Nobody but You by Jill Shalvis (Cedar Ridge #3)

When a Jill Shalvis comes up on NetGalley I can't hit "Request" fast enough. Sadly, Nobody but You didn't begin to compare to the previous book in the series, My Kind of Wonderful.

SOMETIMES YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN . . .
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 painful 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 brooding, 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.

I was SO excited for Jacob's book. I was certain that his would be the fourth, and last, in the series, with the younger sister coming next and then wrapping the series up with Jacob's return home from overseas. So when I realized that Jacob would be next I got all excited and couldn't wait to see how Shalvis was going to bring him home. I even read the preview at the end of the previous book, which I never, ever do!  I did ultimately love Jacob and Sophie, and felt like his homecoming was well done, but I didn't love the way the series itself wrapped up. It seems as though the sister, Kendra, won't be getting her own book, and the precarious position the resort is in is wrapped up in a pretty bow.

But about the love story! Jacob is everything I wanted.  He's wounded from war, and finds it impossible to believe that his family wants him back. His heart leaps at every slight bit of hope from his brothers, especially Hudson. I  could feel just how much he wanted them to want him. Parallel to this, he meets and befriends Sophie and while there is a ton of sexual tension there, he also really just wants to be around her. She's not part of his family or his past and he can really relax and be accepted for himself.  I can't say that I loved his behavior surrounding him mom during his absence- it's meant to paint him in a good light, but I feel like it made him a bit of an ass to his siblings.

Sophie is a hot mess. A hot mess who made a rash decision that ends her living in the most miserable place ever. She's a hard worker, and determined to get out of her mess, but it's hard to believe she's as hard up as presented. First of all, she has no housing payment, how is she always scraping up the $20 to moor her boat? I loved the way she turned her work experience into a steady job by the end, but it seemed like too much too fast and I didn't completely buy it.

Did I believe in the relationship? Actually I did. Jacob really needed the outsider, a place where he felt relaxed and accepted, and for-god's-sake Sophie needed someone to ground her a bit. They both get a bit stubborn by the end, and some things are just a step outside of believable, but I did ultimately like them together.

My biggest complaint of the book is that the last 25% seems to squeeze in all the other resolutions- the sister, whose story I REALLY wanted, and that of how they fix the resort's problems. It's possible that she'll write a fourth book, I guess, but it seems like she's already tied up all the ends. Despite this, I'll keep reading everything Shalvis writes, and keep hitting that Request button without even reading the description.

If you're interested in reading the entire Cedar Ridge Series, there's a Rafflecopter giveaway <--right here="" p="">

About Jill Shalvis

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill's bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

Jill’s Social Media:

Website: JillShalvis.com

FB: Facebook.com/jillshalvis

GR: https://www.goodreads.com/JillShalvis

T: @jillshalvis

IG: @jillshalvis

P: https://www.pinterest.com/jillshalvis/

Buy Links

Amazon: amzn.to/1nJOatw 

B&N: bit.ly/250OcyR 

IndieBound: bit.ly/22gObop 

iTunes: apple.co/1TJDOYH 

GooglePlay: bit.ly/1RKiLPz 

Kobo: bit.ly/1QTy644 

My Kind of Wonderful by Jill Shalvis

So this has been a tiring week. My kids still don't sleep and now I've sabotaged myself TWICE in one week with romance novels. The first was a Julie James title, and last night was My Kind of Wonderful by Jill Shalvis. (Er, last night as I'm writing this, but I'll be scheduling this post for the release date. Hopefully when you read this I won't be as tired. HAHAHA, riiiiiight.)

Here's the summary:
UNEXPECTED AND UNDENIABLE . . .

Bailey Moore has an agenda: skiing in the Rockies, exploring castles in Europe, ballroom dancing in Argentina. Now that she has a second lease on life, she's determined not to miss a thing. What she doesn't realize is that item #1 comes with a six-foot-one ski god hot enough to melt a polar ice cap. She doesn't want to miss out on him either, but Hudson Kincaid isn't the type of guy to love and let go. And as gorgeous as Cedar Ridge is, she's not planning to stick around.

