Looking for Trouble

( 4 )

Overview

A good reason to be bad…

Librarian Sophie Heyer has walked the straight and narrow her entire life to make up for her mother's mistakes. But in tiny Jackson Hole, Wyoming, juicy gossip doesn't just fade away. Falling hard for the sexiest biker who's ever ridden into town would undo everything she's worked for. And to add insult to injury, the alluring stranger is none other than Alex Bishop—the son of the man Sophie's mother abandoned her ...

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Looking for Trouble

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More About This Book

Overview

A good reason to be bad…

Librarian Sophie Heyer has walked the straight and narrow her entire life to make up for her mother's mistakes. But in tiny Jackson Hole, Wyoming, juicy gossip doesn't just fade away. Falling hard for the sexiest biker who's ever ridden into town would undo everything she's worked for. And to add insult to injury, the alluring stranger is none other than Alex Bishop—the son of the man Sophie's mother abandoned her family for. He may be temptation on wheels, but Sophie's not looking for trouble!

Maybe Sophie's buttoned-up facade fools some, but Alex knows a naughty smile when he sees one. Despite their parents' checkered pasts, he's willing to take some risks to find out the truth about the town librarian. He figures a little fling might be just the ticket to get his mind off his own family drama. But what he finds underneath Sophie's prim demeanor might change his world in ways he never expected.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
"So Tough to Tame was a delicious, funny, warm-hearted read. ... It's like a comfort read with a dose of sass and smarts; it's just about perfect."--Smart Bitches, Trash Books on So Tough to Tame

"Dahl's latest offering sizzles. Her main characters are strong-willed and smoking hot together."--RT Book Reviews on So Tough to Tame

"Victoria Dahl never fails to bring the heat."-RT Book Reviews on Too Hot To Handle

"Dahl adds her signature hot sex scenes and quirky
characters to this lively mix of romance in the high country." -Booklist on Too Hot to Handle

"Hits the emotional high notes.... Rising romance star Dahl delivers with this sizzling contemporary romance."
-Kirkus Reviews on Close Enough to Touch

"A delightful romance between two people who struggle to discover their own self-worth."
-RT Book Reviews on Bad Boys Do

"A hot and funny story about a woman many of us can relate to." -Salon.com on Crazy for Love

"[A] hands-down winner, a sensual story filled with memorable characters."
-Booklist on Start Me Up

"Sassy and smokingly sexy, Talk Me Down is one delicious joyride of a book."
-New York Times bestselling author Connie Brockway

"Sparkling, special and oh so sexy-Victoria Dahl is a special treat!" -New York Times bestselling author Carly Phillips on Talk Me Down

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780373778614
  • Publisher: Harlequin
  • Publication date: 7/29/2014
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 76909
  • Product dimensions: 4.10 (w) x 6.60 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Victoria Dahl lives with her family in a small town high in the mountains. Her first novel debuted in 2007, and she’s gone on to write seventeen books and novellas in historical, contemporary, and paranormal romance. Victoria's contemporary romance, Talk Me Down, was nominated for both a RWA Rita Award and the National Readers' Choice Award. Since then, her books have been nominated for two more Rita Awards, and she hit the USA Today Bestseller list with the anthology Midnight Kiss.
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Read an Excerpt

Alex Bishop was heading toward drunk at 11:00 a.m. on a Wednesday, and he didn't give a damn. The blond bartender didn't seem to give a damn either. She brought him another Scotch and pushed it toward him with a wink. Her hand lingered on the glass. "You sure about the burger? We're pretty famous for them around here."

"No, but thanks." He didn't return the wink. She was pretty, and there was something in her smile that told him she wouldn't mind a midday fuck against a wall with a man whose name she didn't know, but Alex might be hitting this bar a lot in the next few days. When two people were looking for nameless sex, neither wanted to hang out with a bar between them for days afterward.

