Too Hot to Handle

February 25, 2013
Merry Kade joins her best friend, Grace Barret (heroine of Close Enough to Touch), in Jackson, Wyo., for a fresh start. Merry, called the Merry Slacker because of her propensity to drift from job to job, is hired by tourist-hungry locals to restore a ghost town, Providence, and open it as a museum. One snag: the carpenter she asks to help her with the job, Shane Harcourt, owns Providence and doesn’t want to see it ever become a tourist attraction. He decides to work for Merry so he can spy on her and subvert her efforts. Supposedly sweet Merry comes off as overly needy, and it’s never clear why she has so many issues. The love scenes are steamy as Shane fulfills Merry’s fantasies, but there is very little to bring them together outside of bed. The wise-cracking trio of Grace, Cole, and great-aunt Rayleen are mere shadows in this sequel—a fact that will disappoint returning readers. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management.

March 15, 2013
Merry Kade, best friend of Grace Barrett in Dahl's Close Enough to Touch (2012), has landed a job as curator of Providence, a ghost town outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Since Merry loves history, she's ecstatic to be able to immerse herself in the restoration of the town while living with Grace in a building nicknamed the Stud Farm because of all the gorgeous men who live there. Merry's only concern is that her job hinges on a lawsuit contesting the will of the ghost town's donor, but that concern is overshadowed by meeting hunky Shane, the quintessential love-'em-and-leave-'em type. Since Merry doesn't want a serious relationship and Shane is a carpenter, they seem to have a match made in heaven. She's enjoying regular sex, and he is helping shore up the town. But what starts out as straightforward turns messy when sex turns to love and Shane's hidden agenda is exposed. Dahl adds her signature hot sex scenes and quirky characters to this lively mix of romance in the high country.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)