Review: Jill Shalvis's WRAPPED UP IN YOU.

​I received a complimentary copy of this book from Edelweiss+ & Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.

Don’t get it twisted: I’m determined to soak up every moment of this fall (even with the 90-degree temps--unbelievable!), but that doesn’t stop me from occasionally dipping my toes into the holiday season with my reading material. Jill Shalvis’s Wrapped Up in You is adorable and heart-warming and had me feeling those let’s-get-together-and-appreciate-what-we-have vibes that I love the most about the holidays.

Ivy Snow is prickly and sassy with a heart of gold; she’s also a hard worker who’s very practically built her food truck business up and a dreamer who envisions how she can use her hard-won success to buy her own condo and have a real home for once. She wants to embrace her new pretty life in San Francisco, and part of that is learning what it means to have friends and be a friend (which also, to her, means lying to said friends about what her childhood was like & what kind of person her good-natured but trouble-making brother actually is).

Cop Kel O’Donnell’s in town visiting his cousin Caleb after a police-related betrayal and injury sidelines him. Ivy’s tacos and personality set him on fire, but he doesn’t like lies or liars, and as much as he likes Ivy, he can tell that she’s lying. Still, he can see her beautiful heart and the intention behind her lies, and despite the fact that he’s only visiting, he’s tempted by Ivy and what's blazing between them…

This book is an absolute delight. It’s funny, and in thoughtful ways, too, from the characters’s interactions to the chapter epigraphs. Shalvis peoples Wrapped in You with diverse representation, and in general, all of her characters—with their distinctive personalities—shine. It’s a world that’s really lovely to step into.

Lovely even if the “falling apart” of Ivy and Kel’s romance is so well done that I was kinda steamed at one of the leads in my first read-through…at least until I made it to the brava-worthy grovel and Epilogue. The bottom line is that both leads in this book have to learn to trust and that’s something that Shalvis lays out beautifully and skillfully in Wrapped Up in You.

My last bit of good news: the follow-up skim I did of this book indicates that it’s going to age really well. I loved it even more.

5 stars.