{alltv} Sweet Home Alabama Star Finds "Something Special"

The season finale of Sweet Home Alabama airs Thursday (Sept. 1) at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Sweet Home Alabama star Devin Grissom has made her final choice, yet she's staying tight-lipped about who it is.

"At this point, we're not allowed to be seen together or talk to each other very much," Grissom tells CMT Insider. "It's going to be interesting to see how it progresses once everything can be revealed, but I definitely feel like I found something special."

The remaining finalists are Adam Moyer, a horse trainer from Tennessee, and Tribble Reese, a former quarterback who is a bartender and entrepreneur in Birmingham, Ala.

Because the series began with 20 men -- 10 from the city and 10 from the country -- that means Grissom has broken a few hearts along the way.

"A breakup is hard no matter what," she says. "Even if it's two people sitting alone in a room, it's tough. It's hard to break up with someone. I felt for these guys. They're getting broken up with on national television. That makes it even harder for me, too, especially when some of the guys would come back and be like, 'Please give me second chance!' I was like, 'Oh, that makes me hurt.'"

However, Grissom adds, "I definitely got good at it by the end. But it didn't make it any easier. It was definitely still hard, but on some of the other dating shows like this, you give them a token. And the ones that don't get it, it's just like, 'Sayonara, see you later.' I think that's definitely something unique about this show. It's a lot more personal and really is a lot more real. I have real relationships with these guys, so I had to end them in a real, respectable way."

Grissom only spent time with the men on dates or in group scenes and rarely saw them at all when the cameras weren't rolling. Thus, she only began to discern the heated rivalries between her suitors when the series began airing. Most of the internal drama between the men takes place in the Fairhope, Ala., house where they all lived together.

"This process is such an unconventional way of dating," she says, "so it amplifies everything. You're getting into these relationships, and they're progressing so much faster than any normal relationships would. You're under such different circumstances if you're dating two guys at once. You don't want them to talk to each other. You don't want them to know they're dating the same girl. But all of mine were living in the same house together."

Grissom says it was difficult to send home the first few contestants because she didn't know them very well. But as the show progressed, the men's personalities began to shine through.

"I love seeing how they are just being themselves," she says. "I definitely formed relationships with all of them. Obviously, some of them are stronger than others. Some I formed were just friendships, but they're still great friendships. I talk to pretty much every single one of these guys still."

Looking back, she concludes, "Toward the end it got really hard for me. I'm not typically an emotional person, and on the [final] decision, I got teary. I cried, for sure. It was tough. There were definitely real relationships there."