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
At Last
by
Jill Shalvis
It is part of the Lucky Harbor #5 series and is a contemporary romance in Paperback edition that was published by Forever on June 26, 2012 and has 314 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, Lucky in Love, , He's So Fine, 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
Fifth in the Lucky Harbor romance series and revolving around Lucille, the matchmaker of the town — nothing and no one gets past her gimlet eye. The couple focus is on Amy Michaels and Matt Bowers.
My Take
The start of At Last is too funny with a humiliated Amy getting rescued by the man she’s attracted to. The man she doesn’t want to be attracted to, and Matt is happy to tease her along. Shalvis cracked me up with Matt getting heated up at the thought of Amy wearing nothing but her city-girl boots. The cliché is for men to get turned on by those high, high heels, but it makes so much sense that the nature-loving Matt would get turned on by hiking boots. It only made me love that boy more.
One of the many things I enjoy about Shalvis’ Lucky Harbor is the snark. I love how the characters call on each other and won’t let each other get away with anything. It’s all in love and loyalty, friendship and caring — yep, even the guys! Hmmm, now that I think about it, I think the guys do the best snark…
“‘You keep going at each other like that,’ Josh said, ‘and you’ll end up in my ER.’
Breathless, Matt rolled to his back. ‘Sorry, I only play doctor with the ladies.’
Then there’s ‘…
I could have been with Mallory, and dinner with Mallory includes things you’ve never offered to do for me.'”
Riley is an interesting addition and a useful technique, oops, character, to bring out Amy’s introspections about her own past. Thoughts that will find her confessing to Matt about her past and why she closed off to emotion. Matt, too, finally spills the beans about what happened in Chicago to make him quit SWAT.
Reading about the efforts Matt and his fellow rangers have to go through to deal with people who ignore warning signs makes me appreciate why so many search-and-rescue services now charge for a rescue. There ought to be fines for people who don’t practice safe nature techniques and ignore those efforts intended to keep them safe. Like that jerk’s dad who wants to sue the park service because his son is such a cocky brat.
I am impressed that Amy keeps such careful track of Matt that she can see how much sun he’s gotten on any given day. Ahem.
Damn, Shalvis knows how to get through my heart. Amy’s grandma was only seventeen when she made this journey with a dying and much-loved husband. It’s a sad twist at the end that will find you reaching for a tissue.
I’m missing something. How can Matt be sued for vandals removing the lock and ignoring an earlier warning that the trail was closed, AND they’re under the influence? Nor do I understand how Matt will miss his 8 a.m. inquiry. All he has to do is climb back down the trail and get in his truck.
This is a town where you get your life back on track. Where people care about others. Where the sex is great, lol. It’s not overly erotic, but it is romantic and hot. It’s a series you want to buy, just so you’ll have it on hand for those days you need to snuggle up for a warm and cozy read about great people.
The Story
Amy is in Lucky Harbor on a mission to trace her grandmother’s path through the journal she had written fifty years ago.
Matt’s mission is to get to know Amy a lot better. It’s a slow assault requiring Matt to spend many meals at the Eat Me Café. A plan that gets sped up when he finds a homeless girl on the mountain and wants to help her. Help that will include Amy.
The Characters
Amy Michaels blew into town one day and started waitressing at the Eat Me Café. That’s about as much as anyone knows about Amy, well, besides her loving chocolate with her fellow chocoholics: Mallory Quinn (Lucky in Love, 4) and Grace Brooks. Her mom got pregnant too young and dumped Amy off on her mother, Rose, who raised Amy until she died when Amy was twelve. Grandpa Scott Barrett had died when Amy was five. Turns out Grandma was married before. To Jonathon Stone. The one with cancer.
Matt Bower, a.k.a., Ranger Hot Buns, was searching for peace after a tumultuous time in Chicago SWAT and found it as a forest park ranger in Lucky Harbor. Shelly is the ex-wife who never did get it about his job.
Riley Taylor is just eighteen and squatting in the woods, stealing to survive. Troy is her “stepbrother”.
Dr. Josh Scott and Ty Garrison (he hooked up with Mallory in Lucky in Love), another former SEAL, are Matt’s best friends in Lucky Harbor. Josh has two kids he’s responsible for: his twenty-one-year-old sister Anna who’s in a wheelchair from the car accident that killed their parents and his five-year-old son, Toby.
The forestry service
Mary is the dispatcher. Candy is a ranger-in-training.
Lance and Tucker Larson are brothers who run the ice cream shop on Lucky Harbor pier. Lucille is not your poster grandmother, but she cares for everyone in town while she runs it, her art gallery, and her many friends, posting most of it to Facebook. Mr. Swanson is Lucille’s current swain. Jan owns the Eat Me Café, and Henry is the new cook after Tara left. Lucky Harbor’s mayor Jax Cullen and former world sailing champion Ford Walker run the Love Shack, a bar and grill. Sawyer Thompson is the sheriff.
Trevor Wright is the teenage son of Allen Wright, a successful builder who thinks he’s God’s gift. Caleb Morrison is one of the five boys on those illegal ventures, and he’s stupid enough to brag on Facebook.
The Cover and Title
The cover is an impassioned, khaki-clad Matt in a white button-down kissing a clinging Amy in a floral bustier sundress in Sierra Meadows on a beautiful summer day.
The title is of their various bogeyman laid to rest and Amy and Matt together At Last.
