Best of My Love by Susan Mallery

I am getting very excited because with numerous mentions of Aidan's brothers being in Happily, Inc. (a destination wedding town) it seems like we might get a similar series to Fool's Gold but one where every-single-character from the series won't have to be added into every-single-book. Ugh.  Although, the wedging is getting more subtle. Which is nice.
And this whole book was just nice. With Shelby trying to make friends with Aidan Mitchell so that she can heal her psychic scars and figure out how to find a good man. She figures he'll be able to move past seeing women as conquests.
Aidan likes his life. He sleeps with tourists and there is therefore no chance that any of them will be wanting to turn it into anything more. Until one day, one of them returns. And it causes him to take a good hard look at himself. So when Shelby suggests a friendship-nothing-more, he's up for it.
This is a romance novel so the idea of just being friends is a LONG shot. And it would have been nice to see more friendship and less pining but regular Susan Mallery readers won't be disappointed.

Three stars
Comes out April 26, 2016

Marry Me at Christmas by Susan Mallery

Jonny Blaze, mega-super-action star, needs help arranging a wedding for his one and only sister. So who does Mayor Marsha pick? Could it possibly be the woman who proclaimed her ever-lasting love for Jonny Blaze in the last couple of books? Madeline Krug? Would it be a romance if she weren't the one? Maybe. But probably not.

Madeline seems like a decent person and so does Jonny. They are friends first which was really nice in a romance. In fact, we really see more of their friendship than of the romance. It's a quiet story (surprising since Jonny's a star. Didn't know that? Oh, well it's mentioned. A lot. So is how surprised he is not to be treated like a star. We're almost bludgeoned over the head with it.)
I may have liked this book a little more if "Thrill Me" hadn't hit such a sweet spot for me but I'm not sure. And, as always, shoehorning in past characters was just painful.

Thrill Me by Susan Mallery

It’s possible that “Thrill Me” suffered in comparison to the sheer joy and weepiness that was “Kiss Me”. It’s a return to the regular Mallery “Fool’s Gold” series, but with a little less shoehorning in of returning characters.
This time, Zane’s former step-sister, Maya, is up on the chopping block of love. When she was young, she lived with her mother and was dragged around as her mother went from relationship to relationship. She didn’t think she could understand how to live in a normal, loving relationship so she took off, leaving her wounded fiancé behind. Now she’s back in town to help promote tourism in Fool’s Gold.
Del, the wounded fiancé, has also returned to Fool’s Gold after an exciting career traveling around the globe and participating in extreme sports. He sold his company for a bazillionty dollars (okay, it’s never really said, but it’s implied that he’ll never, ever, ever have to ride in coach again.)
Del and Maya are okay together, I guess. I never really got the idea that the “we’re still hot, hot, hot” for each other vibe. And the B plot… I didn’t love. Will I stop reading the series? If I haven’t yet, probably not. Will regular Mallery readers love it? Probably.

Kiss Me by Susan Mallery

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Definitely in the top of my favorite Mallery books of all time. More because of the B story but the A story was okay too.

Our first glimpse into the heroine's, Phoebe Kitzke, life comes in a courtroom as she is accused of messing with real estate papers. Very soon we find out that she's covering for her boss, the woman Phoebe thought would stand up and confess but didn't. So when her friend volunteers Phoebe to help out on a cattle ride, Phoebe figures, why the heck not? Plus, she just can't say "no."

Zane Nicholson's little brother has just gotten himself into a bundle of trouble, meaning that Zach has to bail him out. Again. It seems that the seventeen-year-old created a website saying that their family ranch would be offering a cattle drive. It seems his brother thought he could take the money from the customers, use it to make some quick money on the stock market and then just return the money saying that the trip was canceled. But he lost the money and now Zane's on the hook. So he's pissed. But he's generally pissed anyway so this is not new. And when his stepsister saddles him with an extra body? Not appreciative. At all. Even if Phoebe is awfully cute.

I mentioned the B plot as being my favorite part of the book. Yes, it was obvious what was going to happen. Yes, it was cheesy. You know what? I didn't care. It was great to get some characters who weren't in previous Fool's Gold books, people we'll probably never see again, who were well-developed and who grew, maybe even more than our h/h.

Why not five stars? Phoebe was a <i>wee</i> bit close to TSTL. I mean, really woman. Really. And Zane was a bit too he-man closed feelings. But. But! Very little shoehorning of previous Fool's Gold characters. It still happened, and was a little gratuitous, but short enough to be negligible.

Comes out June 30th.

