An HQN Trio: Novels from Mallery, Morgan, and Ridgway

Before We Kiss

By Susan Mallery

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: May 27, 2014

Since a history of bad luck with women had him taking a hiatus from romantic entanglements, Sam Ridge planned on spending the evening of Valentine’s Day alone. His plan changed when he saw Dellina Hopkins smile. They spent one incredible night together, but the sight that greeted Sam when he opened the door of a spare bedroom in error sent him fleeing into the night. A room full of wedding gowns and a dry-erase board list headed “Ten Ways to Get Him to Propose” terrified him so much that he spent the next five months avoiding Dellina. Unfortunately, she’s the only party planner in Fool’s Gold, and Sam needs her help to organize a three-day party his PR firm Score is hosting for clients. Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe Sam’s situation.

Dellina Hopkins is not a one-night stand kind of girl, but former football star Sam Ridge was hot enough to cause her to make an exception. The time they share is the stuff of fantasy, but Dellina is less impressed by Sam’s hasty departure. She knows she shouldn’t enjoy his discomfort so much when, after months of silence, he has to seek her out to request she plan the Score party, but she does. She anticipates how foolish he’s going to feel when he learns that the wedding gowns belong in Paper Moon Wedding Gowns, Isabel Beebee’s shop, and the list to Dellina's sister Fayrene. But Sam’s discomfiture is all she can enjoy. It doesn’t matter how strong their chemistry is, Dellina doesn’t get involved with her clients.

Mallery gives her readers another emotionally satisfying story in this tale of two people who are more interested in right now than in forever until their hearts persuade them differently. This is a novel filled with humor (Sam’s irrepressible mother and her inability to accept boundaries is a hoot) plus ample sizzle and the warmth and interconnections that are characteristic of Fool’s Gold. Thumbs up to another winner from Mallery.

Suddenly Last Summer

By Sarah Morgan

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Sean O’Neil loves his family, but he prefers to limit his contact with them. His life is centered not at Snow Crystal Resort, the family business in Vermont, but in his orthopedic surgery practice in Boston. That changes when Walter O’Neil, grandfather to Sean and his brothers Jackson and Tyler, suffers a heart attack. Sean plans to spend a short time in Vermont, oversee his grandfather’s first days at home after his release from the hospital, and then return to Boston and life as usual, but when his help is needed to see that a new restaurant at the resorts opens on schedule, he extends his stay. Family loyalty is a factor, but if he is honest with himself, he knows that it is the resort’s passionate French chef Élise Philippe who has him building a deck and spending too much time remembering the moments he shared with her during an earlier visit.

Élise is a passionate woman. She is passionate about her job and about the O’Neils who, from family patriarch Walter to teenage Jess, have become her family, but she is doing all she can to contain her passion for Sean O’Neil. Deeply scarred by her past, Élise ferociously protects her heart from romantic entanglements. Let her staff drool over the sexy, shirtless Sean O’Neil as he builds that deck. Élise will focus her energies on ensuring that last summer’s passionate encounter remains an unforgettable but not-to-be-repeated experience. But when the two are constantly in one another’s company, an emotional intimacy develops that intensifies the physical attraction that is stronger than all their determination to avoid long-term commitment.

 If you are a fan of contemporary romance and have not read Sarah Morgan, do yourself a favor and rush to your favorite bookseller to find this book. Nobody is better at creating characters so real they seem like friends engaged in relationships that, while high on sizzle, still develop in a credible fashion. Sleigh Bells in the Snow was one of my favorite contemporaries of 2013, and Suddenly Last Summer is just as good. I’ve already read Tyler’s book, Maybe This Christmas (an October 29 release) and loved it. I give this series my highest recommendation.

Take My Breath Away

By Christie Ridgway

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: May 27

Poppy Walker is one stubborn woman. Her siblings may be convinced that a family curse prevents them from doing anything with a dozen run-down cabins that the Walkers own, but Poppy is determined that her vision and sweat equity will be enough to transform the cabins into a revenue-producing enterprise that will help support her and her five-year-old son Mason. The two weeks that her son is on a visit to Disneyland seems the perfect opportunity to make a dent in the required renovations. Poppy hopes to have the cabins ready for summer rental, but when a clearly wealthy flatlander shows up wanting to rent a cabin and offering quintuple the going rate, Poppy can’t say no, even when all her instincts tell her that this stranger with the electric-blue eyes is dangerous.

