A Six-Star Indie Romance Read

A debut romance got under my skin so fast I was highlighting lines by page 11, and then it pulled a twist I honestly didn’t see until the exact moment it happened. I’m talking about Returning to Ravens Ridge by DJ Lavley, an indie romance with motorcycle club energy, small-town history, sharp humor, and a mystery thread that keeps tightening as the love story heats back up. Ashton comes home to handle her grandmother’s estate, runs straight into her childhood love Gabe, and refuses to be the kind of FMC who smooths things over just because he’s still unfairly hot. 

What gripped me most is how the book treats anger, grief, and safety like real forces instead of convenient plot devices. When Gabe realizes what he missed, the fallout is messy and human, and it raises the kind of question that sticks with you: when someone’s life is “unsafe,” what do you owe them, and what do you owe your kid? I break down why this second-chance romance works, why the emotional stakes feel earned, and why the writing voice is so strong for a first novel. 

Then I zoom out to the bigger romance book world, because indie romance authors are having a moment and I’m living for it. I also gush about Maggie Gates, including Good Hands, the Beaufort Poker Club series, and Pretty Things on Shelves, a powerful story that touches faith deconstruction and rebuilding your life after rigid religion. If you want romance book recommendations, indie author recs, and honest talk about the books that wreck us and stitch us back together, hit play. Subscribe, share with a romance-reader friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Check out our Bookshop.com book store where you can get your own copy of the books we are covering!  https://bookshop.org/shop/wreckedbyfiction

Transcript

Welcome And Reading Highs

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Wrecked by Fiction podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

That's not a cover reading. Yes, it is. Did I read it on my lunch break? Yeah. I made I made notes because I didn't know if there was gonna be a quiz.

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything is for a grade while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Wrecked by fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability. Hi friends. It's just me. There are so many things that I want slash need to talk to you about. And the first has got to be oh god, probably I've read a few books so far in 2026. The years half over are crazy, first of all. Second of all, I've read a few books that have hit that like a damn near six-star read so far. And that's not really like an easy mark for me to hit, right? Things have to like line up perfectly in order to get to that point for me. And number one, recently I have had just a string of absolutely knock it out of the park five-star reads. But first, we're here to talk about an incredible debut

