Hendrix Sinclair is everything I’ve ever wanted and nothing I could ever have.
He’s hockey’s hottest single dad, with a sinfully sexy smile and a deliciously dirty mouth. One I’ve loved for nearly half my life. Not that anyone but the two of us have ever known that fun little fact . . .
We spent a decade in two different cities.
Chasing two different dreams.
And were supposed to be falling in love with two different people.
Only I never did.
He was busy becoming the NHL’s newest superstar, while I was fighting to become one of the biggest names in professional soccer.
Now, after years spent convincing myself we could never work, it only takes one look, one searing kiss, and one forbidden night to unravel everything I thought I knew.
It also only takes one day to shatter it all.
(ARC Read)
I bawled. From start to finish. Every time I thought I had finally pulled myself together, Bella Matthews found another tender spot and ripped it wide open. Sweet Redemption is messy, painful, complicated, and so deeply emotional that there were moments I genuinely had to stop reading just to collect myself. And Chapter 20? Serena’s “fuck it” moment, when years of longing, anger, hurt, love, and truths finally come pouring out of both of them? I was DONE.
Serena Kingston and Hendrix Sinclair have loved each other for nearly half their lives, even when almost no one knew it. They chased their respective dreams in professional soccer and hockey, built lives in different cities, and spent years trying to convince themselves they were supposed to move on. But Serena never really did. When Hendrix left, he took her heart with him, and as broken as she was, she could never quite bring herself to hate him for it.
Because their ending wasn’t simple.
The last time Serena saw Hendrix, she rejected his marriage proposal. Then he told her his best friend was pregnant with his child and that he was going to marry her. Now, years later, Hendrix is home again, a widower and single father to little Bodhi, and Serena is absolutely terrified of allowing him back into the parts of herself she barely managed to piece together after losing him the first time.
And then Hendrix finally tells her the truth.
“Listen to that again, princess. Listen to me again and hear my words. I. NEVER. SLEPT. WITH. MY. WIFE.”
Oh. My. God.
Everything I thought I understood about their history shifted. Hendrix made decisions that frustrated the hell out of me, and there were absolutely moments when I wanted to reach through my Kindle and shake him. His intentions may have come from a place of love and responsibility, but intentions don’t erase consequences. He made choices he believed were right without fully understanding how deeply those choices would affect Serena, and I appreciated that the book never simply brushed that pain aside because his heart had been in the right place.
“I’m so fucking scared I’ll never heal.”
That is ultimately what made their reconciliation work so beautifully for me. Serena doesn’t immediately forgive Hendrix because he comes home, explains himself, and tells her he still loves her. Their history is too complicated for that. Bella allows Serena to be angry, afraid, conflicted, and still hopelessly in love with him. She has to decide whether knowing the truth changes what she wants for her future and whether loving Hendrix is worth risking her heart again.
““I don’t want easy. I just need you, Hendrix.”
THAT is Serena and Hendrix. Their love has never been easy. It has survived distance, sacrifice, terrible timing, misunderstandings, grief, and years apart. There is so much history between them that their connection feels almost ingrained in who they are. Watching all of that hurt finally collide with everything they never stopped feeling for each other was devastating in the best possible way.
And Serena herself might be one of my favorite heroines in the Love and Legacy world. Her story isn’t solely about Hendrix. After being forced to retire from professional soccer, she is trying to figure out who Serena Kingston is when the thing that defined so much of her life is gone. I loved watching her refuse to let someone else hand her a new purpose. She doesn’t need her family, or Hendrix, to tell her who she should become next. She needs the freedom and time to discover that for herself.
That strength is one of my favorite things about the women Bella writes. Serena can love Hendrix desperately without needing him to rescue her. She can want a life with him while still demanding a life that belongs to her, too. Seeing her eventually find a new path and passion felt every bit as satisfying as watching her relationship with Hendrix heal.
“I never fell in love with someone else, Serena. Fuck. It would have been so much easier if I had.”
Then there’s Bodhi. Sweet baby Bodhi. I desperately wanted even more Serena and Bodhi moments because the ones we got made me love this little family so much. And the letters from Hendrix’s late wife? Absolutely unfair. Those completely finished me. There is so much grief woven into this story alongside the romance, and Bella manages to honor that loss without allowing it to diminish what Hendrix and Serena have always meant to one another.
By the final chapters, I wasn’t delicately crying. I was full-on ugly crying. Their pain, the revelations, Hendrix finally laying himself bare, Serena finally allowing herself to stop running from what she has always wanted—it all hit at once. When Serena admits, “I know without a shadow of a doubt, Hendrix will always own my body and my heart,” you understand exactly what she means. She can fight him, fight herself, fight their history, but she has never stopped loving him.
And that epilogue? More tears. Obviously.
I would give Sweet Redemption every star in the world if I could. Hendrix is not perfect, and frankly, I wouldn’t have wanted him to be. He makes mistakes. He hurts Serena. He believes he is doing the right thing and fails to recognize the lasting damage his choices cause. But this is a story about redemption, and redemption doesn’t mean pretending those mistakes never happened. It means facing them, owning them, and doing the work to deserve another chance.
Serena and Hendrix have been through so much together and even more apart. They broke my heart for who they were, for everything they lost, and for all the years they spent loving each other from a distance when neither of them knew the whole truth.
And when they finally found their way home to each other?
I bawled all over again.
Five stars isn’t enough.
Release Date: September 3rd
Thank you Bella Matthews and Valentine PR & Literary Management for the ARC read!