One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 7
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 352 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately for Ali Winters, that sentiment spans more than just a single morning. It wasn't just getting dumped by her scumbag boyfriend Teddy, though that did suck. It just didn't suck as bad as actually catching him cheating on her, then getting a break-up text from him before she has a chance to dump him first.

To add insult to that particular injury, the text message kindly informed her he hadn't renewed the lease on the rental home they shared and she had to be out by the end of the month, which was, you know...yesterday. Now Ali has no home, no boyfriend, and a whole lotta rage. Not really a surprise that the police think she stole the $50,000 that went missing from Teddy's office after she left a very...detailed...note on his desk - and a voice mail or ten - letting him know just what she thought of him.

Returning to Lucky Harbor for some much-needed alone time after his latest case ripped his life apart, San Francisco cop Luke Hanover didn't expect to find a gorgeous, almost naked, and seriously brassed off woman squatting in his house. He wanted her gone so he could be miserable all by himself, but one look at the injured yet defiant Ali and he finds himself doing things he had no intention of doing.

Things like allowing her to stay at his place, or, when the police treat her like a suspect in a pretty major crime, getting involved to help her out. Which is the absolute last thing he wants to do. He just can't seem to help himself.

Yup, sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning.


Another fun, feel-good Lucky Harbor romance! Shalvis' Lucky Harbor series is my favorite of the ongoing contemporary romance series I read. It's consistently entertaining, often flat-out delightful, and it's chock full of a wide variety of wacky and weird and wonderful characters who are so easy to adore. And of course, the romances between the heroes and heroines in each book are fairly awesome, too.

In this one we meet the irrepressible Ali and the inscrutable Luke as Shalvis kicks off her third set of loosely connected in-series trilogies, this one revolving around the boys of Lucky Harbor, three childhood besties who have grown up all kinds of hot, sexy, and heroic.

Lest I forget, you can't have a Shalvis romance without a quirky, fierce beauty to give the guy's heart his forever home, and I loved Ali. She's a spitfire. Dealt some pretty hard blows at the beginning of the book, Ali responds to each with her chin up and her fists clenched in proud defiance. She's strong and highly independent, but she's also got a softer, more easily bruised side that was very sympathetic. In fact, she sort of stole the show.

That's not to say that Luke isn't a tall dish of sexy goodness in his own right. Brooding, taciturn, and more than a little dented by life, Luke is the quintessential reluctant hero on the outside but total alpha male problem-solver at heart. He got sucked into the dual vortexes of Ali and Lucky Harbor and couldn't quite get himself free, no matter how hard he tried (which, well...wasn't really all that hard). He's a far more internal male lead than we've seen so far in the series, and he doesn't say a whole lot, but his actions speak volumes. I loved him.

As a couple they were a sometimes volatile and always impressive mix of hot sex and sweet, heart-tugging emotion. A very good pair to follow after the nearly incomparable Grace and Josh.

There was a suspense element in this storyline that the other books haven't had, and I liked it a lot. It didn't take a large chunk of story focus away from Ali and Luke's relationship arc, but it added a romantic suspense flavor that I enjoyed. Not that the Lucky Harbor series needed additional elements to improve it, or was lacking in any way, but I definitely thought it brought a new dynamic to the series that I appreciated.

But maybe it took something away, too, because I have to admit, the humor wasn't as prevalent as it was in the previous three books and I didn't feel there was as large an influence of Lucky Harbor residents as I'm used to enjoying. There were several included, obviously, and of course Lucille was up to her usual shenanigans, but overall on a lesser scale than I would have hoped for. Lucky Harbor's Facebook-loving geriatric brigade is always good for a smile or ten.

I also wish that Luke's problems with his job and the threat that brought to his life had been afforded a larger role in the story, with a more comprehensive resolution. Ali's issues, personal and legal, got significantly more page time, so the story lacked the sort of balance between the characters' personal evolution that other books have had. That was a little disappointing, especially as I had gone into this book looking forward to this three-book set in the series focusing more on the men and their lives and friendships, like the sisters in the first three and the female best friends in the second set.

But a little disappointment doesn't make this book a bad bet by any means.

Nothing about this book or this series is a bad bed. Shalvis is clearly at the top of her writing game and keeps cranking out touching stories that deliver on the sexy good times as well as the sigh-worthy love stories. For pure romance reading fun, you just can't do any better than Shalvis and her Lucky Harbor series. And if I ever find the place on a map, I'm so moving there.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Firefighter, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 352 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever Yours publisher Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





He was her best friend. She was his world. Then tragedy struck and tore Summer Abrams' life apart. Crippled by grief and forged by loss, Summer ran from her hometown of Ocean Beach. She ran from the loss of her father. She ran from the suffocating emotion of her family. She ran from the strength and importance of her friendship with Joe Walker. She ran, and never stopped running. Then the call came.

Twelve years after the warehouse fire that irrevocably altered her life, the beast has struck again. The first time drove Summer away. The second brought her home.

She hadn't expected her return to OB to be easy, not after so many years, but her family's chilly reception still hurts. Summer is determined to reconnect with them, to reforge the bonds she had once cut so cleanly no matter how uncomfortable she is with the effort. She's just as determined to reconnect with her former best friend Joe, who has grown into a fine specimen of manhood.

The longer she stays in town, however, the more she feels pushed out the door. Her mom certainly doesn't seem to want her around, and Joe, now a fire marshal and investigating the fire that brought her back, is no more welcoming. Maybe it's been too long. Maybe time doesn't heal all wounds.

When another fire breaks out and almost takes Summer's life with it, she is forced to face another grim possibility. Maybe her return has stirred up ghosts that someone is desperate to let lie. Maybe, just maybe someone she loves wants her gone...permanently.


I've pretty much come to the conclusion that if a book has Jill Shalvis' name on it, I'm going to enjoy the read. Of course some books I like more than others, but the sheer consistency of entertainment her books provide sets Shalvis apart and is a large part of why she's one of my favorite authors. And this re-release of a 2005 title just goes to show she's been good for a long time.

The sticky widget with re-releases is whether or not they'll feel dated. That can quickly ruin a read for me. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem here. The big reveal during the book's climax felt a little old-school and a trifle cliched because of it, but nothing really struck me as completely anachronistic.

This book has a much stronger suspense plotline than I was expecting. I'm used to, and love, Shalvis' contemporary romance novels, especially the Lucky Harbor series (which absolutely should not be missed), but they're lighter than this one so the emotional depth and darker elements in this story took me by surprise. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I love romantic suspense, and felt this was a solid example of one.

