clearly felt more but never acted on it. That’s Book 3, Beneath a Midnight Moon, and I am so very ready for that story.
BEST PART OF THIS BOOK
Nova’s moments with Skylar. There’s something so devastating and lovely about watching Kol fall for Nova even harder because of how she loves and shows up for his daughter, even when she’s not a big fan of him at the time.
WORST PART OF THIS BOOK
Not a writing complaint at all, just an emotional hit, but seeing how much Wylder cared for Cora and having that ripped away from him. He’s always been the strong one who held it together for his younger brothers through their own trauma, and seeing more pain added to that? Ouch. Poor Wylder, man.
THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN
🔥🔥🔥🔥 — Spicy. There aren’t many scenes, but the ones that are there are fully explicit, not fade to black. Romance is central to the emotional arc of the book, not just a subplot; this is very much a “healing through connection” story. Content warnings: kidnapping/captivity trauma, PTSD, violence, stabbing, death of a parent (abuse-related), on-page death.
THE ENDING — SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?
Fully satisfied. Nova gets her happy ending without it feeling rushed or like it was handed to us, and the Maverick/Aster tease has me counting down the days to Book 3.
THE TWIST WE DIDN’T SEE COMING
Cora being Travis’s accomplice the entire time. She was written simply, but never felt thin or like a placeholder villain — which made the reveal hit harder.
THE CHARACTER WE LOVED TO HATE
Pete, easily. A total douche canoe who treats murders and kidnappings like career opportunities instead of tragedies affecting real people. Insufferable, and clearly written to be.
Reese the reporter is trickier. Not really a bad guy, just a guy who made consistently bad, invasive decisions (photographing Nova during private, vulnerable moments). Not evil. Just no discretion.
WOULD WE REREAD IT?
Eventually, yes, I’ll reread the whole series. The writing and characters are that good. Just need to be in the right headspace for this much grief and trauma again.
WHO IS THIS FOR
Readers who love deep emotional reads with characters who genuinely have to fight to overcome. This isn’t a light, breezy romance, it’s a healing story with pain and grit.
WHERE TO GET THIS BOOK
📖 Physical Book
Amazon.ca | Amazon.com |
🎧 Audiobook
Audible Canada |
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📱 Ebook / Kindle Unlimited
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📚 More from the Starlight Grove Series
- Book 1 — Across the Vanishing Sky | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.75/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Book 2 — Into the Fading Twilight | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.75/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Book 3 — Beneath a Midnight Moon | Coming Soon in November 2026
Ready for more reviews from CJ? Find More Here
Plot Twisted. 🔥
📖 | Series: Starlight Grove Book 2 | Genre: Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