Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor, #1) in Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn

Sep 22, 2011 Aly is so frigging bored rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, contemporary, christmas-holidays

2nd read
Buddy read with Karin

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Sep 21, 2012 Melissa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads

This is another one of those books out there that I know others are going to love ... no, not love ... LOVE. But it is a book that I didn't really care for. It may have more to do with me and my particular tastes, however, so read through my review, and if my problem with the story is not one that you think that you would have, then go ahead and give this book a try. It really is a cute little story with the HEA ending that I need when I read a romance.

First, the specifics:

Simply Irresistible is This is another one of those books out there that I know others are going to love ... no, not love ... LOVE. But it is a book that I didn't really care for. It may have more to do with me and my particular tastes, however, so read through my review, and if my problem with the story is not one that you think that you would have, then go ahead and give this book a try. It really is a cute little story with the HEA ending that I need when I read a romance.

First, the specifics:

Simply Irresistible is a story that centers on Maddie, a girl who recently broke up with her abusive boyfriend and was fired from her job on Hollywood movie sets after pouring hot coffee in the jerk's lap. She heads to Lucky Harbor to check out the struggling resort that her mostly estranged mother had left her and her two mostly estranged half sisters. She finds the place in severe disrepair with debt and disuse on top of it all. But the three ladies decide to fix it up as much as they can and decide whether to sell or stay. Maddie wants to stay and begin a new life, getting to know her sisters along the way. The two sisters are not so sure about this plan. Joining the party is the town mayor, Jax, who (of course) is a super hottie and wealthy and kind and considerate and a master carpenter and an all around perfect guy. (Now, I know that eventually a flaw is revealed, but seriously, if that is the biggest problem a man has, in my book he still comes pretty close to perfect, so I never could get on board with Maddie's concerns about him). This is a story about Maddie overcoming the timidity of her past as well finding a way to learn to trust again after being treated so horribly by her ex-boyfriend.

Now for my thoughts:

First: The Good. I really did like the characters in this book for the most part. Maddie was a bit of a klutz, and that was pretty endearing, but she was also ultra organized and a dreamer. I thought that her struggle to overcome her problems with men and trust were written well, although I really wanted there to be a bit more dialogue to help her work through it all. Still, I liked her and rooted for her. Jax was a good leading man for these types of books -- maybe a bit too stereotypically hot male -- but it worked. The other two sisters, Tara and Chloe, were also likeable enough. At least they didn't annoy me enough to hurt the story at all, and ultimately this also is a story of the three sisters coming together, so they proved important to the story.

Now for The Bad. I realize that this is part of the newly popular New Adult genre of books, so there are going to be sex scenes. I don't generally mind this ... to a point. But there comes a moment when I read these books when I reach overload on the sex description. This may just be me. It seems like there are books out there that are crazily popular, and so many of the reviews praise the sex scenes, not the story. For me that is just not going to be enough. I picked this book up in particular because I read a reviewer who said that she appreciated how classy these scenes were written compared to other books like it. Classy I can handle when I read, so I was intrigued. And then disappointed. It is true that these scenes are not as raunchy as many tend to be in this genre, and I appreciated that. What I did not appreciate is the number of times I had to read about their sexual encounters. Over and over and over and over. It seemed like it was every single scene. Okay, not every scene, but a lot. I would say that if Maddie and Jax met one hundred times in this book, they probably ended up horizontal (or in the shower) ninety times. It wasn't until almost three quarters of the way through that Jax finally said that maybe they needed to really get to know each other better. You think? Both of them have what is written to be big obstacles to overcome, and yet they don't really spend much time talking about these. They just loved to touch each other oh so much. For me this got annoying. I wanted more of a plot and less of a play by play of their love encounters.

I don't always hate instalove stories. It depends on how they are written. Now I guess you could say that Maddie and Jax weren't instantly "in love" since they never mention the "L" word until the very end of the book, but it didn't even take a day for them to end up lip locked ... with very little conversation to warrant any feelings of love blossoming. I just felt as if things moved so quickly that the whole relationship felt like one founded on lust rather than love. More conversation and more build up between sexual encounters could have eliminated this problem for me. I needed more build up, more tension, and I didn't find it. This may not bother all readers, but it did bother me.

It seemed like Jax's issue, especially regarding his father, was wrapped up too quickly ... and really it was dropped more or less. His father showed up in a few scenes, proving what an awful man/father he was, but then he was just gone from the story. That sure made it easy for Jax to move on in the story, but it wasn't satisfying to me. The scenes with his father just seemed extraneous. If it is important enough to delve into as Jax's character is revealed, then I think it should have been important enough for Jax and Maddie to work through ... together.

So overall I would say that this book will appeal to those who are gigantic fans of well written sex scenes with likable and fun characters. If you, like me, are less interested in the sex and more interested in the plot, then you'll probably want to skip this one. The plot isn't horrible. It just wasn't enough to grab me. Three stars! ...more

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Jun 27, 2014 Moumita Ghosh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fav-eng-books, romance-to-read, contemporary-romance, jill-shalvis

WOW!!! I AM QUITE AMAZED. I READ THIS BOOK IN MY THIRD TRY. FIRST 2 TIMES I FOUND IT V PREDICTABLE OR NOTHING SPECIAL.. SO AFTER READING FEW PAGES I USED TO STOP. IF YOU ARE A FAN OF OLD NORA ROBERTS & HAVE READ ALL HER BOOKS.. U WILL UNDERSTAND.
BUT AFTER READING THIS I HAVE BECOME A FAN OF JILL SHALVIS.
AMAZING READ. NOW I CAN SEE WHY HER BOOKS ARE SOOO FAMOUS. I HAVE NEVER SEEN OR READ SOMETHING WHICH CAN BE SO GOOD APART FROM BEING SOO PREDICTABLE. I MEAN I CAN EVEN PREDICT THE STORY LINE FOR ...more

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