I came to Bourbon and Secrets in the late afternoon of a day when I had nothing urgent requiring my attention, which is the ideal condition for a romance that asks you to inhabit Fiasco, Kentucky, long enough to understand why every woman in town knows the rule about Foxx brothers. Victoria Wilder has built a world where the setting does real work, where the small-town atmosphere is not merely decorative but actually shapes who the characters are allowed to be and what they are allowed to want.
Lincoln Foxx is the second brother to get his story in the Bourbon Boys series. He is a master distiller, a widower, and a single father to two daughters, and he is carrying secrets about the night his wife died that have calcified into something that looks like control but is actually grief in a very tidy suit. Faye Calloway, who knew Lincoln before and was forced out of Fiasco by his own hand, returns as a burlesque dancer with a hidden agenda and the kind of fire that makes Lincoln's carefully maintained distance feel ridiculous.
First, the Big Picture
The dual narration structure serves this particular romance well. Megan Wicks narrates Faye's sections and has been specifically praised by multiple reviewers for capturing the character's confidence, sass, and underlying protectiveness. Lee Samuels handles Lincoln's point of view, and the split is clear and consistent throughout. One reviewer noted that Wicks did a fantastic job portraying Faye's character, and listening to those sections confirms that assessment; Wicks makes Faye immediately compelling from her first appearance.
The single-father dimension of Lincoln's character is either the book's central charm or its central weakness, depending on your tolerance for that particular trope. Reviewers are divided. Several who praised the first book found Lincoln himself less engaging than Faye, and at least one reader noted that the single-dad framing was simply not their preference regardless of execution. For readers who respond well to the trope, however, Lincoln's relationship with his daughters adds genuine warmth to what might otherwise be a darker story.
Wilder's structural intelligence is worth noting. The blackmail detail in the setup, Lincoln forced Faye out of Fiasco by holding something over her, is introduced as a premise and then complicated rather than simply abandoned once the romance begins. Faye's hidden agenda, which involves the secrets surrounding the night Lincoln's wife died, creates genuine dramatic pressure that the romance has to work against rather than alongside. That tension is more sophisticated than much of the genre allows itself to be.
The burlesque dancer element is handled with care. Faye is performing on stage in Fiasco as part of a plan that serves her own purposes, not the town's entertainment, and Wilder keeps the reader aware of that agency throughout. Faye is never presented as a spectacle; she is a woman with a specific goal using the tools available to her. Multiple reviewers describe her as fiercely protective of the ones she loves, and that quality is audible in the narration as well as visible in the prose.
Before You Commit to Bourbon and Secrets
Lincoln is a more complicated problem as a romantic lead than Faye, and honest engagement with the book requires acknowledging that. Several reviewers found him flat or frustrating in ways they did not find the first book's hero. His journey from controlled and closed-off to emotionally open is the book's central arc, and readers who enjoy watching that particular transformation will have more patience with his earlier behavior than readers who want a more immediately likable lead.
The book is also the second in a series, and listeners who have not heard the first installment will miss some context for the Foxx family dynamics and the Fiasco community that appears throughout. The mystery of the wife's death also gains additional weight from the first book's introduction of the Foxx brothers as a unit. It functions as a standalone in terms of romance resolution, but the world is richer with Book 1 as context.
Is This One for You?
Readers who responded enthusiastically to the first Bourbon Boys book will want this immediately. Fans of single-dad romance who enjoy the trope done with genuine emotional weight will find Lincoln a worthy, if sometimes frustrating, lead. Listeners who enjoy the intersection of small-town romance and suspense, where the mystery actually matters rather than functioning as decoration, will find Wilder delivers that combination with more craft than most. Start with Book 1 if you have not already; it will make Lincoln's story land harder.
Key Details
- Read by: Lee Samuels and Megan Wicks split the dual POV narration, with Wicks specifically praised by reviewers for her rendering of Faye's fire and confidence.
- At its heart: Single-father romance, small-town secrets and dangerous pasts, second-chance trust
- Vibe: Warm and grounded, with genuine suspense threading through the romantic tension
- Short version: A strong second installment in the Bourbon Boys series that improves on its predecessor's romance while the mystery plotting deepens; Lincoln's flat stretches are the only real reservation.
Questions Listeners Ask
Does Bourbon and Secrets need to be read after the first Bourbon Boys book?
Technically it can function as a standalone, but the Foxx family dynamics, the Fiasco community, and some of the mystery elements around Lincoln's wife are established in Book 1. Most readers will get more from this installment with that context.
Who narrates Bourbon and Secrets, and is the dual narration clearly differentiated?
Lee Samuels narrates Lincoln's sections and Megan Wicks narrates Faye's sections. Reviewers consistently praise the narration as clearly differentiated and emotionally effective, with Wicks receiving particular praise for her portrayal of Faye.
