Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

Simply Irresistible is our introduction to Lucky Harbor, a sleepy coastal town in Washington State. One of my favorite series, Lucky Harbor can be read out of order – the series is really a set of four trilogies following friends or families – but I’d recommend starting at the beginning so you can let Shalvis build the world.

We first meet this world through the eyes of Maddie, who arrives in Lucky Harbor a bit worse for wear. She’s lost her boyfriend and her job in a short span of time. Armed with her emotional comfort blanket of a bag of potato chips, she sets out to claim her only inheritance from her erstwhile mother – a ramshakcle inn in Lucky Harbor. I picture the pre-renovation Dragonfly Inn from Gilmore Girls, just set next to an ocean.

Not only does she have to sort out what to do with the property, she has to sort out what to do with the two half-sisters, Tara and Chloe, she owns this place with. The three women have no real relationship and the dynamics between the three of them take up a large part of the first three Lucky Harbor books. Once Maddie decides she wants to give operating the inn a go, she has to convince the other two as well as figure out how to get it up to scratch on an almost zero budget.

Enter our hero – Jax Cullen. A general contractor that Maddie meets before she knows that, we get two fabulous meet cutes as their chemistry and relationship grow. He’s immediately into Maddie, a reality she can’t suss out. Reading about her doing that was so much fun.

Additionally, I really enjoyed getting to know Maddie, Tara and Chloe. Romance logic told me the next books would be about the other sisters and I was glad they indeed were. Drinks for this one is a beer, preferably on the dock in Lucky Harbor watching the sunset. For a beer recommendation, I’d say you’d want a good solid red ale, like a Kinnegar Rustbucket or a Rogue American Amber.

~*~