ORDER A COPY: Rescue My Heart
Publisher: Berkley
Publishing Date: November 6, 2012
Paperback: 304 pages
Rating: 4 stars
After a tragic stint in the National Guards, Adam Connelly returns to Idaho and to Belle Haven, the animal shelter he owns with his brothers. All Adam wants is to be alone. Then he opens the door to the past—the woman whose heart he once broke. Still gorgeous, still tough-as-nails, but this time, unusually vulnerable. Holly learned the hard way to never depend on a man for anything. Now, of all men, Adam is the last one she wants to see, and the only one she needs. Her father has gone missing in the Bitterroot Mountains and she could use someone with tracking skills to help find him. For Holly and Adam, each with their ghosts, a trek this desperate, this unpredictable, and this intimate, will have its share of risks—including opening their hearts one more time.
In the third story of her Animal Magnetism series, Jill Shalvis tells the story of younger brother, Adam. Adam was always the rebellious, bad boy of the brothers, always acting up and getting in trouble. This bad boy image was an instant draw to good girl Holly Reid. But when a night of drag racing leads to a death, even bad boy Adam knows that he needs to make a change to his life or the only future he will have will involve prison time. He also knows that no matter what he feels for Holly, he needs to push her away and make a clean break for both of them. So when Adam leaves for the army, he leaves both Belle Haven and Holly behind.
After Holly has her heart broken by Adam, she decides she needs to get away from Idaho as well. She also needs to get away from her often well meaning but controlling father and brother. She moves to NYC for college and falls for her smooth talking professor. He whispers of the love she couldn’t have with Adam. Regrettably, their marriage quickly falls apart once her professor returns to his old habits of young teaching assistants. Finally his whispers of regret and apology fall on deaf ears and Holly takes the initiative of recreating own future.
Now both Adam and Holly have returned to Sunshine, Idaho. Two very proud and stubborn people. Holly is trying to hide her disastrous marriage and her recent divorce and is now running her father’s ranch. Adam is trying to hide his post-traumatic stress disorder and recreate a life doing search and rescue in the foothills of the Idaho mountains. When Holly’s father goes missing, she needs help from the one man who turned his back on her and broke her heart.
The decisions they made in their youth did not bring them the happiness they were looking for, and when fate brings Holly and Adam back together, will they use their mature wisdom to make up for the past or will they forever let their rocky pasts dictate their future?
THOUGHT:
This was my first Jill Shalvis book and although I enjoyed it, there was nothing too spectacular about it. Now I didn’t say it was bad. It was a light, quick read with nice characters, but the storyline was a little bland. I was disappointed with the fact that this was part of the Animal Magnetism series which is supposed to be featuring dogs and animals as part of the Belle Haven Animal Rescue, and although Adam trained search and rescue dogs, there really wasn’t too much dog time in this dog-centric story. Adams PTSD kept him from doing anything more than organizing the search and rescues and it wasn’t even the main focus of the story. Even the plot of the story which gets Adam and Holly alone, the search of the woods and mountains for Holly’s father, they mostly just drove around to his usual hunting haunts. There really should be more dog-time in your dog-centric book.
If you read the first two books of the series, you will probably enjoy Adam and Holly’s story. I am interested in the set up of Holly’s brother and Holly’s best friend. I do love those friends to lover stories. There is obviously something there between them, but Holly’s brother is currently overseas fighting in Afghanistan. Holly and her brother talk on Skype and there is too much interest in what Holly’s shy friend is doing and who she is dating if there is no romantic interest on his part. I am planning on checking out that story when it comes out.
Received ARC from netgalley.com, courtesy of the publisher. Thank you.
