Books: "The Love Fix" By Jill Shalvis

 

The Love Fix

By Jill Shalvis

Avon; paperback, $18.99; Ebook, $12.99; Digital Audio, $27.99; available today, Tuesday, June 24th

Jill Shalvis is a New York Times bestselling author who lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any possible  resemblance is mostly coincidental, and her bestselling books can be found at her website, jillshalvis.com, where there's a complete book list and she writes a daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

The Love Fix is Shalvis' new book, and it is the eighth book in the Sunrise Cove series, which began with Book 1, Love for Beginners, followed by Book 2, The Friendship Pact, and right up to Book 7, Better Than Friends.

This welcome back to Sunrise Cove is a heartwarming enemies-to-lovers tale, where found family, forgiveness, and love may be the key to finding yourself.

Lexi Clark's life is falling apart, and when she is summoned home to Sunrise Cove, the last thing she wants is to confront the complications she has left behind. This includes her stepsister Ashley, her gorgeous nemesis-turned-crush Heath Bowman, and overall, her past.

Lexi is nearly certain that being back in her hometown may kill her. She's an overachieving art appraiser who doesn't believe in trust, love, or Happily Ever Afters. Free spirit Ashley is so full of life it hurts to look at her, but Lexi can't refuse Ashley's plea to honor their late mother's final wish to make amends with the people she had wronged. 

On behalf of her estranged mother Daisy's estate, and along with Heath serving as executor, Lexi sets out on a road trip to repay all the people her gambling addicted mother owed money to.

Along with that is the feelings that well up for Lexi that complicate things, from those for her mom, for Ashley, and most of all, for Heath. It's not something she likes, or the way he has of scaling the walls that she has built up around her heart. 

The shenanigans that happen on the road trip are both funny and heartbreaking, but Lexi finds something shocking along the way, something she was searching for, family and acceptance, and unbelievably, at least to her, love.

In this excerpt, Lexi has just returned home: It was a forty-five minute drive from the airport, and Lexi spent each of those minutes staring out the window while refusing to look at Heath. She'd forgotten how stunning the Tahoe National Forest was, the deep jade pines lining the lower ridges, leading to jagged, granite-faced peaks that in turn vanished into fluffy white clouds lazily floating across the same sky.

They were in Daisy's old, beat-up '72 Chevy truck, a relic from Lexi's childhood. It had a cracked windshield, an eight-track player, a passenger window that wouldn't open, and an ignition that only turned if you asked it real nice. She sat squished on the bench seat between Ashley and Heath. Every single left turn had plastered Lexi up against Heath's body and made her grind her back teeth. They'd be powder by the time she got to Daisy's.

When they hit Lake Tahoe's north shore and drove into small mountain town of Sunrise Cove, Lexi's belly quivered with nerves. On the main street, the lake shimmered with whitecaps on her right, the quaint shops and cafes on her left resembling a Swiss Alps village. "Hasn't changed much."

"Hey," Ashley said. "We've got two grocery stores now. And a roundabout."

She made another turn, this one tight, taking a lot of muscle to do it. Sure enough, the movement knocked Lexi into Heath, her elbow digging into his gut.

It was almost an accident.

He'd clearly been just trying to rile her up with the earlier "shotgun" comment, since they were all in the front seat, but she had a news flash for him - she was already riled up.

Just being her did that.

Ashley stopped the truck in front of their childhood house at the same time that her cell started playing U2's "With or Without You."

"Love this song," Ash said, pulling out the phone to sing along for a few bars before slipping it back into her pocket without answering it.

"Anyone important?" Lexi asked wryly.

"Absolutely not."

Lexi decided she could learn a lot from her baby sister.

Ashley was eyeing the driveway, which already had two cars in it.

"The Ramos family across the street has teenagers, and too many cars," Ashley said as she attempted to parallel park. "They pay me for use of the driveway." She cranked the steering wheel and ended up with two wheels up onto the sidewalk. "Dammit."

"Why don't you use the garage?" Lexi asked.

"It's packed to the gills with a bunch of Mom's stuff, and I didn't want to go through it all alone." Ashley turned the steering wheel the other way, and the car groaned as it fell off the curb with a lurch. "Don't say it," she warned Heath, who lifted his hands in a surrender motion.

Ashley studied all the mirrors and gave it another go. Aaaaand again, they went up onto the curb with teeth jarring precision.

"Crap." Ashley knocked the back of her head into the headrest a few times before turning to Heath. "You're up."

"No way. You made me promise not to save you from parking hell again. I had to pinky swear on Mayhem's life."

"Who's Mayhem?" Lexi asked.

Ashley slid out of the truck and jabbed a finger at Heath. "I take back the pinky swear."

"You can't take back a pinky swear."

Ashley glared at him. The cute little puppy with her sharp little puppy teeth out.