Follows Hold Me
Followed by Thrill Me (post goes live July 14th)

Hold Me by Susan Mallery

I have an ARC and I'm hoping that the population listed on page 8 (125,482) is a printing error. How in the world is anything over 10,000 considered "small town?" Hell, even just calling anything over 100,000 "a town" is pushing it. I live in a very small... well, let's call it a town... of under a thousand year-round residents. From the description of Fool's Gold, even in this book (only a few stoplights, one bar - soon to be two, everyone knowing each other, etc.) I've been imagining something around 2-3,000, 5,000 max. Up to this point, I've been ignoring any inconsistencies of small-town living because I haven't noticed any listings of population and the fact that so many of the former books H/Hs have to be wedged into the new books. It's interesting that my major peeve with this series has finally taken a back seat.

>>Reading more, there is both a community college and a 4-year college how is this a small town? Are both just really teeny?

>>Note: after really wondering about this for about half of the Fool's Gold series, and having it bother me to the point that I couldn't keep reading without at least checking the internet, I finally found a note on Wikipedia that the state of California considers "town" and "cities" to be synonymous. Okay, fine. But a good editor would figure out that it means something entirely different outside that state. A quick search on the internet has most folks agreeing that a "small town" is at least less than 10,000 and certainly less than 15,000. If Fool's Gold indeed has over 125,000 people living in it, it is a mid-sized city and there is NO way that "everyone would know everyone else." And there would be more than one bar. We have 3 that are open year-round in my town and 7 during the summer months when we have around 4,000 people in town.
And traffic regulations would sure as hell call for more than "a few" stoplights. The next town up, just over 4,000, has 6 or 7.
I realize that there is such a thing as suspension of disbelief but this done broke my suspension.

>>Okay, on to the rest of the review:
Finally, a story with a former Olympic-worthy athlete and he's NOT bitter about it. As a skier, Kipling Gilmore knew his career was limited and, after a career-ending injury is doing something else with his life instead of moping about it. I'm sure there are other books out there like this but I can't think of any offhand. His major failing is that he likes to fix things for people. Doesn't consider what they want or offer suggestions, he just fixes it. Which. Got. So. Annoying.
Destiny Mills is in Fool's Gold for a short time. She's helping to set up a new Search and Rescue (SAR) computer system. She doesn't like to make forever friends (or lovers). She prefers to swoop in, do her job and get out with a clean break (could that work in today's age of social media? I guess if you just unfriended people as soon as you left.
Her biggest problems are that she is the talented daughter of two country mega-stars and her half-sister has been dumped on her.

I did not like the unexpected pregnancy line. Yes, girls can get pregnant if they're virgins and it can happen only once. That was a nice touch. But it was just too much in an already full book.
I did like that Kipling's problem of getting excited about projects rather than people was addressed. It was getting so blatant and it was nearing the end of the book with nobody talking about it.
Another thing that bothered me- I get that Kipling might not have talked to Jo about opening another bar, but how come none of the other guys did? Or had their wives talk to her? They were nervous about it from the beginning, kept mentioning that the Man Cave might not survive without her support, so why did none of others ask anything?

Follows Fool's Gold #15.5 Yours for Christmas
Followed by Fool's Gold #17 Kiss Me (link will be live June 23, 2015)

Yours for Christmas by Susan Mallery

Bailey's story, Bailey's story, we get to read Bailey's story. And Kenny Scott's. But,whatever. I have loved Bailey ever since we learned about this single mother with a charming daughter. I don't know what about her appealed except the awkwardness. And I just loved the crush that she and Kenny both had. And his back story as to why he wouldn't date women with kids was... interesting, but not unrealistic. Of course, Mayor Marsha has a lot to do with the connection, but it's a great read watching how these two come together to find true love.
Even those readers who, like me, are somewhat annoyed with the shoehorning of characters that happens in every Fool's Gold novel will like this book because it doesn't happen!

