Axe Backwards

A Single Dad Lumberjack Romance (Maine Lumberjacks, Book 4)

De: Daphne Elliot

Narrado por: Gabriel Spires, Samantha Cook

Once in a while, after life gets you down, the universe throws you a bone. And if you’re really lucky, it comes in the form of a tattooed baby-wearing firefighter with piercing blue eyes and a heart of gold.

When Noah Hebert swung his axe and rescued me from a coffee shop bathroom, I had only a vague sense of who the tattooed lumberjack was. Turns out he’s more than broad shoulders and a thick beard. He’s a devoted single dad and my new neighbor.

Soon after, we find ourselves falling into an easy friendship. I help him with his fussy baby, and he helps me survive my ex-husband and little sister’s wedding. Despite my vow never to risk my heart again, my defenses quickly crumble. The sight of him rocking his sweet baby in those muscular, inked arms only makes matters worse. And when he defends me to my toxic family, the sparks of attraction between us catch fire.

I moved back here with a mission. Grow the food pantry and make our little town a better place. I can’t get mixed up with the grieving single dad, even if he likes to braid my hair and slow dance in the kitchen.

He moved across the country to escape the flames of his past and protect the little girl he now calls his own. But our town is sitting on a bed of secrets ready to ignite.

And when the heat causes my world to go up in smoke, I’m not sure it’s possible to sift through the rubble and find our happily ever after.

Author’s Note: Axe Backwards is a standalone small-town romance featuring a bleeding-heart heroine, a lumberjack firefighter, and a cute baby. If you enjoy single dads, fake dating, small-town shenanigans, lumberjack competitions, and baby sign language, you will not be disappointed. Come for the wood chopping, stay for the moose!

©2025 Melody Publishing, LLC (P)2025 Melody Publishing, LLC

Noah & Vic were AMAZING! LOVE this SERIES!

I'm seriously in LOVE with this series! Everyone of these stories have left me with the biggest smile on my face. I absolutely LOVED Noah and Vic! I was hooked from the very beginning and didn't want this book to end.

The narrators Gabriel Spires and Samantha Cook did a fantastic job telling this story. Their voices kept me entertained and held my attention through the entire book.

Noah is a single dad to a little girl and is trying to adjust to being a dad and figure out what he wants to do with his life. Noah will sweep you off of you feet! He was such a sweetheart and the way he loved Tess OMG!!!!

Vic is newly divorced and trying to put her life back together. When her upstairs neighbor keeps her up at night she finally decides to say something to him. When she knocks on his door she's surprised to see Noah with a baby pacing back and forth. Now she knows why he's been so noisy. She decides to help him out to allow him to get some sleep. That ends up turning into a friendship. I LOVED getting to know these two. They were such a great pair and I just FELL IN LOVE instantly!

This book will have you laughing, SWOONING like a fool, smiling and will leave you with. beautiful ending! I HIGHLY recommend this book and this entire series!!

Still loving this series

I love how this story came together with the missing brother and seeing how things grew for him and the problems he experienced. Each of these stories have tackled a different huge problem that people have dealt with but all ending in the love they deserve.

Loved this!!

I loved this book. it was the first book I read out of the series and I fell in love with it. The banter was great. Clive made another appearance

An amazing presentation of a terrific story!

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, in duet format narration by Samantha Cook and Gabriel Spires. These two amazing voice actors did an outstanding job making this story sound life like and so real. It was like being able to follow the characters' thoughts (as if I was thinking the same things through with them) that produced the things they were saying. This novel takes place in the small town of Lovewell, Maine, and both narrators also did terrific work expressing the large cast of characters, especially Noah's wonderful family and Victoria's extremely obnoxious relatives.
Ms. Eliot has written an amazing story for these narrators to work with. Noah Hebert has left his west coast wildland firefighting job and returned to his home town to raise his godchild Tess.This is just the first example of how wise he is, knowing that he'd need help caring for an infant. Victoria has come back to town after a bad break up and lives in the apartment downstairs from Noah. Their paths cross when Noah anonymously comes to her rescue in town, and then cross again when she discovers he is her noisy upstairs neighbor pacing the floor with baby Tess. Mayhem ensues, including Noah posing as Victoria's fake boyfriend at her sister's wedding, and of course they try and fail to deny the attraction to each other. They both have some serious emotional baggage that each believes should keep them apart, and I was constantly impressed with their communicating and learning and growing to overcome their issues. Their chemistry was incredible, and this book has some of the best, most evocative, fair, fun, and believable scenes of physical intimacy I have read anywhere. Victoria and Noah have the "banter gene", and it comes into the bedroom with them. If one can be jealous of fictional characters, these two are folks I can truly admire. This book is #4 in the Maine Lumberjacks series, and the suspense plot that began with the first book continues here (the event in this book is solved, so not a cliffhanger). I can hardly wait for the next installment in this wonderful series!

Daphne Elliot broke the mold with Noah Hebert.

Daphne Elliot broke the mold with Noah Hebert. This man was so swoon worthy my heart was bleeding right along with Victoria's.

