Powerless takes place in the beautiful Canadian Rockies and is Book 3 in the Chestnut Springs series. The story opens with Jasper coming to Sloane’s rescue when she decides to leave her fiancé on their wedding day.  Jasper and Sloane have known each other for many years. This is a fun friends to lovers story mixed up with a wonderful road trip romance.

Sloane Winthrop is getting ready to marry Sterling Woodcock, a guy her father chose for her, when she gets an anonymous email of a video of her fiancé cheating on her with a stripper at his stag party. Jasper hears Sterling yelling at Sloane and helps her escape. She asks him to take her to the Wishing Well Ranch, which is her uncle, Harvey Eaton’s, family ranch, so she can escape and recover. She is a ballerina but has time off because she was going to be on her honeymoon. She has lovely memories from when she spent a month each summer at the ranch with Violet, her cousin and best friend and Violet’s brothers Cade, Beau, and Rhett, along with Beau’s friend Jasper, who was taken in by the Eatons when he was a teen. Jasper escaped into hockey and worked his way up to the NHL–he is a NHL goalie with the Calgary Grizzlies.

Jasper is a quiet, brooding hero. He comes by his views on life fairly–he has a tragic backstory that made me cry. As an adult, Jasper is still struggling to make his peace with the tragedies in his past. My heart squeezed for him–make sure you have your tissues at the ready!

While Jasper and Sloane are at the ranch, they learn that Beau has disappeared. Beau is a soldier in the special forces and something went wrong on his last mission. This is too much for Jasper. He’s stressed and devastated and his hockey game falls apart. He is also so used to never talking about his personal life, so it takes him a few bad games before he tells his coach about Beau’s disappearance. When he finally tells his coach what’s going on, his coach suspends him for two weeks so he can go home and be with his family in Chestnut Springs. Sloan comforts Jasper while he is hurting over Beau’s disappearance. She is tender, supportive and a good listener and makes him laugh.

Once both Jasper and Sloane are settled in at the ranch, Violet (Sloane’s cousin), who lives in the mountains in Ruby Creek, asks if one of the Eatons can bring her a load of hay so she can make it through the winter. Jasper offers to go. Sloan–who could use a distraction after her disastrous non-nuptials– offers to go with Jasper to get the hay. (Did I mention she’s been in love with Jasper forever?) The trip has some risk–they’ll be traveling through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and it’s winter.

As Jasper and Sloan travel together, they become closer, both emotionally and physically. I loves this part of the story. As they spend time together, the two move them out of the friend zone and into something more. Their relationship becomes pretty steamy–Jasper likes control and is pretty bossy in the bedroom and Sloan is there for that big time!

The relationship with the Eaton brothers and Jasper was great to see. I could feel the emotional connection between Jasper and Sloane and I also loved the relationship between Beau and Jasper.  This is a story about grownups growing up and I connected with not just the leads but all of the other characters all of whom have their own loves and problems. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

My biggest complaint is that though Powerless stands alone reasonably well, there were times when it was hard for me to follow who everyone was because I hadn’t read all the books in the series. But this wrinkle pales in comparison to all the things I so enjoyed. Powerless is a heartwarming , emotionally satisfying romance. I highly recommend it.