Only His by Susan Mallery

Grade: D

passion rating: warm

The penultimate love scene at the end of Only His involves a giant metal vagina. Yep. True love is declared amidst a giant metal vagina. This didn’t work for me. In fact, pretty much nothing about Ms. Mallery’s latest in the Fool’s Gold series didn't. This was my first time reading a book by Ms. Mallery and I suspect it will be my last.

The heroine of this book is Nevada Hendrix. Nevada and her big wacky family live in Fool’s Gold, a town that could only exist in fiction. Everyone in the town has either an eccentric personality and/or a troubled past. Women run the place which is crime, politics, and reality free. As the story begins, Nevada is interviewing for a job as construction manager for the new casino Janack Construction is building on nearby tribal land. She’d thought she’d be interviewed by the head of the firm, Elliot Janack, but, to her horror, finds herself facing his son Tucker, who as the first line of the book points out, has seen her naked.

Ten years ago, when Nevada was in college in Los Angeles, she, on the advice of her elder brother Ethan — he and Tucker were friends for a summer in high school— looked up Tucker. The very moment she saw him, she “could only stare at the man she knew she would love for the rest of her life.” Sadly, her “love at first sight” wasn’t mutual. Tucker was already madly in love with gorgeous, famous sculptress (and utter narcissist) Caterina “Cat” Stoicasescu. One night, Cat (who is a total tool) breaks up with Tucker and tells Nevada Tucker needs her in his time of sorrow. Nevada hurries to Tucker’s sloshed side, seduces him (even though she’s a virgin), then gets her heart broken first when Tucker yowls Cat’s name as he comes and then again when, a day later, Cat takes Tucker back.

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