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Midnight In Ravens Ridge: The Ravens Ridge Riders 0.5
Lily never expected a motorcycle club to feel like family. But the Ravens Ridge Riders open their doors, and she marched right in and made herself at home.
Now, the club is her life, and she's never once considered settling down.
That is, until a biker from another club, Tucker Bennett walks into her life in a leather cut and a cowboy hat. He's everything she could ever want—tall, devastatingly sexy, and runs a ranch for fucks sake.
But a life with Tucker feels a lot like giving up a part of herself she's not sure she can let go. With the club's annual NYE party counting down, Lily's officially out of time. Stay in the life she's built or risk it all for a man she never planned for?
Now, the club is her life, and she's never once considered settling down.
That is, until a biker from another club, Tucker Bennett walks into her life in a leather cut and a cowboy hat. He's everything she could ever want—tall, devastatingly sexy, and runs a ranch for fucks sake.
But a life with Tucker feels a lot like giving up a part of herself she's not sure she can let go. With the club's annual NYE party counting down, Lily's officially out of time. Stay in the life she's built or risk it all for a man she never planned for?
54 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 8, 2026
About the author
DJ Lavely
2 books54 followersDJ is a midwestern mom and wife who loves books so much she sat down and wrote one. Born with a wild imagination, that lives on through the words and worlds she’s created. In her spare time she likes to read, roller-skate, and yap, and can be seen telling anyone who’ll listen about her current read. She’s messy and chaotic, but life’s too short to be bored.
She grew up loving shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Greek. So, to say she loves drama would be an understatement. She loves a book with juicy drama, heart stopping romance, and edge of your seat yearning. That’s what she aims to do with her books.
She grew up loving shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Greek. So, to say she loves drama would be an understatement. She loves a book with juicy drama, heart stopping romance, and edge of your seat yearning. That’s what she aims to do with her books.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 26, 2026
This tainted Gabe and Ashton’s to an Nth degree…
* spoilers *
I read this after reading Gabe and Ashton’s story and it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean how are you gonna try and convince people what Gabe and Ashton had was true love when you cheapen it by explicitly showing the explosive chemistry he has with another woman in this story?
I really like Lily’s character but not in the context of Gabe. Lily even said that Gabe can’t separate his D from his heart and yet he had no problem sleeping with Lily on and off for years? That sort of insinuates he loved her to some extent in the same capacity he loved Ashton which makes him a bald face liar when he says he see no one else but Ashton. It makes me mad to think that when Ashton was trying to call him to tell him she was pregnant he was already back to his habit of sleeping with Lily. Makes him that much more of an unsavory jerk. Thankfully Ashton wasn’t made to be celibate in their years apart even if her ex ended up being bottom of the barrel scum.
* spoilers *
I read this after reading Gabe and Ashton’s story and it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean how are you gonna try and convince people what Gabe and Ashton had was true love when you cheapen it by explicitly showing the explosive chemistry he has with another woman in this story?
I really like Lily’s character but not in the context of Gabe. Lily even said that Gabe can’t separate his D from his heart and yet he had no problem sleeping with Lily on and off for years? That sort of insinuates he loved her to some extent in the same capacity he loved Ashton which makes him a bald face liar when he says he see no one else but Ashton. It makes me mad to think that when Ashton was trying to call him to tell him she was pregnant he was already back to his habit of sleeping with Lily. Makes him that much more of an unsavory jerk. Thankfully Ashton wasn’t made to be celibate in their years apart even if her ex ended up being bottom of the barrel scum.
May 15, 2026
I wasnt sure how to rate this book, because this is just an intro on the first book of the series, but i settle on a 3 star. I read the first book first and wasnt gonna read this one because I knew would piss me off but I couldn't resist and i read it.
Here are my thought's on it, I have a lot of thoughts.
I’m actually reviewing both books together because after reading Lily’s novella, I genuinely don’t think you can fully discuss Gabe and Ash’s story without discussing Gabe and Lily too. And honestly? That novella completely changed the way I saw certain parts of the main book.
Let me start by saying this: I really did enjoy Returning to Ravens Ridge. I gave it 4 stars because emotionally, the book absolutely worked on me. It gave me a very romanticized Sons of Anarchy kind of vibe, not necessarily because of the MC aspect itself, but because of the atmosphere, the loyalty dynamics, the emotional messiness, the tension, and the feeling that these characters have all been tangled together for years.
The emotional side of the story was genuinely compelling. Gabe and Ash had chemistry, history, unresolved feelings, resentment, longing...all of it. Their reconnection kept me hooked from beginning to end, and I was genuinely excited enough by the setup of Nik and Shane’s story that I immediately wanted book two.