Followed by Fool's Gold #16 Hold Me

Until we Touch by Susan Mallery

Image linked from Goodreads

I have been waiting to read this story. Larissa Owens and Jack McGarry have been features in the Fool's Gold series for so long with their relationship that is obviously more than just friends, that I couldn't wait to see how it resolved.
Well, it starts out with Larissa's mother telling both that Larissa is in love with Jack. Something neither of them had acknowledged. Mostly because neither Larissa nor Jack believe it to be true. 
Larissa is a bleeding heart. In earlier books she's rescued snakes (poisonous, buy hero of that book), puppies, and any number of other animals. In this book, she's adopted a cat. A very fancy cat that probably would have been her last choice for when she adopted an animal of her own. 
Working for the guys and Taryn at PR firm Score as their private masseuse/Jack's personal assistant has been the perfect job. She was nervous about their move from LA but it's turned out to be a good thing. She's got her friends on the job and is making friends in town as well. Friends that are quick to back up her mother's assertion. 
Again, I have to wonder how small this town is supposed to be. Small enough that everyone knows everyone but large enough to have a university? Not just a college. And one that's big enough to have football team at that. I know I should suspend my disbelief, but living in a small mountain town makes it really hard to read about "small mountain towns" that seem to grow exponentially for plot points. Granted, the characters do talk about the town expanding but this seems awfully fast. 
But, if you like Susan Mallery's books, especially the ones in this series, I think that you will enjoy this one as well.

Before We Kiss by Susan Mallery

Image linked from Goodreads

I quite enjoy Susan Mallery books, especially when she doesn't try to shoehorn in every other couple that she ever wrote about in the Fool's Gold series. Now, she's even starting to introduce new people. That meant that Sam and Dellina's story, while very good, was a little bit more on the novella side than a full story. But a surprisingly well-developed one.
We learned how Sam and Dellina met in "When We Met". He went over to her house on Valentine's Day eve, had some super hot sex, and then accidentally wandered into her spare bedroom which not only housed her friend's wedding dresses while the store was being redone, but also has a wipey board with "10 Ways to Make Him Propose" written on it. Sam ran in fear. See, his track record with women isn't very good. His past includes, among others, a stalker who slashed his tires, a woman who slept with his two best friends (and then suggested a foursome), and an ex-wife who wrote a book about how to marry a sports star. Sam just wants a quiet life. But he's been put in charge of planning a retreat for his companies clients and the only event planner in town? Dellina. Now it's crunch time and these two will have to work together to make sure that the event goes off without a hitch.
We also see quite a bit of one of Dellina's sisters, Fayrene. In her story, she had told sweetie Ryan that she didn't want to get married for three more years. Now, she's changed her mind but doesn't want to tell him because she wants him to realize that she wants to get married now and magically propose. Every single character in the book tells her not to be stupid and to just tell him (yay every other character!) And while this is a nice side story, it really just feels like a forced way to bring in Pia and Raoul, Simon and Montana, and any number of other characters so that we can see updates in their lives
Five stars for Sam and Dellina's story, three stars overall.

When we met by Susan Mallery

Image linked from Goodreads

While Susan Mallery is usually a straight three-star author for me, I really enjoyed this book. The main characters could have been a little better about protection (though they did at least back up and do it right eventually, and she actually addressed the issue.) We also get to see some great character development with both our hero and heroine. His is a little faster than hers (lightning at the end, there, but believable).
Taryn Crawford has been introduced earlier in the series as a smart, capable woman who takes guff from no one, not even the three former professional football players she works with. While not super-stoked about moving their company from L. A. to Fool's Gold. 
It has it's perks though. One of them is Angel Whittaker, a chiseled man with a scar across his throat. A man who intrigues Taryn in a way that no banker or businessman ever could. 
Both have their pasts and it seems like their relationship could be perfect - Taryn doesn't believe in love and Angel no longer has a heart to give. But could working together with eight seven-year-old girls as well as getting to know each other better start to crack even the hardest of hearts?
I have to note that it's getting easier for me to suspend my disbelief about this tiny, little mountain town having so many people and festivals and huge companies. I live in a tiny, little mountain town with just under 900 people so it's been very difficult for me to read this series but... 13 books in and I'm getting there. 
Still way to many previous characters showing up and breaking my reading flow (Isabel? which one was she? Does it really matter? Maybe, Why can't I remember? Maybe I should just keep reading this one) but this is to be expected in this series.

Christmas on 4th Street by Susan Mallery

Image from Godreads

I don't know why but Gideon's (one of the heroes from Fool's Gold #12, Two of a Kind) twin brother captured my imagination even from the one throw away conversation he had with Mayor Marsha. I couldn't wait to read this book.
It turns out Gabriel is also in the army, a doctor. He knows he's been slipping a bit lately, even going so far as to accidentally injure himself badly enough not to be able to work on a patient. Of course, Gabriel has his demons (what good hero doesn't?). His father was career military and very harsh to an artistic dreamer. Coming back to the States to visit Gideon and his new family seemed like a good idea even though Gabriel will also have to face Christmas with his parents (who have visited Blackberry Island!) as well.
But then he meets an umbrella-wielding Noelle. She was just trying to feed Felicia's puppy (Felicia is Gideon's fiancee) and didn't realize Gabriel was in the house. The two fall into a nice patter and Gabriel decides to help fill the void left by Felicia's college students (she has a Christmas store and they're more interested in skiing than in working) thinking that will be an excellent way to avoid family complications.
Usually Susan Mallery books are a firm three-stars for me but I really enjoyed this one and bumped it up to for stars. Why not five? The HEA was a little rushed and the ending was a wee bit twee, though Eddie and Gladys saved it from being over the top sweet.