I fell hard and fast for the fabulous Joe Walker. Shalvis sure didn't go easy on the poor guy, but he's a great character. His horrible childhood and the emotional detritus from his struggles with weight as a teen made him such a sympathetic hero. And I'm a total sucker for a guy who's loved a girl his whole life, even after she ripped his heart out. The fact that he is now a totally hot, if often emotionally unavailable firefighter was just icing on a very delicious cake. Sexy, strong, and oh-so-endearing, I adored everything about him.

Summer, on the other hand, was a bit of a harder pill to swallow. My feelings about her are far more complicated. On one hand, I appreciated her for her flaws and damage. I find flawed and/or damaged characters intrinsically more interesting and believable than their picture-perfect counterparts. Not necessarily more likable, just more interesting. Summer definitely wasn't always likable.

In fact, through most of the book she struck me as wounded but selfish with it, and her self-involvement was often cruel, albeit unintentionally so. I felt for her yearning for family bonds and struggle to fit in, but shuddered at her casual dismissal of Joe's plainly-spoken boundaries and the legitimate reasons for them. Too many times and for too long into the story I felt Joe deserved a lot more than Summer was willing or able to give. And emotional cowards have always been a major turn off to me. That made it hard to really embrace her in her romantic role, even though I heartily appreciated those flaws in regards to her family issues and the suspense elements of the plot.

I had some minor quibbles with one or two other elements of the story, and I was a little disappointed that Joe and Summer's fight before the first fire was never really addressed, but mostly I was thoroughly entertained by this book and totally smitten with Joe. I haven't read the preceding books in the series, but can happily say that had no impact at all. This read like a stand-alone novel. Of course, I want to read those preceding books, but that has less to do with them being a part of this series and everything to do with that name on the cover. They're Jill Shalvis books. A guaranteed good time.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 6
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 324 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Four months in Lucky Harbor has netted banking specialist Grace Brooks two best friends and a town she adores, but it's still falling short in the career department. Though she takes as many odd jobs as she can get while she searches for one in her field, her savings account is really feeling the pinch of her extended not-quite-vacation. Surely that's the only reason she doesn't correct the delectable Dr. Josh Scott, dreamiest of the McDreamies, when he misdials a number for a dog walker and calls her instead.

She really does need the money, and honestly, how hard can walking one dog be?

Single father, town doctor, brother of a troubled young woman in a wheelchair, Josh has gotten used to wearing a lot of hats in his life, but lately the weight of all his many responsibilities is grinding him down to the bone. Coming home to deal with one more in a long string of catastrophes surrounding his son's dog Tank is just the tip of a very large iceberg. He wasn't expecting to be poleaxed by a soaking wet and distraught Grace, who was still in the ocean searching for the dog she thought she lost.

She may be the worst dog walker on the planet, but there's just something about the woman that brings Josh to his knees. She obviously needs help, and that's what Josh does, he helps...everyone but himself. But maybe, if Josh can loosen up a bit, and Grace can let go and have fun for a change, they'll both find exactly what they need, and more than they ever dreamed possible, with each other.

Okay, so maybe chocolate doesn't make the world go around, but it sure makes the trip worthwhile.

Six books into the Lucky Harbor series and I just gotta say, I want to live there. Seriously, I would totally move there if I could. Like each book in the series, the town is wacky, weird, and unrepentantly wonderful. Filled with a colorful mix of salty and spicy and sweet characters I've come to adore, Lucky Harbor is the perfect backdrop for each installment of this delightful series. And Grace and Josh's book is my favorite of the lot of them.

Feels like I keep saying that, though, with each new book. Funny how that works.

Speaking of funny, Shalvis baked a batch of giggles, snorts, and chuckles into this one. Grace was an absolute riot, and Josh was such a fabulous straight man opposite her charming blunders. I loved both of them, and the chemistry they had together was spectacular. More than just sexual chemistry, they had a genuine way of interacting that just tickled every single one of my Happy Reader buttons.

I loved how their lives slowly intertwined as the story progressed. Yes, they were totally hot for each other, and it was stellar, but equally enjoyable were the family moments, seeing Grace's influence slowly alter the whole Scott family in heartwarming ways. Josh may have been paying her, but the impact she has on his life, on the lives of his sister and son, all of it, just made me feel good.

The whole book made me feel good. I wanted to gobble Toby up every time he said "arf," and Anna was a complicated, realistic terror. Best friends Amy and Mallory were included in nice ways - not overshadowing Grace and Josh time but adding their own well-known and loved personalities to the story. Matt and Ty were there, too, as Josh's best friends. I loved revisiting them and seeing how happy they all are. It's one of my favorite things about romance series and Shalvis did an excellent job incorporating them as secondary characters. She even included - mostly by mention - the characters from the first three books. It added a layer of continuity to this one that I didn't feel as strongly in the previous two stories.

There just isn't anything that didn't work for me in this book. I thought Grace's issues with her parents and Josh's concerns with being a good father and brother added nice layers of personal conflict for both characters. The storyline evolved very naturally around them and those issues added a pleasant level of depth to their relationship.

There were a lot of different elements written into this book, some even struck more somber notes, yet it still managed to be a light, decadent, sexy romantic treat. This is exactly why Shalvis is one of my top go-to authors for feel-good romance. She writes characters that become old friends and stories that touch my heart even as they entertain my mind. She's done that in every book in this series, some to greater effect than others, but this one exceeds them all.

Grace and Josh's romance really is the hot, gooey, sinfully delicious chocolate on top of a fantastic Lucky Harbor sundae. And I truly can't wait to take another bite.

Quotables:

She didn't look ridiculous at all. She looked the opposite of ridiculous. In fact, she looked good enough to gobble up with a spoon. Without a spoon. He was thinking his tongue would work...

"You have more spiders?"
"No," he said without missing a beat. "No spiders."
"You said spiders," she said. "And I saw a big one in the side yard, in the sprinkler well."
"That spider went south for the winter."
"It's summer."
"He wanted to be the first to get out of town."

Ty pointed his beer at Josh. "Want to know what I think?"
"No," Josh said.
"I think you have a case of being a little girl. Maybe you should prescribe yourself a heavy dose of man-the-fuck-up."

Unfortunately, he was a man through and through, and therefore had a penis, which meant that there'd be no reasoning with him.

The Lucky Harbor Series:

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 5
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 314 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Dedicated bad girl of the chocoholics, the three best friends who bonded over cake and a natural disaster weeks ago, waitress Amy Michaels came to Lucky Harbor to find the hope her grandmother once found there years ago. It had taken her six months, but she was finally searching for it in the mountains that surrounded the town, following a map and the notes from her grandmother's journal. Amy needed to find that hope. The peace her grandmother wrote of wouldn't be bad either.

