Review and Giveaway: Instant Temptation by Jill Shalvis

Pub. Date: April 2010
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Format: Trade Paperback


It was with mixed feelings that I started the last of the Wilder books, Instant Temptation. I knew it was going to be awesome. I am so in love with the Wilder series and Jill Shalvis's writing. But knowing this was the last book in the series meant it was going to be a bittersweet experience for me.

Unlike the two previous installments in the series, this isn't a hometown boy meets out-of-towner story. It's a story about two people who have known each other all of their lives. Not quite friends to lovers, given the tension and hostility that exists between the two characters throughout the previous 2 books in the series, but with the same immediate intimacy that trope supplies.

Harley is one of my favorite characters in this series, and I've been waiting impatiently for her story. She's hardworking, practical, competent, kind. She has a plan, goals, and the only person who really gets on her nerves is TJ Wilder.

TJ is the oldest of the Wilder brothers. He's the one who leads most of the long term adventures provided by the outdoor adventure company owned by the Wilder family. He's always been drawn to Harley and just can't seem to understand where her animosity towards him comes from. And he's a little irritated that he has to work at getting past her defenses when female companionship has never been a difficulty before.

Review: Instant Gratification by Jill Shalvis

This is the second installment in the Wilder Brothers trilogy by Jill Shalvis. And I loved it. I read it in one day, shooing the children outside to play so mommy could finish her book.

As with the previous book in the series, Instant Attraction, Instant Gratification is set in the high Sierras near Lake Tahoe. And, once again, the setting, Wishful, is spot on. But in true Shalvis style, the best part of this book was the characters. They are just so believable. So darn real. Every single character feels like someone I know. And that is nothing short of amazing.

Stone Wilder is the middle brother. The steady one. The glue that holds the family together. And while he does take an active role in leading some of the trips arranged by the Wilder Adventures company, he generally is the one doing the nuts and bolts running of the company. But lately he's been a bit restless and dissatisfied with being tied to just the company.

Emma Sinclair is a NYC doctor born in Wishful, but raised by her city girl mother in New York. She arrives in Wishful filled with disdain for the area, and for her father, whose practice she is overseeing while he recovers from a heart attack. When Stone Wilder comes into the clinic, injured and looking like a beach bum, she feels an instant attraction that annoys and confounds her.

Review: Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis

I'm a sucker for stories set in the Sierras because, quite frankly, there really aren't that many of them. Rockies, yes. Sierras, no. So I was delighted to hear about Jill Shalvis's Instant Attraction which is set in the fictional town of Wishful, located somewhere in the general area of South Lake Tahoe.  Once I started reading, though, it wasn't the setting that captured me. It was the writing.

I haven't read  many contemporaries that have appealed to me lately. They're either romantic suspense, paranormal, or so filled with sex scenes that the romance gets lost. No so with this book! The romance takes center stage as we watch two people recovering from life-altering tragedy muddle their way through a relationship while struggling to redefine themselves and their altered reality.