ONE SNOWY NIGHT by Jill Shalvis: Review & Excerpt

One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis
Series: Heartbreaker Bay #2.5
Published by Avon Impulse
Publication Date: November 8th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 160
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
Goodreads
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Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Heartbreaker Bay with a fun and festive holiday novella!

It’s Christmas Eve and Rory Andrews is desperate to get home to the family she hasn’t seen in years. Problem is, her only ride to Lake Tahoe comes in the form of the annoyingly handsome Max Stranton, and his big, goofy, lovable dog Carl.

Hours stuck in a truck with the dead sexy Max sounds like a fate worse than death (not), but Rory’s out of options. She’s had a crush on Max since high school and she knows he’s attracted to her, too. But they have history… and Max is the only one who knows why it went south.

They’ve done a good job of ignoring their chemistry so far, but a long road trip in a massive blizzard might be just what they need to face their past… and one steamy, snowy night is all it takes to bring Max and Rory together at last.

 

Review

ONE SNOWY NIGHT is super short and sweet and I enjoyed it, but I really wish Ms. Shalvis had gone full length with Max and Rory’s story because there is a lot to these characters that would have benefited from more pages to their story.

It’s Christmas Eve and Rory Andrews is finally going back home for the first time since she ran away at seventeen. She is not expecting it to go very well, but desperately needs to show her family that she has changed, in which case sharing a ride with Max Stranton is not a very good idea, particularly because of their history.

Max hasn’t forgiven Rory for the role she played in derailing his plans, but sniping at each other the entire trip is going to really get old very fast, so he’s determined to play nice. Besides, she can’t be that bad since she and his dog have a mutual case of adoration for each other and the chemistry between them is so intense.

Max and Rory were really likable characters and I like that while confronting the issues from their past was difficult, they did not shy away from doing so and cleared the air between them, with the added benefit being that they could now explore the attraction between them freely.

As usual, a Jill Shalvis book isn’t complete without the dog and Carl was a scene-stealer alright.

While each book in the Heartbreaker Bay series can read as a stand-alone, I would recommend reading The Trouble with Mistletoe before reading this, for more on Max and Rory’s history.

 I do have to say that I’m a bit unsatisfied because just when I was settling in for the gist of the story, it was over, but the upside is that we finally get why there was animosity between Max and Rory.

 

 

Excerpt

Christmas Eve had the nerve to show up just like it did every year: way too quickly and with ridiculous fanfare.

The nerve.

Rory Andrews stood in the courtyard of the Pacific Pier Building in San Francisco, surrounded by sparkly holiday lights and enough garlands to give the place its own ozone, and told herself things could be worse.

She just wasn’t sure how.

It was the unknown, she decided. Because this year, unlike the past six, she’d be spending Christmas with her family, a thought that caused a swarm of butterflies to take flight in her belly.

Not an uncommon feeling since she’d turned twenty-three a few months back and decided it was time to become a person she could be proud of if it killed her. And given the guy leaning against one of the lamp poles clearly waiting for her, arms crossed, frown in place, it just might.

Max Stranton. At his side sat Carl, his huge, eternally hungry, adorable Doberman.

“No,” she said, not to Carl but to Carl’s owner. Who was not lovable. “No way.”

As always when their gazes locked, Max’s was a disconcerting mix of heat and . . . something else that she couldn’t quite figure out, as he was good at hiding when he wanted to be. She never quite knew how to take the heat because it seemed reluctant. He was attracted to her but didn’t want to be.

Ditto. He made her knees wobble. And also a couple of other inner reactions that shouldn’t be happening in public.

“Merry Christmas to you too, Rory,” he said, and damn. It wasn’t just his eyes. His voice was rough and sexy, and for that matter, so was the rest of him.

He worked for an investigations and security firm in the building. Basically he and the rest of his team were fixers and finders for hire. To say that Max was good at his job was an understatement. He stood there looking like sex on a stick with a duffle bag slung over a broad shoulder, his dark hair two weeks past needing a cut, and the icy wind of an incoming storm plastering his clothes to a body that could be registered as a lethal weapon.

“What are you doing here?” she asked calmly even if her heart was anything but, pounding all the way up to her throat and ears because she knew. She knew exactly why he was here. “I don’t need a ride home.”

A flash of wry humor slid in with all that sizzling heat. “Because you’d rather take two buses and a train than get into my truck with me?” he asked.

Well yes, actually.

 

 

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