Three Little Words by Susan Mallery

Image from Goodreads

The world of Fool's Gold continues to wreak romance on all of it's inhabitants. Even temporary residents like Isabel Beebe. Yes, she had a crush on her sister's ex-fiance and wrote to him for years. But that was a long time ago and she's over him. Even if he is in town now. And uber-hot. With a mother who just wants him to be married.
Nope. Isabel just wants to keep her parents wedding dress shop afloat so that they can sell out and she can go back to New York and open up her own shop.
I love childhood-crush-to-adult love stories. This one was pretty good but like most of the Fool's Gold series, suffered from an overabundance of old and prospective characters. Also, we got to see the romance between the feisty Consuelo Ly and Ford's brother Kent. It was a good story but I wish that they had gotten their own book. It would have been great to hear more about Kent's ex, Consuelo's fear of her own past, and the way their relationship grew.
A steady addition to the series and if you religiously read this series, I'd definitely recommend this book.

Two of a Kind by Susan Mallery

Image from Goodreads

Felicia Swift is an uber-genius whose super-smarts have always made her something of a freak. She's never had a real relationship with a man and the first man she was ever... with... got roughed up by two of her best friends the night after they were... together.
That man, Gidieon Boylan, is also in Fool's Gold. He knew that he had demons

which were not really dealt with

and he wanted to just live his quiet life with his radio station and little human contact.
It was a fun story about two people finding each other. If you've been following and enjoying this series, you'll enjoy this book as well.

So, why no five miler? Yeah... Felicia didn't really appear to be that much of a freak. We didn't really see her super-smarts a ton except that she seemed to relate to people

especially Gideon's grieving, unexpected son. And WTF was up with that anyway? Why throw a random kid in the mix?

. And, like all of the FG books, Mallery tries desperately to keep us updated with all of the previous eleven books. It's nice, in a way, but after so many books and so much time, it takes me out of the book every time she mentions a character and I have to stop and think about whether I can remember who he/she is, who they're married to, and what their story was. Add in all of the characters with upcoming books and Felicia/Gideon's story ends up almost being a novella.

Summer Nights by Susan Mallery

Annabelle Weiss is a librarian in need of a bookmobile. She has decided to raise money by doing The Dance of the Horse at the next town festival (they have one every (or nearly every) month).  She's got ten weeks to get it down but she needs some help. Because, well, she doesn't exactly know how to ride a horse and, really, she needs a horse that has been trained to dance.
Shane Stryker knows horses. He also knows that he's been burned in the past. His ex-wife was a flamboyant woman who loved attention, especially from men who weren't her husband. His first glimpse of Annabelle is of her dancing on a bar so he assumes that she is more of the same. But as he works with her, he starts to discover that's not true. Of course, that's only after he sticks his foot in his mouth a few more times.
We get some more mayhem with Shane's mother ordering all sorts of exotic animals including pigs, elephants, and ponies (Shane <i>hates</i> ponies).
I probably wouldn't recommend this book as a stand-alone (there are <i>way</i> too many characters for that, although Ms. Mallery has come up with a <a href="http://foolsgoldca.susanmallery.com/who.html">Who's Who</a> of Fools Gold that can be helpful. It's a fast and easy read that will delight Susan Mallery's Fools Gold fans.

Summer Days by Susan Mallery

Rafe Stryker has some troubles. His mother loaned a man $250,000 for a ranch that the man didn't own. She isn't really interested in prosecuting but it's his name on the line. To add to the troubles, the ranch is the one where he grew up with his two brothers and sister; they were dirt poor. It was a hardscrabble existence and Rafe doesn't want to be reminded of those times. But maybe some good can come out of it. After all, the swindler's granddaughter (the actual property owner)isn't hard to look at.
Heidi Simpson grew up with a carnival (different than a circus, no animals)and only wants to stay in one place. She has grown to love the town of Fool's Gold and her friends there. She loves her goats and she loves the land that she can barely afford. Now Rafe's threatening to take it all away. He's certainly a looker though. Can she manage to untangle her feelings for him long enough to save her ranch?
Update: Read my review for "Summer Nights" the next book in the series