She moved away and he stared into the tumbler of cheap Scotch until the whole world turned amber and bright, then he downed it without a wince. Number three or four, he couldn't remember, and he didn't feel even a twinge of shame when he pushed up from the stool and had to steady himself against the bar. He'd done this on purpose, after all. Drunk was the best possible state of mind on his first day home in sixteen years.

He'd hit the road in Idaho before dawn, hoping to beat an afternoon storm rolling in over the Tetons, but he'd skipped coffee, rejecting any more alertness than was required to simply drive. He didn't want to notice the landscape. Didn't want to deal with memories triggered by his first taste of central Wyoming since he'd turned eighteen and made himself disappear.

But his willpower wasn't as strong as his memory, and the emotions had hit like a sledgehammer when he'd made town. Hence the Scotch. The actual people he'd come to see could wait.

Alex threw a generous amount of cash on the bar and walked past the lunch patrons in a carefully straight line. They glanced up from their plates as he passed, but then looked quickly away. He wasn't the type of guy that people started conversations with. If he put out the right vibes, they avoided him altogether.

But Jackson still greeted him when he opened the door of the motel bar.

The sunlight blasted his weary eyes before he had a chance to slip on shades. Jackson didn't give a shit that he was drunk, and it didn't give a shit that he didn't want to be there. It still threw itself at him, the same old town, hardly changed at all during his long escape. After all, that was its shtick. Old West charm. Historical buildings. Though the no-tell motel he'd chosen at the edge of town was less historical than just old.

He'd picked the place on purpose, eschewing cheer or comfort. He wanted temporary. He wanted an excuse not to unpack so he'd know every single moment he was here that he could grab his bag and ride away in a minute flat.

His lug-soled boots crunched against the gravel lot of the motel, and he remembered now that he'd stayed here once before. But that walk had been at night, in the snow, the moon shining brightly enough to highlight the gorgeous cleavage of the college girl he'd hooked up with at a spring-break house party. It had been her motel room, shared with three other girls, and he'd been thrilled to add to the crowded conditions for a night.

He'd partied a lot back then. Any excuse not to be home with his mom and brother. But he hadn't been this drunk in a good long while, and there were no spring-break flings awaiting him this time around.

There was only duty and misplaced obligation.

Fucking information age. A generation ago he could have vanished for good. But these days, one job in the wrong place and somebody had recognized him and volunteered family news that he didn't want.

Like the news that his dad was dead.

Of course, his dad had been dead for twenty-five years. Funny that it was still news.

He actually laughed at that thought, and an older woman getting bags from the trunk of her car shot him a glare of suspicion. He would've offered to help, but not only did he look menacing with his buzzed head and three days' growth of beard, he smelled like hard liquor and hostility, so he walked on.

He'd barely glanced at the room when he'd checked in an hour before, but it looked clean enough as he shucked his leather jacket and toed off his boots. A bed. An ugly bedspread. A dresser that had seen better days. At least it had a nice flat-screen TV. He traveled a lot for his job, and when he was holed up in some remote frontier town for a month, that was really his only requirement in a motel. A nice TV.

When he'd had an apartment for a couple of years, that had been all he'd added to the charm, too. Andrea had tried to bring some nice touches, but it had never become a home. For either of them.

Alex shrugged out of his T-shirt and tossed it on a chair, then headed for the shower. He'd scrub up, sleep off the Scotch for an hour or two, and then he'd finally do what he'd come here to do. He'd go see his family.

He didn't even know why he'd called his brother after sixteen years away. It'd been nearly two months since Alex had picked up that phone, and he still had no real idea of his motivation. Connection or reconciliation or even gloating over their father's corpse… All of those together or maybe none of them. But he'd called. And it had been a bad idea.

The first call had gone fine. Shane had sounded relieved and even downright happy to hear from Alex, and Alex couldn't deny the way his heart had twisted at hearing his older brother's voice. They'd caught up a little, and Alex had finally heard the whole story about their dad, and that had been that. He'd promised to come by Jackson the next time he was near, but he hadn't meant it.

