this was a strong start to the Rattlesnake Ridge Trilogy series, it had that writing style that I enjoyed from other works that I read from Lenore Nox and was engaged from start to finish. The characters were so well written and had that concept that worked with the world set. It left me wanting to read more in this world and from Lenore Nox.

Ashes Don’t Bloom" drips desert noir from every page—moody, hot, and edged in rust and gunpowder. If it had a theme song it’d be Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road” crossed with Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Jeans”: slow, sultry, fatalistic, and smoky.

This is a story where no one’s innocent, no one’s safe, and love is more a lifeline than a redemption arc. Delilah is a trailer park femme fatale with nowhere to go and no illusions left. Sedona is a grease-stained, gun-toting, car-racing ex-military badass who throws herself into danger. Their stories intertwine with two former Marines—Diesel and Duke— rough men living in a bad world.

It starts slow and moody, less focused on plot and more on relationships, getting to know the characters and watching them dance and circle each other. But the stakes rise fast on the second half once it’s clear a cartel war is coming.

The writing can be poetic (“…here she was, driving down the cracked road, curling through the Mojave like a serpent on a lookout for prey.”) without being overbearing and always keeps the tone and mood of a desert noir front and centre. There were minimal typos/grammar issues which kept it an immersive read.

I especially liked how trauma and injury aren’t magically erased - no one comes back from war without problems and it’s not magically resolved just because characters had sex. This is a dark, spicy read—nothing closed-door here. The sex scenes are intense and emotionally charged, with a few kink elements explored along the way.

Spoiler: this is book one in a trilogy. While it’s unclear if the same POVs will continue (the excerpt from book two features a new character), I hope Delilah and Sedona’s stories aren’t done yet—neither got their full HEAs, and there's more story to burn.

If you like violence, guns, cars, the desert and some twisty FMCs and MMCs, you’ll probably find something to love here. I’ll be first in line for book two—if Delilah and Sedona don’t get their full arcs, I’ll be mourning them under the Mojave moon!