A Reunion of Rivals

I love, love, love this book! Quinn is the best, and I like Max too (I wanted to smack his younger AND older versions around, but I like him)! Such a great second chance story!

With a business merger on the table;  King's Finest Distillery requires the expertise of Quinn Bazemore to spearhead it, it opens old wounds for her and Max.

After a summer internship and a promise to always be together, go array, it leaves a fractured heart and unfinished business as a result. Tension is high when Quinn and Max are unexpectedly working together, again. After just one Trade Show, things heat up and they leave with rules of engagement of a different kind!

I enjoyed Quinn and Max story and their second chance at love.  Another scene that got my attention was a boardroom meeting called to order by Parker. 

The author has sealed this with all the things we've come to love; sexy romance, family drama, and friends to lover duet. I love that we get a glimpse of the other family members, and yes, Parker is still sexy 👓 and Cole is still Cole 🤷‍♀️.

I recommend this for your reading pleasure.

Reese Ryan hits it out of the park for a fourth time with her latest installment of the Bourbon Brothers series, A REUNION OF RIVALS. Honestly, she had me at the gorgeous cover, but the promise of sparks in the boardroom and the bedroom had me turning the pages. Ryan weaves an engaging contemporary tale of second chance, friends to lovers romance, and it was so refreshing to watch Quinn and Max struggle to get beyond their young summer love history so they could evolve into the compelling professionals they are now. I love, love, love Quinn. Smart, strong, southern woman. There's just the right amount of family drama to keep it interesting while not overwhelming the developing romance between Quinn and Max. 

On a side note, it's fun to look at the four covers side by side in this series. Harlequin Desire has really upped their game in the design department. Brava, Reese.

4.5 stars, rounded up

Max Abbott is an executive at his family’s bourbon brewery and is surprised when Quinn Bazemore enters a meeting and becomes the company’s newest marketing professional. Max and Quinn shared a short lived, yet passionate relationship one summer when they were barely adults. Max dumped Quinn without any warning, but their feelings are instantly rekindled when they meet again. Will they allow themselves a second chance at love, or will their past prevent them from developing anything more than a professional relationship? 

I adored this book! Overall, this was a realistic romance with a perfect amount of emphasis on the character’s lives and the budding romance. There was some steam, but it felt purposeful and served to grow the relationship. Each book in this series follows a different member of the Abbott family. Although this is book four the series, I did not feel like I was missing much backstory about the characters. It was obvious some of the side characters referenced were featured in earlier books in the series, I’m planning to go back and read more from this series/author, so I’m sure I’ll see these other stories unfold. This book will be released on July 7, 2020 and I recommend checking it out!

I received an ebook of this title from the publisher via Netgalley; all opinions are my own. Review will be posted on Amazon and Instagram on release date

This is the second novel by Reese Ryan I have reviewed after Secret Heir Seduction and the first in this particular series. 

Max and Quinn have a history but were forced to painfully break things off. Years later they find themselves thrown together again by a chance meeting. Quinn is hesitant. But does Max want more? Or do they both?

The Abbott and Bazemore families come togther in a partnership to create a line of fruit brandy and Quinn is on the team. She and her grandfather have an amazing bond which was great to witness. He is good friends with Max's grandfather. Zora, Max's gossipy sister, suspects the past flame of chermistry between Quinn and Max can be reignited and will not stop badgering him about it. 

Despite the time that's passed, they still cannot forget their feelings for each other. 

But, she is also friends with Max's brother Cole........

Family upset, joys hospitality and home truths are a theme in this fast paced, sexy book. Quinn is strong, feisty and likeable. Kayleigh and Cole were good together. And there's conflicts between Cole and Max....

Honesty and commeraderie as well as romance and good Southern food abound in A Reunion of Rivals and I was gripped by what was a new series by a favourite author for me.


Thanks to Reese Ryan and Harlequin for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.Quick, sweet and sexy. 

5 stars

Reese Ryan writes delicious and amazing category romances (Oh these Bourbon Brothers), and Reunion of Rivals was a perfect slump buster for me.

A perfect trope-tastic blend of all the things I adore, Max Abbott having to contend with the very real feelings he still feels for Quinn Bazemore while also realizing he has some things to grovel for was so much fun to read.

Also fulfills the "Apple Orchard" square on my Ripped Bodice 2020 Summer Reading Bingo Card, yay!

Thank you to the publisher for the free review copy!

Quinn Basemore needs to rekindle her career and unfortunately needs help from Max Abbott, the marketing VP and her former lover. While they battle over a project in the office, Quinn is fighting her growing attraction.

