Release Date: July 28th 2015
Series: Girl’s Night Out
Pages: 384
Publisher: HQN Books (Harlequin)
After enjoying Flirting with Disaster by Victoria Dahl, I was excited to read the third book in the Girl’s Night Out series. When I saw it on NetGalley for review I jumped on it.
27-year-old Veronica Chandler is a star in her hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming for her Dear Veronica advice column and weekly live show. Locals love her brand of sass as she gives unfiltered advice on; sex, life and love. Everyone including the new librarian in town, Gabe McKenzie. Veronica falls for him almost instantly. The only problem ? The worldly and raunchy Dear Veronica on stage is an act and Veronica is just a self-conscious girl who couldn’t hack it in New York City and came running home. Oh and she’s a virgin.
I think this premise could have been horribly contrived, but it actually works really well in this book. I think Dahl did a great job re-writing the idea of the virgin heroine because Veronica isn’t just some innocent ingenue waiting for Gabe to tell her what to do. She’s excited and actually initiates with Gabe. At first Veronica felt uneven because she was saying one thing and then doing another, but as you learn more about her past it becomes more clear why she acts the way she does.
Gabe is like the ultimate romance reader fan service as the hot male librarian, but his character has some really interesting conflict. He loves living in the Wyoming woods, but if Gabe doesn’t give it all up and take over his family’s business in New York City his father will work himself into a grave.In my six months of romance blogging Gabe is the first truly beta hero I’ve come across, he is pretty easily pushed around.
I’m actually starting to realize I like it in a romance when at some point the male hero is given a The Reason You Suck speech by the heroine. This happens in Megan Erickson’s Make it Right too, and I think it is always an interesting moment in the plot.
Dahl delivers a funny, sexy, romance that reminds us that some of the best advice you can get comes from yourself.
Also librarian hero.
Sidenote
I don’t always fancast, but as soon as I started reading the description of this book this I saw Gabe as Jamie Dornan as hispter sheriff on ABC’s Once Upon A Time and Veronica as Michelle Williams.
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