Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

After the success of At Last, I ran to the library and scooped up every Jill Shalvis title on the shelf. Luckily, one of those was Simply Irresistible, the first book in the Lucky Harbor series. (I also requested books 4 and 6 from NetGalley, and got book 3 from the library, leaving me with a book 2 gap that I corrected with a $2.99 ebook for the Nook.) I was fairly worried that it wouldn't hold up and that At Last would be a fluke, but I wasn't disappointed. I pretty much read Simply Irresistible straight through to the end. Once again, Shalvis has a fresh easy style that matches how I think and talk and it never felt stilted or fake.

Simply Irresistible starts the Lucky Harbor series off by setting up a run of three half-sisters- Maddie, Tara and Chloe. Raised independently, they are thrown together by the inheritance of a rundown inn after the death of their mother. (Prepositional phrase anyone?)  Maddie has come to Lucky Harbor looking for a fresh start, she's lost her boyfriend, her home and her job and needs a place to recover. She's determined to make the inn a success, even when her sisters would rather sell and run. Jax is a local favorite, a jack of all trades. Maddie first runs across him as she almost runs over him, and then finds him tending bar, and then again when she drunk dials him for some construction contract work on the inn.

Maddie and Jax have immediate chemistry.  Things start off hot and heavy and then stay hot and heavy. When I read At Last I wondered if the book felt so fast because I'd missed the build up, but Simply Irresistible was also very fast. Maddie isn't in town a month before they are madly in love. (Oh, come on, not a spoiler. It's a romance novel fer cryin' out loud!)  Maddie and Jax are also much more fleshed out that Amy and Matt (from At Last) are, but Matt and Jax follow a very similar mold. Despite this, I enjoyed Simply Irresistible and had no hesitation about diving right into the next title, The Sweetest Thing .

For my thoughts on At Last, click here.