Why Ravens Ridge Hooks Hard

Emma 1:30

novel from an author that first of all found me. Thank God she did. Okay. Her name is DJ. And her book is called Returning to Ravens Ridge. And good fucking God. If you've seen her online, her promotional content for her debut novel, she kind of coins it as a Wantree Hill meets Sons of Anarchy. And oh, Ravens Ridge has this kind of like underlying mis mystery plot line. And it's one of those books where I kind of pride myself on being able to see plot twists pretty early on, right? You can kind of feel it. There are certain books where you can feel that something is going to happen or something is going to go wrong, or you know, if there's if the trope is a third act breakup, you know that that's going to happen, right? Well, this book had definitely one, but maybe two kind of plot changes that just absolutely threw me, just blew me up. Okay. And good God, DJ, this book, number one, was a pleasure to read. It was beautifully written, just incredible. The way she writes, there's humor, the kind of like internal dialogue of the characters is stunning. And you know, you ne you never really know what you're gonna get with a debut novel. And I love a motorcycle club book, and they kind of can go a couple of different ways. Really, Ravens Ridge, returning to Ravens Ridge wasn't it doesn't necessarily follow like the normal um kind of outline that you get with a motorcycle club book. It doesn't really follow the internal workings of the motorcycle club. It has the main story points are the female main character's story. And so to get into it a little bit, our main characters are Ashton, that's our FMC, and Gabriel. And they go by Ash and Gabe. And Ash is this badass, kind of built herself up from nothing, single parent. And Gabe is the current president of the motorcycle club. Of course. Book one in a series about a motorcycle club, you gotta have the president. That's just what makes sense to me. Kind of follows that normal motorcycle club um template. And there are just some things about Ash that I just kind of fell in love with right off the bat. Number one, she is not like mushy gushy damsel in distress, someone save me. Um, she's strong. That's a that's a need for me when it comes to FMCs in the books that I read. And she says something like when I say that this book got me, like grabbed me from the beginning. I have a highlight from the 11th page in the book. And it says in the movies, bad days always take place in the middle of thunderstorms or during overcast at the very least, not in the midst of clear skies and sunshine. What a perfect backdrop for the worst day of my life. And she says this because we know, right? Fiction, especially like Hollywood movies, it's pouring rain, thunderstorms, whatever, when somebody dies, or when your marriage ends, or whatever it might be. And Ash, the worst day of her life happens on a stunning, just absolutely breathtaking day. Sun's out, birds singing, Ash's life is ruined. That's the first thing that got me. The second thing that got me is maybe 40 pages later, right? And she's meeting, she's back in Ravens Ridge. Her grandmother passes, she has to sort through um the home left in the estate, her grandmother's home. She has to get it ready to sell, get rid of all the furniture, do everything she needs to do, as one does when you kind of inherit things. And who shows up at her house is her childhood love, let's say, is Gabe. And she kind of like a running theme is how she's angry that Gabe is so hot. That how can someone who broke your heart, hurt you, be so attractive? And I just think like that's so funny to me. She says, shouldn't there be a rule against looking like that after you break someone's heart? Shouldn't you inevitably get uglier just on principle? DJ, it's so funny. I, oh God, Ashton is this kind of like, I don't want to say stereotypical because it's not, but we are seeing more and more very strong women in our books. That's the goal. That's what we want to see. We want to see these women that are just kicking ass, taking names, not simpering, not falling all over themselves. And there's a time and a place for that too, right? But this was not that. And I just love how, first of all, Ashton holds on to that anger. One thing that really gets me sometimes in a book is when you your FMC is angry about a situation and then she gives it up. She's not, she something happens, your MMC says something, and then she's not angry anymore. I'm sorry. I want you to stay angry because anger, that passion, that the heat that drives progress, drives things forward for me in a book, especially, but in real life, too. I think that we should be more angry. Hot take. Anyway, she holds on to her anger, she holds on to her feelings, and yes, she sees Gabe and she realizes that, of course, the feelings never truly went away. How could they when she never really confronted her past? And we get Gabe's POV, and he's just obsessed with her and has always been. He has he has tried to kind of block out his feelings for her. He has tried to just not necessarily move on, but he has this uh kind of like, well, if I don't, he's like, I'm never gonna fall in love again. And I don't want to fall in love again. So I'm just not even I'm not gonna date. I'm just I'm just fucking, it's just a release. I'm just using whatever. He has a uh Friends with Benefits. Her name is Lily. She's kind of like a club girl, I guess is what you could classify her as. Um, but she's she is kind of like an a like antagonist in this book almost. She kind of pushes the narrative of like picking fights, maybe, and you get in the beginning of the novel, you get a fight between Lily and Gabe where she's like, she says something along the lines as, oh my god, Ashton isn't even around, and she's still cock blocking me, which is funny. Um, but I got a little like I don't I don't like a cheating trope, and because of the fact that he was still in love with her, and you get so clearly get that in his POV, any situation with Lily kind of made me feel icky because it felt in the same avenue as cheating. And I and it wasn't, obviously, because they weren't together, but it definitely um gave me the same internal feelings. But I'll just there's a couple of things not about Gabe that are just for me a like a top-notch MMC, a great example of a book boyfriend, especially in like a real life, like a contemporary romance. And number one is he's blonde. Uh, if you have listened to this podcast before, you know that I am partial to a blonde MMC, especially a blonde MMC with a hair, with hair that's a little bit longer. And Gabe is blonde and tall and you know, ripped and as as he should be. And so I knew that I was gonna like Gabe just like aesthetically speaking, I knew I was gonna enjoy him. Personality-wise speaking, he's kind of self-dis self-destructive, and that's cool with me. I think maybe he didn't get his feelings hurt enough by Ashton when things ended uh between them when they were younger. And you know, he needed a little bit of uh a push, should we say. But you get his POV, and he says things like, She's the sun and I'm stuck in her orbit.

unknown 10:49

Oh my god.