She didn't want any part of that pesky third thing. Heart. That's the one that tough girl Amy wants to keep well away from her. Anything to do with her heart. She's been burned in that area too many times.

That's why she's so darn cranky when forest ranger Matt Bowers shows up to help her down from the very mountain on which she managed to get completely lost. It's not that she doesn't need his help. She so does. She just doesn't want to need it. And she definitely doesn't want him to be the one to give it to her. He's far too tempting in that damn heart department.

Matt had been circling the tricky Amy ever since she blew into town. There's just something about her that tugs at him. He's been careful, though, because her attitude screams her hands-off stance towards men in general and him in particular. That doesn't mean he can't enjoy goading her a little when she's finally in a position to need his help. Matt's biggest concern, though, isn't getting her off the mountain safely. He can do that in his sleep. It's getting the woman into his arms that's proving to be the biggest challenge.

But Amy Michaels may just be that one challenge that's worth risking everything to win.


I love this Lucky Harbor series so much, and Shalvis just keeps delivering the fun, witty, charming, sexy good reads. Her books, and this series, are even better than brain candy, they're chocolate for the heart. At Last may just be my favorite in the series to this point, and Amy and Matt are two of my favorite characters.

I think the plot of this book had a little more meat on it than its predecessor, too. Or maybe I just related to it better. I was immensely entertained by Amy's search for hope, and thought the addition of Riley's character added all sorts of nifty little elements to the read as it did its work in opening Amy up a bit more and giving her and Matt another point of connection.

And the depth and complexity awarded to both main characters, as well as the nearly perfect chemistry between them, just flat out worked for me in every way.

The friendship between the chocoholics really started to click in this book, too, and the ancillary characters had more impact on the narrative. In a lot of ways, the friendship between the three women appeals to me even more than the relationship between the three sisters in the first three books in the series, but this is the first time I can say I felt the potential for this set of three to be even more entertaining than those.

Shalvis once again secures her position as one of my go-to authors for guilt- (and calorie-) free, sexy, contemporary romance fun. There are always a few serious elements, or things that lean more towards the darker end of the spectrum to add depth and dimension to the story (Lance's cystic fibrosis still kills me), but overall her books just make me feel good as they reliably deliver their heart-warming Happily Ever Afters. This one is absolutely no exception.


The Lucky Harbor Series:

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 4
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 341 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Lucky Harbor's good girl Mallory Quinn hasn't gotten far in life by being the one everyone depends on to handle...everything. She's responsible. Trustworthy. Nice. And okay, a little bit of a pushover. It's starting to drive her crazy, actually.

Stopping at the Eat Me Café after her shift at the hospital as a favor to her mother, Mallory makes it inside just as a vicious storm starts to rage through town. First the power fails, then a fallen tree takes out the window, and before she and the two other diner inhabitants, waitress Amy and town newbie Grace, realize it, the three are huddled up together behind the counter, bonding over mutual fear and chocolate cake. And their exciting evening is just beginning.

When a couple of thuds on the outer wall draw Mallory's attention, she nervously ventures out to see what's causing it. Caught by the storm and wounded, lying feet from the door to the Café, is the handsomest catch in town, Mysterious Cute Guy. Mallory rushes to help him (or...uh...bean him with Grace's cell phone), and the three women manage to get him into her car to take him to the hospital. That's when her two new besties go completely off the rail and start urging her to walk on the wild side. With the nearly unconscious Mysterious Cute Guy, in fact.

Maybe it's all the chocolate she ate (inhaled), or how the restrictive bonds of always being the good girl are starting to pinch, or the way MCG looks at her when he finally opens his eyes, but for some reason, Mallory finds herself suggesting a date to a gorgeous guy who's got his bleeding head in her lap. One who may not actually remember agreeing to the date when he's fully conscious.

Hey, that's Lucky Harbor for you. She really should have at least asked for his name first, though.


Jill Shalvis is one of my favorite authors for light, sexy, awesome contemporary romance. Her books always seem to hit the high points in humor, great character chemistry, and enough solid story to thoroughly entertain. The Lucky Harbor series in particular has really delighted me from the first book, and I'm thrilled Shalvis has taken us back to that quirky coastal town for another set of three.

Where the sisters in the first three books gave us the mouse, the steel magnolia, and the wild child, it appears new best friends Mallory, Amy, and Grace will be more the good girl, the bad girl, and the lost girl. It's the good girl's time to shine with the hunky Ty Garrison, former Navy SEAL medic, current private contractor with the government, on leave as he recovers...or tries to...from an injury he sustained on his last assignment.

Shalvis creates likable, three dimensional characters in both Mallory and Ty. Both have their own personal demons that give the characters depth and add conflict to their individual lives. Both are at a point in their lives that engendered its own push-and-pull in the burgeoning relationship between them. She's a good girl looking to embrace a few bad girl traits, he's a guy...looking to keep his mind off his bum leg. The fact that she's a resident and he's a visitor intent on leaving also set up a lot of the long term conflict, and that felt fairly organic to their situation, if not entirely original or complex.

Still, for all the solidly good things about the book and the characters, this was my least favorite story in the series so far. I wanted to love it, but it felt, to me, that there was some sort of intangible magic missing from either the characters or their relationship. Each of the sisters' books had a spark, a unique sense of something special, but this one fell a little flat in that regard. It was a solid, sexy romance, but it was a fairly traditional solid, sexy romance - in both characters and story - and I'm not used to anything resembling traditional when it comes to Lucky Harbor.

It's not a bad read, I don't think Shalvis is actually capable of writing a bad read, but the plot wasn't as layered nor did I find the story as touching or as well-rounded as its predecessors. The characters didn't seem quite as perfectly suited to one another as other couples have, either, especially not at first. That issue smoothed out a bit in the second half of the book, and I ended up enjoying the latter half much more because of it, but until then, I struggled.

The presence of Lucky Harbor as a wacky little town full of insane residents, one of the major draws in the first three books, wasn't as prevalent, and everything that makes the town endearing seemed muted. Maybe part of that was the shift away from the marina and the sisters' Bed & Breakfast, and it was just an issue I had with new and unfamiliar settings, but it bothered me a little.

I was also bothered by how quickly Ty and Mallory get sexual in this book...and doesn't that just make me sound the prude. Ugh. Anyway, Shalvis has an innate ability to raise the temperature of her romances to sizzling with smokin' hot sex scenes. She writes them very, very well. That said, stumbling over one so early in this book, with two characters who just met, sort of turned me off of them both and took the starch out of my appreciation for the subsequent relationship for a good long while.

