I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Lucky in Love
by
Jill Shalvis
It is part of the Lucky Harbor #4 series and is a contemporary romance in Paperback edition that was published by Forever on May 22, 2012 and has 341 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Beach Blanket Bad Boys, Instant Attraction, Instant Gratification, Instant Temptation, The Night Before Christmas, "Under the Mistletoe", Animal Magnetism, It Had to Be You, Simply Irresistible, The Sweetest Thing, Animal Attraction, Rumor Has It, Rescue My Heart, It’s in His Kiss, Head Over Heels, , He's So Fine, At Last, One in a Million, Forever and a Day, Second Chance Summer, My Kind of Wonderful, "Wrapped in You", Get A Clue, The Trouble with Mistletoe, Chasing Christmas Eve, “One Snowy Night”, Rainy Day Friends, Merry and Bright, Always on My Mind
Fourth in the Lucky Harbor cozy romance series. The couple focus is on Mallory and Mysterious Cute Guy.
My Take
Well, I knew I was gonna be happy when the first chapter started with a chocolate epigraph! Woohoo! Chocolate cake and cupcakes, brownies, hot chocolate…get ready to settle in for this one! The part I wasn’t so happy about was the falling-in-love-after-promising-not-to trope. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been as Mallory does struggle against it, and there are some really good reasons for wanting to keep Ty. Besides the great sex…*eyebrow waggles*… I did like that Ty loved Mallory’s eyes so much!
At last we find out who the Mysterious Cute Guy is! And why Amy came to Lucky Harbor. I’m not sure why Mallory seriously thinks Ty will show for this date when she hasn’t spoken to him since the ambulance took him away. As a nurse, she should have some idea of how much of their conversation he’d have retained. Which makes me wonder just why Ty does show up at the auction if he doesn’t remember making that date?
Ty does have his PTSD issues, for good reason. Mallory has her own PTSD. Not from the same causes, but just as debilitating.
Secrets? Hah. Not in Lucky Harbor where it’s considered a “God-given right to gossip and nose into people’s business”, however your gold bullion will be perfectly safe. Guys, however, seem to be fair game. Ask Deena.
What is with Mallory’s mother? She nags at Mallory to get a boyfriend, and then she nags when she gets one.
The Health Services Clinic is Mallory’s pet project. She just has to get approval for it in a bad economy and past a lot of unhappy voters who believe it will draw the wrong element in.
Ty can’t wait to get released, and yet Lucky Harbor is sucking him in. The same Lucky Harbor that is getting hypercritical of Mallory. We’re heading for two conflicts in this story: the one between Mallory and Ty when he heads back to D.C. to his job and Mallory’s struggle to get the clinic accepted. Shalvis gives us a sweet twist on the Mallory–Ty one, but it’s the clinic that creates the greatest impact as Mallory is totally responsible for anything that happens there. It will be her greatest growth and her (second) greatest despair.
It’s that threat, that loss, that brings the town around, and you’ll want to stand up and cheer!
The Story
It may be spring, but somebody forgot to tell the weather as those fat fluffy snowflakes descend with a vengeance and a snappy wind brings down power lines and trees. It’s a terrifying night at the Eat Me as the wind and branches bash through glass and the door, and worse when the ladies hear moans above the howling wind.
It’s those moans that Mallory cannot ignore, and she braves the weather only to find a stranger, bloody and lying on the ground. Good timing really, as Amy and Grace have decided that Mallory needs to step out with a Mr. Wrong and where better to start than the big auction that Mallory has spearheaded for her pet project.
The Characters
Mallory Quinn is an ER nurse at the hospital and the town’s “very good girl”. She’s been taking care of her dysfunctional family since she was sixteen. Sweet Pea is her mean old cat. Tammy is her formerly wild, older sister now married to Zach, a former security guard she met in Vegas. Tammy, who has a housekeeping job at the hospital, had been Karen‘s twin. The one who suicided. Tony was the boyfriend who took her down the wrong path. Joe is their still-wild, younger brother. Their mother, Ella, is a supervisory nurse at the hospital.
The Health Services Clinic (HSC) is Mallory’s dream. A way to alleviate the pain of Karen’s death.
The secretive and potent Ty Garrison is Lucky Harbor’s Mysterious Cute Guy — he’s practically got his own Facebook page. He’s a former Navy SEAL medic, honorably discharged after the plane crash. Now he makes a living as a mercenary doing the same thing. Well, except when he’s recovering from wounds. Tommy, Trevor, Brad, and Kelly are the teammates Ty lost. Matt Bowers, ex-Chicago SWAT and now a forest ranger, has been a friend of Ty’s for years. He and Ty spend a lot of time sparring, shooting, and exercising together. When Matt isn’t with Ty or working, he’s mooning over Amy. Ryan is a homeless vet addicted to alcohol. Frances is Ty’s boss.
Amy Michaels is the feisty Xena waitress over at the Eat Me café which Jan owns. Grace Brooks was planning to pass on through on her job hunt for investment banker jobs, but gets seduced by chocolate and her two new best friends into creating the CA, Chocoholics, their very own gang for celebrating and commiserating.
At the hospital
Dr. Josh Scott is in charge of Ty’s medical rehabilitation program. Alyssa is Mallory’s useless counterpart on her shift. Jane Miller is the director of nurses and Mallory’s boss. Camilla is an LVN. Jodi Larson is a ten-year-old leukemia patient. Bill Lawson is the head of the board of directors.
The brutally honest, yet caring Lucille is gossip central for Lucky Harbor and keeps the town’s Facebook page up-to-date. Mrs. Louisa Burland is a pain in the butt oldster who gives EVERYone the worst time. Most people try to avoid her. I think Mallory has a persecution complex for putting up with the old bitch. Mr. Teddy Wykowski is a seventy-year-old who looks too much like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Mrs. Tyler is Mallory’s wheelchair-bound next-door neighbor for whom Mallory waters her flowers.
Charles Tennessee is the auctioneer. Anderson is the always horny hardware store owner. Allen, the Seattle accountant, had been Mallory’s last Mr. Right. Jax Cullen is the current mayor, and he owns the Love Shack with Ford Walker. Sandy is the town manager. Sheriff Sawyer Thompson is engaged and still pulling over speeders, ahem. Mallory is keeping Tara busy baking.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a white background, white as fog over the water that murmurs around the mossy, rounded rocks that Ty and Mallory are standing on, an arm around each other, with Mallory reaching up, looking up.
The title is part of what Mallory needs. Heck, what Ty needs as well. They both need to be, and are, Lucky in Love.