Emma 10:50

Oh my god. I just beautiful. And he says, There's another piece, and he says, and again, we're not even like halfway through the book, and he says things like, I've never stopped loving her, and I definitely never stopped wanting her. I just stopped letting myself have her. Right now, it's hard to remember why that is. I've always made sure I made the right choice, but watching her break tonight and lean into me, I don't know. And when she comes back to town and Gabe is there and she it leans on him because she's heartbroken and she has, you know, is going through a home that means so much to her, and her brother is kind of MIA because he's unreliable. Um, which not really a spoiler, but maybe like a nudge to pay attention. And our our next book is coming out in September. I say our. I'm invested, okay? I'm invested now. DJ's got me on hook, line, and sinker, babe. And the next book is Ash's brother's book. So we'll get his story next time. But anyway, back to Ash and Gabe. And Gabe is there. He realizes that he has never given up this piece of her, or or I should say, she has never given up the piece of him that he gave her all those years ago. And she is, you know, you get to like the peak of the story, and their romance takes a turn where she you get that fuck it moment, really, and she lets herself have him. And I just I love I love to see it. I who doesn't love a fuck it moment? I everyone does, everyone should. And they have a moment where she is getting ready to leave and she like doesn't, he doesn't want, hmm. He doesn't believe that um his life is safe for her. Uh and he's what he says is that he that's why he let her go all those years ago. He knew that he was never going to be able to keep her fully safe in the life that he lived. He knew that the motorcycle club was not um a place for her. She wanted different things, she had bigger dreams um than staying in Ravens Ridge. And so she leaves. And he realizes now, all these years later, that she left. And while it was the right move for her, he was forever a changed man. And yes, he went on to do what he needed to do. He became the president. Um, he has led uh this group of writers, and seeing her back in his life, he is kind of convinced that maybe he was wrong and maybe he could keep her this time. And she ends up getting ready to sell the house and she leaves and she goes back home. And I mentioned at the beginning that she's a single mom, right? And her ex-husband is a douchnozzle and never shows up. He doesn't come and pick up his daughter um for his visitation, and he's just never around. And so Gabe doesn't know that she's a mom. And I I don't know if I want to ruin it. Do I want to ruin it? Hmm. Everyone that I know who I have told to read this book has already read it. Okay, I'm gonna ruin it. So here's here's your spoiler warning.

