Topic: Contemporary
Passion this hot can’t be faked…
All revved up for bright lights and steamy nights, writer Veronica Chandler chased her dreams to New York City. When she hit a dead end, reality sent her back home to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Saving her pride and her new gig—writing a relationship advice column!—requires some faking. No one can know the truth about her big-city flop or her nonexistent sex life. But the town’s irresistibly rugged librarian is determined to figure her out… and give her hands-on lessons in every wicked thing she wants to know.
Gabe MacKenzie’s heart might be in Wyoming, but secretly his future’s tied up in his family’s Manhattan legacy. Getting down and dirty with Veronica is supposed to give him a few memorable nights—not complicate his plans. But the thing about heat this scorching is there’s just no going back… and it might be too hot for either of them to take.
I don’t read a ton of contemporary, but some way, somehow, this was the series that reminded me about libraries, and got me into borrowing ebooks from the library.
I’ve enjoyed this series because it is about grown-ups, about women I could see being friend with and going out for a Girl’s Night with. But this particular book, it felt a little NA. We have two main protagonists who while a little older than the NA crowd, are still desperately trying to figure out their futures, and not being honest with their families or themselves about what they want.
The only thing that saved it for me was that it was punny and the banter was hilarous and dorkily hot. Plus, hunky male librarian? Yeah, that will cover a host of sins, including said hunky librarian being a lying, misrepresenting, polecat.
But the “Girls” are still a ton of fun and I can absolutely imagine girl’s night out with the bunch of them. The only problem is there’s not more page time with them.
What makes this story though is Veronica, she starts out so timid and afraid and SHE decides to grow and change and implements everything on her own and for herself. But since we readers already know that Gabe is a lying, misrepresenting, polecat, it just makes it kind of awful in a lot of instances.
In the end we have the power of love and change and the story was left on a we’re giving this a chance and not declarations of undying love and matrimony. So it DOES work, it just wasn’t completely successful for me. But it was well written, often very funny, ans the sex scenes were delightfully realistic (for the most part). It is worth the read if you are a fan of the series, but while it probably could be read as a stand alone, I don’t advise it because I don’t think it is the best of the bunch. Start with the first novella, it is the best.
I don’t know if this is the end of the series or not, but since I am still holding out for Jill’s book, I’m not marking this as a closed/ended series.
I loved this entire series so I’m hoping there are more in the hopper. You are so right that “hunky male librarian” will cover a multitude of other issues. Veronica and her friends were my favorite part of this book.
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I am always bummed out when Ms Dahl’s novels are mentioned/reviewed. I like her online personality; she’s funny, insightful and all around a ‘good egg.’ However, I have never been able to read through any of her books–something about the writing voice just doesn’t click for me.
Sad az is sad. 😦
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😦 I’ll agree that there is something about her writing style that doesn’t give me that thrill my favorite authors do. For me it is something about the friend relationships that holds it together for me, which is why I haven’t picked up her other series,they don’t seem to have the feature.
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The first VD romance I read, Talk Me Down, turned me right off. I found it crude and off-putting. I didn’t like the characters at all. I admit, however, that I thought the in-your-face-I’m-doing-rom-my-way ethos was finally controlled and I enjoyed Flirting With Disaster very much for that reason. Here, finally, was a rom writer who was in control of her material and let her characters breathe, let them move and speak for themselves. I thought that Taking the Heat, while I enjoyed it somewhat, was a regression to older, and less appealing, writerly habits.
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I haven’t read Dahl in ages. I liked some of her earlier books but her online persona puts me off (I am just commenting to be contrary, obviously!). This review makes me want to try her again. I like female friendships in romance a lot, but since I am not at all a Girls Night person, that vibe can put me off.
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It’s not so much wild and crazy girls night out as it is female friends hanging out. I’d stay with the first novels though, as I said it’s the best in my opinion.
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Great review! I haven’t read any books by this author. I’ll check them out. 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by!
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