The Best Kind of Trouble by Lauren Dane (The Hurley Boys #1)
Contemporary Romance
August 26, 2014
Harlequin

Reviewed by Helyce

When Natalie Clayton moved to the idyllic town of Hood River to take a job at the town library, she just wanted a quiet life, away from the stress of her family.  Having had a difficult childhood with a manipulative father and grandmother, she’d always sought refuge in the library.  Among the shelves of books, she could escape for a short time through reading.  It became her safe place. Now, she’s made peace with her past, somewhat, and is in control of her life for the first time. She’s living in the present, until Paddy Hurley walks into the town coffee shop one morning and brings her past rushing back.

Patrick “Paddy” Hurley grew up in the town of Hood River and continues to make his home there even though he’s a very successful rock star.  He can’t believe it when he walks into the town coffee shop one morning and runs into Natalie, a woman who made such an impression on him, he never forgot their whirlwind two-week romance in Seattle when his band was just starting out.

Back then, Natalie was just starting college and Paddy and his brothers were just starting to get noticed.  They had their fun and then went their separate ways.  Natalie is not interested in getting involved with a rock star, but Paddy has other ideas.

We met the Hurley brothers in Lush (Delicious #3) when we got Damien and Mary’s story.  After reading/reviewing it, I remember emailing Ms. Dane and asking (begging) her if she planned on writing stories for all the Hurley boys.  She replied, saying yes-she did have plans, but there were other commitments that needed to be met before she could embark on their stories.  Well, just a year and a half later, we have Paddy’s story and Ezra and Vaughn’s stories are on the way. Squee!

Second chance love is a theme I enjoy so I looked forward to this story.  I loved Paddy!  He’s a gorgeous, successful rock star, but he’s also very grounded.  His relationship with his brothers and parents are strong influences and while he certainly has taken advantage of the benefits of his rock star status over the years, he’s older now, more settled.  When he runs into Natalie, he remembers her and the time they spent together in their youth. He sees it as a chance to rekindle the spark.  Natalie, on the other hand, is not interested.  It’s taken her years to get to where she is.  A home of her own, a great job that she loves, and a semblance of control over her life.  She knows that Paddy Hurley is the last thing she needs and she stands firm on seriously not giving him any kind of in with with her.  But he wears her down.

Natalie did not have a great childhood.  The two weeks she spent with Paddy when she was 17 was a sort of last hurrah before she went off to college.  It was at college where she started to build a different kind of life.  One away from the constant problems of her father.  Determined not to be pulled back into that rollercoaster, she cut ties, refusing to see him, but her meddling grandmother just can’t let it be.

I loved Paddy’s persistence as he does everything he can to be in Natalie’s face daily until he wears her down.  It doesn’t take long and I liked that the author didn’t drag out this part of the story.  Yes, Paddy and Natalie are totally different people from the younger versions of themselves, but their relationship comes together and flows so well.  It is here that we also see Paddy’s very close relationship to his brothers.  How in sync they are and how well they work together.  Paddy is closest to his brother Ezra and as the author made this point clear, it made the conflict introduced a little off-putting to me.

Since we’d already had Paddy’s brother Damien’s story, I worried that Paddy and Natalie might revisit a similar type of conflict with their budding relationship (misunderstandings and jealousy). But in this instance, it’s Natalie’s secrets that become the issue.  Unfortunately, I found Paddy’s reaction to how Natalie handles the situation really over the top in how Paddy responds and totally writes off Ezra. It was just too unreal to wrap my head around.  Here are brothers who are close.  They’ve also been to hell and back at one time with Ezra’s issues early in the band’s success. Yet, Paddy would write off Ezra for doing something that I considered helping but Paddy read as total interference.  This didn’t work for me at all, and even when Paddy realized how ridiculous he was being and made amends, it didn’t sit right with me.

Secondary characters really round out this story well. While this is a first book, I think we’d met almost everyone before in a previous book,  even if they were only on the periphery.  Tuesday Eastwood is Natalie’s best friend from college and owns a specialty jewelry store in town.  It’s clear that she and Ezra had some sparks in here and I’m very much looking forward to seeing big brooding rancher Ezra come out of his shell.  We also see a little bit of Vaughn and get the feeling he’s living with a lot of regret where his marriage and his two daughters are concerned.

While the conflict used was odd to me, I know it was necessary to further explain Natalie’s situation.  Both our main characters had some issues to get over before they could make their relationship work.  Ms. Dane continues to bring us interesting characters while being able to weave her previous characters into these stories and keep them all alive for us as readers.  I love this about her work; how they are all connected and we continue to get little tidbits or updates of previous characters. Up next is Ezra and Tuesday. Can’t wait!

Rating: B

Goodreads l Author Site l Series

Kindle l Nook