Friday, August 29, 2014

The Best Kind of Trouble-Lauren Dane

The Best Kind of Trouble
Lauren Dane
Harlequin HQN, Aug 26 2014, $7.99
ISBN 9780373779345

In Hood River, Oregon librarian Natalie Clayton stops at Common Grounds for coffee on her way to work when Sweet Hollow Ranch rocker Paddy Hurley arrives in need of caffeine.  Before even turning around, Natalie identifies by the voice a man she shared two weeks of love-making a lifetime ago.  When Paddy sees her he recognizes her mouth from the greatest two weeks of his life.  She denies being the tattooed pixie who worked at a dive in Portland; as she muses to herself that was a different Natalie.

Every morning when Natalie stops for her coffee, Paddy greets her by asking her to go out with him.  Though she declines he refuses to quit asking.  After consistent rejections, Paddy erodes some of her resistance and Natalie agrees to go on a date.  As they fall in love, Paddy knows he must somehow break down the remaining protective barriers Natalie constructed as a means to escape her ugly childhood, but errs in his efforts.

The first Hurley Brothers romance is an engaging second chance at love romance starring two to nice protagonists.  The leads come from polar opposite types of families in which his nicely supports him and hers, especially daddy dearest, mostly trashes her; the townsfolk particularly her roommate Tuesday Eastwood have become her surrogate loving “family”.  Although the storyline follows the most obvious path, The Best Kind of Trouble is falling in love.


Harriet Klausner

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