Stirring Up Trouble by Kimberly Kincaid

There's something about a book about books or authors that always gets my attention.  I think this is probably true for most readers, and definitely true for book bloggers. Stirring Up Trouble is about a romance novelist, which is exactly fitting for a romance novel.

Here's the summary:

Looking for inspiration

Sloane Russo's turned a decade of crazy jobs and whimsical travel into a career writing steamy novels set in exotic places. Trouble is, Sloane's flat broke now--and she can't channel sun-drenched beaches in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The only fast cash in town comes with some seriously distracting temptation: Gavin Carmichael, hot, handsome and oh-so-hard-headed.
Gavin isn't the impulsive Don Juan of Sloane's novels. He's raising his thirteen-year-old half-sister, and he's pretty sure he's supposed to act like he's never heard of fun. Sloane is way too sexy and irresponsible to be his idea of a good tutor for Bree, but the unpredictable anti-nanny may be irresistible as well. . .

I won't lie, Sloane and Gavin both start off as incredible prickly, unlikable heroes. I was really questioning my desire to try new authors and was wondering where to go to next now that my old favorites were starting to phone it in. Fortunately I persevered and ended up really loving Gavin. I never really came around on Sloane. I could see how she was a really fun person, and how someone would be really attracted to her, but I couldn't quite buy her as a trust worthy romantic partner. She made a few decisions that were glaringly bad and I spent much of the book, all the way to the conclusion, mentally screaming at her to stop.

Gavin has issues to work out with the death of his mother and his guardianship of his teenage sister and I felt like these were really well handed. He's clearly unsure and doing the best he can and making a ton of mistakes. I was really rooting for him and Bree and loved seeing their relationship develop and open up. I didn't feel like Bree was just an extra kid in the story, she really worked well to advance the plot and had a purpose in being there.

Did I ultimately believe in this romance? Yes, I did think that possibly it would all work out in the end. I didn't see the big swoony conclusion that I loved, but I liked it enough to know that I'd like to read another book by Kimberly Kincaid.

Stirring Up Trouble was released in October.

Source: NetGalley.