Despite my issues with this installment of the series, I couldn't be happier that readers are getting another set of three books in Lucky Harbor. I adore the place and the people in it. Shalvis has created the perfect little home away from home, one that entices readers to crack a book and visit for a while. These books make me laugh a little, love a lot, fan away the sexy heat (or revel in it), and embrace the bonds of family, friends, and lovers. It's a fantastic place for a series of romances, and I can't wait for my next trip.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 368 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


As the only one of three half-sisters actually raised - if you can call it that - by their footloose and free-spirited mother, Chloe Treager didn't have a traditional childhood. Since then she's spent her life living exactly as she's wanted. Irresponsible, sometimes, larcenous, occasionally, but she lives life on her own terms.

Chloe had been drawn into helping renovate, co-own, and run the Bed & Breakfast left for her and her half-sisters when their mother died, and the three women who started out as strangers have slowly grown closer in the interim, becoming tentative friends, even contentious family. More and more lately the wild child is feeling things, thinking things she's never thought or felt before. Words like home, roots, and family are taking on whole new meanings. It's both terrifying...and a little thrilling.

Women might not like to admit their age, but men don't like to act theirs. ~ Chloe Treager

Sheriff Sawyer Thompson has been the bane of her existence since she arrived in town, dogging her steps the whole way. Sexy, solid, and utterly inflexible, he's like the poster child for anti-fun. He obviously doesn't approve of her, which is fine, as she doesn't much care for him, either...even though that body of his does make her reach for her asthma inhaler whenever he's in sight. And the intensity with which he's been looking at her lately is making her wonder just how many laws she would need to break to snap his ironclad control.

Between her limitations, though, and his steely spine, any scenario between the two of them could only be a pipe dream. Right?

It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. ~ Chloe Treager

As one of the most dependable of my go-to authors for fun, sexy contemporary romance, I've read several books by Shalvis. Not once have I been disappointed. It was no surprise that the Lucky Harbor book I had been most looking forward to was such a darn good time. I'd have been stunned if it hadn't been. There's just something about the combination of characters and story that Shalvis creates that hits my happy reader buttons just right. Sure, some books hit them harder than others, but all have entertained. With this one, she's delivered my favorite of the three sisters' books and thrilled me with the glimpse of the future installment. I'm so glad this series is continuing, because both the town and the inhabitants of Lucky Harbor are wonderfully quirky and comfortably familiar and I'm not ready to pick up stakes and leave town limits just yet.

Finally, finally happy readers get a closer look at the inner workings of former bad boy and current straight arrow Sawyer Thompson. He's a whole lotta yum wrapped up in a Sheriff's uniform. I loved his quiet intensity and his inner demons, and I was thrilled by how he struggled with his desire for the one woman who he thought was the worst woman possible for him. Solid, strong, kind, dependable, he was steel wrapped around granite imprisoning a wild, untamed passion.

And he and the wild child were perfect for each other.

They say money talks, but all mine ever says is, "good-bye, sucker." ~ Chloe Treager

Speaking of the wild child, I think it was Chloe's emotional journey and personal evolution that touched me the most deeply in this book. Her childhood was not the stuff of fairy tales and dreams. Seeing things from her side, exploring the ghosts of her past and finally understanding that being the child that their mother kept wasn't necessarily a good thing, was important in this book. It redeemed a character who came off as flighty, self involved, and irresponsible in the first book...marginally better in the second...and added a poignant depth to her character that Chloe herself would probably scoff at before acknowledging.

This book is pure Jill Shalvis romance fun. And unlike the previous book, which I felt gave too little attention to the sister relationships, this book had plenty of great scenes with Maddie, Tara, and Chloe together. I had felt there was still a lot of room for development between the three of them and I was thrilled that they were given the plot threads and page time to fully evolve and cement their bonds as sisters. Oh, and for the record, Chloe's friend Lance broke, crushed, and stomped on my heart. That poor guy just killed me. I'm praying for a fictional miracle there, I have to be honest.

My hat is once again off to Shalvis for providing such a fine bit of reading enjoyment. There seemed to be less relationship angst or heartache in this book than in the previous book, which I appreciated. There was also an ancillary suspense plot arc that was nice. Oh, and of course there was a very healthy amount of sizzling sex. It wouldn't be a Shalvis book without the sexy love scenes. Or the humor that was liberally sprinkled throughout this book. I just adored the Chloe-isms. In short, Head Over Heels is a completely feel good romance and classic Shalvis entertainment, and I can't wait for my next fix.

Genre: Contemporary Romance; Anthology
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 320 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this Harlequin Anthology was provided to me by Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


In a cozy cottage overlooking Lake Tahoe, married sociology professors from University of Nevada rekindled the romance in their rocky marriage. It was such a tremendous experience for them that they bought the cottage and rented it out when they weren't using it. After several letters left by thankful renters, the professors noticed a trend.

Rocky relationships were smoothed, new relationships were kindled, and love was a rental agreement away for the lucky couples who spent time at their cabin.

The trend was so fascinatingly obvious the professors couldn't help but test out the wild theory that there was something truly magical about their cabin. So they decided to study the phenomena. And with three holidays fast approaching, there was no time like the present to see if three separate couples could find their forever love in a small cottage by a large lake.


Beth Tierney has decided she's had enough of her family's matchmaking attempts. Taking control of her life, she's eschewing the family gathering for Thanksgiving and spending time alone at the Lake Tahoe cabin owned by her favorite professor from college. She is a self-sufficient woman who neither needs nor wants a man to fulfill her life and her holiday is going to be all about embracing her single status and focusing on her career.

Handyman Mac McFarland is dreading the trip to his parents house for the holiday. His mother has invited yet another young woman to parade in front of him in the hopes he will finally get married. He's so focused on the impending disaster that he doesn't question the oddness of the phone call he gets from his friend Jillian Vickers. She and her husband are professors at the state university but own a cabin on the lake, and she asks him to go over to the cabin and check on a pipe leak she's worried about.

Mac shows up at the cabin and meets the gorgeous Beth and suddenly all their best intentions are tossed out the window as sparks fly. The heat between them is instant and intense. Two people least interested in being a couple could take coupling to a level that will give them both an entirely new home for the holidays.


Architect Jason Monroe doesn't know the meaning of Christmas spirit. He's too busy keeping the family home out of the hands of the bank, running herd on his younger brother, and competing fiercely with brilliant architect Zoe Anders. The beautiful, brilliant Zoe who makes his pulse race as often as she annoys him.

When the senior architect at the firm challenges all the associates to come up with a dazzling design to land a whale of a client and offers a choice promotion as the prize, everyone in the room knows that Jason and Zoe are the two he's really speaking to. They are the best at the firm. Now they'll be pitted against each other far more directly than they ever have before.

