When I read Shalvis’ Simply Irresistible, I was somewhat put off by the set-up, but drawn in by the characters. This was a similar experience. The “cute small town with former bad-boy sheriff trying not to fall for bad-girl” tropes don’t do a lot for me, but vulnerable Chloe, desperately trying not to be needy, and upright Sawyer, desperately trying to put his past behind him, were a good team. The hot love scenes didn’t hurt, either.

Chloe and Sawyer have been aware of each other for some time (through two previous books, in fact.) Both are wary of involvement; Chloe’s severe asthma makes physical relationships complicated, and Sawyer sees his attraction to “wild child” Chloe as dangerous: “It called to his true inner nature, the matching wildness and darkness within him, which he’d tried to bury a long time ago.” Of course their attraction eventually overcomes their scruples and they discover how well they fit. Strong, responsible Sawyer has no issues with taking special care with Chloe, and Chloe discovers -- with Sawyer, and with her sisters -- how great it is to have people to depend on, and to be dependable for them.

You’d think a romance in which one character is constantly in danger of suffocating during sex would get tedious, but the mention of inhalers becomes as ordinary as condoms, and Sawyer and Chloe get safely crazy in sometimes funny, sometimes very passionate ways. They really burned up the pages.

I was less enthralled by Chloe’s mushy relationships with her sisters, but my biggest annoyance with the book was the quotes from Chloe at the beginning of each chapter. Having her be a mouthpiece for trite sayings from t-shirts just bugged me, especially since Chloe is a smart woman who often says genuinely wise things: “I hate when no one wants to depend on me... I’m working on that, but the problem is, people tend to assign you the role of the person you are at your worst.” I think her words in the book could have been left to speak for themselves.

(reviewed from e-arc provided by netGalley)