4.5 Smooches!

Synopsis

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

“I’m great. My glass is totally half full.”

Sophie Marren is trying hard to make better choices. Newly divorced, she’s not just out of a bad marriage – no, she’s out of a job, out of a car, out of a place to live… well unless you count her ex-husband’s beloved boat which was the only thing she got in said divorce. Trouble is, Sophie could get seasick in a bathtub, so living on a boat isn’t exactly ideal. Moving around the lake each night to find a “place to park” the boat is becoming old, too. One night she stumbles upon the dock at what she thinks is an empty house, and it’s there at that dock that Sophie finds not only a place to stay, but more than she ever bargained for.

“When he’d walked away all those years ago, he’d been a self-righteous prick. He didn’t want to be that guy anymore.”

Jacob Kincaid walked away from his twin brother, Hudson, and the rest of his family ten years ago following a terrible fight with his brother.  Without saying a word to his family, he left Cedar Ridge as as an angry 18-year-old and joined the military. In the wake of a devastating loss, Jacob returns home hoping to mend some fences and get his family back. He’s older, wiser and he knows firsthand just how short life can be. He misses his twin, he misses his siblings, and he misses Cedar Ridge. Finding Sophie moored illegally at his dock turns turns out to be just what he needed and more than he ever imagined as she helps him to not only breach the divide with his family but guides him to finding peace and healing as well.

“You’re being cautious.”

“I’m trying,” she said. “Join me, won’t you?”

But it’s not all smooth sailing. Sophie is certain that love just isn’t for her. After all, she never could get her father’s love and affection, which set her up to fall for the first man who turned his attention her way in college. Despite that man’s player reputation, she married him, and she quickly realized she’d never be enough for him. A loveless marriage, fraught with infidelity and verbal abuse, costs Sophie more than just her confidence and self respect. That relationship cements her decision that from now on, she’s keeping all relationships fun and light and everyone at arms length. It’s easier that way, and there’s less risk of her being hurt again.

“Stop looking in the rearview mirror and start looking out in front of you.”

Jacob is in Cedar Ridge to heal, emotionally, from his last tour. Losing the man who’d been like a brother to him these last ten years taught Jacob that life is too short and served as the reminder he needed that he does have a family, and it’s one he wants to be a part of again. So he’s also back in Cedar Ridge to try to repair the relationships with his siblings so he can come home for good after he finishes his final tour. He doesn’t have time for a relationship with a beautiful, feisty redhead, he needs to focus on his twin and his siblings.

“He loved her enough to let her catch up. He loved her enough to wait.”

Chemistry like Sophie and Jacob’s, though, is too palpable to ignore. They’re going to be smart about this, there will be boundaries – no one is falling for anyone they promise each other. If only their hearts were on board with that plan, though…  Will Sophie let her walls down and take a chance on Jacob? Can Jacob convince Sophie that he’s worth the risk and worthy of her trust – even in the face of a situation that makes it look like he isn’t?

“I love you, Sophie, just as you are. Not quiet, not calm, and most definitely not easy.”

I loved Nobody But You! This was such a great story about two people who were convinced that they were broken beyond repair, who thought that love just wasn’t for them, but when each was least expecting it, or even wanting it, they find something so special in each other, and it turns out to be exactly what they both needed.

Sexy and sweet, two hallmarks of every Jill Shalvis story, Nobody But You had just as many laughs as heart-string pulling moments. Always well written, Ms. Shalvis’ work, for me, is what every classic contemporary romance story aspires to be. 4.5 smooches from me!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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