Thrill Me by Susan Mallery Series: Fool's Gold #18
Published by HQN Books
Publication Date: July 28th 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 368
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
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Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.
Meet the Mitchell brothers of Fool’s Gold, California—five gorgeous men who’ve left a trail of broken hearts in their wake…
Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she could—she ran. Stunned, Del left Fool’s Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.
Now ten years later, Maya’s been hired to promote her hometown’s new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!
Although Del’s not the type to hold a grudge, he’s determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He’s a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya’s kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all.
Maya Farlow is happy to be back in Fool’s Gold, especially with her new job working for the town, but having to work with her ex-fiance is not exactly what she was expecting. Maya last saw Del Mitchell ten years ago when she broke up with him and while she has regrets about how things went long ago, she knows she made the right choice. Or did she? She knows that working closely with Del is going to test her resolve severely.
Del Mitchell thought he had everything ten years ago until Maya pulled the rug out from under his feet and he left Fool’s Gold to explore the world. Now, even with his financial success and fame, he’s not completely satisfied, but he’ll take the summer to figure out what his next step would be while he works with Maya on the Mayor’s campaign.
Maya found home in Fool’s Gold when her mother married a resident and the town adopted her as one of their own, but it wasn’t always like that. Her mother always resented having her and never let her forget that she was a burden, so much that she didn’t think she was lovable. Breaking up with Del was all about self-preservation and she choose to walk away from him before he left her. It’s hard not to like Maya and her ambition, determination and tenacity. With the help of Fool’s Gold, she made something of herself, but will she ever open herself up to love?
Del always planned to leave Fool’s Gold, but he thought Maya would be with him. He’s ambitious, smart and driven – looking for the next frontier to conquer now that he’s sold his company – but he’s also mature enough to realize that maybe their break-up was for the best because of how immature the both were then and what a great team they make now.
I have always enjoyed the Fool’s Gold series because it has everything I love in my books: family, friendships, connections and continuity and THRILL ME definitely has all that. I really liked that Maya and Del did not play games about their feelings, they wanted each other and they went for it. They respected each other, found that they shared similar dreams to travel the world. Every encounter showed how much they had grown and how their past had shaped their present. Even Del’s reaction to his dysfunctional family is different. Ten years ago he packed up and left and now he’s trying to make amends and get along with his family.
Beyond Maya and Del’s relationship is the community in Fool’s Gold. There is so much to love. Everyone is family, with people stepping up to support, help and provide for one another; meddling and manipulating (in a good way) and what would the town be without the sassy seniors – Eddie and Gladys? This is a heartwarming story with so many emotions – despair, hope, faith, love and I enjoyed every bit of it.
For more reviews of THRILL ME, click here for the tour schedule.
About Susan Mallery
SUSAN MALLERY is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 150 novels about the relationships that define women's lives—family, friendship, romance. Library Journal calls Susan "the master of blending emotionally believable characters in realistic situations," and readers seem to agree—40 million copies of her books have sold worldwide. Her warm, humorous stories make the world a happier place to live. Her books have been published in 28 languages.
While studying accounting, Susan spotted an ad for an adult education course titled "How to write a romance novel." In the sixth week of the eight-week course, she realized that writing romance was what she was meant to do with her life. She's a born storyteller. Far too practical to drop out, she got her degree but never worked in the accounting field because she was published straight out of college with two books in January 1992.
Sixteen prolific years and seventy-four books later, she hit the New York Times bestsellers list for the first time with Accidentally Yours. She made many appearances in the Top 10 before (finally) hitting #1 in 2015 with Thrill Me, the twentieth book in one of her most popular series, the Fool's Gold romances, and the fourth of five books released that year. To date, over 80 of her books have been USA Today bestsellers.
Booklist says, "Romance novels don't get much better than Mallery's expert blend of emotional nuance, humor, and superb storytelling."
Susan began to foray into women's fiction, which she saw as an opportunity to explore some of the other relationships that are so important to women—sisters, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, friends. . . These women's fiction relationship novels are nuanced, emotionally complex, with recognizable real-life situations and have made Susan a very popular perennial book club selection. Her books have received over 146,000 five-star reviews on Goodreads, one of the most popular websites for book clubs.
Her hardcover debut, Daughters of the Bride, came out in 2016, followed by Secrets of the Tulip Sisters in 2017, When We Found Home in 2018, The Summer of Sunshine and Margot in 2019, The Friendship List in 2020 and The Vineyard at Painted Moon in 2021. Susan classifies these stories as "romance-plus," essentially a blend of romance and women's fiction.
Susan grew up in California and now lives in Seattle with her husband, two ragdoll cats (only one of which is well-adjusted) and an adorable poodle. She's passionate about animal welfare and has served on the board of Seattle Humane, an organization dear to her heart. Because of her love for animals, pets play a significant role in her books.
[…] Wednesday, July 8th: The Sassy Bookster […]
Holy moly. That’s a really long series. I’m sure they’re all standalones but I really hate starting a series out of order and missing out on the other characters, lmao. This sounds like a really good one and I wanna read it! I love second chance romances, especially the small town ones. Thanks for putting this up on my radar! 🙂 Great review!
Yes, it is a long series but it’s sooo much fun to read and they are all stand-alones. I think I own all the books! Thanks!
I’m pleased to see that you are continuing to enjoy this series! Thanks for being a part of the tour.