Review: Too Hot to Handle

Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

The last glimmer of evening light caught his face, the shadows making his jaw even harder, and Merry watched him for a dozen heartbeats. More. This was a scene from someone else’s life. A handsome man in a cowboy hat driving a pickup truck through the mountains. His hand on the thigh of his lover. The moonless night hiding their secrets. 

February's #TBRChallenge theme was Getaway, I went with this book because Merry Kade is trying to “getaway” from her “Merry Slacker” reputation and actually stick with a job and succeed at it. This is second in the Jackson Hole series and while I haven't read the first in this series, I have read all the books in the spin-off Jackson Girls' Night out, which featured the brother of the hero of this one, Shane Harcourt. I bring this up because there was a tiny little mystery plot that involved Shane's dad, who disappeared or ran off with his mistress years ago. I remembered the reveal of what happened, which may have tampered some emotional response at the end of this one. 

She’d come here to make a place for herself, and that was what she was going to do. 

Merry is in Jackson Hole because her friend Grace moved there (book 1) and she has accepted a job as a curator to a ghost town. Merry learns that she was basically hired because she was cheap and the funding for the town is actually in probate and her hiring was more of a strategic move in the suing case. Gabriel Bishop died and left 2 million dollars to help fund the ghost town but his grandson heir, that he did leave land to, is suing for the money too. Merry is excited to get things rolling for the ghost town, get it fixed up and ready for tourists. She doesn't let the lack of current funds stop her and she decides to hire her neighbor, well the neighbor of Grace's apartment that she is currently staying in, to fix up the buildings. Shane agrees to help out, even though he's very busy right now with his carpentry. Readers get let in on a secret in the early first half, Shane is actually the grandson and decides to pretend to help Merry so he can try and learn what the board in charge of the money is doing for his court case. 

Merry was a nice girl. And he was a man no one needed to be around. Not for longer than a night. He’d learned that lesson. He knew who he was.

It's probably not hard to figure out where this is all leading, Merry and Shane grow attracted to each other, Merry always being the awkward nerdy girl has some low self-esteem and doesn't think any man could find her hot and Shane grew up with a “runaway” dad, a mom that always was searching for husband, a younger brother who took off as soon as he turned eighteen, and a grandfather who went from woman to woman and was a jerk. Shane doesn't think he's the sticking kind with women but he can't help be attracted to Merry. The guilt of why he started helping Merry eats at him but as they grow closer and then sleep together, he's scared to ruin it and tell her the truth. Dumb of him but how else do we get that angst third act break-up? 

There was something about her. Something sweet and right that had crept inside him over the days he’d known her. 

This read really quick and probably nothing wildly new here, the ghost town aspect was interesting, but the biggest plus was how hot these two were for each other. It's a 2013 publication and these two have sex; in the shower, in the truck, in the bed, thank you Jesus! It's also a Dahl, so there's dollops of deeper emotional plots around, Shane's family issues, Merry's lack of confidence with her sexuality, feeling like her mother is shutting her out, and the working up to finally telling off her a-hole of a cousin. Also, Dahl does humor that I enjoy the hell out, Merry's inner thoughts and quirky awkwardness isn't “I'm so adorably clumsy” or manic pixie, it's more baffle-endearment into looking deeper for Shane. 

“You’re cute when you laugh,” he said, which was true enough, but not the whole story. Her smile made him happy, but he couldn’t say that. Ever. 

I would say this was more of a not get too involved read, the deeper threads were there but like I said, dollops not necessarily depth. For being his bestfriend, Cole (book 1), sure didn't think much of Shane, it seemed anyway when he instantly thought Shane was taking gross advantage of Merry. Friendships were there for both, more so with Merry and Grace but the heat and sex between Merry and Shane was really the star of the show. The last thirty percent had Merry learning about Shane being the grandson and we get our dark moment, then Shane learning a part of the answer about his father, and then Shane proving to Merry that he liked her for her. If you need a quicker, scratching the surface, funny, and hot read, this would do nicely.

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