As Christmas approaches, neither Jason nor Zoe are having much luck with their designs. Little did either of them know that a few helpful elves...Jason's brother being top mischief-maker...have conspired to push them together over the holiday break. Two brilliant architects stuck in one snow-bound cabin on Lake Tahoe for Christmas. By the end of their stay they'll either have killed each other, or realized that a little bit of collaboration...in all things...is even better than a visit from Ol' St. Nick.


Five years ago their dreams and ambition sent college sweethearts Cleo Daire and Josh Goodson in two different directions, ending a relationship that had meant everything to both of them. But they made a deal. They would meet up five years from that dark day to catch up and see if there is still something between them.

Josh loved Cleo but his duty was to his family. Cleo hated seeing Josh subjugate his dreams but wouldn't try to stop him from following his heart, even as hers was broken.

Now it's five years later and Cleo's career is hitting a great stride. Josh's life is over a thousand miles away. She didn't even know if he would remember their promise. He had. It was almost all he thought about lately. Still, regardless of their chemistry or the feelings still swirling between them, the fact remains that she lives on one coast and he on another. And he's still falling in line with the bonds of obligation to his family business.

Still, could the magic of one special cabin strike gold once again? Is five years long enough for them to get another chance, or are they both too caught up in the lives they are living in the present to worry about what could have been in the past?


I don't read many anthologies. Too often I find the stories uneven and the overall expense not worth the hit-or-miss reading from story to story. Still, I was feeling festive this holiday season and decided to devote some reading time to four of the holiday anthologies that were available. So begins a short jaunt down a frosty lane bedecked with holly and fragrant boughs of pine, twinkling lights, hot chocolate, hot sex, and, of course, love.

The premise for this contemporary romance holiday anthology, the cabin-of-love in Tahoe, connects each of these three seasonal novellas and gives them a sense of cohesion that goes beyond the holiday theme. Authored by three widely popular writers, each story is well written. All three are creative craftsmen when it comes to building their plots and getting their characters together in the limited and limiting space allotted to them in their individual novellas.

For me, though, neither the sense of cohesion nor the quality writing was enough to fully entertain me over the span of the three stories. Jill Shalvis' novella, The Christmas Setup, was my personal favorite, though as she's one of my favorite authors for light romance, that's wasn't a huge surprise. Her novella was a little sweet, a little spicy, and had some humor that made me smile. The first and third books in the anthology didn't have the same amount of appeal, but not because they're poorly written - they're not. The problem I had with each was the literary tropes they featured.

The anthology spans three holidays and the novellas span three separate tropes. Thompson's The Thanksgiving Fix is a lust(love)-at-first-sight story that has the main characters having sex within hours of meeting each other and working out the logistics of happily ever after two days later. That's one of my least favorite tropes in romance fiction because it's so rarely written in a way that I can believe. Maybe I'm a cynic...no, I know I'm a cynic...but I have no faith in the permanence of the relationships in these cases. And color me prudish, but shagging someone you've just met is neither romantic to me nor particularly festive...it does, however, put the 'ho in the Ho-ho-ho.

Shalvis tackles the enemies-to-lovers trope in The Christmas Setup, and that was another element in its favor, because it's one of my favorites in the genre, right behind the friends-to-lovers trope. I wasn't totally thrilled with the conclusion to the story; I wish the job had gone the other way and I would've liked a more detailed picture of the resolution of Jason's financial issues, but I enjoyed this novella quite a lot.

The New Year's Deal features the second-chance romance. Kenner's novella was probably the most expansively developed plot, and I don't have a problem with second-chance romance per se, but I never warmed up to Cleo in this story. She seemed fairly selfish and unbending in the initial breakup between her and Josh and she never really improved for me as the story went along. Plus, second-chance romances don't work so well for me when I actually read the first chance going splat. I find it depressing, and depressing in a holiday novella doesn't exactly keep my chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Unfortunately, this holiday anthology sort of exemplifies why I don't read many of them. Three great authors whose books I've read and enjoyed, three novellas surrounding three separate holidays, and three popular tropes for the genre, yet I couldn't quite engage with all three stories. Still, there's that whole festive thing, and I've got three more anthologies to go on my journey to a very Merry Christmas.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Animal Magnetism, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 304 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


What I Needed, When I Needed It

Family obligation could be a pain, but Brady Miller could no longer ignore his brothers' cajoling, bribes, and pleas to get him back to Sunshine, Idaho, the small town in which they had shared a foster home when they were teens. His brothers - maybe not by blood, but in his heart - call Sunshine home. Brady doesn't. In fact, Brady doesn't call anyplace home. He goes where he wants and does what he wants, and so long as he's got a helicopter to fly and places no sane man would consider flying it, he's as content as any man could hope to expect.

Still, those brothers of his nagged for years, and then they started to play dirty. Return to Sunshine and get his hands on a sweet chopper they had picked up to help them with their veterinarian clinic. That's the only reason he finally let himself be dragged back to Sunshine. He's not there to stay. He never, ever stays. Anywhere.

He can't say his first trip back in more years than he could count is going particularly well, though. Not after his truck is rear-ended while harmlessly parked at the convenience store. And he hasn't even made it to his brothers' clinic yet.

Lilah Young is mortified by the accident and more than a little concerned. Money is particularly tight right now. She could barely afford to feed herself, so paying for the damage wasn't going to be easy.

At least the guy whose truck she hit seems fairly understanding and unfazed by the box of puppies, baby potbelly pig, and leashed duck that tries to make a break for it when she gets out of her Jeep. He's a tall, rangy, handsome man, for sure, and his looks alone definitely perk up Lilah's pulse. Living in a small town like Sunshine meant most men in town were her life-long friends, but Brady Miller wasn't the sort who looked liked he had female friends...just satisfied lovers. Very well satisfied lovers.

No reason not to act on mutual attraction that she could see. Besides, Brady wasn't going to be around long enough to threaten her heart and she could use the sort of threat to her body a man like him could provide.

Something about Lilah appeals to Brady deep inside, to an area that feels suspiciously close to his heart, and her enthusiasm for a short term relationship is better than he expected. Though...she could have looked a little less content with the idea of him leaving in a month. And he isn't fond of all the male attention she draws in this small town of hers...still...it's for the best that she not get too attached to him. It wasn't like he was going to be around for long.

And really, there's nothing wrong with just enjoying their inherent animal magnetism.

Ever start reading a book and feel like both your mind and body relaxes as you get into it? Or...uh...is that just me? Well, whether you have or not (or if I need therapy or not), it's a great feeling. Sometimes I go looking for that feeling, using it as sort of a mental palate cleanser between books of darker or more intense themes. There are a few authors I consider a fairly sure bet for those sorts of reads - the light, sexy reads that I know, even before I start, will at least have a smooth story without a lot of emotional ups and downs, then provide a gushingly happy ending.

