RECOMMENDED LIKE WHOADAMNHELL: Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis is $2.99 right now at Amazon. It's higher elsewhere, but the other two books in the series are discounted elsewhere, so I'm hoping one of the price matching fairies sneezes or something and the prices magically align.
This is a book I've recommended countless times, because I love it so much. It is one of my favorite contemporary romances ever. This was a “Save the Contemporary” selection for the campaign DearAuthor and I used to run, and I still love it when I re-read it. I love the heroine, the hero, the setting, the snowboarding – this is one of those books where, if you ask me about it, my eyes roll back in my head and I make zombie-esque Good Book Noise®.
Accountant Katie Kramer is a quintessential good girl—working hard, recycling diligently, all the while trying to ignore the feeling that she doesn't fit in anywhere. That's all she wants. Well, that—and amazing sex, and the kind of daredevil escapade she can look back on when she's crunching numbers in a dusty cubicle. Which explains why she just took a job in Wishful, California, working for Wilder Adventures and Expeditions. Waking up to find a magnificently built stranger towering over her bed—that part defies explanation…
After wandering the planet for months following a life-changing accident, Cameron Wilder has come back to the only home he knows. Under other circumstances, he might be thrilled to find a gorgeous woman sleeping in his cabin, but now, while he'll risk his body taking clients on adrenaline-drenched excursions, his heart is off limits. Still, Katie's killer smile triggers something deep in his gut… among other places. Showing her how exhilarating it can be to stop balancing her life as if it was a checkbook is the biggest rush he's ever felt—and an adventure Katie's wishing would never end..
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Instant Gratification by Jill Shalvis is $1.99 right now pretty much everywhere. This is book 2 in the Wilder series, which I loved. This series takes place in the Sierras at an adventure tourism company, and the setting is as much a character as the people.
In Instant Attraction, Jill Shalvis introduced Cameron, Stone, and T.J.; the sexy, daredevil brothers who run Wilder Adventures. And for Stone Wilder, the thrill of a lifetime is about to arrive in a surprising package.
The Doctor Is In Deep
Wishful, California, is 3000 miles from Dr. Emma Sinclair's last job in a New York City ER. It may as well be another galaxy. Here, running her father's clinic for a summer, Emma treats bee stings, stomach flu, and the occasional pet cat. Plus, she has to contend with patients like Stone Wilder: gorgeous, laid-back, and irritating beyond belief.
The man laughs at her. A lot. And Emma loathes him. All except that tiny part of her that wants to throw him on her examining table and break every doctor-patient rule in the book. . .
When Stone tries to help Emma learn to loosen up a bit, he pictures white-water rafting or scenic mountain hikes.
Not a mind-blowing affair that shakes them both to the core. Emma's sure she has no place in a town like Wishful, but Stone knows different. Emma belongs here – in this town, in his life. And convincing this strong-minded, stubborn, sexy woman of that fact will be a challenge no Wilder man could resist. . .
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Instant Temptation is $1.99 This is the final book in the Wilder trilogy, and features TJ, the brother most likely to disappear in to the mountains for six weeks on a climbing trip. This is still one of my favorite trilogies in contemporary romance.
To Harley, the landscape around Wishful, California, is exhilarating, untamed, and more than a little dangerous. The same could be said for T.J. Wilder, who's invited himself along on her trek to study a rare coyote. Harley's career is riding on this trip, and she doesn't need a stubborn, incredibly sexy distraction.
But T.J. is a professional guide who knows when to stay back and when to provide invaluable expertise-just like he's done since they were in high school. And Harley, as usual, is torn between throttling him and giving in to the raw attraction that's been smoldering all these years.
T.J. knows how proud and capable Harley is, but he's damned sure not letting her put herself at risk when there are illegal hunters in the area. She needs him, with the same soul-stirring urgency that he's always craved her. And here, in this beautiful place days from civilization, he'll finally have a chance to prove it-over and over again…
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Losing It by Cora Carmack is $3.79/3.99. This book has a 3.8-star average on GoodReads, and readers who enjoyed it really liked how charming and funny it was, espeically the dialogue. Case in point: one of the most highighted sections is:
“Is this the part where you tell me you’re a vampire?”
He chuckled. “No, I promise the paleness is only because I’m British.”
Also, have we talked about how the cover model looks a little like Jennifer Lawrence?
Virginity.
Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible– a one-night stand.
But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe.
And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.
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I read the first a while ago and I haven’t read the second. I didn’t like the set up for the second book, the hero was too much an assh** in the first. I don’t always like the set-up of man-whore isn’t he sexy? He slept with two sisters (back-to-back) who were the “cleaning crew” at the lodge meaning they worked for him. Meaning he knew them and about their relationship. I’ve read plenty of books where the hero either slept with or is bed with other women, and it doesn’t always bother me. When it does bother me, it’s not that he’s cheating on the heroine that bothers me, it’s that he’s treating other women as objects. I don’t know where my boundaries are, but I felt that by casually sleeping with two women (one at a time) and knowing their relationship and being their boss, it’s a total objectifying situation.
I did like Cam and Katie and their relationship though.
I highly recommend “Losing It” – fantastic book!!!!
Losing It seems like it would be my favorite book ever, and it’s super often in sale in the US, but NEVER in Canada. Nothing is fair. Is life even worth living.
I tried to read Instant Attraction, but as an avid outdoorswoman and skier, and ski instructor, I just couldn’t get into it. ALL THE DETAILS WERE WRONG. She wears SKIN TIGHT SKIPANTS at one point. Those are SO impractical. Also, those were ski pants he was give as a sponsor deal, which really doesn’t make any sense. Also, the bunny slope was right next to a black diamond. False. Beginner slopes will occasionally be near expert runs, but even that is rare. Also, he taught her to ski wrong.
But if you aren’t super familiar with skiing and teaching, read it! The attraction they have is pretty decent and other than those details, its pretty good.