GRR Reviews Dare Me Again by Shelly Alexander

Elliot is back in his hometown of Angel Fire Falls, taking a break from his high-flying partnership of financial management in San Francisco. He's not really here to stay, but he needs to get this project done first: a service-dog boot camp for veterans at his family resort. There's only one problem: the head dog trainer is Rebel, the girl who ran away from him 10 years ago. // Rebel left with her mom to get her to treatment, after one night that something horrible may have happened. Illness eventually claimed her mom, but Rebel survived, and became a dog whisperer, able to train dogs into service animals. She ran from Elliot because she knew she will only drag him down. Now that she's back, there is nowhere else to run... // Elliot and Rebel came together, and there's both pain and love between them. But with her future on the line, she must keep the camp the highest priority... Dare she risk it all on Elliot's support? Or will her secret and generosity be the ruin of everything? Elliot isn't staying, right?

Good layering of different types of guilt. Elliot has about his family obligations, his feelings toward Rebel, and by extension, his obligation toward the camp. Rebel has guilt about something her mother may or may not have done, about her feelings toward Elliot and her "betrayal" when she ran, and obligation about making the camp a success despite problems (like no individual trainers, as well as no vaccination records about the dogs). And the ending was a masterful twist from the darkest hour. Very satisfying read (and if you have KU, you get the audiobook too!)

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Get Wilde (Checkmate Inc.) by Shelly Alexander

Get Wilde is a very good "enemies to lovers" set in the fitness world, with more than a few twists on familiar tropes.

Ethan Wilde almost had it made... he was in college baseball destined for the big leagues... until an injury sidelined him forever. His fiancee dumped him when his career prospects are gone, leaving him bitterly against relationships. He reinvented himself and now owns a fitness chain. He is betting on the publicity of this next project, where he and another trainer will help a reality TV show whip some weekend warriors into shape for an American-Ninja style competition on live TV. There is a prize involved, of course, and he can use that money, attract some investors to go nation-wide franchising. That plan got derailed when the other team's coach had to bow out due to injury... and the replacement was a red-headed green-eyed yoga instructor nymph... Who seemed somehow familiar... And that's not because Ethan tried to pick her up at a bar. Turns out she's a former US Olympic gymnast who also bowed out due to injury... Just like Ethan. What's worse, her douchebag ex just cleaned out her bank account, and she seriously needed the money too. Ethan found her incredibly attractive and can commiserate together, but someone had to win this competition... Or does it?

Now that's a conflict. It is simple, obvious, and can't be waved away through a change of heart or a fat bank account (not that either has one). Not lame "former one-night-stand" to complicate things, though "evil ex cleaned out my bank account" does sound a bit cliche. As for the ending, you'll have to read it.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Ex-baseball star, now fitness guru, is competing with ex-Olympic gymnast on reality TV for grand prize, but can they also love?

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews It's In His Heart (A Red River Valley Novel) by Shelly Alexander

It's in His Heart is an unexpected romance between a grieving widow and her husband's best friend, both slowly coming to the realization that perhaps love can come again.

Ella Dennings just wanted to get away to her late husband Bradley's Red River Valley cabin. He had died a long painful death due to cancer. Her car skidded in the mud and stuck in a ditch. She had to walk to the cabin with her beloved bulldog Winston in a raging rainstorm, already muddy from several falls, only to find the cabin was occupied... by her late husband's best friend, Cooper. Cooper was hiding from the public having been falsely accused by an ex of sexual impropriety and had to sell his old home to cover his legal fees for the court battle. He had nowhere to go except the cabin, and the last thing he wanted was to spend time with his (dead) best friend's widow that he was also very much attracted to, even if Ella was willing to move on. But Ella's keeping a secret... To partly escape from her reality she had taken to erotic romance writing, and wrote novels where she hoped what she'll do with her husband should he recover. The first two were major hits that she no longer had to teach. When the pair finally got it together, Ella based subsequent volumes on her encounter with Cooper. When Ella's secret came to light and rocked the small town, will it doom Cooper's chances in court? Or be his ultimate salvation?

The pivot from "why not it's just a fling" to "going long-term" was done nicely and the darkest hour was done very well when the idea that Coop's lawsuit can be undone by the novel, but so was the grand gesture and the resolution. But you'll need to read the novel to find that out. The characters are sympathetic and good to each other.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: New Widow Was Forced to Cohabitate Cabin with Dead Husband's Best Friend, and Fell for Each Other

Tropes: dead spouse's best friend, grief, romance writer, fling to a thing, hiding out

Overall Rating:  4/5