Jill Shalvis’ ‘My Kind of Wonderful’ is a Charming Read with Loads of Heart [REVIEW]

A cancer survivor takes to the slopes in Jill Shalvis’s My Kind of Wonderful. (Photo courtesy Canva)

She’s a survivor. Now given a second chance at life, she fully intends to take it. But will she be able to embrace the new adventures life brings her way when they involve risking her heart? Find out in Jill Shalvis’ delightful novel, My Kind of Wonderful.

Forever

Bailey Moore is no chicken. She won an epic battle with cancer, and now she’s determined to live life on her own terms. Doing so means she finally gets to do all the crazy, fun, audacious things she put on the back burner while she was sick.

The first item on her bucket list includes a trip to Cedar Ridge Resort to ski Colorado’s breathtaking Rocky Mountains. But before she can start ticking items off her No Regrets List, she has some maintenance items to take care of first, such as dealing with her overprotective mom and finally convincing a former fiancé to build a bridge and get over her already.

Yet those things suddenly seem like small potatoes when she meets the hunky head of ski patrol, Hud Kincaid, and his sweet—but loud—family. Why is he such a problem? Mostly because he’s stolen her heart, and that gets in the way of her plans to travel the world. She only intended to ski the mountains, not build a life in them. And when her old life catches up to the new one, she has tough decisions to make if she’s to seize hold of the fairy tale life she never dreamed possible.

From the moment I met Bailey Moore in My Kind of Wonderful, she stole my heart. She’s one of those characters who touches us deeply, namely because of her amazing strength and emotional intelligence. She’s a gal who knows what is good for her and what isn’t, and that old fiancé is at the top of her discard pile.

She also knows a good thing when she sees it, and it doesn’t take long for her to realize that the little town of Cedar Ridge, Colorado is just what she needs to jump start her new life. It has something that larger cities don’t, including the community’s people and food, and its atmosphere of love and acceptance. It is simply the kind of place all of us would love to visit given the opportunity.

Shalvis does a great job writing about this little dot on the map though and how Bailey interacts with it, and that’s why her story rang true. Namely because it reminded me of when my husband and I left behind city life in Cincinnati to live in a small town that sat on the state line between Arkansas and Texas. When we first moved there, it took me a while to understand the locals and making friends wasn’t always easy. Yet I gradually made connections that have lasted a lifetime, even as the years eventually took us to other towns.

And just as the transition from city life to small town life helped me discover what was truly important, the same goes for Bailey. Over the arc of the novel, she too learns to cherish friendships, take chances, and open herself up to all that is different from what she is used to. The result is that she discovers that although life may not always turn out how she dreams it should, it can frequently surprise us and wind up being pretty darn amazing.

If you’re looking for a feel-good book infused with plenty of “aha! moments,” loads of charm, a few life lessons and plenty of big belly laughs, reach for My Kind of Wonderful. It is classic Shalvis and is guaranteed to leave you smiling.

Jill Shalvis
(Photo by Susan Zweigle, ZRStudios.com)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

To find out more about her, visit JillShalvis.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

MY KIND OF WONDERFUL
By Jill Shalvis
352 pp. Forever. $12.99

Purchase My Kind of Wonderful at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, IndieBound, and Powell’s.