"At Last" by Jill Shalvis

 4 stars

"There were certain things she knew for sure. When in doubt, eat chocolate. When stressed, eat chocolate. When in doubt AND stressed, eat chocolate. Especially when that doubt and stress were related to a man and her feelings for said man."


Story:

Amy Michaels came to Lucky Harbor to find peace and maybe hope. It worked for her grandmother many years ago, so why shouldn't it work for her as well? What Amy hasn't been looking for was Matt aka "Ranger Hot Buns". He's trouble and that's the last thing she needs. But then she has never been especially good at making the right choices...

 

If you read and loved the other books in the Lucky Harbor series then you will love "At Last" as well. Jill Shalvis came up with another sexy, funny and at times heart-warming story, that will brighten your day just a little bit more.
For the most part this book was very drama-free (not boring, though), if a bit predictable. That's not a bad thing, I'm just saying that it pretty much follows the path of the other books in the series.
Still not a bad thing because if there's one thing Jill Shalvis is especially good at then it's creating crazy chemistry between her main characters. The attraction between Amy and Matt was off the charts and I had a lot of fun watching those two resist falling in love with each other. And resist they did, let me tell you that. They both had a rough past that made them more than a little bit suspicious of trust and love, so the story of the book basically revolves around them overcoming those fears and learning to trust each other.
I think Jill Shalvis did a good job. She constructed a solid story, believable background stories and I never felt like she was stringing them along just to lenghten her book. The developments all felt very natural, even though I wish the author would take a bit more time to let her characters jump into bed with each other. I like it when an author uses a slow (even very slow) buildup, but everyone who read one of Shalvis's books before knows they won't get one of those.

There was a little sub-plot about a troubled teenager that I thought was very well done as well. The portrait of the defiant, lost girl felt realistic and I was rooting for her from the beginning.

A predictable, but nevertheless good and fast read that made me exited for the next book in the series "Forever A Day", Josh and Grace's story.