BUT.
The more I thought about the story, and especially after reading Lily’s novella, the more I realized there’s a huge emotional inconsistency in the way Gabe and Lily’s relationship is handled.
And unfortunately, I think it creates one of the biggest cracks in Gabe and Ash’s romance.
The main book constantly tries to frame Gabe and Lily as “just sex,” convenient comfort, casual fallback, or emotionally insignificant compared to Gabe and Ash. But the actual writing does NOT support that.
At all.
These two were sleeping together for years. Not casually. Not occasionally. YEARS. They emotionally leaned on each other, comforted each other, sought each other out during emotional devastation, spent nights together, and behaved in ways that absolutely resembled a real relationship.
Other characters acknowledge this too.
Nik, Ash’s best friend and someone fiercely loyal to Ash, literally says that Gabe and Lily are perfect for each other and questions why they don’t just get married already. Gabe’s own mother asks Lily if she and Gabe are sure they can’t just make things work because she wants grandchildren. Gabe "jokes" about them getting married to save future spouses from having to deal with them, and then the joking stops being a joke when he says:
“If I thought I could love you the way you deserve to be loved, I’d marry you in an instant.”
I’m sorry, but after lines like that, the story loses the ability to convincingly frame Lily as emotionally irrelevant.
Because that is not “just sex.”
That is emotional intimacy. That is future imagining, attachment, comfort and dependency.
And the novella makes this even more obvious.
There’s a New Year’s scene where they kiss during the countdown and Lily says there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. There are scenes where Gabe seeks Lily out specifically when he’s emotionally because he leans on her. He also uses her as emotional grounding and comfort whenever Ash destabilizes him. They spend nights together. They emotionally decompress together. Gabe clearly desires her instinctively and constantly.
And Lily absolutely fells the same way. Not in a vague way. She outright says she loves him and admits she’s imagined a life with him.
The problem is not that Gabe loved Ash more. I actually fully believe Ash was the defining the love of his life.
The problem is that the story refuses to honestly acknowledge what Gabe and Lily actually WERE.
And that becomes even more frustrating because Ash’s relationship with Caleb is treated with emotional honesty while Gabe’s relationship with Lily is minimized.
Ash openly admits Caleb mattered. She loved him. She married him. He helped raise Maggie. Their relationship had emotional significance and the story OWNS that.
But Gabe never really owns Lily and that creates a huge imbalance in the romance.
Especially because Gabe later gets upset when Ash admits she truly loved Caleb. How can he be wounded by that while never fully acknowledging the emotional reality of his own relationship with Lily? He doesn’t have to say he loved her the same way he loved Ash, but he absolutely should have acknowledged that Lily mattered deeply to him.
That’s the major crack in this story.
Honestly, I think the author actually hurt Gabe and Ash’s romance by refusing to fully commit to Gabe and Lily emotionally.
It would’ve made so much more sense if Gabe and Lily had truly attempted a relationship at some point and realized they ultimately weren’t enough long term. That would have given closure and emotional clarity. Instead, the story leaves this massive unresolved question hanging over everything:
What if Gabe and Lily had actually given themselves a real chance? Because based on the actual writing… they might have worked. And if Ahs never been apart of Gabe's life, he would have end up with Lily because they were that good together.
And THAT is the dangerous part.
Not because Gabe loved Lily more than Ash.
Not because Ash and Gabe weren’t meant to end up together.
But because the story accidentally creates a believable alternative future and then refuses to fully address it.
The novella also makes Lily a much sadder character than the main book initially presents. The story wants to portray her as cool with everything, emotionally detached, just Gabe’s friend, someone who simply enjoys sex and freedom. But there are small moments that completely crack that image apart.
When Ash returns to town and Gabe goes to Lily afterward, emotionally wrecked, he tries to sleep with her while imagining Ash instead. Lily notices immediately and cuts it off saying Ash is still “cockblocking” her after all this time, there’s obvious hurt and frustration because she knows Gabe emotionally belongs somewhere else and that does bother her.
Another big plot issue: Gabe later tells Ash in the other book that Lily was “never competition.”
I genuinely don’t think that line works anymore after reading the novella.
Because if a woman represents: emotionally support for years, sleeps beside you, comforts you, spent holidays and intimate moments with you, both of them imagined a possibilty of marriage and became your emotional fallback every time your life fell apart… then yes, she WAS competition. Maybe not the ultimate love of his life, but emotionally? Absolutely.
The story spends so much time trying to protect Gabe and Ash’s soulmate narrative that it accidentally undermines it instead by refusing to fully confront the emotional implications of Gabe and Lily.
