Review:Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl

Passion this hot can't be faked…

All revved up for bright lights and steamy nights, writer Veronica Chandler chased her dreams to New York City. When she hit a dead end, reality sent her back home to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Saving her pride and her new gig—writing a relationship advice column!—requires some faking. No one can know the truth about her big-city flop or her nonexistent sex life. But the town's irresistibly rugged librarian is determined to figure her out… and give her hands-on lessons in every wicked thing she wants to know.

Gabe MacKenzie's heart might be in Wyoming, but secretly his future's tied up in his family's Manhattan legacy. Getting down and dirty with Veronica is supposed to give him a few memorable nights—not complicate his plans. But the thing about heat this scorching is there's just no going back… and it might be too hot for either of them to take.

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What I thought about Taking the Heat

Veronica has returned to Jackson after a less than satisfying dream of living and working in New York City.  She's not feeling particularly successful in her job or her social life.  After all, she didn't really live the high-life in NYC, but no one really knows that.

Gabe is the new librarian in Jackson, updating the library system and living a life he wants before he has to return home to NYC to take over the family business.  There's immediate sparks between Gabe and Veronica and these two just click from the start in a way that made me want them to work out everything! 

While Gabe is a very likable character, Veronica was a far more interesting character for me.  Even though her confidence has taken a hit, she still has a quiet determination to do well in all she does, whether that's her new advice column job or not faking her sexual experience.  She has so much heart as evidenced by how she takes her job seriously. There's a whole lot of humor in what she does and I just loved that about her too.   Her budding relationship with Gabe is oh-so-sexy and sweet too.

When Gabe isn't exactly forthcoming about some details regarding his life, their relationship takes a serious hit, and it's Gabe that has to make some difficult decisions. How this relationship plays out at this part of the story is tough, but realistic and I loved, loved, loved Veronica's strength, even though it made me a little watery-eyed.  

I really like this series.  They are easy, satisfying reads that make me smile. Taking the Heat is my favorite in the series so far.  Recommended.

ARC provided for review.

About the Author

Victoria Dahl lives with her family in a small town high in the Utah mountains. During the summer, she hikes and drinks margaritas (usually not at the same time.) During the winter she likes to curl up with a book and a cup of hot cocoa and think about all those poor, freezing skiers working so hard out in the snow. Victoria has published over twenty books and novellas, including three USA Today bestsellers, and several of her books have been nominated for the prestigious RITA Award for excellence in the romance genre. Whether she's working or relaxing, you can find Victoria on Twitter being inappropriate twenty-four hours a day. 

http://www.victoriadahl.com/

 

 

Review: Fanning the Flames By Victoria Dahl

Burning for you

Some men are off-limits. Close friends of your ex-husband, for instance. Or firefighters who work in the same building as you. Yet despite her best judgment, librarian Lauren Foster can't help noticing fire captain Jake Davis whenever he jogs by…shirtless. They've always been friends, but all it takes is one not-so-chance meeting at a local bar and one not-quite-innocent walk home to ignite a fierce, uncontrollable desire between them.

Widower Jake Davis has tried to ignore the spark he feels whenever Lauren's around, but once he sees her curves in a little black dress, there's no turning back. No matter how often she says she's all wrong for him, the sexy, outspoken divorcée is driving him wild in the best possible way. Maybe she's just blowing off steam. Or maybe he can convince her to fan these flames into something deeper, hotter and truer than they ever expected….

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What I thought about Fanning the Flames

This is a sweet little romance novella about Lauren the librarian and Jake the widowed firefighter. They've both got some experience with life, and when Jake and Lauren finally decide to give into their physical attraction for each other, well all sorts of good things happen between these two.  Well, that is until Jake's daughter comes home and catches them making out on the couch! In they end they have to decide whether they are going to take a chance on each other. 

The chemistry between Jake and Lauren is hot and there was humor too. I love these stories set in Jackson and this "Girls Night Out" series has gotten off to a great start with Fanning and Flames and Looking for Trouble.  

If you aren't reading this series or Victoria Dahl, I'd recommend giving this series a try. 

This is my honest review. I may have received this book from Netgalley, Edelweiss, a publisher, an author, a promoter or purchased it. How I obtained the book has no bearing on my review rating.

ARC Review:4 1/2 Stars for Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl

A good reason to be bad...

Librarian Sophie Heyer has walked the straight and narrow her entire life to avoid paying for her mother's mistakes. But in tiny Jackson Hole, Wyoming, juicy gossip just doesn't go away, so the last thing she needs is for history to repeat itself. Falling hard for the sexiest biker who's ever rode into town would undo everything she's worked for. And to add insult to injury, the sexy stranger is none other than Alex Bishop--the son of the man her mother abandoned Sophie's family for. He may be temptation on wheels, but Sophie's not looking for trouble!

Maybe Sophie's buttoned-up facade fools some, but Alex knows a naughty smile when he sees one. Despite their parents' checkered pasts, he's willing to take some risks to find out the truth about the town librarian. He figures a little fling might be just the ticket to get his mind off of family drama. But what he finds underneath Sophie's prim demeanor might change his world in ways he never expected.

What I thought about Looking for Trouble

Alex returns home to Jackson to face down the twenty-five year old family scandal, bury his father's remains and deal with his mother’s borderline personality disorder. What he didn’t count on was meeting Sophie, the sweet librarian living a few houses from his mother, but from the minute they meet, their sexual attraction is off the charts.

I really liked Alex and Sophie. This is a great little love story and I thought the author did a good job of showing them gradually falling in love with each other, yet knowing that their lives were so very different, it would probably never work. Even so, they can’t help the attraction and their developing feelings or ignore the way they can heat up the sheets.

All of this is framed around the incident from years ago and the scars it left on both of their lives. There’s a great series of scenes at the end when everything just blows up for both Alex and Sophie and the conversations that come afterward are thoughtful and seemed very real. Not only was I choked up, but I was rooting for these two to find some way to make it work.

I might be falling a little in love with the stories in this Jackson series with its endearing characters. Recommended. 


ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

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