ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis @JillShalvis@BerkleyRomance ‏@JULIEYMANDKAC

Posted August 1, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 6 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis @JillShalvis@BerkleyRomance ‏@JULIEYMANDKAC One in a Milliion by Jill Shalvis
Series: Lucky Harbor #12
Published by Berkley on October 14, 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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As the brains behind wedding site TyingTheKnot.com, Callie sees it all: from the ring to the dress, the smiles . . . to the tears. It's that last part that keeps her single and not looking. Getting left at the altar will do that to a girl. But when Callie returns to her old hometown, she finds that her sweet high school crush is sexier than ever. And he makes it hard to remember why she's sworn off love . . .

Tanner is a deep-sea diver with a wild, adrenaline-junkie past—and now his teenage son is back in his life. How can Tanner be a role model when he's still paying for his own mistakes? It's hard enough that gorgeous Callie has appeared in town like a beautiful dream, challenging his best-laid plans to keep his heart on lockdown. Though there's something about being around her again that makes him feel like he can be the man she—and his son—deserve. Little Lucky Harbor holds their past; can it hold a beautiful new future?

ICYMI is a post from my early days of blogging at Yummy Men & KickAss Chicks.   You can see the original review here.

Yummy Man – Tanner Riggs
Kick Ass Chick – Callie Sharpe


As always, I am excited, thrilled and happy to read a Jill Shalvis book because she always gives me feelings, warm, sexy and funny.

One in a Million is the third in the trilogy and book number twelve in the Lucky Harbor series. It has the town we have come to know and love. Lucille uses technology to spread info on hot men and gossip about them and their love lives. NOW we find out how that happened.

Callie Sharpe grew up here in Lucky Harbor. Her parents were lawyers and so absorbed in each other they didn’t give her much of their time. She spent more of her time alone and with her grandmother – Lucille! She was a “nerd,” smart and ended up using her computer skills to run a wedding planning website.

Callie had a big crush on Tanner when she was a freshman and he was a senior. He left town and she became friends with a neighbor boy. She was all set to marry the boy next door, her high school / college sweetheart when he left her at the altar. So she left Lucky Harbor.

Tanner was a wild boy and when he got his girlfriend pregnant at seventeen, he spent his next years earning money to take care of her and his son, Troy, and also, his mother. He always wanted to be in Troy’s life but being away as a Navy SEAL in the military and working out on oil rigs meant he wasn’t home much at all. Now that he and his friends have their business settled in Lucky Harbor, he finally gets to have time with his son, now a teenager.

Tanner has spent his whole life trying to make up for his teenage mistakes. He’s afraid he won’t be a good father, or a good role model. Troy has felt abandoned and Tanner knows that feeling since his own father disappeared when he was five. What Tanner hasn’t ever done is something for himself.

This is a fun and enjoyable story. It’s not unrealistic for Callie to feel love may not be worth the heartache. She hasn’t known anyone to really stick except her grandmother. And now, she’s back in Lucky Harbor to assess for her parents how Lucille is doing with her aging. She runs smack into Tanner, her high school crush, and Eric, the runaway groom with his new pregnant wife.

Tanner and Callie have proximity going for them. The other two women living in the warehouse Callie is, Becca and Olivia, are engaged to Tanner’s two business partners, Sam and Cole. So we see them each with their friends, and the friends all seem to think they are a good idea as a couple.

The attraction and chemistry between Tanner and Callie is fast and it just seems too easy. But it isn’t, because they both have emotional issues to work out to actually have a relationship. Even when they have a relationship, they pretend to themselves and others that they aren’t. OK, I HATE that –people who aren’t honest with themselves.

Troy, the teenage son, adds a lot to this story. Callie befriends him which is great. Troy has his own issues and problems and they provide a lot of the emotional pull and interest to this story. It’s wonderful to see Tanner build a relationship with his son, also.

Tanner has some lingering pain in his leg and limps sometimes. It’s mentioned how he could get massages and do yoga to help this. I really thought Callie should have gotten more behind helping him. The topic comes up but doesn’t go anywhere.

I didn’t appreciate in the last book how the couple had public declarations in front of most of the town. I realize the “town” is a main character, but I felt the couple should have some privacy in this. Well, it happens in this book on a smaller scale.

One in a Million has some of the humor I love. Troy and the bromance provided me with most of the laughs. I can’t believe this is the last Lucky Harbor book. I hope there will at least be some novellas to show us how all our favorites are doing. But I also am excited to see what Jill Shalvis does next. It is my belief everything Jill Shalvis writes is a MUST read.

Giggle-worthy quote –

From the countertop her phone buzzed with an incoming text. With maple glaze all over her fingers, she carefully swiped the screen with her thumb. “Siri, read my text.”
“Text from Best Grandma Ever,” Siri said. “Darling, the word on the street is that you keep going out into the wild wearing strange combinations of clothing. You’re not going to catch a man like Tanner Riggs in sweatpants. Put on some of them fancy skinny jeans they sell nowadays. Show him what you’ve got.”
Callie closed her eyes. “Thank you, Siri.”
“Yes,” Tanner said, smiling. “Thank you, Siri.”
“You’re going to forget you heard that,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure I’m not,” Tanner said. “And for the record, you could totally catch me in sweatpants.”

About Jill Shalvis

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

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Posted August 1, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 6 Comments


6 responses to “ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis

  1. I’ve enjoyed Shalvis in the past. Sounds like a mostly enjoyable romance. I’ll have to scan her romance catalog again.