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: 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
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: Lucky Harbor, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 336 Pages, 4955 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Maddie Moore is through being a mouse and is determined to finally find her roar. When the breakup of an abusive relationship resulted in the loss of her job and a major kick to her self esteem, Maddie pulled up stakes and headed to Lucky Harbor. There she finds the inn left to her and her two half-sisters by the mother she never knew, a flighty woman who had never been a presence in her life. If she can convince her rigid elder sister and her wild-child younger sister to not sell the inn before she can renovate it and turn it into a business, Maddie may just secure the significant change her life so desperately needs.

From the moment Maddie accidentally ran Jax Cullen off the road on her way into town, he was intrigued by her. Then she showed up at the bar he co-owns with a childhood friend and almost killed his bike - again. Despite her having it in for his poor motorcycle, there's something about her that tugs at him. Utterly charmed and a bit out of his element, he's floored when he finds out about her tragic past, and deeply admires the moxie she's showing to triumph over it.

Maddie quickly worms her way into Jax's head and heart, but the better he knows her, the more he dreads her finding out more about him. Jackson Cullen III has a few secrets that could threaten their budding relationship and the risk of telling them all compromises more than just his personal privacy. Some secrets just aren't his to tell. But for the sweet Maddie, struggling valiantly against her problems with intimacy and trust, those secrets just might be the death knell for any sort of lasting romance. And Jax knows that, too.

Simply Irresistible is a charming, robust romance with thoroughly likable characters. Maddie is particularly sympathetic as the middle child and the glue that holds her reluctant-to-be-held sisters together. Despite the wounds from her past relationship, which were, sadly, all too realistic, she perseveres and with a fierce will intends to get back the pieces of herself lost to cruelty. Jax has his own baggage, and his relationship with his father is lamentable. He's a genuine good guy on a grand scale, though, and his own quest to regain pieces of his soul lost to his past is well written and believable. He could have easily slipped over into too-good-to-be-true territory, but Shalvis allows for some peccadilloes in his character that keeps him from treading too far over that line. Their chemistry burns up the pages and their personalities seal the deal.

Shalvis didn't skimp on other aspects of a fantastic read, either. Secondary and ancillary characters were unique and well defined, the town of Lucky Harbor had a lot of quirky personality, and the plot had enough layers to really sink into. The aspects of the plot surrounding the three sisters and their relationships, along with their work with the bequeathed inn, reminded me of Nora Roberts in a lot of ways. Some of my favorite Nora Roberts books are the similarly-themed trilogies, so it's a favorable comparison. There was also a genuine humor and a touching poignancy in this book that enhanced the storyline and added a surprising amount of depth to the plot.

There were some small oddities in the track of the relationship between Maddie and Jax that I didn't quite follow, and the path to their HEA got a little muddled towards the end for reasons I'm not wholly certain I believed. The development had been feeling very natural and organic to the characters until some admittedly expected conflicts arose, and I'm just not completely certain those conflicts were as realistic as the rest of the storyline seemed to me. There was also one scene in particular with Maddie and a Ferris wheel that was entirely too cliched for my tastes, and the big reveal about her elder sister's secret was neither big nor particularly revealing, as that plot twist was easily observed on its approach from early on in the story.

Truly, though, those were minor issues and didn't take much away from a very enjoyable and at turns funny and heartwarming story of two people who really are much better together than apart. I'm quite pleased that the next book in this series, The Sweetest Thing (A Lucky Harbor Novel), will be available April 1st, and have already pre-ordered it. I enjoyed the light, fun, and touching combination of style and substance that Shalvis has offered here and look forward to more.