Books, Boots and Bakeries

Let’s be honest—by the time you’ve reached American Hellhound in Lauren Gilley’s Dartmoor series, you’re not dabbling anymore. You’re in. You’ve got your favourites. You’ve mentally rearranged the clubhouse furniture. You know who you’d trust with your life and who you’d throttle before breakfast.

And somehow, despite all that, American Hellhound still managed to surprise me.

It snuck up on me in the best kind of way—one minute I was reading with casual interest, the next I was fully invested, blinking through a suspicious eye-watering moment and muttering, “Oh no. This one’s going to stay with me, isn’t it?”

Now, don’t get me wrong—Fearless is still the one that lives with me. It’s tattooed on the emotional part of my brain. But American Hellhound? It carved out a quiet little place just beside it. Less showy, maybe, but just as powerful.

One of the most delicious parts of this book? The flashbacks. Early Dartmoor. Young Maggie and Ghost absolutely shone—those glimpses of their early connection provided such a rich, emotional parallel to Ava and Mercy’s present-day story. Watching the echoes ripple through time, the way choices made then still carry weight now? Ugh. It got me. It really got me. Also, Ghost, you hypocritical asshole!!

That’s Gilley’s superpower, honestly. She writes with this unflinching grit, never sanitising the chaos—but right there in the middle of all the blood and asphalt, she threads these delicate, aching moments of tenderness. You feel every hit, every hesitation, every word they almost say.

The romance in American Hellhound isn’t the neat kind. It’s not tidy or easily defined. But it’s earned. Raw. Vulnerable. Quietly spectacular.

If you’re reading through Dartmoor and wondering whether this one will hit as hard—yeah. It does. But in its own way. Not with the same intensity as Fearless—because nothing ever will—but with this patient, lingering weight that sneaks up on you and stays.

And now I want to reread all the flashbacks again. Just to feel it one more time.