Owen 

V.H. Nicolson

The Boys of Castleview Cove Series, Book 3

378 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2025

A runaway groom strangers to lovers unforgettable steamy romance from VH Nicolson. Perfect for fans of Ana Huang, Catharina Maura and Meghan Quinn Don’t play the game, change it…

I was born into privilege. I had it all; the house, the car, more money than I knew what to do with. But it came at a price. Duty. An arranged marriage for the sake of the family empire to a woman who couldn’t bear to look at me. As I stood at the altar, the weight of that burden became too much. So, I did the only thing I could. I ran.

To another country and unintentionally straight into the arms of another woman. Jade is strong, independent, and a single mom. And brick by broken brick she dismantles the wall I’ve built up around my heart. But where once I had everything, now I have nothing. No home, no job and no idea what the future holds. All I do know is, Jade makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before.

But there is always the risk my past could catch up with me. Because the weight of my family’s expectation is likely to cause me to crash land and send my world up in flames. Can I save myself and Jade before that happens?

3.5 Stars

Only twice in my almost 2 decades of reading romance have I gone into reading a book with a lot of preconceived notions and ideas about the main male character with no likelihood of him being able to redeem himself. Owen can now be added to this list.

Owen has made some mistakes with his life. Most as sort of a rebellion against the controlling strings of his parents. Now they have him set to marry a woman that is nothing more than arrangement to benefit both of the families. Owen can’t stand the thought of being stuck with this woman for the rest of his life so he does the one and only thing he can do. He runs. He runs to the one person that he can trust a cousin in Cyprus. Owen ran from the expectations and dictations of his controlling family. Little did he know the place he was running to he find a different kind of family.

Author VH Nicholson save the best for last in my opinion. Owen was a much better story than I expected it to be. As I said, I went in with a bunch of preconceived ideas for reading the earlier books. Owen redeemed himself in ways that I didn’t think possible meeting Jade changed his life and the time and patience that he took with her daughter truly showed his redeeming factors. He is one of those people that you truly couldn’t judge the book by the cover. He had much more layers of depth and complexity than I expected. For someone that I didn’t think had the capacity to love she approved me. I was wrong in the best possible way.