Review: Only Yours by Susan Mallery.

Posted August 26, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments


Rowena’s review of Only Yours by Susan Mallery.

Hero: Simon Bradley
Heroine: Montana Hendrix

Montana Hendrix has found her calling-working with therapy dogs. With a career she loves in a hometown she adores, she’s finally ready to look for her own happily ever after. Could one of her dogs help her find Mr. Right…or maybe Dr. Right?

Surgeon Simon Bradley prefers the sterility of the hospital to the messiness of real life, especially when real life includes an accident-prone mutt and a woman whose kisses make him want what he knows he can’t have. Scarred since childhood, he avoids emotional entanglement by moving from place to place to heal children who need his skillful touch. Can his growing feelings for Montana lead him to find a home in Fool’s Gold, or will he walk away, taking her broken heart with him?

Montana Hendrix gets her happily ever after in Only Yours by Susan Mallery. Of the triplets, Montana was my favorite. For some reason, that she considered herself the family screw up made me like her more. When we first meet Montana in Chasing Perfect, Montana befriends Charity and she talks her ear off. She’s friendly and she’s chatty and I immediately liked her. She’s like that with everyone and when Mayor Marsha comes to her and asks her to take the new doctor in town around, show him the hot spots of Fools Gold in an effort to keep him around, Montana does it because that’s the kind of person she is.

Dr. Simon Bradley has been a loner by choice. A victim of child abuse from his mother that left him with angry burns on his body, he keeps the burns around as a reminder to himself that love doesn’t always exist where its supposed to exist. Not all parents are good and not all people are good. He’s shy to start up relationships and he’s never in any place long enough to form attachments because he prefers it that way but all of his carefully thought out plans are shot to hell when he comes to Fools Gold.
This book was such a delightful read. I really enjoyed getting to know more about Montana and getting to know Simon. They were such opposites and yet they were so good together. Montana and her never ending capacity to love and Simon and his inability to see himself ever happy made for some great reading. Seeing Simon come to grips with his feelings for Montana, seeing his confusion at how fast and immediate his attraction was to her had me grinning from ear to ear throughout most of this book.
A scarred hero is always sexy to me and Simon was just that. He had scars from his past (but emotionally and physically) and I enjoyed seeing the wall around his heart thaw just by being with Montana. I loved that he saw the goodness in her and wanted to keep her that way. He liked her just the way she was and wanted to protect her innocence which I thought was super sweet.
I really enjoyed Simon and Montana’s characters but they were just a small part of what I enjoyed about this book. I liked getting to know Kallinda and Reese. I thought it was cute the way that they became friends and I thought Reese was adorable when he wanted to make Kallinda happy by giving her the suggestion about the marriage back up plan. I’m curious to see if we’ll get more Denise and Max (I’m itching to know what really went down between those two) and I’m wondering if Kent Hendrix is going to get his own book. I’d enjoy that, I think. A math teacher hero? I can dig it, for sure.
I’m also anxious for Nevada’s story. I need to meet Tucker Jannack. I need to know who he is and what happened between him and Nevada. I just know I’m going to enjoy their story. It should be a good one.
Overall, this story is filled with the same small town goodness that the other Fools Gold stories have and it’s got a hero and a heroine who will make you smile and characters that will keep you coming back for more. Mallery does a great job of telling Simon and Montana’s story. There’s a lot of that cheesy goodness in this story but I didn’t mind it so much because I enjoy the characters. This book is light and perfect for a lazy day at the beach. I recommend this book to fans of Mallery’s previous Fools Gold books and of small town contemporaries.
Grade: 4 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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