Hello, and welcome back! I'm getting ready to head off for the weekend to a writers' conference, and I'm really looking forward to getting to visit with some of my favorite writers during the workshops and at the booksigning afterward. Sometimes I even find new authors after hearing a particularly great workshop.

This time out, I have the latest from Jill Shalvis in her "Animal Magnetism" series, Animal Attraction (Berkley, purchased). Jade Bennett arrived in Sunshine, Idaho on the run from a terrible experience. She's been working as the receptionist at Belle Haven, for sexy bad boy veterinarian Dell Connelly. Dell likes having Jade run his office, with her amazing efficiency, but after all this time, he still knows next to nothing about the mysterious beauty who keeps everyone at arm's length. Until someone dumps a stray kitten in their waiting room and Jade takes the poor thing home with her for the night. Then all the rest of her good intentions seem to vanish, and she finds herself with some relationships she'd deliberately kept casual or professional deepening far more than she'd ever planned. But she absolutely will not change her plans to leave Sunshine very soon. Her plans to return home to her family and her life in Chicago are pretty well set in concrete, and no tempting vet is going to change her mind about that. But in the meantime, he may persuade her to give up some secrets and help her to get over some of her other issues while working his way deeper into her life. Jade knows getting involved with Dell is a bad idea, no matter what excuse he uses to invade her personal life. He's her boss, and she is leaving very, very soon. But she can't seem to resist the sexy bad boy who might not be as bad as she believed. I've really been enjoying Ms. Shalvis's books in recent years, and this series is terrific so far. Dell is a great hero, not just pretty on the outside, but caring and more vulnerable than he'll ever admit. Jade's issues are painful for her to work through, and she has to do a lot of soul-searching to do before she can get her happy ending. Watching them fall in love is delightful. I'm borrowing four and a half of Cupid's five arrows for this one.

Until next time, happy reading!

Jill Shalvis

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