Indigo Ridge (The Edens #1)
Devney Perry
Self published
2021, 340p
Read via Kindle Unlimited
Blurb {from Goodreads.com}: Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor.
According to her pops, all she has to do is earn favor with the Edens. But winning over the town’s founding family might have been easier if not for her one-night stand with their oldest son. In her defense, it was her first night in town and she didn’t realize that the rugged and charming man who wooed her into bed was Quincy royalty.
Sleeping with Griffin Eden was a huge mistake, one she’s trying to forget. He’s insufferable, arrogant and keeps reminding everyone that she’s an outsider. Winslow does her best to avoid Griffin, but when a woman is found dead on Eden property, the two of them have no choice but to cross paths.
As clues to the murderer lead to one of Quincy’s own, Griffin realizes Winslow is more than he gave her credit for. Beautiful and intelligent, she proves hard to resist. For him. And the killer.
The Edens is a series that was originally self-published and gained a lot of popularity on Kindle Unlimited. I actually downloaded this one, the first one, from KU a really long time ago and since then they’ve been removed from KU for traditional publishing, based on the strength of the success they found. Because I’d downloaded this one prior to its removal, it stayed on my device (and will do so until I return it). Recently a family member loaned me the 2nd and 3rd books in this series so I decided to finally go ahead and finish this one. I’d read a portion of it when I downloaded it but had abandoned it for other books.
Winslow Covington is the new chief of police in the small town of Quincy, Montana. The town is dominated by the Eden family, who own a lot of the local businesses and have been longstanding citizens of importance in the area. As you might’ve guessed from the title of this series, all of the books are going to be about the six current generation of Edens and in this one, Winslow meets Griffin Eden and they have a one night encounter that is supposed to be exactly that until Griffin realises that Winslow is the new chief of police and Winslow realises she’s going to be seeing Griffin all the time. Recently out of a long term relationship that went wrong, Winslow (Winn) isn’t looking for anything permanent and it seems, neither is Griffin. But both of them didn’t count on the other, although there are complications here, namely a spate of local suicides by young women that Winn is looking at with fresh eyes as potentially not being suicides at all. This does put her at odds with Griffin, especially with one person in particular, that Winn needs to question.
I ended up enjoying this. The Edens are a big, bold, fun family and although I didn’t love Griffin at first introduction, I’d warmed to him by mid way through the book. I did like Winn and her grandfather, who is Quincy’s mayor. Technically he hired her, but with an objective eye, although not everyone in the town feels like Winn should’ve gotten the job. Winn is good at her job though, she immediately sees through these suicides, wondering if there might be more to them. I liked meeting all the siblings and I loved Winn’s relationship with her grandfather, which is very sweet. I too had a very close relationship with my grandfather before his death in 2013, and I have to admit, I have a soft spot for that sort of relationship portrayed well.
If I had one criticism, it would be that for me, the relationship between Griffin and Winn didn’t really convince me that it got so deep so quick. I believe that they were attracted to each other and had chemistry but most of their interactions occurred late at night in one bed or another, except when Griff was following Winn around as she did her job. I think I could’ve done with a few more scenes that showed them being vulnerable with each other in deeper ways. There are a couple but they feel sudden, although, going by the epilogue, everything about Griff and Winn ends up being sudden.
Honestly, I think this is fine – the suspense story is done relatively well, the characters were enjoyable if a bit only ever feeling surface level to me. I like the town, I feel like this book also gave a good introduction to the rest of the siblings, who feature in all of the future books. The end of this book set up the next one in a way that made me look forward to reading it. Which I can do, whenever I feel like now as it’s sitting on my TBR shelf.
7/10
Book #100 of 2024
All The Books I Can Read 
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