Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Hitman’s Final Job
SERIES: Pine Ridge
AUTHOR: Ana Ashley
PUBLISHER: Heartbound Press
LENGTH: 275 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 14, 2025
BLURB:
Have you ever met a hitman who dreams of having a veggie patch?
It’s me. I’m the hitman.
It’s the day before I retire from ten years of killing people for hire. Not only am I given one last job- wasn’t that job in Budapest last month THE last job?- but then I find out I’m tasked with killing my best friend’s dad.
Did I mention he’s a total silver fox, the smartest man I’ve ever met and my all-time crush?
Yeah…life sucks.
Now I have to figure out who hired me so I can stop them. But keeping Vaughn safe while trying not to fall in love with him is a threat I didn’t expect to face.
The Hitman’s Final Job is a small-town romance featuring suspense, heat, and the sweetness of two men finding real love amongst danger. You can expect slow-burn tension, emotional depth, unexpected humor—including a surprisingly heated giant vegetable competition—and the kind of love that makes you want to stop running.
REVIEW:
Silas Cross has lived a secret life for a decade. Nobody not associated with his job as a hitman have any idea what he’s been up to. His best friend thinks he’s a project manager and that he travels all over the world. Well the second part is right. He does. But what he’s doing there isn’t managing projects. He works for an organization who takes out bad buys who will never be brought to justice because of money, power and/or political protection. So he does what he has to. But it’s wearing on him and he wants out. He has to do one more job.
When he arrives in Warsaw, he feels like something’s off. He doesn’t have enough information. Hell, he hasn’t even seen a picture of the mark. He meets with his handler and she’s the only one who has seen the picture and then it disappeared. When she shows him the man who walks in the restaurant, the bottom drops out of his world. The mark is his secret crush. Oh and his best friend’s dad. Now he knows something is wrong. Vaughn Reeves is a good guy. Not just because he’s Silas’s best friend Rowan’s dad. He just is. He’s presenting at a conference on his research. Research that could be a game changer. Research that somebody else wants.
Silas convinces his handler to help him buy time. Miraculously he does. So he follows Vaughn back to his small Colorado town. He’s determined to figure out who is really after Vaughn and why the intel was so wrong. He buys a few weeks, but being in close quarters is going to be tough. Because Silas isn’t the only one who has a secret crush. Even though they’ve agreed nothing can happen, pretty soon, they can’t help something from happening. But it’s only for a few weeks while Silas is on “vacation”.
Silas know this is not going to end well. He won’t do anything to jeopardize his friendship with Rowan. His timeline is short and he needs to find out who is really after Vaughn. But he is the happiest he’s ever been in his life. Vaughn, for his part, feels guilty but also this has been a long time coming. These two have kept themselves in check for years. It feels so good to finally do what they’ve always wanted to.
But the danger isn’t going away. They keep running into dead ends. And Vaughn hasn’t exactly been straight with Silas. He’s been threatened before. And it’s escalating. He decides to bring in help too. Things come to a boiling point and Silas has no choice but to tell Vaughn the truth. At the worst possible time. This could be the end of everything.
Oh my god. This was sooooo good. I loved Silas and his handler Zuza. This was such a great slow burn with years long UST that ratcheted up the heat with every chapter. I wanted these guys to get our of their own ways, but I know they were most concerted about Rowan and his response. The townspeople of Pine Ridge are fantastic. What a great bunch of friends and neighbors. I can’t wait to see how they figure in the next book in this series. My heart broke for Silas and his past. Vaughn was such a good man and I really hoped that he’d be able to reframe what Silas shared with him after the danger was past. I loved Rowan and how he dealt with everything. I’m so excited for his book. This is a terrific start to a new series and I can’t wait to see where it all goes 🙂
RATING: 
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