Jill Shalvis has become one of my go-to authors for this sort of read. I love her characters and find her stories fun and easy to read. There is always great chemistry between the male and female leads, and each has just enough depth and internal conflict to keep the characters three dimensional and interesting but minus the angst and emotional torture that some authors are so good at inflicting on their characters. Those can be compelling, absolutely, and I love angst and emotional torture as much as the next gal, but sometimes I just want...well...high calorie, high octane brain candy.

Animal Magnetism is what I call some delicious brain candy.

And, okay, I have to admit, I have a particular weakness for books that feature male characters who get exactly what they want (or have always wanted before), then get disgruntled when they find out it's not as satisfying as they thought it would be. Brady knew he was leaving from the start and is totally on board with Lilah's short term relationship suggestion...then, as the story progresses, he gets a little surlier every time she seems so calm and unconcerned whenever the subject of his leaving comes up. Stuff like that amuses me every time.

The story was the sort of quirky, light fun that sets Shalvis apart as a favorite of mine, and I thoroughly enjoyed the menagerie of pets we see in it. I easily related to Lilah's career and issues with fostering animals, and there is something I find inherently appealing about a helpless guy falling for a silly little dog. I'm a total sucker for animals in general, and in books they are a great source of emotional connection for me, so of course the backdrop of the vet clinic and the boarding kennels were a big hit. All combined, the story arc and setting really worked for me, more so even than several of the other Shalvis stories I've read.

I did have a couple of issues of various severity, one a major continuity conflict. On one page just prior to chapter nine, Lilah was holding Twinkles, then set him down, and another dog, Lucky, sniffed him and curled up with him. Less than two pages later, at the start chapter nine, the dog was back in her arms and Brady took him from her and set him down, then snapped his fingers at Lucky for him to join the pup. It was a fairly blatant error in the narrative and it snapped me right out of the story.

There was also a distressing amount of missing quotation marks in the Kindle version I read. It made it difficult to follow the affected conversations or know when it had started. If I was reading an ARC I wouldn't mention it, assuming it was something that would be caught before release, but I read the published Kindle version. The blatant continuity conflict should have been caught in an editing phase and the missing quotation marks should have been fixed before commercial release.

Those issues don't take away from the fact that I've been needing to just relax with a book, to not have to think too hard, or suss out subtle plot points, or worry about context and meaning. I wanted some sexy banter, hot and likable characters, a few sizzling sex scenes, a conflict that wasn't too conflicting, and a sure-bet happy ending. I can't express how happy I am that I got exactly that from this fun - and a little furry - book.

Getting exactly what you want in a book exactly when you need it the most? Priceless.

Quotables:

You look fantastic today. I especially love the sarcasm and attitude you're wearing.

Is that your favorite question, 'why'?.
Yes. Right after "Are the donuts two-for-one today?"

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 384 Pages, 5534 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle



She may look like a Southern Belle who has it all together, but only Tara knows just how tightly she's wound inside. Being back in Lucky Harbor, the site of the most painful time in her life, has tied her up in knots since she showed up six months ago following the death of a mother she never really knew. Now Tara is working herself to the bone with her two half-sisters, one a veritable stranger and the other a wild child she's tried and failed to control, just trying to get their jointly-owned Inn up and running so she can wipe her hands of the place, the town, and the man who was once a boy who meant everything to her.

Ford has worked hard for the easy, uncomplicated life he leads. He owns a bar with his best friend, races his boat when he feels like it, and never wants for female companionship. Ever since Tara breezed back into town, though, and set about patently ignoring him and their painful past, Ford has been uncharacteristically unsettled and suddenly yearning for things that are completely foreign to him. He let her go seventeen years ago because they were just children when she got pregnant, and giving up their baby, giving him up and running away, had been what she needed to do. He was no good for her then. He isn't any better for her now.

But his mind and his heart disagree on that one. Vehemently.

Getting her back in his arms may not be the right thing, but for Ford, it's the only thing that matters, and when Tara's ex-husband shows up intent on reclaiming his wife, things in his noisy little town take a turn towards the absurd. Soon there are Facebook updates, Tweets, and pictures posted, and everyone in town is voting in a poll to see which man Tara chooses. He's betting on himself, but unless he's betting for forever, Ford could very well lose the only woman who ever mattered.

Almost as charming as its predecessor, Simply Irresistible, Shalvis has brought her readers back to the quirky seaside town of Lucky Harbor and reaquainted us with the three sisters who have come to put their mark on the place and make lives for themselves...even if it is against their initial intentions. In the first book, we got to see Maddie, also known as the mouse, find her roar, and in this one it's up to Steel Magnolia Tara to let go of some of her world-class control issues and embrace her vulnerabilities if she's going to find happiness and peace in her life.

I've got to hand it to Shalvis, she has a gift for creating contemporary romances that are light, flirty, and sassy, that have some humor and a dash of absurdity, that heat up the sheets and redden the cheeks...but that also touch upon serious and significant issues along the way. The emotional damage and detritus from teen pregnancy and ramifications of giving up a child for adoption were handled deftly and as realistically as could be given the tone of the book. Like with Maddie's past abusive relationship, the issue added depth and complexity to the plot and the definition of the main characters without dragging the book into maudlin territory.

I didn't feel Tara was as likable a character as Maddie, though. Normally I'm a huge supporter of the strong, intelligent female lead - which Tara was, but she also stomped over the line into hypocrisy a couple of times and that's a big turnoff for me. You don't get to be the one who tells the guy to get out after explaining why any sort of relationship won't work, then be disappointed when he leaves. You don't get to be the one who left and blame the guy for not chasing after you. That kind of stuff is just not cool for me. Snaps me out of the story like a slap upside the head every time.

She and Ford had great chemistry, though. Great chemistry. I liked Ford a lot, and he was satisfactorily burdened by his own commitment issues and too-laid-back lifestyle. That added depth to his character and kept him from being too perfect. And some of the most poignant, the most heart-clenching moments of the whole book were when he was interacting with Mia. For personal reasons, I'm a total sucker for those sorts of scenes.

I do wish there had been more time allotted to the sisters together. I would have given up a sex scene or two for that - there certainly were enough of them. There didn't seem to be as much of the sisters working together, being together, spending time with each other, as there was in the first book, and the absence, of Maddie in particular (though I sure don't begrudge her time with Jax), was keenly felt. I did, however, like the strengthening and evolving bonds between Tara and Chloe.

