Published: 29th March 2016
Source: Publisher (Headline Eternal)
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Small Town Romance
My Rating:
Fans of Jill Mansell, Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts and Marie Force will fall head over heels for the Cedar Ridge series from New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis, featuring her trademark gift for humour, warmth and romance.
After an overseas mission goes wrong, Army Special Forces officer Jacob Kincaid knows where he must go to make things right: back home to the tiny town of Cedar Ridge, Colorado. All he needs to scrub away his dark past is fresh mountain air, a lakeside cabin, and quiet solitude. But what he discovers is a gorgeous woman living on a boat at his dock.
Sophie Marren has nowhere else to go. She's broke, intermittently seasick, and fighting a serious attraction to the dark, dishy, I'm-too-sexy-for-myself guy who's now claiming her dock. Something about Jacob's dark intensity makes her want to tease - and tempt - him beyond measure. Neither one wants to give any ground...until they realize the only true home they have is with each other.
Want more warm, funny romance? Don't miss the other delightful Cedar Ridge novels, Second Chance Summer and My Kind of Wonderful, visit spellbinding Lucky Harbor or experience some Animal Magnetism in Sunshine, Idaho in Jill's other unforgettable series.
Once more I ventured to Cedar Ridge with another book by Jill Shalvis and I will begin by saying I really enjoyed it. That was never in doubt, I feel like I should preface all Jill Shalvis reviews by saying I’m biassed and therefore you should acknowledge that if you’re not a fan of small town romance already you won’t learn whether or not to read this book from my review alone.
The Basics, What Made It A Bit Different?
Anyway, let’s begin with why I enjoyed it so much. I think part of it is that these are both characters we’ve seen nothing of before. Too often you can get a certain idea of characters in small-town romances based on the secondary role they play in other books. It was refreshing to read a book with completely new characters. Sure, we had heard all about Jacob in the past couple of books, the missing brother of the Kincaid family, but we hadn’t ever seen him until this book. You have an impression of him, but he’s been gone without any contact for years and people change.
Let me say, Jacob lives up to all expectations. He is a bit snarky, and a whole lot of hot. He is on leave from the Special Forces and he is looking to reconnect with his family when his biggest regret was losing touch with them and effectively orphaning himself. As for Sophie, she was an easy to relate to character. She is a woman coming out of a bad marriage who is trying to pick herself up and not looking to lose herself in another guy, instead, she wants to find herself.
I liked that both Sophie and Jacob weren’t looking for a romance or even a real connection. They both had their own plans when they came across each other and got far more than they expected Jacob was back in Cedar Ridge for his family and his family only, whilst Sophie needed to figure out who she was without losing herself in a man and trying to live up to their expectations rather than her own.
Basically, It Was Love.
The romance was absolutely perfect. I don’t always think this about romance series like this one, but each book has slowly gotten better. I initially thought that the first book was going to stay my favourite with its second chance romance, which is a soft spot for me, but then this book came along. I think I fell in love as soon as Sophie threw up by Jacob’s feet. As soon as I realised this was going to be about the people more than a simple romance. Basically, I loved this book and I think it was mostly because I loved Jacob and Sophie, and together they were perfect.
Have you read any of Jill Shalvis’s Cedar Ridge series? Do you have a favourite book of hers (there are plenty to choose from)?
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