A generation ago, Sophie’s mother and Alex’s dad disappeared on the same day, and were never seen again, fueling rumors that they’d run off together.  Alex grew up with his obsessive mom tracking down every lead she could trying to find his dad.  Sophie grew up with her loving father – and with Alex’s mom’s constant trash talking about Sophie’s mom. And Sophie.  This lead to Alex leaving town as soon as he could and never looking back.  Sophie stayed in town her whole life, trying to establish a reputation so good and pure that everyone would overlook her connection to her mother.

A few months ago (in the book Too Hot to Handle), a truck and camper were found with Sophie’s mom’s and Alex’s dad’s bodies inside.  This confirmed that the two ran off together and brought the old scandal to light again in both the town’s and Alex’s mom’s memory.  It also brought Alex back to town for the first time since he left years ago.  When Sophie and Alex meet the chemistry between them is off the charts, but wouldn’t the scandal they could cause be even bigger?

Sophie and Alex are my dream characters!  Sophie is a secretly sexy prim and proper librarian.  Alex is a shaved head, tattooed, biker bad boy.  They are so good for each other and their story was a joy to read.  Sophie’s relationship with her father and brother was also really good, and I enjoyed seeing her grow into herself – in some ways this story is Sophie’s coming of age story.  Alex has some issues to overcome, too.  The fallout of this one event and how it affected the lives of everyone involved is very believable.

On the other hand, the main conflict in this story requires the reader to accept that the town would hold Sophie accountable for her mother’s sins.  It’s certainly something Sophie believes, and it’s both more and less true than she thinks.  This was the weak point in the story for me.  Overall it was really, good, though.

I see by the series label on Goodreads that this book is the first in a new series by Dahl, but it’s clearly linked to her Jackson Hole series, since the events in book 2 are the story of Alex’s brother.  It does stand alone just fine, though, so you could jump in here and do great.

I recommend this book and I enjoyed it very much!  I admitted that the librarian and the bad boy is dream casting for me – how about you?  What’s your favorite hero/heroine combo?