And about Chloe, who has fascinated me since her introduction... I'm dying to see Shalvis pit the Wild Child against the bulwark that is Sheriff Sawyer. There were several little gems of character evolution and burgeoning conflict between Chloe and Sawyer in this book and they offered some really great moments. I have great expectations for when they go toe-to-toe in their own book.

Though personally I slightly favor Simply Irresistible, I enjoyed the second chance romance of Tara and Ford in The Sweetest Thing. Shalvis remains a preferred author of mine, her books offering a wealth of entertainment. I've come to trust her for the sort of breezy, sexy, light contemporary romance - with a bit of bite - that I most prefer.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Bare Essentials; Harlequin Blaze
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 256 Pages, 2911 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Shortly after her high school graduation ten years ago, Cassie Tremaine Montgomery kicked off the provincial dirt of Pleasantville, OH and headed to NYC to be someone. She had been considered a wild child, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, the daughter of the town wanton. All she wanted was to escape poverty and keep her heart safe from the sort of betrayal and hurt she suffered at the hands of the town, and most notably the town sheriff. In the ten years since, she became a wildly successful lingerie model, earned wealth and fame, and had built an impenetrable shield around herself, keeping her vulnerabilities and insecurities safe behind a mask of urbane sophistication. Until a stalker shook her to her foundations and sent her fleeing to Pleasantville for safety, and maybe just a little revenge on a town that had turned its nose up at her all those years ago.

Sheriff Sean 'Tag' Taggart is through with high maintenance women, and at thirty-two, is looking towards his future with a comfortable wife who will be a partner and helpmate to him. When the calls start coming in about one Cassie Montgomery being back in town and stirring up trouble, he does what any self respecting law man would do, gives her a ticket and denies the instant, sizzling attraction. He recognizes that the prickly, obstinate woman is the exact opposite of his fantasy woman. A few years older and several classes ahead of her in school, he never paid much attention to the rumors about her being wild, but he could easily see the trouble in her eyes now. Still, something about the tense flash of pain when she sees him in uniform draws him closer, and soon he realizes that her chilly response to him and her brash exterior hides a deep well of old wounds and a soft heart.

She's resistant to anything but a good time, he's intent on forever, but no amount of incendiary chemistry will be able to save them when their past slams into them and strips away all the masks, walls, and preconceptions.

What a great Blaze! It offered up quite a bit more story than I expected. Yes, the sex is smoking hot, and the characters are sizzling together, but in traditional Jill Shalvis style, there's also a surprising amount of depth and a wealth development given to the characters to flesh them out nicely and provide some decent pathos.

Tag wasn't as complicated or messed up as Cassie, true, but I favor romance in which the male lead is the one looking for forever and the woman is the one that's cagey about settling down, and his issues with his father - while perhaps glossed over and underdeveloped - provided a few nice layers to his character. He wasn't perfect, thankfully, and there were a few times he acted like a jerk, which kept him human, certainly, but he was a generally decent guy and I liked how clearly he saw through Cassie to the special woman beneath the glamor.

Cassie, on the other hand, was truly a flawed character with no small amount of bitterness over a past that wasn't as unkind to her as she remembers. She drags her past around with her, memories of poverty and ridicule are painfully fresh, and she wears the heavy yolk of her mother's indiscretions like an ermine stole. As a result, she has built up a 'shoot first, ask questions never' sort of personality, so much so that the concept of simple friendship is utterly foreign to her. Normally that would make a character pretty unlikable for me, yet there was something about Cassie's genuine confusion and sort of adorable befuddlement over the smallest kindnesses that was appealing and tugged at my heart.

Tag's attempts to connect with the heart of the woman provided a lot of nice conflict as they both evolved and their life goals slowly changed to make room for each other. Of course, they had plenty of smoking hot sex during the process, but it's a Blaze - I'd be disappointed if they didn't.

My only real issues with the book were an abrupt and rather pedestrian epiphany that Cassie has after a single conversation with her mother and the underdeveloped and unnecessary stalker plot thread. It was superfluous and served as more of a predictable and boring distraction than an interesting companion to the romance. The book could have thrived just as well with Cassie's issues had Tag's character been given a little more internal strife or the thread with his father been expanded.

Regardless, this was a totally likable book that offered more depth in both the characters and the story than I've seen in other Harlequin Blazes. It was a surprisingly satisfying, if less complex read by one of my preferred authors for light, humorous contemporary romances.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance
Series: Pacific Heat, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 336 Pages, 5215 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Pacific Heat publicist Samantha McNead is tasked with cleaning up the image of Major League Baseball's bad boy catcher Wade O'Riley after a paternity allegation from a stalker hurts the team's image and risks a valuable conservative corporate sponsor. To do so she and Wade are going to have to pretend to be in an exclusive relationship for a month, no matter how uncomfortable that thought makes her given their incendiary past and the memory of an erotic episode in an Atlanta elevator months ago.

A memory...and a man...that Sam just couldn't make herself forget.

He survived a childhood of abject poverty with an alcoholic father who was distressingly negligent. Hard work got him into college, more hard work and a gift for baseball saw him through and gave him a future, but left him forever marked by his past. Since the money started rolling in, Wade lives his life in as fun and easy a manner as possible. He gives to charities, financially supports causes, and sends buckets back to his father to pay for his health care. But light, fun, easy - those are more than words, they're his life's mantra, and the one thing Wade never gives to others is a true piece of himself. He keeps himself hidden behind a face of carefree insouciance. He's happy that way.

If there was one night months ago that might have broken through the walls he keeps so firmly in place and rocked him a bit deeper than he was comfortable admitting, well...it's not like Sam ever has to know. And who cares if he hasn't been with another woman since that hot Atlanta night? That's a personal choice. Really. Hell, if he was going to be stuck with a month of a pretend relationship with Sam, he was man enough to make the best of it, especially when just looking at the woman still sets all Wade's internal fires burning.

The problem is a month with Sam may just have Wade yearning to steal home. For life.

This second book in the Pacific Heat series is even more charming than the first, with all of Shalvis' skill in matching two complementary, likable characters with heat and passion. Wade was surprisingly complex, though such a stereotypical male in so many ways. He's scarred by his past, wounded deeply by his father's alcoholism, and yet as generous as he can be even as he protects his heart from the pain he knew as a child. His struggles with emotional maturity made for appealing reading and the culmination of his efforts were endearing. And he's mostly oblivious to it all. But charmingly so.

Sam was a smart, strong professional woman in a man's world. She more than holds her own, she commands respect and admiration in her job. Her personal life, though, has suffered. Being the only woman in a family of powerful men has given her backbone, but has forced her to sacrifice maybe a little too much of her heart. A fact she realizes when her ten year old nephew Tag is unceremoniously dumped on her and he's a total stranger to her. Shalvis did a really nice job developing Sam, rounding her out without compromising on her professional career.