A Reunion of Rivals takes place in the fictional town of Magnolia Lake, Tennessee as part of the Bourbon Brothers series. As one of the Abbott brothers, Max is in charge of promoting the family distillery's latest offering, a peach brandy made from the fruit collected at Quinn's grandfather's farm. As with any second chance romance, the attraction is still there, enough that Max's siblings see behavior changes. The situation requires that the two work closely together, increasing the tension between them and testing their resolve to forget the summer fling they had thirteen years before.

Of course, there are opportunities for the physical attraction to flare, and for them to try to make a no strings attached deal for sex. I really enjoyed the interactions with Max's siblings Cole and Zora, and how they both subtly tried to push Max and Quinn together. The Abbott family is very close, and I enjoyed seeing everyone react in a real way to each others' foibles. They also band together when in trouble, a wonderful trait in every family.

I enjoyed reading this a lot, as much for the family relationships as for the romantic one between Max and Quinn. The rest of this series, which I hadn't read, is bound to be just as good, and I need to look them up.

A Reunion of Rivals is sweet but sexy story that I very much enjoyed.  



Like all Harlequin books, this one was a short read. Good thing it was because I ended up hooked on the story and couldn't put it down.



I do recommend it.



I give this 4 out of 5.

A Reunion of Rivals is the fourth in Reese Ryan's Bourbon Brothers series, about the Abbott family who runs the world-renowned King's Finest Distillery in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  This stands alone well, as I read it and enjoyed it immensely without having read the previous stories in the series.

Max Abbott is the marketing VP at his family's business, and feels ambushed when he returns from a wild weekend celebrating a friend's upcoming wedding to a company meeting about a new product that he and his sister have been pressing to add to the lineup.  He's thrilled about the fruit bourbons but marketedly less excited that this will involve partnering with a local orchard owned by Quinn Bazemore's grandfather.  Quinn's a collaboration expert, and it makes perfect sense for her to work side by side with Max to ensure the partnership is a success.

While Max's got nothing against the orchard, he and Quinn share a secret past.  Except that their shared history was a bust.  Well, it was a raging success until Max blew it up, and the two haven't so much as laid eyes on each other in the intervening years.

Ms Ryan does a great job with this secret former relationship story, with loads of simmering passion balanced with fantastic family and friend dynamics.  Max and Quinn are both strong characters with big hearts.  A Reunion of Rivals is a terrific page-turner, and I look forward to going back to read the previous books and to the upcoming titles.

This book was amazing! I haven't read a book with this much steam in a long time and this was so much fun!

Max is everything you want in a romantic Hero. Quinn was a strong, independent woman and no pushover; I loved her! More romances like this please! I felt like these were two equals and watching them fall back in love was a complete joy. 

I am going to go through Reese Ryan's backlist and read everything she has written because I need more romance books like this!

I am not usual a fan of the second chance romance trope but this book had me swooning over Max and Quinn. I loved each of them separately and the sparks between them jumped off the page. I really appreciated how they slowly built back the foundation of friendship that they had lost thirteen years prior. Ryan did an incredible job of telling an entertaining story filled with lots of fun characters and interesting drama but she excelled at putting surprising reveals throughout the story. The more that was revealed the more I was rooting for Quinn and Max to be together. This was my first Reese Ryan book but it is far from my last. I love this world of Magnolia Lake that she has created and I will be catching up on the books that I have missed while eagerly anticipating the next story in this series.

A Reunion of Rivals is my first Reese Ryan romance and I loved every moment of it. It is actually my first Harlequin Desire novel also and I have totally been missing out. This is the 4th book in The Bourbon Brother series but I can completely be read as a stand alone.

Quinn and Max had an unforgettable secret summer before they began college and when things became to real, Max walked away from them and has regretted it ever since. Now over a decade later they are forced to work together in order to save both their families legacies and their own job positions. But the connection between them is as present as it ever was but can Quinn risk mixing business with pleasure when her job on the line and more importantly her heart.

 Quinn was the star of this book for me she was so assertive and brilliant. She held strong around Max and protected her heart until he deserved for her to open herself to him. Max was also a great character because of his faults. He was business smart and confident but when it came to Quinn he was unsure and insecure. Some of my favorite moments were him showing his vulnerable and asking Quinn to take the lead. The slow burn romance between them was worth the wait and when they come together it's passionate and emotional.

A Reunion of Rivals by Reese Ryan is second chance / enemies to lovers romance that is guaranteed to entertain you from beginning to end. All the characters are wonderful from the main ones to each and every side characters, especially Cole - I need more of him <3 . It made me go back and buy the other books in the series to satisfy me until the next book releases in 2021.

After her last job ended badly Quinn finds herself back in her hometown helping her Grandfather’s fruit orchard as he collaborates with his long time friend to create fruit flavored drinks.    The only drawback is that it will mean working with the man who ended their relationship years earlier with no warning or explanation.