He'd decided by then that he was only being sentimental. His mentor had died the year before, and Oz had been the closest thing Alex had to family. Closer than Alex's actual family. But he wasn't going to let that loss change his mind about returning to Jackson. He'd learned early on to let things—and people—go, and he'd let his brother go a long time ago.

Then, a week later, Shane had called, and Alex had realized it wasn't going to go as smooth and easy as he'd hoped. "I'd like you to come back to Jackson for a couple of days," Shane had said.

Alex had shut him down cold, but Shane wasn't a kid anymore either, and he'd talked for thirty minutes straight. Somehow Alex had found himself saying he'd try, and then he'd straight-up promised that he'd come.

"Fuck," he said, stepping into the spray of hot water with a growl. A goddamn memorial service for a man who'd been dead twenty-five years. A way for his mom and brother to hold on to the man a little longer.

Sure, Shane had apologized. He'd sworn that things had changed. Even their mother was getting better, he'd claimed. In fact, this service would help her close the door on her obsession forever. This was the end of it, for everyone.

That was the only reason Alex had come. To end this. And if Shane was for real, maybe they could talk a couple of times a year. Meet up for a drink once a decade. And when someone asked if he had any family, Alex wouldn't have to say no.

He rolled his shoulders, trying to work out the tension that the Scotch and steam weren't touching, but they stayed as tight as ever. Six hours strangling the grips of his Triumph T140 couldn't be shrugged off that quickly, not when he was heading straight toward the source of his stress.

He scrubbed some soap across his head, cleaning the week's worth of hair and thinking he'd shave it again when he got settled somewhere else, then he soaped up his face and decided he couldn't be bothered shaving that either. Let his appearance match his mood. He didn't owe anyone more than that.

He was out of the shower in two minutes flat, but an hour later, he was still lying sleepless on the bed. The ceiling stared blankly at him, the white, textured anonymity of a thousand other places. He was used to the sight. Every once in a while he lucked into a place with faux-wood paneling and he could at least count the seams, but not today. He couldn't even summon the will to jerk off.

His buzz was already fading and he knew he wouldn't sleep, so Alex got up, dressed and headed out to grab a burger. After that, there was nothing to do but drive to his mother's house and see if anything had really changed.

He didn't know he'd been hopeful. He would've denied it if anyone had asked. But the disappointment rolled over him in a cold, deep wave.

Things weren't better. Nothing had changed.

Actually, that was a lie. His mother had gotten older. Thirty years older, despite that it had only been sixteen. She was only sixty-five, but she was shrinking in on herself and had gone totally gray.

"Alex!" she said brightly, stretching up to give him a tight hug. "I missed you so much. But I knew you'd come back to us."

Yes. Of course she'd thought he'd be back. She'd always "known" that about his father, too. Lucky for Alex, she wasn't batting zero anymore. At least he hadn't been dead this whole time, even if his dad had.

He patted her awkwardly on the back.

She'd always been affectionate, and he'd always felt ungracious about it, but he knew why now. Her affection was too desperate, too overwhelming, as if she could will you to return her intensity. She'd been that way about her pain, too. She wanted you to share it or it wasn't real enough.

Alex let her go and stood straight to force her arms off.

When she'd opened the door he'd gotten a glimpse inside her house, and his first impression was confirmed when she let him in. The place was tiny, but it had looked only a little run-down from the curb. But inside? Inside it was packed with papers and smelled stale. If she wasn't obsessed with Alex's dad now, she was obsessed with something else.

Alex stepped reluctantly inside. He was going to kill his brother.

"Oh, honey," his mother gushed. "There's so much left to do. Your father deserves this honor so much and I want it to be perfect. We need to discuss your eulogy and what—"

"Eulogy?" he snapped.

"Of course, Shane will speak first since he's the oldest, and then you'll speak. I'll be the last to go. I have so much to—"

"You've got to be kidding."

