He's So Fine by Jill Shalvis

I stayed up way too late three nights in a row finishing off the two most recent Lucky Harbor books- It's in His Kiss and He's So Fine.  This is tricky when one gets up at 5 am to go run. I. Am. Tired.  Was the worth it? HECK YES. I only wish that I'd had the third in the set on hand for when I finished this one up. (Note: I'm writing this review in July to be published in September. I'm guessing that I will still be tired by the time it publishes. Hopefully because I stayed up way too late to read the third book.)


Here's where we start with this one:

Description

For Olivia Bentley, Lucky Harbor is more than the town where she runs her new vintage shop. It's the place where folks are friendly to strangers-and nobody knows her real name. Olivia does a good job of keeping her past buried, not getting too cozy with anyone . . . until she sees a man drowning. Suddenly she's rushing into the surf, getting up close and personal with the hottest guy she's ever laid hands on.

Charter boat captain Cole Donovan has no problem with a gorgeous woman throwing her arms around his neck in an effort to "save" him. In fact, he'd like to spend a lot more time skin-to-skin with Olivia. He's just not expecting that real trouble is about to come her way. Will it bring her deeper into Cole's heart, or will it be the end of Olivia's days in little Lucky Harbor?

Wow, look at that! The description is fairly accurate on this one- depending on your definition of "trouble."  The trouble in this case is more of a mess of her own making than anything like a stalker or building fire.

He's So Fine starts off with Cole and Olivia in the most intimate way possible, without actually getting intimate. After Olivia leaps into the freezing water to "rescue"  him, Cole's only possible response is to take her on the boat and get her nekkid. So she doesn't freeze, of course.  The first two chapters are really well done, with both Cole and Olivia making the best of an awkward situation that is made even more awkward by the appearance of Sam and Tanner on the boat. I literally laughed out loud at one moment, sitting in the hallway at work.

Cole is Mr. Fixit. He takes care of everyone and fixes everything. He's much like McGuyver in his ability to weird a screwdriver and duct tape. When he comes to believe that Olivia is broken, his every instinct is to fix her too. He is slow to realize that her personality has her taking care of him in return, probably because he's slow to realize that he needs taking care of at all. Cole has a really bad relationship in his past, one that he's tried very hard to move on from, and to not hold against future relationships. However, this also has made him see things in black and white, with no shades of gray. So when it comes out that perhaps Olivia has misled him a bit (a lot bit) about her past, he absolutely does not take it well, and is not willing to listen to her.

Olivia grew up with an entirely different life, and an entirely different name. She doesn't really intend to lie to Cole, but by the time she realizes that this is more than just the man working next door, it's too late to take back her lies. Unfortunately, the lies she told will absolutely come out one day, so she's constantly aware that they are on a countdown to when he walks away. She falls in love in a panic, because she can't think of a solution and she knows everything will crash. And it does.

With the help of their friends, they both come to realize where they went wrong, and they both do a bit of public groveling. I found both of their reasoning to be solid and believable, but wished all the way for Olivia to stop digging her hole deeper. She knew from fairly early on that she should 'fess up, and while I could understand why she didn't, it didn't make me not want to shake her. I stayed up way too late to finish this one, just like the last, and really wished I could just continue on to Tanner's book.

He's So Fine will be published on September 30th.