Just the Thing

May 29, 2017
Harte’s second Donnigans contemporary (after A Sure Thing) gives her readers plenty of familiar elements to enjoy. Gavin Donnigan, like his older brother Landon, retired from the Marines with a medical discharge. Now working at a local gym, Gavin tries to manage his PTSD with therapy, intense workouts, and visualizations—such as picturing the lovely Zoe York “in nothing more than a smile.” Zoe, a medical software trainer, can’t help admire Gavin’s “amazing ass, overly amazing thighs, topped off with an amazing torso,” but his reputation as a womanizer, and her own grief over the recent death of her twin, keep her aloof. Some sweet romantic gestures, such as Gavin planning gardening as a first date, are sprinkled among the plethora of lust-filled fantasies and steamy sex scenes. Meanwhile, the Donnigan family members, all cut from the same beautiful mold, continue their family tradition of playing pranks; this produces some amusing scenes, especially when Zoe gets in on the act. There’s nothing really exciting here, but Harte fans will not be disappointed.

May 1, 2017
Two wounded souls leverage a gym flirtation into a lighthearted fling, but when their feelings intensify, they must decide if the time has come to break through their grief and guilt to embrace love and happiness.Gavin Donnigan (brother of Landon from A Sure Thing, 2016) has been working as a trainer and self-defense instructor for the nine months since he returned home from the Marines. It's easy work he enjoys, but more important, it's giving him the space he needs to heal from his physical and emotional injuries. Zoe--aka the pretty girl at the gym who wears Pink Yoga Pants but shoots Gavin down when he asks her out--is mourning the death of her twin sister, Aubrey, and doesn't want anything to do with the hot trainer with a reputation as a player. Yet one day, after Zoe asks Gavin to give her some private instruction for a missed self-defense class, she decides to take a page out of her spontaneous sister's playbook and accepts his invitation for a date. Then, after he surprises her by taking her to a beautiful garden and doesn't try to get her into bed, she takes a second look at her preconceptions and likes the character she sees beneath the man's gorgeous exterior. So begins a courtship that both parties try to tell themselves doesn't really mean anything, but when Zoe realizes she's in love with Gavin, it forces him to face some deep trauma. Failure may mean losing the one woman he wants but isn't sure he deserves, though Zoe won't give him up without a fight. A sexy romance that includes a moving peek at post-traumatic stress and survivor's guilt but tempers intense emotionalism and sensuality with sweet and comedic elements.

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