She didn't seem to register his tone. She turned and moved in a stiff, awkward gait toward the far side of the little living room, then started digging through a pile of papers. "I've only gotten half of it written, and I still need to put together the program. I'd hoped to have that done last week."

Alex blew out a long breath. He'd been tricked. His mom hadn't gotten over her husband's disappearance at all. Oh, she'd had to accept that the man was dead, since Shane had found their father's remains himself, but that clearly hadn't stopped the madness.

What exactly did his mom think Alex had to say about the man? From what I remember, he was a decent father, but I must've been wrong since he got himself killed while running off with some floozy.

Alex watched his mother read frantically over the papers in her hand, her lips moving. He recognized that bright-eyed fever. It had taken up half his childhood.

He didn't even turn around when the door opened behind him. "You said she was better," he said flatly.

"Alex."

Despite his anger, he didn't resist when Shane spun him around and grabbed him in a hug. In fact, Alex didn't even resist hugging him back. Shit. Shane had taken care of him all those times when their mom had shut herself in her room for days. Shane might've tricked him, but the man was still his big brother.

Though Alex might actually be the bigger one now. That was a little disorienting. Shane had always seemed huge to Alex.

"Jesus," Shane said, pulling back to hold Alex at arm's length. "What the hell happened to your hair? And your baby face?"

"The hair's still there somewhere. But I lost the baby face a long time ago."

"I guess so." Shane slapped his shoulder. Hard. "Christ. Look at you."

"Look at you," Alex said. "You look good." He did. Shane had grown a couple of inches himself, and he'd gotten a lot stronger, but there wasn't any gray in his hair yet, and the lines around his eyes seemed to be from smiling. He'd always been the charming one.

Still. "This isn't what you said it was, Shane."

Shane's eyes drifted past his shoulder and his smile faded. He lowered his voice. "She was getting better. I don't know what's going on."

"This is better?"

"No. Two months ago she seemed more stable… I mean it," he insisted when Alex shot him a disgusted look. "She's been seeing a psychiatrist for a while. She apparently has something called borderline personality disorder. It makes her…extreme. I don't know. The doctor thought this ceremony would be a good idea since Mom wasn't exactly stable when we interred Dad's remains last year. Closure and all that."

"Closure. For her? Or you?"

Shane shot him a hard look, but didn't take the bait. "For her. She's starting to accept that he's been dead this whole time and was never coming back."

"Yeah. Guess I had that pegged." The old anger was pushing through now, forcing his blood pressure up until Alex could feel his heart banging.

"As for me, I've spent the past sixteen years more worried about you than Dad."

"Yeah, well.I was doing fine until you dragged me back into this." Alex tipped his head toward their mother, who seemed oblivious to the quiet tension.

"She was better—" Shane started again, but Alex cut him off.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 4 )
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  • Posted Thu Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    more from this reviewer

    4.5 Stars ~Reviewed by ANGELA & posted at Under the Covers B

    4.5 Stars
    ~Reviewed by ANGELA & posted at Under the Covers Book Blog

    Looking For Trouble is another great read from Victoria Dahl.  While the prequel was good, this first full length installment was even better.  It’s filled with drama, scandal yet it was sweet, romantic and there was a whole lot of hotness.  Ms. Dahl really cranked up the heat on this one.

    Alex Bishop is the prodigal son, coming back to the old town of Jackson Hole after years of absence.  He left for the sole purpose of getting away from all his family drama.   Now that he is back, he bumps into the local Librarian and he cannot stay away from her.  Sophie has the good girl Librarian look with the inner persona of a naughty girl.  She too had grown up with a big scandal in her family, but her way of dealing with it is totally opposite.  Sophie has learned to keep it all in and take it all as it comes.