Max is a VP at his family’s company and is shocked to see Quinn when he walks into the boardroom.   He was happy to find out that his grandfather had finally agreed to the new product but he isn’t looking forward to working with the woman he hurt especially when he has his own reasons for managing the project on his own.

As they work together the chemistry between them ignites but when you throw in some jealous rivalry between brother’s and the fact that Quinn isn’t about to let him break her heart a second time their journey will definitely have it’s obstacles.   

The chemistry between them is intense, the characters are captivating and there is a great cast of secondary characters that enhance the story.

We’re back in Magnolia Lake, Tennessee, home of King’s Finest Distillery and the premiere family who run it, the Abbotts. Book Four features Max Abbott, the savvy marketing VP of the family  business, and Quinn Bazemore, a public relations expert. Max and Quinn have history.  When they find themselves reunited after a secret affair, the readers are treated to an emotional and enthralling second-chance-at-love story. 
The storyline has a well-written flow that clicks with the theme. Ms. Ryan does an awesome job of stirring in a little sibling rivalry along with some messy family drama, and as they say, “the plot thickens”. The HEA is gratifying. I look forward to reading Zora’s story, the next Abbott sibling on deck.
A REUNION OF RIVALS is an enjoyable contemporary romance with a hot cover that is as appealing as the story itself. I recommend this book for your reading pleasure.

4.5 Stars

Reese Ryan’s Bourbon Brothers series centers around an African-American family who own a bourbon distillery in Magnolia Lake, Tennessee.  A Reunion of Rivals is the fourth book in the series and is a standalone read.

It’s been 13 years since Quinn Bazemore and Max Abbott have seen each other.  They shared one magical summer together.  Then he returned to college and broke up with her because he couldn’t trust his intense feelings.  He never told her why they broke up.  He just left her feeling used and heartbroken.  Now the two are reunited when their families form a business partnership.

Max is the VP of Marketing for his family’s company, King’s Finest Distillery.  For over two years, he and his younger sister Zora have been working to convince their father Duke, the CEO, to make fruit flavored bourbon a permanent addition to their bourbon line.  Duke and Joseph, his father and company founder, finally agree to add the flavored bourbon to their line for a test period.  The catch is that Max will be working with Quinn, who will be representing her grandfather’s fruit orchard, Bazemore Orchards.  As the two work together, old romantic feelings resurface.

Max and Quinn are both characters I liked immediately.  They’re afraid of making the same mistakes of the past.  They’re both career-driven, but on the personal front, they’re both vulnerable.  Both love their families beyond measure.  I loved that when they finally sat down and talked about their past that they were able to truly reconcile.

Reese’s Bourbon Brothers series is one of my favorite series because it’s all about family.  The Abbott family is truly my dream family.  I love the close-knit bond the parents and siblings all share.  Yes, there are times when the siblings don’t get along, but there isn’t any scheming or backstabbing going on.  For this group, family is everything.

I think there are two books remaining in the series, featuring the remaining Abbott siblings, Zora and Cole.  Over the course of the series, readers have been given a glimpse at these two.  I can’t wait to see how these two finally fall in love, Zora with her close friend and Cole with a mystery lady.

~ FAVORITE QUOTES ~
“Fear is a piss-poor decision-maker. Don’t ever make a decision strictly out of fear.”

A Reunion of Rivals is the latest installment of The Bourbon Brothers, by Ryan Reese and it is as hot and engaging as that gorgeous cover suggests.

The trope cocktail served up for our pleasure includes second-chance-romance, enemies-to-lovers, office-romance and secret-affair. And I am here for all of it. 

The story centers on Quinn Bazemore and Max Abbott, who had an intense summer romance when they were both teenagers. Everything comes to an end when, to Quinn's confusion, Max ends things without reason and disappears from her life. She carries that heartbreak within but it doesn't stop her from becoming a successful business woman with an exemplary career. 

The meet years later, Quinn and Max find themselves forced to collaborate after a merger between their two family businesses. Of course, feelings come roaring back to life, with Max regretting the way he ended things with Quinn and Quinn understandably hesitant to rekindle things and risk getting hurt again. However, the attraction grows inescapable, leading to a secret affair that threatens to overturn all their best intentions.

I absolutely loved Quinn's character. She's confident in her area of expertise and willing to assert herself. She is no wilting flower. Max is used to being in control and truly cares for his family's company, so sometimes it's hard for him to back down when he disagrees with Quinn. But Quinn is more than his match, and this story sizzles as a result. 

I also love the depictions of Max's family, especially the real strength of the sibling's bonds. I love seeing characters from previous books come through and add to the texture of a wonderfully rendered world. Bonus points for Quinn's grandfather, who is absolutely lovely. 

This is the second book I've ready by Reese Ryan and I look forward to reading more books by her.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review