After three books of brooding silence and emotional wreckage, Ash’s story finally lands, and somehow it lands beautifully. Wretched Truth takes a character who felt carved entirely from sharp edges and gives him a past that reframes everything. The result is painful, tender, and deeply satisfying.
The flashbacks are where this book truly shines. Six years earlier, Ash arrives in Eastham Grove to save a struggling distillery and crosses paths with Bella, who is drowning in grief and responsibility after losing her father. What sparks between them is fast and fierce, but it comes with consequences. Ash’s only option to save the business ties him to dangerous people, a truth he doesn’t hide from Bella. When family tragedy pulls him away, fate steps in with brutal timing, and by the time he returns, the future they might have had is already gone.
When Bella resurfaces years later, her life looks nothing like what Ash remembers. She’s entangled with Barrett, Ash’s half-brother, who has spent years poisoning her against the Griffin family and isolating her through fear and manipulation. Bella is no longer just protecting herself. She’s protecting a child, and she’s buried the most explosive truth of all about who that child belongs to.
What follows is a slow, emotional reckoning. Ash isn’t just fighting for Bella’s trust. He’s untangling years of lies, control, and quiet damage while confronting the cost of his own absence. The emotional weight hits hard, especially when the full truth finally comes to light. Add in perfectly timed bratva chaos, and the tension never lets up.
This is a redemption story done right. Raw, layered, and earned. Ash doesn’t get forgiveness handed to him. He fights for it, and watching him do so makes Wretched Truth one of the most compelling entries in the series.
*I received a free copy and chose to leave an honest review.