carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

I really enjoyed every minute of this story. I am pretty sure that this is the first book by Jill Shalvis that I have read which is pretty amazing when you consider how many books she has written and the fact that I am constantly reading. I honestly don't know how I have missed her work. I guess I have a little catching up to do as soon as I get the chance.

This is one of those rare cases when I can tell you exactly the one thing that made me love this book. That one thing is Aiden. He is just a fantastic character and I loved absolutely every single thing about him. If I lived in Cedar Ridge, I would probably get myself lost in the woods just so he could come and save me. Every page that Aiden was on left me smiling. All I have to do is think about this hot firefighting guy and I still find myself grinning. It has been a really long time since I fell head over heels in love with Hero like this.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Lily as well but she was no Aiden. Lily had some spunk and was able to accept what life had brought her. She wasn't happy about her situation but she tried to make the most of it. The way that she dealt with the issues from her past felt authentic to me and I have to admit that I would not have handled gathering my own wood nearly as well as she did in this story.

I loved all of Aiden's family and his firefighter partner, Mitch. I think that sometimes romance novels can get bogged down by too many additional characters but every single character that was introduced in this book actually added to the story. The cast of characters in this story added a lot of lighthearted humor which really made the book a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to seeing some of these characters again in future installments.

I liked Aiden and Lily as a couple. I liked the fact that this was a second chance romance with both of them still having feelings for each other. I think in this case the fact that they were both hesitant to jump into anything really showed how much they cared about each other. In some ways, their relationship seemed to move very quickly but they still held something back from each other. I did like the way the romance progressed overall.

I would recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance. This is the first book in the new series by Jill Shalvis and it is a great place to start for readers new to this author like I was. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book which I am really hoping will tell Mitch's story.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.