As head of ski patrol at his family's resort, Hud thinks he's seen it all. But never has he run into someone like Bailey. She might look delicate, but her attitude is all firecracker. And her infectious joy touches something deep within him that he's been missing far too long. Now he'll just have to convince Bailey to take a chance on her biggest adventure yet . . . something rare and all kinds of wonderful.

Oh Hudson. I love you. I wish you were a bit less stubborn, but I love you.  When I read Aidan's story I thought that he was going to be the brother who always had to be in control of everything, but nope, turns out it's Hudson. (Meanwhile Gray, the older brother who you'd think would be the in control one can only think about getting it on with his wife, which frankly got a little old.) Hudson blames himself for everything that goes wrong, for reasons that are at time fairly unclear. He takes the blame for his twin disappearing after high school and believes he doesn't have the right to be happy until he gets Jacob back. This is ridiculous, and everyone but him knows it, but that's his main stumbling block in a happy relationship.

Meanwhile Bailey has really just starting living after spending much of her life too sick to dream and while she believes that Hudson is just one more check mark on her list of living life fully, she's quickly coming to realize that what she suggested is not what she wants. Bailey really has no reservations, once she figures herself out. While she's stubborn and it takes a bit for her to get over Hud's stubbornness, she always does. She's easy going and understanding and possibly makes things a bit too easy for Hudson.

The attraction is clearly there, and the intimate moments are well done. I love that Hudson firmly believes Bailey when she tells him she's ok, and doesn't ever treat her like a fragile flower who can't DO things just because she was sick before. The one thing that doesn't stop him at all is her health and her future health- she tells him she can handle it, that she's ok, and he accepts what she says without coddling her. Like I said, I stayed up WAY too late to finish this one up and read the entire book, start to finish, last night. This hasn't happened in a very, very long time.  I am so happy to have a great Shalvis series after the end of Lucky Harbor, and I'm enjoying this new cast of characters. I can not wait for Jacob's story, which turns out to be next (I really thought they'd save him for last, but it looks like we're going in age order of the siblings.)

My Kind of Wonderful comes out today.

Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

Shall I just skip this first part and remind everyone that I just always read all the Shalvis? I don't need to repeat how I automatically request all her titles, do I?  Ok, good. Moving on!

Here's your summary, from Goodreads:

Cedar Ridge, Colorado, is famous for crisp mountain air, clear blue skies, and pine-scented breezes. And it's the last place Lily Danville wants to be. But she needs a job, and there's an opening at the hottest resort in her hometown. What has her concerned is the other hot property in Cedar Ridge: Aidan Kincaid-firefighter, rescue worker, and heartbreaker. She never could resist that devastating smile . . .

The Kincaid brothers are as rough and rugged as the Rocky Mountains they call home. Aidan has always done things his own way, by his own rules. And never has he regretted anything more than letting Lily walk out of his life ten years ago. If anyone has ever been in need of rescuing, she has. What she needs more than anything are long hikes, slow dances, and sizzling kisses. But that can only happen if he can get her to give Cedar Ridge-and this bad boy-a second chance . . .

Second Chance Summer is the start of a brand new series from Shalvis now that her Lucky Harbor series has ended. This one starts with the Kincaid family, who own a struggling resort.  Ten years ago Lily left town after a series of devastating accidents, for which she blames herself, but now she's forced to return home in search of a new start.

Sadly, Second Chance Summer did not hit it out of the park for me. It was still enjoyable, and hit all the trademark Shalvis notes, but I never really connected with or enjoyed Lily at all, which made the book less than enjoyable. I understood where she was coming from and why she blamed herself for the past, but I just didn't like her. Aiden is all in from the beginning. He never expresses any hesitation about falling for Lily.  So for me it turned into a really great guy falling instantly for an unlikable girl, and wasn't a winner.  This doesn't mean that I'm not completely in on the next book in the series, and I can't wait to see what Shalvis does to salvage the resort.

Second Chance Summer was published on June 30th.