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?

Tracy’s review of Still The One (Animal Magnetism #6) by Jill Shalvis

Darcy’s parents were the type that couldn’t handle her. She would do something bad – normally for attention from them – and they’d send her off to a boarding school with no mean of communication with her parents, siblings or grandmother. She has a great fear of rejection because of this.

Eleven months ago she got in a car accident and while she survived she’s had her issues. One of those is with her physical therapist, AJ Colten. He is a great guy and she has the hots for him but the one time that she tries to make a move on him he told it no and that it would NEVER happen. Wow – nothing like a little rejection. She now works part time at AJ’s Wellness center as well as part time at the local vets office. She also tries to rescue and find new homes for therapy dogs for those who need them. She has a big heart but is afraid to show it. She has a brash and cocky attitude to try and cover any hurt she’s feeling.

AJ thinks that Darcy is sexy as hell but he knows that getting with her would be a bad idea. When he needs her to be a testimonial for his business so that he can get grants for patients who have their insurance money cut off before they’re healed, he’s not thrilled that the only one he can turn to is Darcy. They end up in Boise to meet the financers Darcy makes them believe that her and AJ are in love which is totally wrong – but doesn’t stop them from falling in bed together. This starts a sort of relationship between the two of them but neither truly knows how they feel or what they want.

I really liked Darcy in this story. She was very strong and capable and I had to admire her for overcoming all of her physical ailments time and time again during the book. I also adored the fact that she was saving dogs that needed to be needed and putting them with patients and people who could thoroughly benefit from their therapy and love. One dog she gave to a guy named Ronan who was just a grumpy ole soul but once he was with the dog it changed him and I loved that.

AJ was a little harder to read in this book and I frankly couldn’t get a complete bead on where his head was most of the time. I knew he cared deeply about Darcy but yet I wasn’t getting the love vibe from him throughout the story. IDK, there was just something missing on his side.

I didn’t care for Darcy’s constant back and forth with AJ as I was never quite sure where she was going with him. I was happy that she finally got herself together enough to realize that she was worthy of love.

The story was overall a good one but not my favorite of the series.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

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

Veterinary intern Emily can’t believe she wound up in the small town of Sunshine, Idaho, instead of the Los Angeles clinic she had always imagined. Now she has to put her plans to move to L.A. on hold for a whole year while she fulfills the obligation of her vet school scholarship.
Then Wyatt, her gorgeous one-night stand from a Reno vet conference, introduces himself as her new boss. And Emily is just as drawn to his seductive looks and quiet strength as she was on that very steamy night. She soon learns that Wyatt isn’t just a laid-back doctor, but a delicious alpha male tempting her away from her carefully laid-out plans...

Emily has gone to Sunshine, Idaho to complete a year long internship in the local vet clinic. She’s not happy about having to be there as she wanted to do her internship in LA – where she’s from. She is counting the days until she can leave.

The first day she gets to the clinic she meets the man who will be her boss, Wyatt, who is hot, hot, hot. She’d be happy about that except for the fact that she had a one night stand with the man not that long ago and expected…no, hoped, that she’d never see him again. Yes, he was a wonderful lover but that night isn’t something that Emily wants to revisit.

Wyatt is thrilled that Emily the One Night Stand is Emily the Intern cuz he’d love to continue what they started. He likes Emily a lot but he hates that she’s anxious to get home and he’s not about to get involved with someone who’s going to walk out of his life for a job – as his ex-fiance did.

Of course the beauty and grandeur of Idaho gets to Emily, as do Wyatt and everyone else in town. Emily soon realizes that maybe heading back to California may not be the wisest decision or the best thing for her life.

I love this series. The couples are so wonderful together and I love seeing couples from previous books time and again in all of the books. The friendship and camaraderie that they all share comes through in each scene that they’re involved in.

In this story Wyatt and Emily are incredible together. I loved the sexual tension that was consistently present whenever they were together. I also liked the fact that they didn’t immediately jump into bed together. Yes, they got together but not right away. This left plenty of time for the love to grow and I loved every minute of their time together.

As always there were great secondary characters. I’ve already mentioned the couples from the previous books but we also got Emily’s sister and Wyatt’s two sisters. All three of these women were strong personalities and they really helped to round out the MC’s.

I definitely think this is a book that should read and enjoyed by everyone.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Jill Shalvis