Hotheaded Heart is a passionate and engaging read for fans of contemporary romance who enjoy strong character dynamics and a good dose of humor. The chemistry between the leads is the driving force of the book, and it certainly delivers on the emotional highs and lows. While there are moments of predictability and pacing issues, the book's charm lies in its characters' journey toward love, growth, and healing.

Hotheaded Heart was a struggle to get through. The characters felt one-dimensional and their motivations often didn’t make sense. The plot lacked direction and failed to build any real tension or emotional connection. The characters were immature and not very likable. I kept hoping it would improve, but it never quite delivered. Disappointing overall.

DNF'd this back when I first got approved. I couldn't quite get into it.

In an attempt to finally read and give some feedback, here we go:

Raven returns to her hometown to support her pregnant best friend, but she's barely keeping it together herself, especially after being arrested for tasing her stalker. Between court dates, small-town gossip, and unresolved feelings for her best friend’s brother Beau (now a cop), Raven’s emotional plate is full.

There’s a lot of tension between Raven and Beau, but calling it enemies to lovers feels like a stretch. Their connection is more rooted in miscommunication and emotional immaturity than actual rivalry, and at times their dynamic felt more toxic than romantic.

That said, the drama is drama-ing. Anna Alkire knows how to write angst and heat, but I spent more time frustrated than swooning. A solid read if you’re into small-town mess, but don’t expect a satisfying slow burn or true enemies-to-lovers payoff.

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook arc, while I tried a couple of times to get into this book it just could not hold my interest

This is a good book. The two main characters are Raven and Beau. They have known each other for all their lives. Lauren has a stalker. He continues to stalk her. She calls the police, but they don’t have enough to convict him. Beau insists that Raven move into his house so he can protect her. So, she does. They each have issues but together they work them out and fall in love.

Reading this book was like watching your friend make frustrating choices that make you wish you could shake some sense into them but you still love them and want to see them happy. I love Raven and Beau but sometimes they made me want to pull my hair out! I loved the twists and turns,

Didn’t love, didn’t hate, just didn’t really enjoy. The characters weren’t mature enough to even try to be in a relationship together. They didn’t seem to necessarily like each other and the usual enemies to lovers thing means they at least like each other a little bit

Hotheaded Heart was a very easy read and an enjoyable romance whilst simultaneously tackling the gritty issue of stalking.

Returning to her hometown and seeing her best friend's brother again causes problems for Raven in addition to the major issue of being arrested for tasing her stalker and the ramifications associated with an impending court case.

Raven's best friend Lauren is heavily pregnant so she needs to be there to support her while she is in desperate need of support herself. Beau, Lauren's brother and a cop in the same town, is someone that Raven fell for as a teenager and the feelings haven't gone away. Throwing herself into volunteer work helps Raven somewhat but nothing is ever easy for her.

An enjoyable read and book one of the Waterfall Canyon series, I look forward to reading the rest!

HOTHEADED HEART was a fast and easy read. While the story was intriguing, I feel that the plot moved too fast. It was very easy to connect with Raven, but at times, both she and Beau felt immature and rather unrealistic. There wasn't much "enemies" in the enemies-to-lovers trope that was advertised, as it had all happened outside of the story's timeline, so there was a missed element there in the chemistry between the two.

I actually found myself rooting for Travis instead of Beau throughout the story as I felt like they had a stronger connection that a romance book depends on. The stalker plot line was probably the most ensnaring, and I think there could've been a stronger story woven throughout with that plot along with good suspense.

Overall, I did not love the book, but it was still an easy popcorn-read and enjoyable.

2 stars

This book was a whirlwind of a time, as everything happened so fast. After about the first twenty pages it felt like someone was fast forward and we just flew through everything: interactions, any event big or small. It felt so fast and rushed, that I did not get a sense of the characters or a real attachment to them. The romance development was just not there for me. Any real significant event that happened was so fast that there was no emotional connection so I didn't care about their story or what was happening. This book was not for me, it just did not have the development, the pacing or the character dynamic or romance that I was looking for. I did the setting of a small town, wintertime and close community.
I received an ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Good holiday romance. I enjoyed the world on the characters. The author created two main characters that had a gray on page chemistry, but also a story worth reading. It was a fast paced read. That was just a feel good romance, and I hope to read more by her.

I needed more enemies to lovers than simply pranks pulled on each other when they were children. The lack of chemistry made this a disappointing read for me.

Beau and Raven are becoming reacquainted with each other as adults and it's stirring up old feelings fast for both of them. Rob is escalating his stalking and even showing up at Beau's house now. Raven has to find a way to support herself financially after an arrest is on her record and find a way to stay safe from Rob.

This was not only a great romance book, but also had a big portion of it being thriller. I really enjoyed the excitement of the book and of course who doesn't love a book with cute pets!?

I really hate DNF books but I just could not get into this one no matter how hard I tried. There were parts that I was okay with but in general the storyline was so frustrating.

First of all, Id like to thank NetGalley for this ARC of Hotheaded Heart by Anna Alkire.

I went into this book with some very high hopes, and it is unfortunate that it didn't end up being that for me.
Im not saying that the book was bad, by any means, there were a couple of moments I did enjoy, I just feel as though it could have been fleshed out a little more.

I am still thankful for this opportunity.

Cutesy romance, but its not all just fluff and smut. There is a whole case of creepy stalking, including animal abuse, abuse, and probably other stuff im forgetting. Ofcourse the mmc protects the fmc from all of this, and fall in love in the mean time which is a really good concept. I did not really like the mmc, but thats personal preference. Book was really enjoyable though!

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

Overall, I thought the book could have developed the plot and characters a lot more. It was an easy read, but that was partly due to the lack of substance and flying through a lot of what was happening. Some parts were cute, yes - the romantic part was cute and not much else. It was an okay book for me.

Overall, this was a cute, quick read, and I enjoyed reading it!
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
I’m giving it a 2.5 because, while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t the best I’d ever read.
The writing was good, and it was easy and quick to read, but I feel like there could have been more of a connection built to the characters. I would have liked to see more of their personalities and relationships built through the story. It was quite a one-dimensional story. I would have loved more depth to Raven and Beau and their past, as well as their current feelings. It just felt a bit lacklustre in that sense.
The best relationship for me was the friendship between Raven and Lauren rather than Raven with Beau. Their friendship and support of each other were absolutely amazing, and I wouldn’t change that part at all.
I don’t feel like there was much, if any, character growth within the story. I could see the attempt at it, with Raven following her dreams and accepting her own faults and Beau committing to their relationship. But I feel like both Raven and Beau just fell into their relationship and stayed there. Neither really grew or changed.
This story had a lot of potential, but it just fell short for me. It was a cute read and a quick escape, though.

Tropes:
Best-friends brother
Forced Proximity
Suspense/Intrigue elements

Thank you again to Water’s Edge, Anna and Netgalley for the chance to read and review the ARC of this book.

This was a cute story, I enjoyed the spiciness and the love that was developed. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this ARC!