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I really enjoyed book 1 in this series, Instant Attraction. Book 2 was even better!
I loved seeing how Emma, an uptight doctor from NYC who is in wishful to run her dad’s practice while he recovers from a heart attack, slowly opens herself to the mountain community of Wishful, and in the process also falls for Stone. She tried so hard to not connect, yet was unable to resist despite her efforts. Her story really resonated with me, and by the end, I had a lump in my throat reading the last few pages. (You must understand: I’m not a very sentimental reader, so this really said volumes to me about Jill Shalvis’ skills. )
Stone was wonderful. Very much a hero who was much more than the ski bum Emma first thinks he is. As the book progressed, Emma gained insight into what made him tick, and I was right there with her. I so appreciated how, once Stone recognizes what his feeling are for Emma, he doesn’t agonize over them. He accepts them and moves forward.
I also enjoyed the secondary romance. Usually, these secondary love stories detract from time I would rather see spent with the main characters, but in this case it really didn’t. Rather, the other couple mirrored a lot of the same issues that Stone and Emma struggled with, and allowed for some great insights into their relationship.
I’m used to seeing the male in the character to “the grovel” at the end of a book. In IG, (I hope it’s not giving to much away) Emma does the grovel, and it’s the best example of one I’ve read in a long time. Full of “awww’s” and sighs.
Such a rewarding read!
Honestly, I’m not crazy about this cover. The guy seems too smirky for me, but I LOVE the cover for book 3, Instant Temptation, (TJ’s story) which won’t be out till April 2010. ::sob!::
- Jill Shalvis’ site.
- Excerpt on author’s site. (Scroll down.)

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Treasure Keeper (Drákon series, book 4) by Shana Abé
I SO wanted to like this book. I’ve really enjoyed the previous 3 books in the series, and had really been looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, a lot of the story just didn’t hang together for me.
It actually started off really well, using Zoe’s journal to set the story. However, very quickly a lot of her decisions were perplexing for me. In the end, I think a lot of it came down to an overload of “telling” instead of “showing.” It resulted in my feeling disconnected from the heroine.
Also, I just didn’t get her relationship with Hayden (not the hero, but her fiancé for a lot of the book.) She kept acting out of deep feelings for him, but I never really bought them. The same went for him. They never showed his feelings for her. Most of the time he acted distant. I was actually really surprised when another character mentioned he had noticed Hayden’s desire for her. Could have fooled me.
Even her relationship with Rhys, the hero was conducted in a very detached way. I just never bought her feelings for him, which was unfortunate, since his felt so true and genuine.
This was a big bummer for me, but I liked the series enough, that I stuck with this one to the end, and will try the next one in the series. That one will be a deal breaker for me as to whether or not I keep on reading the series.

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Just what the doctor ordered! This book was such a fun, light read. I smiled through most of it. JQ is such a smart and insightful writer. There were moments when I wanted to punch the air and shout “Yes!” with joy.
However, rather than do a real review, which was done so excellently over at The Book Smugglers, I just wanted to share a scene, which was written so perfectly and stopped me for the truth it revealed in Olivia’s and Sir Harry’s relationship.
After a rocky start, Olivia and Harry develop a friendship of sorts, partly due to the fact that he’s been ordered by the War Office to watch her and a Russian prince who has been courting her. Something happens that makes her very uncomfortable with the prince, and she doesn’t know how to handle it, because she knows that she must continue to socialize with him. Her immediate reaction is, “I must tell Harry about this.”
This moment so effectively demonstrates the shift their relationship has made. Without agonizing (or, yes, angsting) on her part: Should she say something, or shouldn’t she? What will he think? etc., she knows she can trust him, and he will help her. It is an instinctive gut reaction on her part.
When she does tell him, he quickly thinks of an ingenious way to help her. He doesn’t give her a hard time about having to see the prince socially. He just acts in a supportive way and gives her what she needs.
The reason this really spoke to me, was that it so reminded me of something I went through with my guy. At the time, we were dating. Most of the 2 years we dated, we were 3000 miles apart, I in California, and he in Vermont. (He left for grad school about 2 months after we started dating.) It was tough to fall in love, and almost immediately have to see him leave. It was an endurance test in trust and our feelings for each other.
About 6 months into his program, he developed a close friendship with a woman who was a fellow student. I wasn’t really concerned about it, since he’s always had lots of women friends. We were friends for 5 months before we started dating. During that time, I met a number of his friends, many which were women. A lot of them became my friends. Because of our previous friendship (before he might have any desire to make me think he was other than a nice guy to hang out with,) I knew he wasn’t a player.
Anyway, one weeknight he called me out of the blue from Vermont. (This was unusual, because we were both poor students, and were limited to once weekly calls on Sunday nights. The rest of our communication was through written letters, since this was in the dark ages before email was common.) He was obviously very upset, and told me about what happened with his “friend”: she invited him over to watch some dvds, and while they were sitting on the couch, she made a pass at him.
So, I asked, “So, what did you do?” (Trying to use deep breathing to stay calm.)
And, he said, “I got out of there as fast as I could and called you. I knew you’d know what to do.”
This was one of those “moments” every relationship has. It revealed so many things about the kind of person he is, and about the relationship we had. It told me I could trust him, cause any guy that’s going to play around is not going to think to immediately call his girlfriend for advice. It told me he trusted me not to fly off the handle and bitch him out. (Though we did have a conversation about how people in relationships can’t operate with exactly the same set of rules single people have.) It told me that we had was more than just a “right now” relationship with potential for much much more. Ninteen years later, I guess we were both right.
Well, back to WHiL. For me, this scene became so much more than just a moment of drama, whatever Julia Quinn’s intentions were. To me, it said volumes about both Olivia and Harry, and where their relationship could go — even before Olivia realizes where their relationship is heading. And, this all happens without operatic drama, because not all big moments in one’s life are dramatic.
So, thank you, JQ, for such an enjoyable book, and for a reason to revisit what, in the end was an opportunity for me to revisit what became a sweet memory from my past.

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