He Falls First

He Falls First- Jill Shalvis

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: August 5, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Ryder Colburn has his hands full running the family business and caring for the ailing father who’s a virtual stranger from the cold, heavy-handed man he used to be. He’s got zero free time for hobbies or women. Or so he thinks until one walks into his life… and the path of an oncoming car.

Ryder doesn’t mind playing the hero for the skittish, scarred chef Penny. Maybe it’s the secrets in her eyes or the scar on her chin. Whatever the reason, he’s compelled to get closer.

Penny’s learned her lesson and now she’s paying the price. That’s why she’s sharing a dilapidated house in a tiny California town with her feisty grandmother and tween brother living off the leftovers from her catering job. It’s a far cry from her dream life. But who needs dreams… or love… or sex when there’s amateur plumbing projects to tackle and breakfast casseroles to bake?

One thing’s for sure, she’s never falling in love again. Not even with the sexy, snarky contractor who keeps testing the walls she’s built.

___________________________________________________

Penny has learned the hard way not to trust her judgement in men. She's got the scars and the restraining order to prove it and has moved in with her grandmother and 12 year old brother to start over. New job, new life is her plan. The life may mean working till she drops of exhaustion to pay bills, trying to ride herd on an over enthusiastic grandmother and a teenager, but that's ok. Less time to think of how she's failed at everything else. And less time to think of hot construction company boss Ryder, who's a complication she absolutely doesn't need. 

Ryder doesn't need a complication like Penny either. He's drowning in paperwork he can't stand, still greiving the death of a friend and brother-in-law and knowing his sister blames him for her husband's death. He's trying to keep the family and the business together- including a sick father who's gone from an abusive man no one could stand to be around to someone who can't take care of himself and has had a complete personality change. He doesn't have time for himself, let alone a relationship.

But the universe seems to think this is the perfect time for these two people, with brick walls around their hearts a mile high, to come together. And Ryder may have no idea what he's doing, but he recognises the intense chemistry between them and the happiness he feels just talking to Penny means he'd be an idiot not to see where this unplanned, unexpected thing between them can go. When he agrees to let Penny set the pace and isn't chased off by her fears, Penny starts thinking she might be brave enough to give them a chance too.

I loved how you get two damaged people here, both trying to figure things out. Ryder is totally sweet in letting Penny set the pace no matter what, because he understands when she tells him it's about her being brave enough to trust her. But we see Ryder's broken bits too and he learns how to open up to Penny about them. As much as Ryder and his brothers tease each other, they each have their own issues and are there for each other when they need it. 

This was a lovely romance with a great mix of sweet and sassy, friends and family, teasing and fun, and very hot chemistry between the two main characters. I can't wait to revisit the Colburn family!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review 

Almost Just Friends

Almost Just Friends- Jill Shalvis
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: January 21, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚


Synopsis: Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

______________________________________________________________

Piper Manning has had to be an adult since she was 13, raising her two siblings and trying to keep them all together.  Now, just when she thinks she can have a life of her own, they're back home with their own dark secrets and a new neighbor has moved in with demons of his own.  Cam's learned too late what it means to be present in someone's life and he's not going to make the same mistakes again.  He's just not sure he can convince Piper that as similar as their pasts are, their futures can be even better.

Piper is a great heroine.  She's sassy, snarky, and hanging on to sanity by her fingernails.  She tries to control everything in her life with bullet point journals and office supplies (another reason I lover her- someone who gets my "inner office supply ho") and is afraid to let go, be surprised, and enjoy life.  She's terrified of letting people in, because that's when they hurt you the most.  And she's terrified of loving anyone because none of the people she loves have ever put her first.  Brother and sister Gavin and Winnie may be younger than Piper, but have managed to have life crisis at the same time and come home.  Because despite all the fighting Piper, and Wildstone, are home.  They may be trying to get themselves together, but by not sharing that with Piper, she feels like she has to continue worrying about them and putting her life on hold.

Cam is a Coast Guard, and does his best in high stress, no emotion situations.  When his younger brother dies, Cam goes home to their father and finds a life he never expected.  A life that includes Piper faster than he could have anticipated.  I loved the chemistry between them- both the slow burn and the firestorm varieties.  They manage to be perfect compliments to each other in ways they didn't know they needed, and they understand each other in ways that terrify them.  Neither one is perfect, and they (and Gavin and Winnie) make plenty of mistakes along the way, but they personify what making family work can be all about when you have love.

With characters dealing (or not) with the deaths of loved ones there is definitely some soul searching and tear-jerker moments in Almost Just Friends, but Shalvis mixes the serious and the emotional with just the right amount of humor and sarcasm to keep things going.  All the characters in Friends are deep, flawed, and completely human and relatable- no surface characters here.  Almost Just Friends was a great read, full of heart, and not to be missed!   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review