At Last by Jill Shalvis

In the last couple of months I've seen Jill Shalvis (on twitter) pop up all over my Google Reader (in the romance reading parts, anyway.) I added a couple books to my endless TBR list and picked one up at the library but never got around to reading it. My contemporary romance author knowledge is fairly limited (Nora Roberts, Susan Mallery, Robyn Carr, a couple Harlequin authors) and I've been burned by authors that "everyone" loves (Rachel Gibson I'm looking at you.)  But then last week I remembered NetGalley and went looking for something to add to my reader. For reasons unknown, I requested At Last by Jill Shalvis. And I loved it. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.

Shalvis has a very contemporary voice, she writes like I talk. I loved this. When Nora Roberts pulls out the F-bomb or adds a bit of crudeness to a book it seems just that- crude. Out of place and added for effect. I don't appreciate that. Somehow though, when Shalvis used the F-bomb it seemed pretty natural (and for those of you who hate it at all, it's not often, maybe twice). Her characters really thought and talked like I do and I really liked that.

That said, this particular romance had some flaws for me. I loved both Matt and Amy (ok, especially Matt) but I didn't completely buy the falling in love. It is likely this is because this is the 5th Lucky Harbor novel and if I'd read them in order I'd have had more background to prepare me, more interaction before this point, but as a standalone I didn't quite buy it. I loved the interaction with the guys from the various novels (I always do) but felt a little annoyed by the gimmick in the girls friendship (Chocoholics, lame and tired.)  However, these flaws won't stop me from reading another Shalvis and it's likely that I'll request the rest of the ones on NetGalley as well. I'm happy to have found a new author and really hope that she holds up for me.


(One question on ebooks- it consistently said this book was 253 pages long, but looking on Amazon it's a normal length romance -352 pages. Is this something I'm going to have to learn to ignore?)

Source: NetGalley