There are great characters in this light, sexy romance.
Nobody But You (Cedar Ridge)
by Jill Shalvis
File Size: 549 KB
Print Length: 465 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 29, 2016)
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
ASIN: B0112T4YJA
Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0
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.
Review:
Sophie is recovering from an ugly divorce. She really didn’t want anything from her cheating ex, Lucas, but when the Judge pushed her she claimed the one thing Lucas cared about the most – his boat. It doesn’t matter that she gets seasick and now she has to walk or bus to work and pay mooring fees. She keeps moving at night to docks of abandoned cabins until a gorgeous hunk, Jacob, catches her at the dock of the cabin he just rented.
While trying to resist Jacob, Sophie is working all over town as a temp until she can figure out what to do with her life. She is also trying to dodge Lucas who is a big man lawyer about town.
Meanwhile, Jacob is an alpha military man on bereavement leave that has him wanting to heal his personal life. He has returned home for the first time in nine years to face his twin and his half brothers and sister. Jacob expects to be rejected or to at least have to eat humble pie to get them to agree to let him become part of the family again.
Sophie runs into Jacob a couple of times with a clear chemistry zing each time. They soon agree that it might be safe to have a fling. After all, she is off men – mostly, and he is on temporary leave so he can promise not to fall -- so he thinks. But Jacob has never experienced a sassy, sexy domino like Sophie. And Sophie has never had such a capable man give her encouragement to stand on her own. Together they are combustible! Will Jacob commit to returning to make Cedar Ridge his home? Can he convince Sophia to risk her heart again?
This is full of light, fun dialogue and smokin’ attraction plus. I’d say about fifty percent of the story is sexual interaction between Sophie and Jacob which was fun but not what I want to read so much anymore. Fortunately, there is a strong relational story going on within Jacob’s family that adds to the conflict, love and humor.
This is the third book in the series but worked fine as a stand-alone. The characters are wonderfully real and the whole tone, beyond the insecurities, is warm and affirming. I enjoyed this fast paced read and recommend it to readers who are looking for a quick excursion into a light, sexy romance.
I received this title through NetGalley for an honest review as part of a tour event. This qualifies for NetGalley Challenge and N in Alphabet Soup Challenge.
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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
IG: @jillshalvis
EXCERPT:
She eyed the bench a long beat but did eventually sit, perching primly as far from him as she could get and yet still be close enough to grab the bottle.
Smart woman.
She took the Scotch and drank. Her eyes watered and she coughed as she handed it to him. With a sigh, she leaned back to study the night sky. Her bared throat was slim and creamy smooth. An unexpected temptation. Remembering the flash of pain and vulnerability she’d unwittingly revealed, and that for whatever reason he’d somehow added to it, he spoke. “I’m sorry.”
She glanced at him as if she’d never heard a man apologize before in her life. “For…breathing?” she asked. “Having a penis? What?”
“You were upset because you didn’t know I was a Kincaid.”
She sighed. “That was just me looking for a reason to be mad at you so I wouldn’t…”
She bit her lower lip, clearly not wanting to go on.
But now he had to know. “So you wouldn’t what?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just that I’m trying to make better choices.”
“Of which I wouldn’t be one.”
“It’s not necessarily your fault,” she said. “It’s that you’re a man.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“And I’m off men right now.”
“And on…women?” he asked with admittedly more than a little fascination.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m on no one, but thank you for proving my point on men.”
“I get that,” he said. “But being off men doesn’t seem to be making you very happy, or sound like a whole lot of fun.”
“Maybe I don’t need fun.”
He understood that. He’d felt the same way since Brett died. “What do you need?” he asked, honestly wanting to know more about her.
Instead of answering, she reached for the bottle. He waited until she met his gaze before letting go.
“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly. “Everything’s…perfect.”
“And your glass is half full,” he said. “So you’ve said.”
But he didn’t believe her. “How about a game?”
“I don’t play games.”
Now, that wasn’t exactly true. Whether she knew it or not, she’d been playing with his head since he’d first laid eyes on her. “Three truths and a lie,” he said.
She stared at him. “As in you tell me three truths and a lie, and I pick out the lie?”
“Yes.”
She considered this. “What do I get if I win?”
“What do you want?”
For the briefest of beats, her gaze dropped to his mouth.
Oh, hell yeah, he thought. Want me…
“My first boyfriend taught me that game,” she said.
“What did the winner get?”
“A kiss.”
Definitely still playing with his head… “Is that what you want, Sophie? A kiss?”
Again she stared at his mouth before dropping eye contact and wrapping that eye-stopping pink robe tighter around her body. “Do you?” she asked.
“Hell yes.”
Her gaze flew to his.
“Problem is,” he said conversationally, “if I kissed you, I don’t think I’d be able to stop.”
Her mouth literally fell open. The pulse at the base of her throat jumped. And she seemed to lose her words.
He went on. “But you should know, I don’t lose. That means you’ll have to tell me three truths and a lie.” And he’d hopefully get to know more about her.
She closed her mouth to bite her lower lip in what could’ve been indecision or excitement. Obviously he was hoping for the latter. “But hey, if you’re not sure you can handle losing, we can just forget about it,” he said.
The challenge lifted her chin and put sparks in her eyes. That’s it, babe. Show me what you’ve got.
“Bring it,” she said.
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