Spoiler Twist And Fallout

Emma 14:35

Yes, everything else is also spoilers, but like plot twist, spoiler warning, starting now. And so, oh Gabe. He realizes that he needs to he needs to try for her. And he decides that he's gonna go find her, and he goes, he drives to her house, um, which is not in Ravens Ridge, and he pulls up and he sees that there's like a playset in the front and kids' toys, and he knocks on the door and he's just so excited, he's just ready. He's gonna tell her he still loves her, he's gonna tell her that, you know, they can figure it out, that there is a future for them if she's willing to try. And a little girl with blonde curly hair opens the door. And here's the point at in, you know, as the reader, you I didn't see it until the till this page, honestly. And she says, you know, she's like, Who are you? And he's like, Um, who are you? And she yells at the door. She's like, Mom, it's not dad, because her dad was supposed to pick her up. And Gabe, his internal monologue, he's staring down at this little girl, and he realizes that she's his. She's his. And you just feel the heartbreak. He wasn't there. He didn't get to witness any of it. He didn't get to see her grow up to uh up until this point. He's in my heart broke for him at that point, because you don't want to miss the early years of your child's life. You don't want to miss the pregnancy of your spouse. You don't want, you miss some really fundamental things when you miss all of that. And they she comes to the Ash comes to the door and she says to him, she's basically like, oh god, oh shit. And he like passes out or like throws up in the bushes or something. And cut two, you get Ash's POV from, you know, years ago. Um, and she is finding out that she's pregnant after Gabe has dumped her. And she's trying, you you get this like kind of like rushed piece where she's trying to call him, she's trying to tell him that she's pregnant. He's not listening, he's or he's not answering, I should say. Um, so he never knows. He never finds out that he had a baby or that she had his baby. And but then you get pieces where it's her grandmother saying, like, you had a great love, and that great love left you with something, and that something is your daughter. And their daughter, she names her daughter Maggie, whose full name is Magnolia, because when they were growing up, they fell in love underneath the Magnolia tree on the land that the house her grandmother's house sits on. And yes, it's it returning to Ravens Ridge has an EA. Um, you get that happy ever after thing, but the heartbreak in Gabe finding out that he didn't know, and you he says, you know, I would have done so much different. I would have, I would have been there, I would have stepped up, I would have done all of this. And I'm just like, as a reader, I'm like, but would you? Like, how do you know? You you didn't know at the time, you weren't there, you weren't listening to her. She tried to tell you, she tried to call you, you, you gave up. And so he's angry with her because she didn't tell him. And she they get into like a screaming match on the sidewalk in Ravens Ridge, and I'm like, how dare you? The audacity of a man to scream at the mother of his child. Number one, he's drunk. First mistake, really. Second of all, we're in public, bro. The whole town now knows your business because you were screaming. So there's that. And I just kept thinking, like, Ashton, stay mad. Like, yes, he didn't know. Yes, he's angry. Yes, he's drunk and miserable. And but I'm like, baby, you tried to tell him. And then because he made it so very clear to you that his life was not a safe place, how could it have been a safe place for your daughter? If he was so convinced that he could not keep you safe, how could he keep you and her safe? You did the right thing. And I have to believe as the reader, and I'm, you know, I because when I read, I put myself typically into the FMC's shoes, right? I have to believe that she did the right thing. Because I think I would have done the same thing. There's so many facets too, especially in a contemporary romance where we're living in this, it's a real life world, right? There's no, you know, extraordinary circumstances. There's no, this is real life. In the real world, we see this all the time. And yeah, like this is a fictional story, but it's not, it's not a fictional story. This exact scenario happens every single day. And as a parent myself, I I would have done the same thing. The other half of my partnership that created my children, if they lived a life that was unsafe for my children, they would not know my children because that's the reality. She had she did what she had to do. She raised her daughter because, in a safe, healthy home where she ended up meeting another man and getting married and creating a life for them because that's what she needed to do to keep her daughter safe. And yes, like she ended up divorced, and the her ex-husband is a piece of shit, but there was so much internal like work that she had to do all of those years to maintain this safety piece for her daughter. And like I said, it had Ravensridge has an HEA. Um, Gabe does eventually pull his head out of his ass and realize that what she did was the right thing. And he meets his daughter and they end up back together, and he confronts the ex-husband, ends up coming over, and Gabe confronts him because the ex is spewing shit and talking really down to Ash, and Gabe really says, like, you won't ever talk to her that way again. Otherwise, we're gonna have a problem. And so Ash ends up telling Maggie that Gabe is her actual dad, and they have a relationship, and Gabe drives up from Ravens Ridge to spend time with her and to take her out for like ice cream and little father-daughter dates, and they he, you know, he tells her that he wants to try again, and she's like, Well, your life is in Ravens Ridge, and I can't take them. I can't take Maggie back there. My father is, and here's where your mystery line comes in. Ash's dad is just a piece of shit. Just a piece of shit. And he is scary, he's like meant to be a scary, like ominous, like kind of follows her around. She the the the goal of this whole thing is that she never answers his phone call. She is dodging him. And um, at the end of the book, or towards the end of the book, we get this like moment where he shows up and there is A very scary situation where there's a shootout, and I'll leave I'll leave the very end of the book for you to figure out. But goddamn, this book is just piece on piece on piece on piece, a quality novel.

Indie Romance Hype And Book Two

Emma 22:16

And you know, I mean, especially the romance book world right now, but the book word world in general, at this moment in the world, that might not be the right way to say that, but anyway, um, is kind of oversaturated, right? We are getting a lot. People are trying their hand at writing, and some of it is absolutely incredible, especially independently published. Authors are just having their moment, and I'm I live for it. I almost exclusively read independently published. And this is just I'm one book in the overwhelming number of independently published books that hits the top of my list. I will continue to recommend. I will. And DJ, you have just built a beautiful universe for us. And I I would love, I'm so excited for book two, but not just book two. I want more POV of more books, more MMCs from the Ravens Rich Riders. I I want to know about Gabe's number two. I want to know um where we go. And that there's actually a little side story about Lily. I haven't read it yet, um, but I did see it, so I know it's out there. But there's more. DJ is she's working her little butt off. And I'm I will be the first to say, probably not the first, but I will be the loudest, let's say that, to say that I am here for it. I am so excited to see where these men go and what new FMCs we get, and just an incredible group of people coming at us. So while returning to Ravens Ridge is just one independently published author on my list, very, very long list of loved independently published authors.

