Rowena’s review of The Heat is On by Jill Shalvis.

Hero: Jacob Madden
Heroine: Bella Manchelli

Oh, dear. Bella Manchelli is so not having a good day. First, she’s deliciously exhausted from last night’s sizzling one-night stand. Second, there’s a (gulp) dead body at her back door. Third…um, that scrumptious one-nighter is at her front door… and he’s wearing a badge! Police Officer Jacob Madden is all about duty. Until he shows up looking for a homicide…and runs right into last night’s slice of sexy heaven! Damn, he just can’t think straight when he’s around Bella. All he wants to do is lick her up one side and down the other…. Can duty and smoking-hot sex blend for a while? Definitely! Until Jacob discovers that several of the guys Bella’s dated have turned up dead. Jacob loves being around Bella. But is he ready to be used as target practice?

This is the second story in the Madden brothers series. This book covers Jacob Madden’s story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s funny that this is such a short story because it didn’t feel like one. The story flowed so well and was totally complete that when I finished it, I was surprised that it was so short because it felt like anything but. Talk about pack a punch, Jill Shalvis did a wonderful job of sucking me into this story and making me fall in love with the characters.

This story follows Jacob Madden and Bella Manchelli as they find their way toward true love. Bella is a drifter. She drifts from place to place, looking for a place to call home and up until now, she hasn’t found it. She’s a pastry chef who works at a small bakery and after being talked into attending a blind date thingy called Eight Dates in Eight Days and after seven dates, she didn’t find what she was looking for…until date eight. Date eight was with Jacob and to say that he rocked her world is putting it lightly since not only was he date eight but he was a one night stand.

She leaves him early in the morning because she has baker hours and she goes to work. Once there, she’s so busy that it takes a while for her to notice that there’s a dead body outside the shop. Once she discovers the dead body, she calls 911 and the one guy that she doesn’t think she’d ever see again, shows up on her doorstep and is the detective assigned to the case.

This dead body thing brings about a lot more shootings and we’re finding out that these guys that are getting shot at are guys that Bella went out during her eight dates in eight days brings Jacob and Bella a lot closer than they ever thought and watching these two fall in love with each other made for such a delightful read.

This was classic Jill Shalvis goodness, great characters, a steamy romance and the laughs packed into a great story. My only gripe with this story was how easy it was to spot the villain. The first time we met the villain, I knew who they were. I called it and I’m not usually good at spotting them. Aside from that, it was great. The pacing was great, the story line was great and it was so easy to fall in with these characters. This story has got me antsy for Austin’s story (he IS getting one, right?) And I definitely recommend this book.

GIVEAWAY ALERT: I’m giving away three copies of this book to three lucky commenters. All you have to do is leave a comment, telling me what your favorite things about Jill Shalvis’ novels are and if you haven’t read a Shalvis before, let me know what you’re most looking forward to when you read your first Shalvis book.

Good luck and winners will be announced sometime next week.

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