Ever since the tragedy that devastated his family four years ago, former teen idol and current movie executive Ryan Hamilton has found the month of March torturous. All he wants is a sanctuary where he can hide from the world—particularly the celebrity-stalking press--and prevent himself from doing something crazily destructive for the next few weeks. The secluded cabin in the mountains of Southern California seems perfect for his purpose. Now he just needs to control his interest in Poppy whose natural beauty and total ignorance of who he is make her difficult to ignore.

Christie Ridgway combines sweet and sexy in this first book in her Cabin Fever series. Poppy and Ryan are opposites in every way. She is a sunny optimist with deep roots in her small community; he is a haunted man whose fame and wealth do little to help him escape his demons. But circumstances throw them together. Although each has reasons to avoid relationships, neither can deny the attraction that blazes between them. A secondary romance between Ryan’s brother Linus and Poppy’s cousin Charlotte (Charlie) adds interest. Although there’s nothing extraordinary about this book and some readers may find a kidnapping thread a bit over-the-top, Ridgway fans and other readers who like their romances heavy on charm and heart-tugs will enjoy this book and look forward to the next book about the Walker siblings.


All these books are part of a series, a description that applies to most of the books I read. I’m a series addict. Do you share my addiction, or would you like to see fewer series and more single books?


Note: Since I am late posting these reviews, I am moving the final post at Just Janga to tomorrow, Friday, August 1.

Wild Iris Ridge

Wild Iris Ridge

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Lucy Drake has returned to Hope’s Crossing. It’s certainly not what she planned to do, but when her high-powered career as marketing director of a top software company crashed as spectacularly as it had risen, she had nowhere else to go. Subleasing her condo and packing up all her worldly belongings, Lucy left Seattle for Hope’s Crossing and Iris House, the silver baron mansion and home of her great-aunt that had sheltered a rebellious teenager seventeen years ago when Lucy’s emotionally distant father and stepmother had been delighted to find someone else to accept responsibility for a troubled adolescent. Annabelle opened her home and her heart to Lucy, and Jess became not just Lucy’s cousin but also her best friend. Annabelle and Jess are gone now, and Iris House belongs to Lucy. Maybe she will fulfill Jess’s dream of turning the house into a bed and breakfast, or maybe she will sell it. Either way, the house will give her a bolt-hole while she figures out what to do with the rest of her life, that is, if she doesn’t burn it down first.

Fire Chief Brendan Caine is astonished to see Lucy Drake when his department answers a call to Iris House late one April night. He’s grateful it’s only a chimney fire that his team can contain. Somehow chaos seems to follow in Lucy’s wake plus Brendan always feels stupid and awkward around her. She may have been his late wife’s relative and best friend, but even though Jess has been dead two years, Brendan can’t forget that Lucy thought Jess could have done better than tie herself to a “dumb jock.” Then there are his kids, Faith and Carter, who adore their Aunt Lucy. Brendan has no doubt that Lucy loves them as well, but he also has no doubt her presence will disrupt their peaceful routine. But he takes comfort in the thought that Lucy’s stay will be a short one in Hope’s Crossing will be short.

Lucy is unsurprised to find Brendan less than welcoming. Despite their shared love for Jess, animosity has always simmered between the two of them, with Lucy telling herself Brendan was more muscles than brain and Brendan telling himself that Lucy is a self-important, career-centered city girl who likes to boast of her achievements. Lucy is surprised the next morning when she confides in Brendan about her job loss, and Brendan is surprised at his impulse to comfort Lucy. These are just the beginning of the surprises in store for them.

Their mutual love for Faith and Carter forces them into one another’s company often enough for them to get to know one another better, often enough for a powerful attraction to grow. But Brendan is uncertain if he’s ready to make a commitment, and there’s the question of whether Lucy can settle in Hope’s Crossing. Of course, the citizens of Hope’s Crossing are not shy about expressing their opinion about the twosome. Lucy’s situation is complicated by an extended visit from her half-sister Crystal who is a near-clone of Lucy’s attitude-burdened teenage self. Throw in a couple of puppies who need a loving home, and you have the makings of a new family--or an emotional disaster.    

Wild Iris Ridge is the seventh book in the Hope’s Crossing series. There is nothing groundbreaking in this book, but it offers the likeable characters and warm, realistic setting that have made Thayne a favorite with many readers. Brendan is one of the sons of the appealing, large-hearted Dermot Caine, whose own romance moves forward in this story. Lucy has long been a favorite with Dermot, so predictably he approves of a relationship between her and Brendan.  