Maggie Gates Deep Dive Recs

Emma 24:15

My top, and she's not exclusively independently published anymore, bless her, and um, I will uh follow her till the ends of the earth, sweet angel baby, Maggie Gates. And some of you may know Maggie Gates because a series that she wrote was picked up, I believe, by Berkeley Publishing, and it's Dust Storm and Downpour and Fireline. And Maggie Gates, and that well, let me rephrase. So that is the Griffith Brothers series, and that was picked up. Um, I believe it was republished, traditionally published last year. And it's got new covers and they're stunning, and my god. Um, but I read them when they were when she was solely independently published. Um, and I have read every single book in Maggie Gates' catalog, and she can't write a bad book. I don't know, and and I don't want to say this as like, I love her, so they're all good. I mean genuinely across kind of like genre gaps, not really genre because they're all romance books, but like her, there's a sports romance, and there's a small town romance, and kind of like kind of all follow this like small town-ish romance category, but we've got a sports romance. We've got a there's an armed forces piece. There's a there's a book uh that is follows a armed format forces category. There is a um a very the most stunning in my personal favorite is the Beaumont Poker Club series. God, they're just she is a absolutely incredible writer. And I have had the privilege of speaking to her occasionally on the internet. You know, she she's very present on social media, she uh talks to her fans, and she just released a gorgeous book called Good Hands. And when I say just, I mean like a week ago, maybe, and good god, she can write. There it doesn't follow, so it's kind of like a like follows this like mystery vibe slash romance slash almo almost dark romance. So there's like a a kidnapping and like um or proactively uh relocated as Maggie Gates likes to say, and there is intrigue and it's just good hands was is one of the my more my more recent five-star reads, maybe six-star. I love every Maggie Gates book, but that's her most recent release, right? And she has a book coming out um, I believe in September, which is called Blue Jean Summer. And then a it's kind of like a legacy series for the Beaufort Poker Beau Beaufort? Beaufort, either way. I think I said Beaumont earlier. That's wrong. It's not, it's not Beaumont, it's Beaufort Poker Club. Um, but anyway, it's kind of like a legacy series, so it's like a or like a second gen, right? Where you get like the kids of the first series, and that coming out is called Smoke Ring. And I'm so excited. Maggie Gates is this author where I will read every single thing she publishes. There is a series I could talk about the poker club series forever. Um, specifically, the last book in the series is it there's like domestic violence, there's trauma, there's spousal loss and grief. And that series covers just such a wide span of issues that we as human beings deal with all the time. And I just sobbed my way through most Maggie Gates' book. I will say that Good Hands, this most recent release, did not get me really in the feels, um, but it was still absolutely incredible. And there is, there are a few of her books that do get me like, I will cry every time. And number one is the Falls Creek series, and that's like small town, it's what hurts us, what heals us, and what saves us. And that's the Falls Creek series. And those books are like make you cry, everything in your body hurts from uh letting out this kind of unseen trauma. Like, you know how when you're doing yoga and someone says that your hips hold trauma, and so you should stretch and massage that area more and you cry. That's uh it's a strange ex example, I guess, but that's that's how I feel about that series. It hit something inside me so deep that I don't know exactly how to describe it. Sorry, that's a little weird. But the last Maggie Gates book that I want to talk about, and I actually um you can let me know if you think that this is something that we would be interested in.

