Heartland

By: Sarina Bowen

Narrated by: Lee Samuels, Erin Mallon

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

An emotional friends-to-lovers romance full of risky secrets and late-night lessons in seduction. 

Dylan is my best friend, and the only person in my life who understands me. He doesn’t mind my social awkwardness or my weird history. The only glitch? He doesn’t know that I’ve been hopelessly, desperately in love with him since the first day we picked apples together in his family’s orchard. 

But I know better than to confess. 

Now that we’re both in college together, I’m seeing a new side of him. College Dylan drinks and has a lot of sex. None of it with me. 

Until the night I foolishly ask him to tutor me in more than algebra...and he actually says yes. 

But the cool morning light shows me how badly I’ve endangered our friendship. And I don’t know if anything will be the same again.

©2020 Sarina Bowen (P)2020 Sarina Bowen

The Dylan Effect will melt your Heart

I love this audiobook so much. It is seriously amazing. I loved both narrators a lot. Erin Mallon is always amazing, and she’s great as Chastity. Lee Samuels is new to me, but he’s perfect as Dylan. I really loved his voice. Sarina Bowen’s audiobooks rock in general, but this one is probably my new favorite. This book is awesome by itself, but the narration takes it to another level of greatness. It’s a wonderful listen.


Every time I read one of Sarina Bowen’s books I feel happiness. It doesn’t even matter if it’s for the first or the eleventh time. I find myself rereading them often because her kind of magic can’t be found anywhere else. I love her words so much. They are so beautiful and carry so much weight but seem also light. Her stories are the kind of awesome you want to devour as fast as possible and hope they never end at the same time.

Heartland is the 7th book in The True North Series. It’s a complete standalone, so it can be fully enjoyed without reading the previous books in the series, though I encourage everyone to read them, because they are freaking awesome and so worth reading.

Everything about Heartland is perfect, starting with the title. It’s definitely full of Heart—heartfelt, heartbreaking, and heart-melting. I loved the relationship between Chastity and Dylan as friends, and how it evolves from there. I enjoyed their banter, their chemistry, and the story itself. I also appreciate the secondary characters, some of them brand new, and how much they add to the story.

I also really enjoyed the family aspect of the story. I love the Shipley family, they’re great people and it’s always fun to spend time with them, but they have as many issues as other families have. In this case, the relationship between Dylan and Griffin added layers and complexity not only to Dylan’s character, but also the story. And you could say the same about the bond between Chastity and Leah.

All in all, Heartland is a beautiful story about friendship, family, love, and loss. As always, the writing is flawless, fluid, and compelling, and it will leave you spellbound and breathless. It’s definitely an emotional story with some angst, lovable and relatable characters, fun banter, and intense and explosive chemistry. It is completely unputdownable and it will—without a doubt—leave you wanting more. And just between us, I can’t wait for whatever happens next.

Heartland is Sarina Bowen at her best, so I would give it all the stars in the sky because I loved it so much. It is that good.

So, welcome back to Vermont!

4 people found this helpful

loved it

I loved the story of Dylan and Chastity. The relationship between two broken people emerged into something beautiful. Truly loved the ending.

1 person found this helpful

Love this series!!!

Excellent author, excellent story!!
This series just keeps getting better and better! Please do yourself a favor and listen to them all. It’s not necessary as all books are standalones but you’ll be happy you did.
The narration on this book was really great. Lee Samuels is new for me. He was superb.
Erin Mallon is very good and just keeps getting better!
I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Thanks, Sarina. ❤️

1 person found this helpful

Great

This was such a good story. Best friends to lovers story set in Vermont. Chasity and Dylan learn how to navigate and stay friends after a night together, something Chastity always dreamed about. Erin Mallon and Lee Samuels narration was awesome.

1 person found this helpful

Sweet as Caramel Audiobook!

Can you drool while just listening to a story describe making goat milk caramels? Because I certainly did, I swear I could even smell the sweet treats, making me wish they were real. Lee Samuels was perfectly charming as Dylan, exuding that young college charm right along side Erin Mallon nailing Chastity’s bravery and determination.

This friends to lovers story is sweet as caramel, full of longing, heat and good ol’ Vermont charm. A story all about letting go of expectations and learning to love yourself enough to go after what you truly want in life.

College is a time trying new things and discovering yourself, which Dylan and Chastity were definitely both doing. It honestly took me a little while to fall for Dylan, he really was sowing his wild with the ladies. Blind and oblivious to the impact he was having on his best friend’s life, my heart hurt for Chastity having to watch and listen to Dylan go through the ladies. Wanting to be his own man and out from under the his brothers thumb, Dylan swung in the opposite of direction of being reliable and responsible.

Chastity was a fascinating character with having grown up and escaped from a cult that treated woman like property and condemned them for sharing a simple innocent kiss from a boy. Her bravery and desires were totally relatable, having me rooting for her to get her man and hold onto him. While Dylan may have been a stupid man tart, he redeemed himself and absolutely had me falling in love with him by the end of the book.

1 person found this helpful

True North at its Best!

The True North series is an auto-click for me. I love the Shipleys, and all their neighbors.
Dylan's story was a tear jerker for me, due to his age when his Dad died, and the impacts that had on his life.
The True North series starts with the drastic turn Griffin's life took after the Shipley Dad's death, and the impacts of his absence are woven throughout the series. This came to a bit of a head in Heartland, in such a touching scene it left me with a knot in my throat for quite a while!
The friends to lovers theme was done really well. Though it's an oft-played trope, I so felt for Dylan and Chastity, who valued their friendship so much they were terrified to address the sexually charged elephant in the room.
The narration by Lee Samuels and Erin Mallon was spot on. Lee is new to this series, and his voice for 'Grumpy Griff' really added a new perspective- more tired and burdened than grumpy.
I highly recommend this book. Pick it up soon so you can be part of the discussionsin your favorite book groups!

1 person found this helpful

Loved

Sarina is a wonderful story teller. The story is fun, suspenseful and heartwarming. Also, Love the narrators.

1 person found this helpful

My favorite!

Loved this innocence finding their path. So sweet, heartfelt, with a side of a witchy ex lol.

1 person found this helpful

A great additional to the series - Dylan all grown up

There is a lot to uncover in this book. Dylan’s arc is very well told because we met him when he was just a little kid when Griff came back to run the farm after his dad died. As the truth unveiled my heart is mended from all the inner turmoils that came to light.
Chastity is also such a great character. I love how much grit she has and how business minded she is even though she grew up in such a sheltered environment. Erin was great as Chastity and so was Lee as Dylan.

It’s always a joy to revisit Tuxbury Vermont and this is no exception.

1 person found this helpful

Great story

Love when the girl next door ends up being the perfect girl!! This was my first True North book so I wasn’t aware of cult background but book is amazing and just all around heartwarming 😊

1 person found this helpful

Ok but not as good as others in the series

This was ok but I didn’t enjoy it half as much as the earlier books in the series. The oblivious and overly horny hero and him being with other women drama at the start was a bit painful, and they didn’t bond together fully until quite late on, so I just felt a bit flat by the end, rather than the story sweeping me along. I’ll still get more from this author as she’s great - just these characters didn’t work for me.