I have grown weary of the commitment-phobic hero who runs away from the heroine only to have an epiphany that his life without her is worthless. I found it refreshing that Brendan’s reluctance to commit is rooted in his lingering grief over Jess’s death and in his conviction that Lucy will never settle in his small town, a conviction based on a decade of her largely avoiding said town. I also appreciated that Lucy’s return is not a flight from the evil city to the perfect small town. Hope’s Crossing is not perfect, and Lucy’s return made sense because home is where many people instinctively head when their life falls to pieces. Thayne not only makes me like Brendan and Lucy; she also makes me believe in them.

Nine-year-old Faith and five-year-old Carter are not paper-doll kids. They too behave in believable ways, and each has a distinct personality. Teenage Crystal is an interesting character in her own right, and helping her is part of Lucy’s growth. Readers who have followed the series will likely enjoy the glimpses of other Hope’s Crossing characters, whose appearances seem more organic than contrived.

Although Wild Iris Ridge is not my favorite book in this series, it is another satisfying visit to one of my favorite fictional small towns. It can doubtless be read as a standalone, but I recommend that you read the series.

This novel marks the end (at least temporarily) of a series I have enjoyed without exceptions, and I’m sad to leave Hope’s Crossings. However, I’ve already read Snow Angel Cove, the first book in Thayne’s new series by the same title, and the hero is Aidan Caine, brother to Charlotte (Willowleaf Lane), Dylan (Christmas in Snowflake Canyon), and Brendan. Hurray for connections even amid change!

Thayne, like Robyn Carr with her Grace Valley, Virgin River, and Thunder Point series, links a popular series to a new one. Some call it good world building; others call it smart marketing. What do you think?

The Beekeeper's Ball

The Beekeeper’s Ball

By Susan Wiggs

Publisher: Harlequin

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Isabel Johansen is feeling overwhelmed. She wants the wedding she is planning to be perfect in every detail. Not only is it the wedding of Tess Delaney, the half-sister Isabel has only recently discovered, and Dominic Rossi, a long-time neighbor and family friend (The Apple Orchard), but it is also a prelude to the opening of Isabel’s destination cooking school. Once Isabel dreamed of becoming a celebrated chef at an elite restaurant, but she has exchanged that dream for one rooted in the place that has been her home and her sanctuary for all her life. The discovery of a family treasure has given her the funds to turn Bella Vista, the family hacienda near Archangel, California, into a place where she can teach people to cook, using her recipes made with ingredients grown locally, most on Bella Vista land, and share the beauty of Sonoma country with her students.

Her desire to use Bella Vista products sends her to the beehives. When she finds a hive swarming, she puts on the beekeeper’s protective gear and prepares to capture the hive, hoping that expert help, which she has requested via text, will arrive in time. She thinks her hope has been realized when someone shows up. Unfortunately, the someone is not a bee expert but a stranger, one moreover who is allergic to bee stings. The need to administer an epi-pen and get the stranger to medical help ASAP take precedence over Isabel’s other concerns.

Cormac O'Neill is a man accustomed to danger. He just didn’t expect to encounter it on a peaceful farm. An award-winning investigative journalist who has covered stories in some of the world’s most volatile spots, Mac, sidelined temporarily with a knee injury, has agreed to write the story of Magnus Johansen, Isabel’s Grandfather and a hero of the Danish Resistance. Mac expects to remain at the farm just long enough to gather the information he needs from Magnus, but he falls under the spell of the lovely Isabel, the food she prepares, and e beauty and serenity of Bella Vista.

As Magnus tells Mac the story of the Johansen family in Denmark, of the disappearance of Magnus’s parents, of Magnus’s activities with the resistance during World War II, and of Eva, Isabel’s grandmother, and their immigration to America, Isabel and Tess discover family secrets that have been protected for decades. But even as Magnus reveals these long-held secrets, Isabel and Mac work to keep their secrets buried.

The simmering awareness that exists between Isabel and Mac deepens into a relationship that changes both of them. Mac reawakens Isabel’s sense of adventure and spirit of fun, and Isabel has the nomadic Mac considering what it would be like to see all four seasons in one place. But is even love enough to make possible a happily ever after between a man who never stays and a woman who cannot bear to leave her home.