And honestly? That frustrates me because I actually really liked these books.
But emotional realism has consequences. Once you write scenes this intimate and emotionally layered between Gabe and Lily, readers are going to believe that relationship mattered.
And personally, I think the story would’ve been much stronger if it had simply admitted that openly instead of constantly trying to minimize it afterward.
One last thing: the author did Lily really dirty. Not only she made her really promiscuous, but that all the man are too so we ignore that but make her the support sex system for not only Gabe but other man’s not available emotionally and hang up on other woman is a low blow, I really think she deserved more than that
Here are my thought's on it, I have a lot of thoughts.
I’m actually reviewing both books together because after reading Lily’s novella, I genuinely don’t think you can fully discuss Gabe and Ash’s story without discussing Gabe and Lily too. And honestly? That novella completely changed the way I saw certain parts of the main book.
Let me start by saying this: I really did enjoy Returning to Ravens Ridge. I gave it 4 stars because emotionally, the book absolutely worked on me. It gave me a very romanticized Sons of Anarchy kind of vibe, not necessarily because of the MC aspect itself, but because of the atmosphere, the loyalty dynamics, the emotional messiness, the tension, and the feeling that these characters have all been tangled together for years.
The emotional side of the story was genuinely compelling. Gabe and Ash had chemistry, history, unresolved feelings, resentment, longing...all of it. Their reconnection kept me hooked from beginning to end, and I was genuinely excited enough by the setup of Nik and Shane’s story that I immediately wanted book two.
BUT.
The more I thought about the story, and especially after reading Lily’s novella, the more I realized there’s a huge emotional inconsistency in the way Gabe and Lily’s relationship is handled.
And unfortunately, I think it creates one of the biggest cracks in Gabe and Ash’s romance.
The main book constantly tries to frame Gabe and Lily as “just sex,” convenient comfort, casual fallback, or emotionally insignificant compared to Gabe and Ash. But the actual writing does NOT support that.
At all.
These two were sleeping together for years. Not casually. Not occasionally. YEARS. They emotionally leaned on each other, comforted each other, sought each other out during emotional devastation, spent nights together, and behaved in ways that absolutely resembled a real relationship.
Other characters acknowledge this too.
Nik, Ash’s best friend and someone fiercely loyal to Ash, literally says that Gabe and Lily are perfect for each other and questions why they don’t just get married already. Gabe’s own mother asks Lily if she and Gabe are sure they can’t just make things work because she wants grandchildren. Gabe "jokes" about them getting married to save future spouses from having to deal with them, and then the joking stops being a joke when he says:
“If I thought I could love you the way you deserve to be loved, I’d marry you in an instant.”
I’m sorry, but after lines like that, the story loses the ability to convincingly frame Lily as emotionally irrelevant.
Because that is not “just sex.”
That is emotional intimacy. That is future imagining, attachment, comfort and dependency.
And the novella makes this even more obvious.
There’s a New Year’s scene where they kiss during the countdown and Lily says there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. There are scenes where Gabe seeks Lily out specifically when he’s emotionally because he leans on her. He also uses her as emotional grounding and comfort whenever Ash destabilizes him. They spend nights together. They emotionally decompress together. Gabe clearly desires her instinctively and constantly.
And Lily absolutely fells the same way. Not in a vague way. She outright says she loves him and admits she’s imagined a life with him.
The problem is not that Gabe loved Ash more. I actually fully believe Ash was the defining the love of his life.
The problem is that the story refuses to honestly acknowledge what Gabe and Lily actually WERE.
And that becomes even more frustrating because Ash’s relationship with Caleb is treated with emotional honesty while Gabe’s relationship with Lily is minimized.
Ash openly admits Caleb mattered. She loved him. She married him. He helped raise Maggie. Their relationship had emotional significance and the story OWNS that.
But Gabe never really owns Lily and that creates a huge imbalance in the romance.
Especially because Gabe later gets upset when Ash admits she truly loved Caleb. How can he be wounded by that while never fully acknowledging the emotional reality of his own relationship with Lily? He doesn’t have to say he loved her the same way he loved Ash, but he absolutely should have acknowledged that Lily mattered deeply to him.
That’s the major crack in this story.
Honestly, I think the author actually hurt Gabe and Ash’s romance by refusing to fully commit to Gabe and Lily emotionally.
It would’ve made so much more sense if Gabe and Lily had truly attempted a relationship at some point and realized they ultimately weren’t enough long term. That would have given closure and emotional clarity. Instead, the story leaves this massive unresolved question hanging over everything:
What if Gabe and Lily had actually given themselves a real chance? Because based on the actual writing… they might have worked. And if Ahs never been apart of Gabe's life, he would have end up with Lily because they were that good together.
