Hell Bent

Portland Devils, Book 5

By: Rosalind James

Narrated by: Emma Wilder, Teddy Hamilton

Even princesses have problems.

Alix: That line doesn’t exactly invite sympathy, does it? I was a fairly ersatz princess anyway, although you should try convincing my mother of that. And when I ran away from my family, my tech-bro groom, my almost-Stanford degree, and our fabulous future and right back to my trailer-living, hard-hatted life? Even I couldn’t explain it to anybody’s satisfaction.

Sebastian: I’d lived my life by one rule: don’t get attached. When you’re on your sixth team, your third country, and your second sport, that’s a pretty good rule, and it worked fine until some lowlife dumped his aging Golden Retriever at a rest stop right in front of me. Until I ran into a woman wearing a spangled cocktail dress, zero makeup, and a ponytail in the dog-food aisle at Target, and then kept on running into her. Until my new All-Pro teammates insisted on befriending the kicker, like they’d never read the handbook.

Oh, and until my sister dumped my teenage nephew on me. On Christmas. So much for rules.

©2025 Rosalind James (P)2025 Rosalind James

Great new book in the Portland Devils Series

Anastasia Alix Glucksburg-Thompkins, aka Alix, is an independent woman. Raised in a family that traces her mother’s family to German royalty. She walks away from her wedding when she realizes that her fiancé is not what she wants in life. Despite a chronic medical condition, she works a manual job as a foreman at a construction site. Her parents love her dearly but tend to want to live by their dreams not her own.
Sebastian Robillard is an independent man, who was raised by a single father who died from pancreatic cancer when Sebastian was just 17. That led him to be put in foster care system in Canada. He now believes he can only rely on himself. Sebastian’s older sister Solange, an oncologist and single mother, is dying of breast cancer. She is leaving her 14-year-old son Ben in Sebastian’s care. Sebastian doesn’t know how to open up to love or to raise his nephew. He’s been emotionally closed off since he watched his father die.
Alix and Sebastian come together in this book that is a wonderful blend of romance, sports, love and fulfillment. There are some steamy romantic scenes. There are cameos from our favorites from the rest of the Portland Devils series. The inclusion of Harlan and Owen, who help Sebastian to find his place on the Portland Devils team, is very great.
This book is narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Emma Wilder. Two of the best in the business. They bring the story to life in a way that brinks you to tears at times.
I received a free copy of this audible in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for my review and I was not required to write a positive review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

Read and Listened to this book

Rosalind James is a favorite author of mine. I love she worlds she creates. This one was harder for me to get into though. I didn't click with Alix and felt Sebastian had to do all the work/changing for the relationship. It took over half of the book for it to finally click for me. In chapter forty, when Alix had her discussion with her mother, just the two of them. AH. My heart squeezed tight. I reread it several times. I LOVED that conversation. I appreciated her more and it was the turning point of once again loving all the characters. My heart ached for Sebastian, Ben (his nephew) and Solange (his sister). Solange's death had me in tears. The HEA had me grinning ear to ear.

There is so much to unpack in this book and I listened to the audiobook version as well. The realistic feelings of the characters stood out to me more through tbe audiobook. The narrators brought it to life with emotional performances that had it rolling like a movie in my head. Perfection!

Great addition to this series

Another fun book by Rosalind, this one in the Portland Devil's series. Alix is a different heroine, an ersatz princess - distantly related to the wife of Nicholas II of Russia, who with his family were shot to death by the Bolsheviks - and has inherited the hemophilia gene.. She bleeds easily and has to be careful. In spite of this, she is an electrician and works on construction sites. Her parents are very wealthy and very much want her to finish her degree and be a financial advisor. She does not want this. She is determined to live her life her way, sometimes to the point of being too independent.
Sebastian is a former professional soccer player who is now a kicker in the NFL. His father died when he was 17, he went into foster care briefly, didn't graduate high school but started playing professional soccer. He is now in his early 30's and has spent the last several years being successful at not becoming too attached to anyone or anything.
Sebastian ends up rescuing Lexi, a golden retriever some loser dropped off in front of him at a rest stop and drove off. He also end up with his 14 year old nephew, Ben, as his sister is dying of cancer. Both of these circumstances, plus Alix, start him on the path of attachments.
They have a couple chance meetings and both end up in Portland, Oregon. I love that we get to meet up again with Harlan , Jennifer, Owen, Dyma even briefly Blake and Dakota.
It's a great story watching these two grow emotionally. There's humor, romance, some definite steamy times and great side characters.
I was given this audible book as an advance reader but that in no way influenced how I feel about it. I have not been compensated for this review. I love everything Rosalind write.
Emma Wilder, as always, does a great job. Teddy Hamilton also does a great job. I very much enjoyed listening to this story.

Sometimes dreams happen

Sebastian Robillard has never had an easy life. His early life was marred by trauma but he managed to join the big leagues of international football (soccer to Americans.) He went to the UK to play but never made it internationally huge. After he was cut from his latest team, Sebastian takes his kicking skills and transfers those skills to American football as a place kicker. And he has been pretty successful. But the life of a special teams player is never one that means you stay put. Sebastian is traded and sent to the Portland Devils. Starting over again is not always easy.

Alix is a legit princess of a no longer existing Germanic principality. But her family is well off and she has gone back to Stanford to finish a degree her parents want for her in her late 20s. Alix has always been pampered and wrapped in bubble wrap by her parents due to a hereditary disease. But Alix is a bit stubborn and doesn't like to play by the rules. She ran away after high school graduation and got her plumbing license while staying with her grandparents. She actually is a master plumber. But trying to please her parents has resulted her dating someone who has no backbone, agreeing to marry said wimp, and actually getting to the day of the wedding. But Alix realizes that she deserves better and runs away from the scene of the crime so to speak and ends up working in Portland as a master plumber on a data center project.

Alix has met Sebastian before briefly in her old life. And when she meets him again at her job site, things start to happen. Sebastian's personal life is imploding and Alix is there for him just as he is there for her.

This is a book about relationships and learning to accept life as it happens but also allowing yourself to be open to life and the chance for love. Rosalind James never fails to bring so many layers together in a fictional work.

I have read this book twice. Okay, once was as an audio book.

Heartwarming Romance

Hell Bent is another wonderful addition to Rosalind James’ body of work. It is a romance of the HEA variety and a bit of a fairytale, complete with a princess, but it is also a heartwarming, quick reading listen that underscores the value of friends in ones’ life. Alix’s life takes an abrupt about face when she opts out of a marriage at the last minute in order to pursue a life that fits her better. Along the way, she repeatedly encounters Sebastian, a kicker in the NFL who has recently moved to the Portland Devils. Sebastian is not without his own complications, including becoming the guardian of his 14 year old nephew when his dying sister asks him to raise him. Alix’s warm heart and compassion lead her to take an active part in both of their lives as they all navigate seismic life changes and quickly build strong bonds with one another. Sebastian also has new teammates who are always willing to offer him support in a multitude of ways.
This is a feel good book and I enjoyed it very much. Rosalind James has a smooth and very readable writing style which immediately grabs the reader’s interest. The narrators of this audiobook are both excellent. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good, sometimes spicy, romance. Four and a half stars.