The second novel in Wiggs’s Bella Vista series offers the same strong sense of place that characterized the first book. The scenes and the scents and the textures of life at Bella Vista give the reader the sense of having visited this idyllic spot. Both Isabel and Mac are likeable characters, and watching them fall in love is a delight. They have enough in common to enable the reader to believe that more than their desire for one another unites them, and yet the difference between Mac, a diplomat’s son who has spent his entire life wandering the globe, and Isabel, whose heart and memories are inextricably entangled with Bella Vista, is great enough to cast doubt on a happy resolution.

Magnus’s story is compelling and poignant on many levels, and it contributes to the richly developed theme of the intrusion of the past on the present. Readers who enjoyed The Apple Orchard will be happy to see more of Tess and Dominic. Some threads are resolved, and others are left tantalizingly unresolved. One particular twist Wiggs tosses in left me beyond eager for the next Bella Vista book.


Sometimes a book that leaves me wondering what now irritates me. Sometimes it fascinates me and makes me impatient for the next book. How do you feel about loose threads and cliffhanger endings?

Home to Stay

Home to Stay

By Terri Osburn

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: May 1, 2014

Willow Parsons thought Anchor Island would be just another out-of-the-way spot that would offer a temporary refuge in her journey to outrun her past. She never expected it to feel like home. But with the Dempseys treating her more like family than like just the assistant manager of their bar and grill and Beth Chandler and Sid Navarro teaching her just how great it is to have best friends, Will is beginning to feel as if she belongs in this place. She is even wondering if she dares to stay. Only Randy Navarro makes her uneasy. At first, it was that his size made her uncomfortably aware of things she would rather forget, but she’s has slowly come around to accept that Randy is indeed the gentle giant his sister proclaims him and poses no threat to Will’s physical wellbeing. Now it’s the effect he has on her brain, her libido, and maybe even her heart that has Will reminding herself of all the reasons she can’t afford the complications that a romantic relationship would bring.

Randy Navarro, owner of Anchor Adventures, which provides watersports instruction and equipment to tourists, and Island Fitness, Anchor’s only gym, is an adrenalin junkie, a super-size knight with a protective streak to fit, a big brother who changed his life to take care of his kid sister, and an all-around good guy. He’s straight-talking, tender-hearted, patient, and tenacious, and he uses all of those qualities to persuade Will that she is safe with him, safe enough to take down her walls and open her heart.

Just when an HEA for these two who really deserve one is within their grasp, an ambitious reporter exposes Will’s identity, and Will reverts to a familiar pattern of behavior—she runs, leaving behind Anchor Island, the friends she cherishes, and Randy. Can Will learn that some things are worth taking a stand and fighting for? Can Randy forgive that she left him with only a note?

I loved Anchor Island from my first glimpse of it, and I have only become fonder of it with each book in the series. The setting has a warmth and a realness that only the best small-town series attain, and the characters are people with whom I enjoy spending my time. Home to Stay is my favorite. Will is a phenomenal heroine who demonstrates that love can heal even the deepest wounds and give the wounded warrior the strength to fight and win the necessary battles. But Randy is the reason this book is my favorite. He is true to type and yet distinctly individual—and a testament to Osburn’s talent. Only a third of the way into 2014, and I’ve read an unusual number of books with extraordinary beta heroes. Randy tops my list. In fact, I rank him right up there with Quinn Hunter (Till the Stars Fall, Kathleen Gilles Seidel), Blue Reynard (In the Midnight Rain, Ruth Wind) “Preacher” Middleton (Shelter Mountain, Robyn Carr), and Cam Early (Red’s Red Hot Honky-Tonk Bar, Pamela Morsi) as my five favorite contemporary beta heroes.

If you like contemporary romance that blends a generous serving of sweetness with just the right amount of spice and wraps it in genuineness and likeability, you will love Home to Stay. And although readers can’t stay on Anchor Island, they can return at least one more time. I just hope Randy Navarro is around when I make that return trip.

Let’s talk betas. Do you like beta heroes? If so, what contemporary heroes are on your list of favorites? If not, I’d love to introduce you to some that I bet can change your mind.

Falling for Owen

Falling for Owen

By Jennifer Ryan

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: April 15, 2014

Owen is the older of the former Wild McBride brothers. He was the first to refuse to be controlled any longer by his past and to turn his life around. Once he had his law degree in hand, he returned to his hometown to practice and to help Rain Evans bring up his nieces (The Return of Brody McBride). Owen is happy that his brother and Rain are reunited, but their delight in one another makes him conscious of his own loneliness. Unattached but looking, Owen has his eye on Claire Walsh, new in town and the owner of a combination coffee shop and bookshop that is a favorite spot of Owen’s adored nieces. But Claire seems unaware of him.

