I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis Series: Cedar Ridge #3
Series Rating:
Published by Grand Central Publishing on March 29th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
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SOMETIMES YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN…
After an overseas mission goes wrong, Army Special Forces officer Jacob Kincaid knows where he must go to make things right: back home to the tiny town of Cedar Ridge, Colorado. All he needs to scrub away his painful past is fresh mountain air, a lakeside cabin, and quiet solitude. But what he discovers is a gorgeous woman living on a boat at his dock.
Sophie Marren has nowhere else to go. She’s broke, intermittently seasick, and fighting a serious attraction to the brooding, dishy, I’m-too-sexy-for-myself guy who’s now claiming her dock. Something about Jacob’s dark intensity makes her want to tease—and tempt—him beyond measure. Neither one wants to give any ground . . . until they realize the only true home they have is with each other.
This was classic Jill Shalvis. Which is a really, really good thing. I’ve been eagerly waiting for Jacob’s story since we first learned about him and his backstory, and this did not disappoint. However, this can be easily read as a standalone.
Jacob was easily my favorite hero in this series. He left home ten years ago after an argument with Hudson, his twin brother. He joined the military and hasn’t seen any of his three siblings since then. But now he’s home, and almost immediately upon arriving, he meets Sophie Marren. She was a fun heroine. All she wanted from her divorce was the divorce itself, but when the judge insisted she should get something, she impulsively claimed his boat, knowing it was what he loved the most. She regrets it almost immediately, but her pride won’t let her try to take the apartment or the car instead. She knows nothing about boats, or boating rules, and ends up constantly trying to dock in places where she’s not supposed to dock, including Jacob’s dock, fighting off seasickness the entire time.
Even though he tried to get her off his dock, he was intrigued by her and didn’t try too hard. She was gun-shy after her divorce, and he wasn’t looking for anything serious right now, so they decide to just have a little no-feelings involved fun together. Because that always goes according to plan. Both of them actually wanted to be in love, and to have someone in love with them, and have that connection, they just didn’t think they were worthy of it. Jacob was injured in Afghanistan, and lost someone close to him, and hasn’t really dealt with that yet.
The chemistry between Jacob and Sophie was instant and hot. They didn’t even really try to fight it. There wasn’t a lot of angst here, just two people who needed each other and found each other at the exact right time. This was a really sweet, sexy, heartwarming story. Both Sophie and Jacob were suffering, albeit for very different reasons, and each of them was able to ease that a little bit for the other. The one thing I would have changed, and it’s probably just me, but I would have liked a little more chronological distance for both of them between their story and their heartaches. Both of them were still so raw from everything. But it all worked out for them, so what do I know.
This read like it would be the last Cedar Ridge novel, though I haven’t seen confirmation of that anywhere. But this takes care of all four of the Kincaid siblings (their sister had a B-story romance), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it stays a trilogy.
About Jill Shalvis
Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is mostly coincidental.
