If she has her way ...
Willa Davis is wrangling puppies when Keane Winters stalks into her pet shop with frustration in his chocolate-brown eyes and a pink bedazzled cat carrier in his hand. He needs a kitty sitter, stat. But the last thing Willa needs is to rescue a guy who doesn’t even remember her ...
He’ll get nothing but coal in his stocking.
Saddled with his great-aunt’s Feline from Hell, Keane is desperate to leave her in someone else’s capable hands. But in spite of the fact that he’s sure he’s never seen the drop-dead-gorgeous pet shop owner before, she seems to be mad at him ...
Unless he tempers “naughty” with a special kind of nice ...
Willa can’t deny that Keane’s changed since high school: he’s less arrogant, for one thing—but can she trust him not to break her heart again? It’s time to throw a coin in the fountain, make a Christmas wish—and let the mistletoe do its work ...
Willa Davis is wrangling puppies when Keane Winters stalks into her pet shop with frustration in his chocolate-brown eyes and a pink bedazzled cat carrier in his hand. He needs a kitty sitter, stat. But the last thing Willa needs is to rescue a guy who doesn’t even remember her ...
He’ll get nothing but coal in his stocking.
Saddled with his great-aunt’s Feline from Hell, Keane is desperate to leave her in someone else’s capable hands. But in spite of the fact that he’s sure he’s never seen the drop-dead-gorgeous pet shop owner before, she seems to be mad at him ...
Unless he tempers “naughty” with a special kind of nice ...
Willa can’t deny that Keane’s changed since high school: he’s less arrogant, for one thing—but can she trust him not to break her heart again? It’s time to throw a coin in the fountain, make a Christmas wish—and let the mistletoe do its work ...
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The Trouble With Mistletoe is my new
favorite Jill Shalvis read. It’s full of charm, sweet, and plenty of heat to
warm you up on a winter night—or early fall in my case.
Willa is a charismatic pet shop
owner. Having had a rough childhood bouncing from foster home to foster home,
she truly values and fiercely loves the people in her life. Her friends are her
family. But one thing she has to learn is that she equally deserves to be loved
by someone outside her circle of friends.
Keane is a self-made man. He’s worked
incredibly hard to get where he is in life. And though he had a stable home
growing up, it sadly lacked emotion. Keane never saw himself as a forever
type guy. He didn’t think he was made for it...until Willa.
I loved watching these two fall for
each other. Their chemistry is of course radiating, but when it comes to the
heart they were flailing. Neither of them knew how to define what they were
feeling nor were they eager to. Keane clued in a little sooner. But Willa struggled
to realize the issue wasn’t him...it was her.
Overall this story kept me engaged
from the beginning to the end, and very well past my bedtime. Jill Shalvis does
a remarkable job creating not just the main characters but a family of side
characters as well. Friends that stick by each other no matter what. And each
one of them settled into a small place in my heart.
Willa sighed and headed to the door.
Again
Keane held the pink bedazzled cat carrier, which should have made him look
ridiculous. Instead it somehow upped his testosterone levels. His sharp eyes
were on her but they turned warm in a way that melted her right through her
center as she moved toward him. She stopped with the glass door between them,
hands on hips, hoping she looked irritated even if that wasn’t quite what she
was feeling.
His
gaze lowered from her face to run over her body, which gave her another unwelcome
rush of heat. Dammit. Now she was irritated and aroused—not a good
combo.
His
mouth quirked at the saying on her apron that read Dear Santa, I Can Explain.
Drawing
a deep breath, she opened the door. “You’ve got Petunia again. I hope that
means your great-aunt Sally isn’t still sick.”
He
looked surprised that she’d remembered his aunt’s name, or that she’d care. “I
don’t know,” he said a little gruffly. “She left me a message saying that I was
in charge for the rest of the week but for two days now Pita’s been happily
destroying my jobsite. I’m throwing myself on your mercy here. Can you help?”
Wow.
He must be really desperate since he was actually asking and not assuming. But
since Petunia was a sweetheart, she knew she’d do it.
“I’ll
even tell you where I went to high school,” he said, adding a smile that was
shockingly charming.
Wow.
He hadn’t lost his touch when it came to turning it on. “Not necessary,” she
said, painfully aware of their audience.
Keane’s
attention was suddenly directed upward, just above her head. She followed his
line of sight and found a sprig of mistletoe hanging from the overhead display
of small portable doggy pools. Mistletoe? What the hell? She glanced
behind her and what do you know, suddenly Rory and Cara were a flurry of
movement racing around looking very, very busy. “When did the mistletoe
go up?” she asked them. “And why?”
“FOMO,”
Cara said from behind the counter.
“Fear
of missing out,” Rory translated. “She was hoping a hot guy would come in and
the mistletoe would give her an excuse.”
Willa
narrowed her eyes and her two soon-to-be-dead employees scattered again.
“Interesting,”
Keane said, looking amused.
“I’m
not kissing you.”
His
mouth curved. “If you take Pita for the day, I’ll kiss you.”
“Not
necessary,” she said, gratified no one could see her heart during the two-step
in her ears. “I’ll take Petunia for the day. No kiss required or wanted.”
Liar,
liar…
And don’t miss the first novel in Jill Shalvis’s
Heartbreaker Bay Series, SWEET LITTLE LIES, now available! Grab
your copy HERE!
About Jill Shalvis:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill
Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any
resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.
Look for Jill’s sexy contemporary and award-winning books wherever romances are
sold and click on the blog button above for a complete book list and daily blog
detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.