    I felt sorry for Alex and Sophie.  They are a prime example of how parents’ BS can affect their children all the way to adulthood.  But I respected them as they stayed strong throughout their ordeals.  Their relationship was hot, sweet and quite romantic.  As I said earlier, Dahl cranked up the heat.  Sophie and Alex had several hot scenes in this book, more than I expected actually.  Victoria Dahl is quite the master when it comes to writing sexy scenes.  I don’t want to give too much, but there was this bike ride that was full of sexual tension and to think, it was just a ride.  Did I mention Alex is good looking, a biker, tatted and hot as sin?  Yup, hot. As. Sin.

    The ending took me by surprise. Though it’s not a cliffhanger and it had a happy-ever-after, it seemed…incomplete.  I wanted to read more about their future, perhaps a more solid arrangement about their relationship.  I’m hoping to get more of Alex and Sophie in the installment of the series, Flirting with Disaster.  It looks like Isabelle, Sophie’s friend is up next to get her very own HEA.

    It was great seeing the town’s famous bar The Crooked R Saloon and bumping into the characters from Jackson Hole series.  I believed we bumped into Rayleen, the bar owner, Jenny the bartender and Benton…I’m not sure where he is from, but it sure was fun trying to remember. I have a feeling we will see him again soon.

    *ARC provided by publisher

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Sat Sep 06 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    more from this reviewer

    Victoria Dahl delivers another scorcher her Looking For Trouble.

    Victoria Dahl delivers another scorcher her Looking For Trouble.




    Sophie Heyer has been the good girl all her life, she had to be with her mother’s reputation.  And living in a small town nothing ever fades away.  When a smoking hot man rides into town, all of Sophie’s fantasies are right there before her eyes. But it figures the one man to get her all fired up is the son of the man that her mother abandoned her family for.




    Alex Bishop never stays in one place too long. He brother begs him to come home to help with their mother.  Rose Bishop never was the same after her husband left them so many years ago.  Alex discovers the woman he has his eyes on is none other then the daughter of his dad’s affair.  




    Both Alex and Sophie soon find the attraction something that they can not ignore. Sophie’s good girl librarian façade soon crumbles the moment Alex touches her. Alex finds himself unable to get Sophie out of his mind, will be able to stick close to home or will the open road be calling his name?




    Looking For Trouble is another sexy, funny and emotional book in the Jackson Hole line.  Its delightfully witty and has chemistry that all out sizzles. 
    Sophie and Alex’s past is entangled with their parents long ago affair and it takes a strong relationship to forge ahead.  Loved their connection and revisiting characters from past books.  Eager to read the next book by Victoria Dahl.

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  • Posted Tue Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2014

    I received an ARC for Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl from

    I received an ARC for Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl from netgalley.

    Looking for Trouble features an older couple, Alex Bishop a 34 year old traveling engineer. (Hey that’s the title I made up, I’m going with it) and Sophie Heyer a 30 year old small town librarian. I loved not only that this book featured a slightly older couple but that Sophie is a town librarian.

    Basically Looking for Trouble is your traditional romance set up. Both of our main characters have not only things to deal with in their present but their past as well. And the two are connected more than just what goes down in between the sheets. Who knew there was so much scandal in Jackson. I also loved being able to read about Lauren again (from book .5). Their circle of friends is hilarious.

    For the most part I enjoyed reading Looking for Trouble. There were a few times when I felt like I was missing a book. I knew I had read the entire series because I was on book 1 and I had already read book .5 so I couldn’t figure out where I was missing the connecting pieces. Turns out the missing story I was looking for takes place in Too Hot to Handle, book 2 from the Jackson Hole series. You don’t have to read that series or even just that book, you’ll be able to following Looking for Trouble just fine, but if you want the complete tale it might be worth it.

    While I liked Looking for Trouble there were a few times I thought the story was a little slow. You know how I am if there isn’t a kidnapping or a good car bombing then I need something else to hold my interest. There was lots of drama in Looking for Trouble, but ultimately it just didn’t have the suspense I needed to keep me fully engrossed in the story.

    Will I read the rest of the series? Definitely.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Sat Aug 02 00:00:00 EDT 2014

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