One Snowy Night by Jill ShalvisOne Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis
Series: Heartbreaker Bay #2.5
Published by Avon, Impulse on November 8, 2016
Genres: Contemp Romance
Pages: 160
Format: eBook
Source: Advance Reader Copy, edelweiss
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three-half-stars

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Heartbreaker Bay with a fun and festive holiday novella!

It’s Christmas Eve and Rory Andrews is desperate to get home to the family she hasn’t seen in years. Problem is, her only ride to Lake Tahoe comes in the form of the annoyingly handsome Max Stranton, and his big, goofy, lovable dog Carl.

Hours stuck in a truck with the dead sexy Max sounds like a fate worse than death (not), but Rory’s out of options. She’s had a crush on Max since high school and she knows he’s attracted to her, too. But they have history… and Max is the only one who knows why it went south.

They’ve done a good job of ignoring their chemistry so far, but a long road trip in a massive blizzard might be just what they need to face their past… and one steamy, snowy night is all it takes to bring Max and Rory together at last.

3.5

This was a short, quick read. Heads up that it stops at about 45% and the rest is back matter.

That being said, I liked it. You don’t need to know the previous books, but I do like the history.

Rory works at Willa’s doggie boutique and in Willa’s book The Trouble With Mistletoe, we see a little bit of how Rory and Max interact. And you just know there’s something between them.

In this novella, we get to see what exactly is between them. And it’s the past.

Rory and Max went to high school together, and something happened that left Max angry and bitter, and Rory disillusioned and mad at the world.

So it’s just coincidence that they both end up living in San Francisco and in the same building. But their past is handled well, the road trip from hell feels like one I’ve had, trust me, snowy mountain passes are scary. And the romance and attraction feel realistic and organic. You don’t feel like it’s rushed, you don’t feel like it’s unbelievable, but the ending felt like I was left dangling. Whether that’s a mental thing because I could see I still had over 50% left, or not, I honestly don’t know.

This whole series is really fun and I don’t think I’ve read a contemporary series like this in a long time. It’s very character-driven, and kind of reminds me of Julie James or Jaci Burton.

***ARC courtesy of Avon Books

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three-half-stars