Review: Cedarwood Cabin by Jade Wilkes

Cedarwood Cabin by Jade Wilkes

Publication date: July 23rd, 2024

Pages: 330

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Disclaimer:

The story contains mature content that may not be suitable for all readers. Therefore, please take note of all the information provided.

The paperback/hardback versions include a bonus chapter. This is a stand-alone book.

What happens in Cedarwood cabin stays in Cedarwood cabin.

After her mother's tragic death, Flora Lockley leaves England and moves with her father to a small forest town in America.

Flora's life take a dramatic turn when dark thoughts torment her mind. Waking up in an isolated cabin deep in the forest, she is confronted by the two local biker brothers, Dax and Lyka Faulkner. Flora questions everything as she struggles with this unexpected situation.

Available at:

Review:

Flora feels she has lost everything of import in her life. And in a way she has. She thought after her mother died that she had experienced the worst her pain. She was in therapy and she was trying to get better but when her father suddenly joins her mother in the afterlife she has nowhere else to turn. She has no family or friends to speak of and so she thinks there is no other choice but to follow her parents into death. But when she is found and taken in by two biker brothers who seem unnaturally infatuated with her she finds out just how much she has to live for. But while the brothers saved her from losing the last vestiges of her mind they may have more nefarious designs where she is concerned than just helping her to find a reason to live on.

The slow burn that started between Flora and the brothers was intense. I found myself wondering how this book was seen in such bad light that it was often said to be in the pitch black genre. I thought maybe I had gotten it wrong and that it would be a slightly dark book but that it wouldn't be too bad. It wasn't until the brothers show their true colors that I start to realize why this book was seen as such. The brothers had me fooled, especially Dax. Dax was so sweet, kind and loyal that I had no idea how he could flip the switch so thoroughly and become the more evil of the two brothers. I liked how the author presented the brothers as one dark, one light in the beginning and then flipped it so they switched roles once their masks came down. It was a really genius move to keep the author's readers on their toes and it definitely worked where I am concerned.

Flora for me waffled between being a great and well-rounded character to being impossibly annoying with the way she handled things. I wanted to hug her and strangle her in equal measures. When her mind broke it made me want to cry with how unfortunate it was that she had found herself in the situation she was in through no fault of her own. The Stockholm syndrome was always right there on the cusp and it made me lose all warm and fuzzy feels for the brothers I had before it all started. The author added twists and turns that made the book so much more enjoyable than it could have been. 

I enjoyed the book overall and I don't quite understand why the author got so much backlash as she seemed to. I would definitely read more by the author but definitely advise readers to go in expecting to come out the other end not really liking any of the characters anymore. It does not take away from the reader's experience though.