Faith Deconstruction In Romance Fiction

Emma 29:40

There's a book that she wrote, and it's called Pretty Things on Shelves. And it's about this kind of deconstruction of faith slash cultish living and a breakdown of a life built on religious values and becoming your own person after escaping and what that means for you and the way that it impacts your familial relationships. And I talk about my husband a lot on the podcast, and but one of the things that I have never touched on is our relationship with faith and the way that both of us have been impacted by a kind of rigid belief in Christianity or even a fundamentalist upbringing, and him more so than me, right? And so this book touches on there are so many things inside it that I really think he and I, he would have some insight in how like I have an emotional response to this book because of the things that I went through when it comes to religion. But specifically, there's one piece in this book that I will always remember, and it's that when the the members of these families gathered, they separated by gender. And there would be a a room at an event, whether it's in a home or whatever, where all of the men would gather and they would be shooting the shit, and they would be whether it be drinking or smoking cigars or none of the above and just being together. And then the women would be in the kitchen or in another space doing womanly things, preparing food, taking care of children, and there is this expectation that that's how just how things are. And that book is very important to me. Um, one of the things I think that gets me about it is that Maggie wrote it with her husband, I believe. Um it the the author credits are to Maggie Gates and Landon Gates. And she I read I read once that she said that her husband wrote all of the male main characters dialogue, um, and she wrote all the female main characters dialogue. And when she said that when they were in the process of writing and the characters were arguing, that it was such an interesting experience to really be arguing with her husband because they were experiencing it alongside each other. They they were living as these characters and creating this together, and it was just, I can imagine it was quite healing. I don't know Maggie Gates' experience with faith, but I I just I love the idea that she created it with her spouse. And I think that it is um an interesting thing to discuss with people who have their own journeys with faith, and I have discussed this book with many people, but I think that I think that I'd like to do an episode where Corey and I have a conversation about that because the romance in this book not necessarily like plays second fiddle or anything, but the journey is really about this woman and her um escape from this journey, this faith journey. And then also on the male main character's part, he is trying to navigate how to maintain a relationship with um, to give a little context, they were married and then they weren't anymore. They got divorced. And it's his journey on how to get her back and keep her in his life while still keeping a hold of his relationship with his family, and his family, which very much still exists inside the church. And there are so many moments in the book where I'm like, God, I just I could have a conversation with Corey for hours about this book. Because there are so many moments in my own life where I'm like, I needed somebody to say some of the things that they talk about in here. And escaping that is such a brave thing to do. And I just, anyway, Maggie Gates is incredible. If you haven't read one of her books, I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend it. Um, start with the first book in the poker club series, um, is what I would personally recommend. I personally started with the Griffith Brothers. Um, I believe Dust Storm was my first Maggie Gates book, but I quickly read everything else she's ever released. So I don't think you can go wrong, but I would say if you start with, if you want to start, start with obviously number one in a series. So she does write pretty much interconnected standalones, but I will always recommend starting at the beginning rather than jumping in somewhere down the line.

Gratitude For The Community

Emma 34:43

So there's just uh an incredible number of kind of sub-genres in her catalog that if cowboy romance isn't for you, the Griffith Brothers isn't for you, the poker club might be. It's severely more traumatic, the poker club is, than the Griffith Brothers. Or maybe Falls Creek is for you, which again is probably severely more dramatic, honestly. She does have a romantics series, that's what it's called, the romantics. Um, again, a great place to start. It doesn't really matter because I promise once you read one, that's not gonna be the last one you read. I convinced my book club last summer to read Cry About It. And that doesn't really fit in, it's it's a standalone. So it doesn't, it's not even an intercollected, interconnected standalone. It just is. And they loved it. And we demolished that book. Um, I think they even people who don't read the way that I read still read it in like three days because they're just so good you can't put them down. So anyway, there's my top two currently independently published authors. Last week, the episode that was released was about Paige Moore, also independently published. Incredible novelist. Um sing her praises all day. But DJ Lavley and Maggie Gates will continue to steal my soul, probably. So we have many good things coming at us from Maggie Gates, and we have at the very least to look forward to the next book in the Ravens Ridge Riders series by DJ Lavley. So I am just thrilled. I this journey that I have been on with Wrecked by Fiction has been ongoing for almost a year and a half, probably. Um, I have been releasing episodes once a week since the beginning of February, and I have just I have met so many interesting people. It has brought people from my own life forward who have wanted to support me or give me a book recommendation or be a part of it, and I have really seen a a level of support that is kind of mind-blowing to witness and to have this many people want to be a part of where I go from here. And I'm just thrilled. It couldn't be better. Well, yeah, I I could let me let me rephrase. I couldn't ask for more. I think if this is the only thing that ever comes from it, is it gives me a place to talk about all of the reasons that I love reading and just gives me a space for to share that love with you and the books that have broken my heart and then their counterpoint that has pieced me back together. I I can't wait for what happens next. So for now, this is Emma and I'm Wrecked by Fiction. I'll see you next week.