Claire has noticed Owen. He’s the kind of man that a sane, heterosexual woman would find impossible to ignore, but Claire is cautious on two counts. First, a bad marriage to a good-looking charmer who was a chronic philanderer has left her wary of men in general and handsome hunks in particular. Second, every time Claire sees Owen, he is with two gorgeous little girls whom Claire concludes must belong to him. She also concludes there is a woman in the picture, and that makes him off limits for Claire.

Claire and Owen are thrown together when the abusive, drunken ex of one of Owen’s clients jumps to an erroneous conclusion and attacks Claire, leaving her concussed and bleeding and her home with a shattered glass door. Owen is there immediately, determined to see that Claire receives the care she needs and that the damage to her house is repaired ASAP. Claire finds him hard to resist, but trusting does not come easily for her. Owen has no doubts that Claire is the one he has been looking for, but he worries that a relationship may be dangerous for Claire.

Wounded heroes are abundant in romance fiction, but I am sometimes skeptical of how quickly and simplistically recovery from childhood traumas and other psychological damage occurs. I really like the fact that both Owen and Brody are aware that vestiges of their darkness remains and that they both have moments when their belief that they can fully overcome their past is shaken. I also love that Claire is smart enough to accept help when she needs it and to understand that enjoying a little tender, loving care after suffering a hard hit (literally in her case) doesn’t compromise a woman’s independence. Finally, I love that Rain and Owen still have a special connection and that the reader sees not only Rain and Brody’s HEA in progress but also the developing closeness between the brothers. I liked the first book in the series, but I also had some problems with it. I thought this one was a better book. I marked it a keeper, and I’m looking forward to Dylan’s Redemption, the story of a McBride cousin, scheduled for release in August.

Do you sometimes find that a series that you began with mixed feelings gets better with successive books? Have you ever almost cut a series off with the first book, only to be happy you did not after reading the second one?

Taken with You

Taken with You

By Shannon Stacey

Publisher: Carina Press

Release Date: March 25, 2014

Hailey Genest may think longingly of the shops, restaurants, and other perks of city life, but she loves her hometown of Whitford, Maine, and her job as librarian in the small town’s only library. But the sudden rash of weddings and babies among her friends have made her newly conscious of her single status and the limited dating pool Whitford offers for a woman who just hit 40. When a new, single friend suggests they celebrate their singleness by joining a wilderness adventure expedition, Hailey, who is so not an outdoors type, stays calm and buys hiking boots. She’s not really surprised when she and her friend get lost, but she is unprepared for the bearded, dirty, smelly Grizzly Adams type who shows up to lead the two lost women back to civilization. He might offer an excellent rear view, but he is the very opposite of the man Hailey is looking for.

Matt Barnett is enjoying the final days of his vacation before moving to Whitford and taking up his new position as game warden for the area. He’s much more interested in the beer waiting for him back at his cabin than he is in playing savior for two lost women, but he’s too much good guy to ignore their plight. The pretty blonde catches his eye, but he recognizes that a woman who wears full makeup and new hiking boots for a trek through the woods is definitely not his type. That feeling is reinforced by her obvious distaste for his unkempt appearance. Matt has had his fill of women who turn up their noses at the dirt and sweat that are an inevitable part of his outdoors vocation and avocation.

Neither Hailey nor Matt think they will ever see one another again, so the reluctant attraction each feels toward the other is not an issue. But when Hailey sees Matt in her library teaching an ATV safety course, she knows that she’s going to see more of him than she’s comfortable with, and when Matt finds out that his new next-door neighbor is the blonde from the woods, he knows she is not going to be so easy to dismiss from his mind. Despite the chemistry between them that is too powerful to ignore, Matt and Hailey know they are too different for the long term, but they agree to enjoy the moment with each other, exploring all the facets of their incomprehensible connection with no promises for tomorrow. They forget that the heart is no organ of reason, and soon what was supposed to be just a lusty friendship turns into love. But those very real differences exist, and they may be too great for even love to overcome.

I’ve been addicted to Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski series since I read Undeniably Yours and upon finishing it, immediately bought Exclusively Yours, the first book in the series. Taken with You is not a true Kowalski book since neither of the lead characters belongs to that family, but it takes place in the Kowalski world, and most of the Whitford branch makes an appearance. More importantly, these characters have the same genuineness, humor, and layered lives that made me a fan of the earlier books.