And THAT is the dangerous part.
Not because Gabe loved Lily more than Ash.
Not because Ash and Gabe weren’t meant to end up together.
But because the story accidentally creates a believable alternative future and then refuses to fully address it.
The novella also makes Lily a much sadder character than the main book initially presents. The story wants to portray her as cool with everything, emotionally detached, just Gabe’s friend, someone who simply enjoys sex and freedom. But there are small moments that completely crack that image apart.
When Ash returns to town and Gabe goes to Lily afterward, emotionally wrecked, he tries to sleep with her while imagining Ash instead. Lily notices immediately and cuts it off saying Ash is still “cockblocking” her after all this time, there’s obvious hurt and frustration because she knows Gabe emotionally belongs somewhere else and that does bother her.
Another big plot issue: Gabe later tells Ash in the other book that Lily was “never competition.”
I genuinely don’t think that line works anymore after reading the novella.
Because if a woman represents: emotionally support for years, sleeps beside you, comforts you, spent holidays and intimate moments with you, both of them imagined a possibilty of marriage and became your emotional fallback every time your life fell apart… then yes, she WAS competition. Maybe not the ultimate love of his life, but emotionally? Absolutely.
The story spends so much time trying to protect Gabe and Ash’s soulmate narrative that it accidentally undermines it instead by refusing to fully confront the emotional implications of Gabe and Lily.
And honestly? That frustrates me because I actually really liked these books.
But emotional realism has consequences. Once you write scenes this intimate and emotionally layered between Gabe and Lily, readers are going to believe that relationship mattered.
And personally, I think the story would’ve been much stronger if it had simply admitted that openly instead of constantly trying to minimize it afterward.
One last thing: the author did Lily really dirty. Not only she made her really promiscuous, but that all the man are too so we ignore that but make her the support sex system for not only Gabe but other man’s not available emotionally and hang up on other woman is a low blow, I really think she deserved more than that
Review of advance copy received from Author
Had the joy of being able to read this little sneak peek. I love the relationship between Lily and Gabe. Not just the intimate relationship but the whole entire relationship. In my opinion they’re the best of friends, yes things are spicy between them but when they need each other they are there for each other. EVERYONE needs a friend like Lily who’s not afraid to keep it real with you.
If you read Returning to Ravens Ridge and want to see what Lily and Gabe’s relationship was like before everything happened read this!!! And who knows maybe we’ll see more of Lily throughout the series HAPPY READING EVERYONE.
If you read Returning to Ravens Ridge and want to see what Lily and Gabe’s relationship was like before everything happened read this!!! And who knows maybe we’ll see more of Lily throughout the series HAPPY READING EVERYONE.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I’m so invested in Gabe’s story that I’m excited for the upcoming release of his story. The dynamic between Lily and Gabe makes it hard to hate her for the choices she makes. She’s just waiting for the “one” to come along and not have her questioning everything. Gabe is not only a hook up but a very close friend to Lily. They just “get” each other. This is just a taste of what’s to come at Ravens Ridge. Read this book and head over to Returning to Ravens Ridge and get that one!
April 9, 2026
Loved the introduction to Ravens Ridge! Can’t wait to see the characters and how they grow in coming books!
April 12, 2026
Absolutely loved the start to Ravens Ridge!! It was my first biker book ever, and hooked me from the start. Can't wait to see where these characters go in their stories
Review of advance copy received from Author
This was such a fun novella and I can’t wait to read the series!
April 18, 2026
Loved! Can’t wait for the full book!
April 20, 2026
Loved the introduction to Ravens Ridge!
I love the dynamic between Lily and Gabe so far. I know this is just a taste of what's to come but I can't wait.
I love the dynamic between Lily and Gabe so far. I know this is just a taste of what's to come but I can't wait.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Not quite necessary. Seemed quick and didn’t go into Lilly’s entire story.
May 3, 2026
This was an interesting set up for what’s to come! Excited to continue this series!
May 12, 2026
Ohhhh this cooking to be something
First time reader, and it so glad I found her tiktok! This one is so dang good.
I love lily and im excited to see where this is going.
First time reader, and it so glad I found her tiktok! This one is so dang good.
I love lily and im excited to see where this is going.
May 16, 2026
I still loved this its short and sweet and I loved the world. I can't wait for more in the series.
May 17, 2026
Lily
I guess I shouldn't have read book one then this one. It just made me angry and I really don't like Lily now.
I guess I shouldn't have read book one then this one. It just made me angry and I really don't like Lily now.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews