Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl Series: Jackson Hole #2
Published by Harlequin HQN on 26 March 2013
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 320
Format: Kindle
Source: Kindle Purchase
This good girl's going bad.
Merry Kade has always been the good girl. The best friend. The one who patiently waits for the guy to notice her. Well, no more. Merry has just scored her dream job, and it's time for her life to change. As the new curator of a museum in Wyoming, she'll supervise a lot of restoration work. Luckily she's found the perfect contractor for the job.Shane Harcourt can't believe that someone wants to turn a beat-up ghost town into a museum attraction. After all, the last thing he needs is the site of his dream ranch turning into a tourist trap. He'll work on the project, if only to hasten its failure; until the beautiful, quirky woman in charge starts to change his mind.
For the first time ever, Merry has a gorgeous stud hot on her heels. But can she trust this strong, silent man, even if he is a force of nature in bed? When Shane's ulterior motives come out, he'll need to prove to Merry that a love like theirs may be too hot to handle, but it's impossible to resist.
Too Hot to Handle is a complex story of finding oneself, realizing all of one’s potentials and possibly finding love along the way as well.
I briefly got to meet Merry in Close Enough to Touch, and I was instantly curious about her. A strong woman, but one who has been put down more often than not, Merry has changed jobs many times, but she is set on making it in Jackson. Both because her best friend Grace lives there now, and because she’s gotten the dream-job in restoring a ghost town just outside of Jackson. Too Hot to Handle shows a lot of the changes Merry goes through, and some of those changes are in part thanks to her neighbor, Shane.
Merry’s enthusiasm about her new job was easy to share with her, especially because she went all out in order to learn about Providence from the historical society so she could do well. What she didn’t realize at first when she asked Shane to help her with the restoration was that he had a personal stake in Providence, and that his interest may be complete opposite Merry’s. As the story in Too Hot to Handle unfolded, it was clear that there was more than just a physical attraction between Merry and Shane, and I loved seeing Merry become more confident in her own appeal.
Of course, things didn’t go smoothly for Merry, neither in her professional, nor in her personal life, however the way she dealt with adversity made me admire her even more. Written in third person point of view, past tense and mostly from Merry’s perspective, Too Hot to Handle brought the characters to the forefront of the story, and I had a good time getting to know them.
They hadn’t meant for her to succeed here. They hadn’t meant for her to do anything.
“The Stud Farm discount,” Grace muttered. “I don’t like the sound of that at all. I think I should hang around.”
“Thanks, Mom, but I promise not to get into your vodka stash.”
She hugged her iPad tighter, and Shane tried not to notice the way her breasts pressed up, revealing a beautiful amount of cleavage above the thin cotton of her tank. He tried not to notice, but he failed miserably. He was a man, and there were breasts right there.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Poor Merry, she had to go trhough a lot. I’m glad you had once again a wonderful time with Dahl!
I love Dahl’s heroines so much, Melliane 🙂 And the romance is always very hot 😉
Twitter: ejaygirl77
I loved Merry and this story, too!
Dahl always delivers a good romance, with characters that I enjoy getting to know 🙂
I’m eager to read Merry’s story myself, Lexxie. There just never seems to be enough time in the day. :/ I’m really curious about Shane’s interest in Providence – and in watching the romance between him and Merry blossom. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed this installment. I’m kinda envious you got to it before I did! 😉
Happy Friday! **BIG HUGS**
Merry was a great character to follow, Brandee, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this little foray to Jackson Hole 😉 It’s all your fault! I couldn’t stop once I started 😀 <3
Great review! This sounds like a really nice read. I love the whole concept of restoring a ghost town. I will keep an eye out for this one!
Yeah, that was really interesting, Carole, especially because Merry was very careful using the same kind of material and everything.
Twitter: kbaby81
I love when a hot romance comes out of a really tough story. Merry seems like a fighter, despite the sh***y things that happened to her. Glad you love this one!
I agree, Lekeisha, the romance becomes more real when there’s some struggle to get things sorted out 🙂
Twitter: ailynk
this is funny in the way that it would been hilarious as a by stander to watch those two interact
It was quite fun to read about them, anyway, Ailyn 😀
It’s been a long time since I read a Dahl book. It might be time I pick another of her’s up. I really like the sounds of the main character restoring a ghost town.
I love Dahl’s stories, Samantha! Her heroines are strong, even when they’re not doing so well, and the romance is always satisfying 🙂
I read Victoria Dahl’s Taking the Heat last year and I loved it so much! But I haven’t read anything else by her. I think I would really like this one. Also, they are neighbors? I love neighbor romances!
Taking the Heat was great, too. And you’d definitely enjoy this one, Quinn 🙂
I like the sound of this. A good girl ready to take control and instead of waiting for someone to notice her, to get into the game herself. Sounds like a great read.
Yes, Merry definitely wanted to take charge of her life at this stage, and she did pretty well, too.
Twitter: kimbacaffeinate
This sounds good, but it looks like I need to read book one first!
I think this could work as a stand alone, Kim, especially because Merry only showed up very briefly in the first book, she was talked about quite a bit, since she was that story’s MC’s best fried 🙂 Anyway, these books are quite easy to devour in just a few hours 😉
I don’t believe I’ve read any of Dahl. The ghost town aspect of it sound interesting and I love when the hero and heroine are on the opposite sides of an issue and still make it work 🙂
Yes, the ghost town being re-built was very interesting, and you’re right, the fact that they were on opposite sides created some delicious tension that didn’t feel contrived.
She sounds like a heroine I would enjoy. I’ve not tried Dahl yet but she’s been on my author tbr pile for a while. Need to make that happen 😀
Dahl is one of my favorite contemporary romance authors, Anna. Her heroines are always amazing 🙂 And yes, you do need to make that happen 😉
I’ll admit, this isn’t the kind of book I’d normally pick up, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by romance before! These are the books that I tend to blow through in a day. Great review!
Contemporary romances are quite easy to read, and I enjoy those that have some depth to them, like this one 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Tracy.