Anyone who has ever been in a long-term committed relationship learns that compromise has a necessary role, but it’s not an element given much attention in romance. I really liked seeing Hailey and Matt learn that love doesn’t melt essential differences but that, as the old Diamond Rio song says, “ain’t no road too long when we meet in the middle.” I also loved that Hailey is an unabashed forty and still believing in the possibility of Prince Charming—and that when he arrives, he is so unprincely and uncharming that she almost fails to recognize him.

Although Taken with You is officially Book 8 in the Kowalski Family series, it can easily be read as a standalone. If you like your contemporary romance with a generous serving of heat, likeable characters whose lives and loves have an appealing verisimilitude, and connections of family and friendship that plausibly bring former characters into new stories, Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski series is among the best. I highly recommend it, and Taken with You can serve as an introduction. Once you read it, I bet you’ll look for Stacey’s backlist. After eight books, my addiction is still going strong. I’m now eagerly anticipating Falling for Max (July 29, 2014); it’s the story of the mysterious Max Crawford and Hailey’s wilderness adventure partner, Tori Burns. I’m hoping to see more of Hailey and Matt in it and, of course, more of the Kowalskis.

The attraction of opposites is a popular theme in romance fiction, but it is one that often fails to convince me of the HEA. Taken with You is an exception because it shows the role of compromise. Do you believe opposites attract? What is necessary for you to believe in the HEA of opposites?

The Day He Kissed Her

The Day He Kissed Her

By Juliana Stone

Publisher: 

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: 

April 1, 2014

Mackenzie Draper is back in Crystal Lake for the long Memorial Day weekend to say hello to his mom and spend some time catching up with his best buds, Jake Edwards and Cain Black, and then it’s back to New York City, his job at the architectural firm where he’s just about to make partner, and a free-wheeling social life that leaves him free of responsibilities. A few days in Crystal Creek are about all he can take before the bad memories from his childhood start taking him places he doesn’t want to go. His abusive father may be in jail now, but that doesn’t prevent Ben Draper’s presence from being very real in the home in which Mac grew up. But an unexpected meeting with a curvy blonde and heated memories of a New Year’s Eve with bedroom fireworks more explosive than any that lit up the skies leave Mac reconsidering his friend Jake’s request to spend the summer in Crystal Creek designing houses for an Edwards’ land development project.

Lily St. Clare has her own share of dark memories, but Crystal Creek and the friends she has there are helping her to heal. She’s found a measure of serenity in the small town, but serene is the last thing she feels when the stranger from a passionate New Year’s Eve encounter turns out to be her friend Jake’s old friend Mac. To her own surprise, Lily, who meets life head on, can’t run away fast enough from this man who makes her feel things that threaten her carefully controlled life. But she can’t escape the man or the feelings, and when Mac assures her that he will be back in Crystal Creek for the summer, Lily knows that whatever is between them is far from over.

  Neither Mac nor Lily is interested in long-term commitments, so when the heat between them makes a July afternoon seem mild in comparison, they agree to seize the moment, accepting that forever is not part of the plan. But soon they are spending every possible moment together and building a shared life even if love is still a word that strikes fear in their hearts. But Mac is a damaged soul, his childhood wounds still festering and his anger barely contained. He and Lily have no hope for a future when he is controlled by his past.

The third novel in Stone’s Bad Boys of Crystal Creek series is the darkest of these emotional tales. Mac and Lily are both wounded creatures who fiercely protect their vulnerabilities. Lily is further on her journey toward health and wholeness than is Mac whose hatred of his father, anger mixed with love and pity for his mother, and fear that he is a man in his father’s image, inside and out, color every choice he makes. The redeeming power of love is a standard theme in romance fiction, but Stone makes it more potent by showing that a hero must believe himself worthy of love and happiness before he can be transformed.

I fell hard for Stone’s wounded bad boys, and from the first book, I’ve hoped to see light and love shatter Mac’s darkness. The Day He Kissed Her fulfilled my hopes, and Lily was a perfect match for Mac. There were some loose ends left with secondary plots. Perhaps that means readers have not seen the last of these bad boys and the people in their lives. If you like your romance high on sizzle and emotional twists, I suggest you check out this book. For readers like me who prefer a lower sensuality level, these characters are sufficiently engaging to make it worth moving outside your comfort zone.

Romance fiction ranges from sweet to scorching, and it’s not always easy to tell where a particular book falls on the sensuality scale from the cover and cover copy. Some people advocate a number system that gives readers a clearer idea of what to expect. What do you think of that idea?  Where would the books you read most often fall on such a scale?