Jen’s review of Looking for Trouble (Jackson: Girls’ Night Out #1) by Victoria Dahl

A good reason to be bad… 

Librarian Sophie Heyer has walked the straight and narrow her entire life to make up for her mother’s mistakes. But in tiny Jackson Hole, Wyoming, juicy gossip doesn’t just fade away. Falling hard for the sexiest biker who’s ever ridden into town would undo everything she’s worked for. And to add insult to injury, the alluring stranger is none other than Alex Bishop—the son of the man Sophie’s mother abandoned her family for. He may be temptation on wheels, but Sophie’s not looking for trouble! 

Maybe Sophie’s buttoned-up facade fools some, but Alex knows a naughty smile when he sees one. Despite their parents’ checkered pasts, he’s willing to take some risks to find out the truth about the town librarian. He figures a little fling might be just the ticket to get his mind off his own family drama. But what he finds underneath Sophie’s prim demeanor might change his world in ways he never expected.

This is book #1 in the new Jackson: Girls’ Night Out series, which is a little misleading because essentially it’s a continuation/spin-off of Dahl’s Jackson Hole series. Reading the previous books isn’t absolutely required, but I do think you’d get more out of this book if you at least read #2 in the series (Too Hot to Handle), because facts that come to light in that book carry over to Looking for Trouble.

Sophie Heyer is a librarian and proverbial good girl, at least on the surface. She is kind and helpful and tries not to make trouble for anyone. She seems to be well liked, except by Rose Bishop, who is the widow of the man Sophie’s mother had an affair with 25 years ago. When Rose’s son Alex comes back to town, he and Sophie are majorly attracted, but their family baggage makes things complicated. Alex can’t stand to be near his mother and has absolutely no intention of sticking around town. Sophie is terrified of scandal and of letting anyone down, so she hides her true self and is determined to stay where she’s needed. Both have to come to terms with their childhoods and figure out what they want from their futures.

This is a hot, sexy book. I’ve long thought Dahl writes some of the best sex scenes in romance today, and this book really supports that idea. The sex scenes reveal Sophie and Alex’s characters, just as much as any other scenes in the book. These two have incendiary chemistry. Sophie is the quintessential naughty librarian. She wears super sexy underwear beneath her prim and proper librarian wardrobe, and she really craves someone who’ll rip off all that proper clothing and see the dirty girl underneath. The naughty librarian trope is a little cliched, but Dahl still gives that cliche some depth and freshness. Sophie keeps her sexy self hidden out of fear that people will think she’s just like her affair-having mother. Moreover, it’s clear Sophie herself is secretly afraid that she could become like her mom, so she tries to keep tight control on her life outside sex. I liked that Dahl took this superficial stereotype and dug deeper to explain why someone might be that way.

Alex is also an interesting character. He’s a big, tattooed biker dude. He’s also a groundwater engineer, which I have definitely not seen before in a romance. I love that Dahl again plays with stereotypes by having the big, bad hero have a kind of nerdy job. Despite his appearance, Alex is a sensitive, caring guy. Sophie likes to be dominated a bit in the bedroom, and Alex picks up on that right away. He is happy to oblige, but only in the bedroom. He’s not a domineering asshole in his other interactions with Sophie, which is what we so often see with the tattooed muscled biker guys.

I liked the characters, I liked the plot, and yet I wasn’t quite as emotionally invested in the story as I wanted to be. I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. I did feel like the ending was a bit abrupt, too. I appreciated that there were no forever-promises made because it felt too soon. While I believed those would come later, I wanted a little more of Alex and Sophie working to clear the baggage between them.

Still, Looking for Trouble is a steamy, complex story, and it’s my favorite of the Jackson books so far.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

This book is available from Harlequin. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.