Title: Simply Irresistible Series: Lucky Harbor #1
Author: Jill Shalvis
Published: October 1, 2010
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 311
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:In one fell swoop, Maddie loses her boyfriend (her decision) and her job (so not her decision). But rather than drowning her sorrows in bags of potato chips, Maddie leaves L.A. to claim the inheritance left by her free-spirited mother—a ramshackle inn nestled in the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington.
Starting over won't be easy. Yet Maddie sees the potential for a new home and a new career—if only she can convince her two half-sisters to join her in the adventure. But convincing Tara and Chloe will be difficult because the inn needs a big makeover too.
The contractor Maddie hires is a tall, dark-haired hottie whose eyes—and mouth—are making it hard for her to remember that she's sworn off men. Even harder will be Maddie's struggles to overcome the past, though she's about to discover that there's no better place to call home than Lucky Harbor.
I’ve always loved small-town romances, when they’re done well. When I first started reading romance novels, the only way you could pry me away from Regency ballrooms was if you dangled a small town setting in front of me, complete with funny banter and a cuddly dog. Nowadays, I still enjoy small town romances in theory, but I find that these books are overwhelmingly white, usually misogynist, and gratingly “cute” in a way that’s obnoxious rather than humorous. Case in point: Simply Irresistible.
This was not my first novel by Jill Shalvis—in fact, I’ve read her entire Animal Magnetism series (really loved the emphasis on cuddly dogs there). That series wasn’t without its issues (see above), but wow, Simply Irresistible is just a whole new level of problematic. Scratch that. This book isn’t problematic, it’s just plain ole bad.
The biggest problem with this book is Shalvis’ writing. It’s atrocious. It’s hard to describe without creating a chart and comparing this book to other books, but there’s just a complete lack of character-grounding. Shalvis is great at dialogue and internal monologues, but she always seems to forget to describe her characters’ location and/or movement. At the top of a page, a character might be sitting on their front porch, and on the next page, they’re in town buying ice cream. When did they get there? How did they get there? It’s midwinter in Washington state, and your character is ambling around town without even a sweater—why didn’t you mention that she was cold? What’s going on?!
Even if you could get past the terrible prose (don’t even try it, you can’t), the story itself was terrible. You know how people who’ve never read fanfiction like to make fun of it as silly nonsense written by overdramatic 13-year-old girls? Yeah. This is what that kind of fanfiction would be like if it were actually a romance novel instead. The female main character, Maddie, is mousey and plain and shy and awkward and clumsy; she hasn’t had good sex in her life ever (even though she’s 30) and has no self esteem. Even though she tries to give herself pep talks via terribly jarring pop culture references. (“Be like Neytiri from Avatar, Maddie!”)
Jax, the male main character, is just…bleh. He only wears Henleys, for one thing (Shalvis literally mentions his Henley in every. single. scene.) He’s dark and broody and has a Dark Secret that’s actually just “I used to be a fancy defense attorney and then I realized lawyers are all soulless husks and had to leave” which, bleh. Attorneys are not soulless husks, guys. Let’s get away from that bullshit. He also magically appears all the time. It’s terribly writing/plotting, but there it is. Maddie’s doing her own thing, suddenly Jax is there to distract her lady parts. Every other page, he’s just popping up like an angsty alpha male jack-in-the-box. It’s tiresome.
The actual relationship between Maddie and Jax was also terrible and boring. Jax instantaneously wants Maddie, but Maddie has decided she’s not interested in men. Her vagina is on hiatus. But Jax keeps popping up when he’s not wanted, and all this couple can do is make googly eyes at each other. I don’t even recall the reason they couldn’t be together—whatever it was, it was flimsy as hell.
Obviously, eventually we get to some kind of silly Happily Ever After that nobody cares about, and that was that.
All I really have to say about Simply Irresistible is that it was terribly written and boring. Also just eyeroll-inducing. At one point Maddie masturbates by sitting on top of her washing machine during the spin cycle. Seriously. I have nothing more to say.