The concept of the plot was a little silly, sure, and the thought that one of the owners of a MLB team would essentially prostitute his daughter for corporate sponsorship is more than a little gross. I also have a hard time believing that a month of fake relationship would achieve the intended objective, nor was I able to completely buy into the idea that it could be successfully pulled off in this day of public persona voyeurism. The lack of attention given to Sam's obviously flawed family situation bothered me, and the fact that Sam's detestable brother never got any sort of comeuppance was a tragedy. Call me vengeful, but that guy needed a serious kick in the athletic supporter.

The romance of Wade and Sam, though, and the subplots of Wade and his dad and Sam and Tag, were all very well done and fun to read, and full of genuine emotion that ran the gamut. I did think the end of Slow Heat was very abrupt, and I would have loved one more chapter or an epilogue or something, but overall it provided plenty of the sort of light, satisfying romance reading that I've come to absolutely count on when it comes to Shalvis. Her books are just flat-out fun to read. They're full of sexy heat, intense emotion, and well written story, and offer up the sort of characters that are most pleasant to spend time with. I fully expect I'll be spending my time with more of Shalvis' characters soon...and often.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: N/A; Harlequin Temptation
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 218 Pages, 2584 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Samantha O'Ryan lives life on her own terms. She surfs when she wants, owns her own beachfront sandwich place, and lives a simple and easy-to-maintain lifestyle above it. She dates casually when she wants, goes where she wants, buys what she wants. The only thing she can't do is bake brownies. And she's tried. Repeatedly. She doesn't do relationships - her choice. Losing her parents at a young age scarred her and she's never felt comfortable with commitment. The only two people she's close to is the uncle who raised her as best he could and the best friend she's had all her life. She'd do anything for either of them.

That's the only reason she ends up agreeing to a blind date even though her best friend Lorissa has set her up for some real  doozies. There was begging. And pouting. And puppy dog eyes. She caved. When Jack Knight knocked on her door, though, it appeared her blind date luck had significantly improved.

Jack "Scandal" Knight retired from a highly successful basketball career after a crippling knee injury a year ago. Surgery gave him back the ability to walk, but years as the media's bad boy had him shunning the spotlight since then. Only a dedication to his sister and a desire to help her cause to aid underprivileged children caused him to need a date to a fundraiser. He didn't have high expectations for the blind date...or any, really. By the end of the night, though, he was smitten with the free spirited Sam. He knew he was in real trouble when her intention of keeping things casual bothered him in ways it never had before. Convincing the gun shy woman that he wanted to be in this for the long haul could prove more debilitating to his heart than a career in the NBA ever was to his body.

This light contemporary romance has all the earmarkings of a traditional Jill Shalvis novel: likable characters in realistic situations overcoming personal issues on their bumpy road to love. It lacked a little of the depth and complexity of some of her longer books, as one would expect, and I would have enjoyed a little more depth in both the characters and the plot, but Seduce Me does very well for itself as a Harlequin Temptation book.

I had a hard time warming up to Sam, though. I don't know if it was just that I had difficulty relating to the surfer girl who wears her bikini under everything from the ballroom to the bedroom and dumps any guy who she gets close enough to sleep with, or if I thought her character definition wasn't enough of an explanation for her personality, but something just didn't quite click with me in relation to her character. There were moments I liked her a lot, especially when she was helping out with the kids, but other times she left me cold. Jack, on the other hand, was the total pleasure package. He was an endearing charmer, especially when he was trying to learn to surf or calling Sam every day just to talk.

There isn't much in the way of groundbreaking fiction here, but it's a sweet, endearing romance that developed nicely over the course of the book. The characters were sufficiently developed and I appreciated the scenes where they were apart and dealing with secondary and ancillary characters, as it gave me a good glimpse of them outside of the parameters of the romance plotline. There were nice touches, like the daily phone calls and the dunking booth, that really made me smile, and I was pleasantly surprised that the affection between the characters was solidly based on genuine friendship and mutual admiration as opposed to simple lust. All in all a nice, pleasant, feel-good read without much in the way of surprises or serious conflict.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: N/A; Harlequin Flipside
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 224 Pages, 2496 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Despite her blond bombshell looks and family hotel dynasty, Kenna Mallory worked hard to get herself through college on her own dime after giving up her family's money to live life on her own terms. The last thing she wanted to do was step back into the ultraconservative family fold and take on the position of co-VP of her father's newest acquisition, but for the first time in her life, her father has asked her to accept the position for six months, not commanded. As the first and probably only chance Kenna will get to add a little personal color to her family's dour palette while finally gaining a little respect for her abilities, the offer is too good to pass up. She's even willing to put up with the sure-to-be-grim Mr. Weston Roth, a man with whom she will share position and power.

Wes is seriously put out and more than annoyed that the pampered princess daughter of the owner is being foisted off on him. He's been dedicated to the Mallory hotel chain for years and has worked his butt off to get to the position of VP for one of the new crown jewels, and the last thing he wants to do is vie for promotion with an airhead goddess flitting around on Daddy's dime. His first impression is quickly dashed, though, when Wes realizes that there is a keen brain and a dedicated workhorse behind the gorgeous face and colorful clothes, and Kenna's ideas for the hotel are both employee- and company-friendly as well as financially sound. Not to mention there's just something about her that gets Wes focused on all sorts of possible mergers and acquisitions.

What starts out in tense acrimony and false impression quickly grows into mutual respect and heated admiration, and a yearning beyond anything either Kenna or Wes expected.

I enjoy the light, fun romances of Jill Shalvis. She has a pleasant writing style that combines humor and romance, touches on serious themes to differing degrees, and provides solid entertainment. Natural Blond Instincts was no different. I thoroughly enjoyed Kenna's character, and appreciated that Shalvis stayed away from cliche and skirted stereotype with her blond bombshell, and didn't overly belabor her character's skill and financial acumen. It kept Kenna from being a joke. Yet there was just enough in Wes' reaction to her to touch on the very real stereotypes of money and beauty in corporate industry without being overdone.

There was a nice balance in the plot between Kenna's work at the hotel and the search for her joy, but I wish we'd seen a little more from Wes' point of view beyond his attraction to Kenna. He was slightly more one-note than I've seen in other Shalvis protagonists, and we didn't see much of him outside the job. I did appreciate that the arc of the romance didn't get bogged down in an overabundance of melodrama, however, and aspects of the journey to HEA were charming and endearing.

This was a shorter-length novel, and there were aspects of the plot and the flow of the story that were hampered by that shorter length, but it was a fun romance with many feel-good moments. It also provides readers unfamiliar with Shalvis' books a pleasant representation of her style and talent.