The way Samantha Cook & Gabriel Spires told Victoria & Noah's story will have you loving them and sweet baby Tess from beginning to end. The heartwarming moments between Victoria & Noah were perfection, and the

Noah took on being a single dad to a baby girl that wasn't his after a tragedy with her parents, and ends up back home in Lovewell, Maine. Victoria comes back to her hometown after a nasty divorce to a vile man, and is struggling to find her new normal.

As luck may have it, the sexy firefighter that rescued her from a coffee shop bathroom also ends up being her loud, hot shot single dad neighbor. After a not so friendly middle of the night run in, Noah and Victoria spark up a genuine friendship and she begins helping with baby Tess.

Their bond is almost instantaneous, and the way they both begin to care about and depend on one another was beautiful. Noah's wading through being a single dad and Victoria's stuck dealing with her vile ex and toxic family, so naturally they begin a fake relationship and Noah takes on being her protector and cheerleader. With the chemistry and connection these two have, there was no chance fake wasn't going to become very real. They were sizzling, yet sweet all wrapped up in one incredible little family that they built.

Love love

I’ve listened to all four books so far and loved each one of them! I definitely need more!

Love Makes a Family

Axe Backwards, Book 4 in this Maine Lumberjack series by Daphne Elliot, continues the storyline for the Hebert brothers bringing us Noah and Victoria this time. This another good one!

Axe Backwards: Main Lumberjacks Book 4

🎧🎧AUDIOBOOK REVIEW🎧🎧

LISTEN … I don’t want to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t be doing, but honestly, if you’re not reading/listening to any and all of Daphne Elliot’s stories, you might be not right. *runs* lol THIS.WOMAN.

I really only like to talk about my ”feelings” (which I think can be summed up in the above sentence lol) about a story instead of the story details themselves but I cannot not highlight for you Victoria & Noah’s, shall we say … “current circumstances.” So, Victoria has come back to Lovewell to take over the food pantry her aunt used to run. Sounds easy enough, right? Nothing to see … except, her much younger sister is pregnant and marrying her ex-husband. *looks around* Shenanigans! amirite?! Me, obviously (if you KNOW me, you’d understand) am not aghast by this. I’m on the floor laughing. Literally. Because if you know Daphne’s work, this should be commonplace. 😂😂😂 Noah has come back to Lovewell after being away and practically ghosting his family for a loooong time … with a baby. 👀👀👀

I mean … If you don’t know this is going to be an epic story after that, I just can’t help you.

Anywho, what ensues is a beautiful journey of two people who are wrapped in kismet (read the book), who grow from knowing each other a very long time ago to reconnecting because everyone knows everyone in Lovewell, as friends and “helpers” to each other’s circumstances, to more than friends to a family. It happens so easily and organically that I was overjoyed just from that! But don’t get me started on the emotional upheaval all mixed in with the humorous shenanigans in a perfect blend! Everything seemed like a hurdle but with each other and because of each other they both grew into a unit, a family. *sigh* Daphne Elliot writes really good small town goodness stories with huge “family energy” and that’s my crack. She’s my crack. *throws hands up* what am I gonna do once I’ve read/listened to everything? I know I keep asking this, but someone PLEASE TELL ME! *cries*

🎧I was surprised at how much I loved 🎤Gabriel Spires & Samantha Cook’s🎤 performances, not because I’d never heard them performed, but I was still ridding a huge high from the performances in Axe-indentally Married and honestly didn’t think I gave enough time in between these two. But, 🎊surprise🎊, it didn’t matter, because they both nailed their performances and hit it out of the park! I’ve actually only listened to one other performance by Gabriel, and it was a while ago, but he’s on my “search” list now! Samantha Cook has also not been on my radar before this performance, but that is changing asap!

“Noah, I’d discovered, was a sweet single dad in the streets and a domineering, bossy stallion in the sheets.”

The way that the narrators brought the characters and every emotion to life was outstanding. That moment of grief that Noah had, Gabriel Spires was simply fantastic. I love me a single dad, and Noah is one of the swooniest single dads out there. Especially considering that Tess is not his biological daughter. And honestly, this narration made me love this story even more than I already did.

One thing that separates this book from most of the single-parent books I've read before is that the bond between Noah and Vic started because of Tess. It was adorable to see how Tess immediately took to Victoria, and therefore she was able to give Noah the break he so desperately needed, which in turn led them to develop a system that allowed them to grow closer.

I loved how their relationship evolved from kinda strangers to best friends to "love of my life" without skipping any steps, and how understanding Noah was of Vic's feelings, and the pace she needed to take things at. It was also really beautiful to see how they helped each other heal and grow. Noah, with his guilt for what happened to Tess' biological parents, and Victoria with her low self-esteem thanks to her toxic family.

I also loved seeing how all the pieces of the Lovewell mystery keep coming together and more secrets are being unfolded.

Quote: “I’m tired of lying to myself. I care about you. So much. You’ve seen me at my worst, yet you keep showing up. And I trust you with my life. I trust you with my daughter’s life.”

Great Narrators

Gabriel Spires and Samantha Cook are so great narrators. Gabriel’s voice for Noah…swoon!

The story is a bit long, but it’s the kind of book that you can listen to while doing other things. Following each brother is addictive. I’m looking forward to Jude’s story.