Wild Card
By Elsie Silver
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Bloom Books
Pages: 464
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Sebastian Rousseau is a grumpy, hot as hell fire pilot who is too damn good with his hands.
It’s the perfect combination. But unfortunately for me, he’s also my ex-boyfriend’s dad.
A chance meeting brought us together and a missed connection has kept us apart.
One year later, a stroke of fate has us living under the same roof—which makes everything between us downright messy.
Because even after all this time, he’s still the man I think about when I fall asleep. The one I can’t get over no matter how hard I try.
He’s working on mending a fragile relationship with his son and we both know acting on these urges would be the ultimate betrayal.
But I see the heat in his eyes. That look of need that never fails to send a shiver down my spine.
The mutual longing is borderline unbearable and the simmering heat between us is downright palpable.
We both know there are rules when it comes to situations like this.
But then again…following the rules never has been my strong suit.
First Impressions
This is the 4th book in the Rose Hill series and I was so excited to read it. I love the color chosen and was looking forward to learning more about Bash who we have seen in the previous books.
What I thought
This series is just such a delight.
Bash meets Gwen when they’re stranded at the airport after he just met his 24 year old son he only just found out existed. After a missed connection, he runs into her months later, as the girlfriend of said son and the son’s birthday party. Months after that, Gwen shows up in town as the new yoga teacher and Bash has to decide whether or not he’s willing to rest his new relationship with his son for a new relationship with Gwen.
I’ve review some of the other books in this series and I have loved every one. The characters are all unique and so fun. While they might be rough around the edges at times, they always have good hearts. I also appreciate how realistically Silver deals with the miscommunication trope. While there are moments of miscommunication, the characters always acknowledge that they don’t have the full picture and then talk to each other about it! It’s great.
Bash has always seemed like such a good guy in the other books while also being so quiet and mysterious. I knew nothing about him before reading this book so I was excited to learn more. I didn’t put two and two together until I was reading the book that Gwen makes an appearance in the previous book.
I was a bit tentative when it came to the concept of this book. A dad dating his son’s ex girlfriend? Felt icky to me. But it’s much more than that. Semi-spoiler, but Gwen and Tripp (Bash’s son) barely dated. So the weirdness was significantly less. Gwen also was delightful. I wish we could’ve gotten a little bit more of her backstory and some resolution, but her maturity as a person is enviable.
While this wasn’t my favorite of the series, it was still absolutely wonderful. This entire series is delightful and I’m so sad to be leaving Rose Hill behind. I will definitely be checking out more of Silver’s series. IF you enjoy small town romances I would highly recommend this series.