Rating: 4 stars
Avalon Harwood and Maximillian "Mac" Coltrane spent pretty much every summer together growing up, when the wealthy Coltrane family visited their giant mansion. First they were the best of friends, which developed into something more, until at seventeen, Mac broke Avalon's heart when she heard him talking dismissively about her to his father. They never saw each other again, until now.
In the intervening years, Avalon has developed a highly successful app and runs her own tech company out of San Francisco. Mac's father was arrested for fraud and embezzling and his family lost all their money. No one really knows what happened to Mac or his brother. After coming home unexpectedly and finding her boyfriend of several years sleeping with their intern, in their bed, Avalon goes home to her parents in Hellcat Canyon. While angry and grieving for her lost relationship, she discovers that the big Victorian mansion the Coltranes used to own is up for auction and she impulsively decides to buy it, only to find the price being pushed up constantly by some stuffy lawyer. Turns out the lawyer was working for Mac, who has been working as a caretaker at the house and was hoping to buy back the family house, only to be outbid by Avalon, the girl that got away.
Avalon has decided to refurbish the house and sell it to a San Francisco friend looking for a new location for corporate retreats. She hadn't quite expected that the house was going to cost her so much. She's also dismayed to discover that part of the land she remembers so fondly playing on growing up, including the hot springs and the bathing area over by Devil's Leap, are NOT included in the purchasing price. They belong to her neighbour, in fact, none other than the house's caretaker, Mac. He still wants to buy the house from Avalon and decides to do everything in his power to sabotage her sale to what he considers corporate hacks. Avalon refuses to be bested, and they begin a battle of wits and elaborate pranks, while fighting their mutual attraction.
One of my major gripes in previous reviews of Long's contemporaries is her complete failure to address safe sex, which is not really necessary in Regency historicals, but really should be a feature of all contemporary romance. It does not need to take up a lot of page real estate, but responsible couples, especially individuals who haven't seen each other for the best end of two decades, should probably have a brief conversation about being STD free, whether the woman is on the pill, or they should just use condoms as a default. In this book, there is at least one love scene where condoms seem to make an appearance, which is better than in previous books, but there are still several where apparently the couple just don't care about things like pregnancy or STDs. It really does make me annoyed.
While I'm a huge fan of many of Julie Anne Long's historical novels, her contemporaries have been a bit hit and miss and while I by no means disliked them, they've not exactly stayed in my memory and I certainly have never felt a need to re-read them, which I frequently do with my favourite romances. While a lot of romance bloggers have been raving about the previous two books in the Hellcat Canyon series, this is the first one I felt I could whole-heartedly give four stars to. It doesn't hurt that while Avalon and Mac were childhood sweethearts of a sort, the comment Avalon overheard made her hate him, and returning to fight for the house now makes them rivals. I'm a sucker for a good enemies to lovers story, especially if it involves the various parties trying to one-up one another with creative and not too harmful pranks. See also The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren.
While Long is not back on my pre-order list (which she was for her historicals), she's now closer to "would possibly buy for full price" than she was based on her previous contemporaries. I thought this one was fun, and there were a lot of quirky elements, like a girl scout troop full of adorable young ladies, some goats, a fluffy dog and other things that amused me while reading. I wouldn't necessarily recommend you rush out and read the previous two books in the series, unless you get them from the library, but this one is worth your time.
Judging a book by its cover: I really don't particularly like the exaggerated poses of the couples on these Julie Anne Long contemporaries, and once again, I just think it's a bit much. The landscape in the picture is different from that described in the book, and I really just don't think people do embraces like that unless forced to. The whimsically tilted letter in the title font just makes my eye twitch. Please Avon cover designers, go for something a bit more sedate next time.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
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