My third book by this author and third in this series. 13th chick lit book.

Well, the book opened and I was immediately annoyed. Shocked and annoyed. Is something that happens immediately a spoiler? Well, if so, I can’t talk about the rest of the book then. There we go – my review. I was shocked and annoyed by the opening. End of review. Heh.

Book involves someone named ‘Elizabeth Fischer’ who worked as a highly paid public relations person until being unexpectedly fired from her job. She worked in the big city. Has trouble finding work in the city, though there is this ‘low paid’ job out in the boonies that’s hers if she wants it. So, she reverse commutes. You know how people would live in a small town and commute twenty miles to ‘the big city’? Well, with her new job, she lives in the big city and commutes twenty miles to Spring Valley. To be the president of the local animal shelter.

As is common in a Tiner book, based on reading three books, there are three men lined up for the woman to potentially date. One is a board member (and not in the running, despite his persistence, because he’s so gosh darn creepy), one is a vet that works at the animal shelter (and is so gosh darn incredibly handsome), and the last is some bum who comes by to volunteer at the shelter to walk the dogs (well, he looks like a bum, sounds like a bum, and, when asked, intentionally implies that he is a bum – when asked if he works, or desires to work, or whatever the question was, to which he replied something like ‘I don’t see the need to work.’)

All three are either hot-heads, grabby, or really creepy. The vet and the bum have anger issues. All three have grabby hands. Quite frankly I didn’t like any of the three ‘potentials.’

The ‘bum’ is a side character from one of the previous books. I’m being intentionally vague because of how this book begins. He had his heart broken at the start of, or maybe just prior to the start of this book. So his emotions are all over the place.

Quite frankly, I’ve been kind of pissed off by the whole situation. Since the beginning. I’ve mostly pushed it out of mind, but . ... in between books one of the characters died.

Oh, and, as an undercurrent running throughout this book – there’s this serial rapist out there. Elizabeth spends most of the book vaguely terrified that certain individuals might be the rapist. Oh, and either the rapist has targeted her, or she has a stalker. So, that occurred.

Man I kind of hated the main male character. He spent the majority of the book alternating between feelings of self-pity and rage. Then acting these bits of rage to wander around doing stupid things like beat people up. Yay, what a hero. Mmphs. By the time he physically attacked people at a dentist office (mostly referring to the innocent bystanders being manhandled and flung around); I was kind of hoping he’d end up in jail. While ‘knowing’ he’s going to have a ‘happily ever after’ instead. Because. This is a Romance book. And that’s how they work. People who are complete and utter dicks, filled by rage, and operating with no self control, get to end up in ‘happily ever after’ land instead of ‘jail’ if they happen to be one of the two people in the main coupling. Also, many of the things vibrating off him, actually made him seem to come across as the likely serial rapist (his appearance changes randomly, he doesn’t have to work, so he has lots of free time, he has rage issues, he seems incapable of controlling himself, etc.; though I’d actually have been shocked if he had ended being the rapist).

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked sounding hurt.
“You never asked.”

Bullshit. She asked. He intentionally answered in a way to make it seem as if he was a bum. Because he wanted to make sure she was disgusted with him. WTF? There was a whole bloody big point made about that. Surrounding that. To have him reveal his actual nature and say ‘you never asked’? What the fuck? What a fucking asshole. Fucker has rage issues, can’t control himself, grabs people and holds them with his steel arms (what, that’s what it said in the book), beats people, and lies. Then lies when he is called on it. I did not like him in that first book he appeared in, and I certainly haven’t grown to love him now.

To a large extent, any positivity I feel for the book is based solely on Elizabeth and her story. And I feel sorry for her. Sexually harassed, fearing rapists and the ‘best man’ for her is this guy. Even so, and despite how much I dislike the lead male character, I actually did like the book.

By the way? I know why they had to kill a character in between books. Because the main male character, Paul, had a completely different set of emotions and personality between the first book he appeared in and the second. And that is the only real way to get away with turning the cool collected guy who he was in the first book he appeared in into a raging furious jealous dude that he was in the second book he appeared in.

‘Her heart swelled with the knowledge that his aggravation was a result of his desire to protect her.’ – hmm. *shrugs* She’s one of those, eh? Gets off on her man being all aggressive and stuff? Bah. ( )