Only Yours – Susan Mallery

Man’s best…matchmaker?

Scarred since childhood, he avoids emotional entanglement by moving from place to place to heal children who need his skillful touch. Can his growing feelings for Montana lead him to find a home in Fool’s Gold, or will he walk away, taking her broken heart with him?

I’ve been holding this review for a few days, hoping to get over my anger at the ending.  Of course, it’s not going away (even though I want it to) so I’ve decided to go ahead with my review.    Maybe this will be cathartic for me…who knows!

Our story begins with Montana walking an over rambunctious Fluffy, only to have her break loose of her leash and proceed to run rampent through the Fool’s Gold hospital.  When Montana finally catches up with Fluffy, on the burn unit, it’s to run into visiting plastic surgeon, Simon Bradley.

Simon, of the “stick up his ass” line of doctors, immediately takes exception to a bundle of fur running through the sterile environment of the burn unit.  He, in no uncertain terms, lets Montana know what he thinks of her and her dog before tossing them both out on their asses.

How’s that for a beginning???

From there we have the normal “goings on” in Fool’s Gold.  The town board is determined to win Dr. Bradley over, so Mayor Marsha decides to enlist Montana to “convince” Dr. Bradley.  She’s to use whatever tools are necessary **wink, wink**.

So it’s with determination that Montana tries to win over Simon Bradley, despite the fact that she doesn’t think she’s the right person to be doing this.  As a matter of fact, Montana doesn’t think she’s good enough for anything.  But she’s determined Simon is good for Fool’s Gold and she’ll get him to stay.

Simon, of course, fights this tooth and nail.  He’s a loner and prefers it.  Having been scarred by an abusive mother (there’s a nomination for Mother of the Year!!) and be extremely bright as a child, he’s always held himself off from others, since people didn’t really know what to do with him.  While he holds himself back from most people, he does give all of himself to his patients since he knows he only needs to deal with them short term.

I generally adore Susan Mallery books, but this one just didn’t work for me.  While I know Simon is a serious person, Montana is supposed to be “the funny triplet”.  Yet, we didn’t seem to have much comedic moments in this one as we did in the others.

I MISS THE OTHER FOOL’S GOLD CHARACTERS!!!  I absolutely loved Finn.  Loved him.  So I was at a loss as to why, even when Finn was in a scene, he wasn’t there.  The man couldn’t keep his mouth shut to save himself in his story, but now he’s suddenly silent???  Ethan was there, kinda, but again…he was silent.  I’d have to think he’d have a little more interaction with his family, especially with Kent and Reese’s accident.

I feel this overwhelming need to still connect with the previous characters and sometimes, even when they’re there in the storyline or scene, if seems like they’re not there.  Part of the charm of Fool’s Gold is the fact that the people within the town are so close, so it feels like there should be more interaction.

Overall, it’s a good story and I’m sure others will love it.  But as a follower of the series from the beginning (and someone who loves Susan Mallery’s books) this one just fell short to me.

3.5 Cocktails