Still the One by Jill Shalvis

Still the One by Jill Shalvis
(Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Also by this author: One in a Million, Second Chance Summer, My Kind of Wonderful, Sweet Little Lies, The Good Luck Sister, Rainy Day Friends, Playing For Keeps: Heartbreaker Bay
Published by Penguin on April 7th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 320
Format: ARC

Love is a dare in the sexy new romance by the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of the Animal Magnetism novels and the Lucky Harbor series... Darcy Stone is game for anything—except sexy Navy vet and physical therapist AJ Colten, the guy who’d rejected her when she’d needed him most. Now the shoe is on the other foot and he needs her to play nice and help him secure grants for his patients. Unfortunately Darcy can’t refuse. She needs the money to fund her passion project: rescuing S&R dogs and placing them with emotionally wounded soldiers.AJ admits it—Darcy is irresistible. But he’s already been battle-scarred by a strong-willed, vivacious, adventurous woman like Darcy, and he’s not making the same mistake twice—until he and Darcy are forced to fake a relationship. Growing closer than they’d ever imagined possible, Darcy and AJ have to ask themselves: how much between them is pretend? What’s the real thing? And where does it go from here?

Read An Excerpt

Sunshine was too damn small, Darcy thought. Not only did everyone know everyone, but no one had ever learned to mind their own business. Darcy started to move back to her computer but AJ stepped in her way, ducking down a little to look into her eyes.

“Ice the leg,” he said, and without waiting for a response, headed toward Ronan.

Damn, the man had a way of moving, his body shifting with barely sheathed loose-limbed power and grace, and both Darcy and Zoe watched him go.

“He’s got such an edible butt,” Zoe whispered. “Do you think he knows it?”

“I don’t think he cares.” Besides, his being hot didn’t change the fact that he was a bigger problem for her than Johnny could even think about being. Johnny was just an asshole. AJ was . . . well, she wasn’t sure what. Dangerous as hell to her well-being, for starters.

“So why do you do it?” Zoe asked her.

Darcy tore her gaze away from AJ’s ass. “Do what?”

Zoe took her big sister status very seriously. But then again, in spite of the fact that there was only a few years between them, Zoe had always been more maternal toward Darcy than their actual mom ever had.

“Bait him,” Zoe said. “He’s great guy. He’s smart, hardworking, self-made . . .”

“Maybe you should date him.”

Zoe laughed. “We’re not suited.”

“Because?” Darcy asked.

“Well . . . he’s a bit alpha.”

Yeah. Just a bit.

“We’d butt heads,” Zoe said. “But I’ve always thought that maybe you two might . . .”

“A minute ago you were worried he might kill me.”

“Well, sleeping with him might go a long way toward making sure he wouldn’t.”

Darcy snorted. “Go away, Z.”

“In a minute. He did so much for you after your accident.”

This was absolutely true. Darcy had had five surgeries, and once she’d been okayed for physical therapy, AJ had taken over her care. He’d been a drill sergeant but he’d also saved her life. She knew it. He knew it.

And wasn’t that just the problem. She hated knowing that she hadn’t been able to save herself, that she’d needed help. “You’re right,” she agreed softly. “He’s done a lot for me.”

“I mean look at you, Darce. You’re walking.”

A miracle. Darcy got that. She was grateful for that, so very grateful he’d gotten her out of a wheelchair and onto her own feet again. Sure, she’d never win a track meet and she was always going to be somewhat unstable on her own two legs—especially the right one which still enjoyed buckling on her at the worst of times—but yeah. AJ would forever be a hero for what he’d done for her.

Which wasn’t to say she liked him.

In fact, during her PT she’d actually hated him. She’d dreamed nightly about strangling him, drowning him . . .

Very satisfying dreams, too.

And if there’d been a few others, some that had involved a different kind of altercation altogether between them, of the naked and sweaty variety, well, those were her little secret.

Across the large room, past all the exercise equipment to the mirrored wall, Ronan lay flat on his back now, working with a large rubber band around his ankles, doing strengthening exercises.

On his knees at his side, AJ guided him, and wrong as it might be, the sight of the two built guys working so hard together made her pulse race just a little bit.

During a quick beat of rest for Ronan, AJ glanced over the carved muscles of his shoulder to meet Darcy’s gaze.

She stopped breathing.

At her side, so did Zoe. “I just don’t get why you’re so hard on him,” her sister said.

“Actually, I think you’ve got that backward.” He was hard on her.

Very hard.

And she resented that. It was almost as if he expected her to soften her edges, to be something she wasn’t—like maybe one of those soft, sweet, bendy yoga instructors he was fond of dating. But though Darcy was working on herself, she was never going to be soft and sweet.

Or, thanks to her accident, bendy.

“Maybe you could just try a little bit harder to be more . . . friendly,” Zoe suggested.

Darcy didn’t have words for what she felt for AJ, but she was pretty sure “friendly” wasn’t going to make the list. And yet if AJ had been there for Darcy in a huge way, so had Zoe. Always. So Darcy blew out a breath and managed a smile for her sister. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll try.”

Jaime’s Thoughts

I feel like a broken record with my Jill Shalvis reviews … I feel like I keep telling you all to just go ahead and read … lose yourself in the small towns filled with sexy heroes … find yourself laughing with the fun heroines and quirky secondary characters. Find yourself wishing that you knew where to find places like this on a map!

It absolutely hasn’t changed with the sixth book in the Animal Magnetism series.

Darcy and A.J. have a love/hate relationship and I have to admit I love when characters are in this situation. Darcy is still smarting from a rejection from A.J. and it happened when she needed him the most and now, he needs her help and he’s leaving it up to her to decide if she’s willing to help him secure a grant that could ultimately help his therapy program… plus what A.J. is offering would help fund her personal project of rescuing search and rescue dogs and placing them with wounded soldiers.

Very quickly, Darcy & A.J. realize it’s really not that hard to fake a relationship with someone you have actual feelings for.

Shalvis does banter and chemistry like few others can, and once again we get tons of it in Still the One. It’s probably one of my favorite things about reading her stories. She makes everything her characters go through somewhat relatable and I think that’s what makes it so easy to connect with her characters.

And her heroes are always incredibly sexy… always.

A.J. is a physical therapist you guys… He’s protective and sweet and he allows Darcy to be who she is, all while unexpectedly falling for her. She certainly doesn’t make it easy that’s for sure, but that’s part of her charm. Underneath their gruff exteriors are some interesting characters. While she struggles to make ends meet, she spends all her extra funds buying and working with S&R dogs only to place them with wounded soldiers. And A.J. is working hard to secure grants to help people who are in desperate need of therapy but their insurance isn’t helping or they don’t have the money.

This is where he needs Darcy’s help. But how can he convince the girl he previously rejected to help him now and how does he make her see that the reasons she thinks he pushed her away aren’t even close to the truth.

So we have something of a love/hate relationship here, and I love those. Shalvis does an amazing job building each of their backstory, and I adore the chemistry that she works in each of her novels.

With each Jill Shalvis book I’m guaranteed some sexy guys, a wonderful romance and the perfect escape from my real life troubles. If you are a romance fan and haven’t picked up a book by Shalvis I don’t know what you’re waiting for.

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

About Jill Shalvis

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras with her family and far too many assorted quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill's latest, ONE IN A MILLION, on shelves and e-readers now, and get all her bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold.

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