Only Yours (Fool's Gold, #5)

by Susan Mallery

[Leah]

Susan Mallery isn’t particularly well known in the UK – in fact I’m not entirely sure she’s had any books released this side of the pond. However she’s written somewhere around 50 novels, and seems to be someone the American readers love so when I spotted one of her novels, Only Yours, on NetGalley I decided it sounded like a wonderful novel. I love books with dogs in, so that pretty much sealed the deal for me. I wasn’t planning on reading it any time soon until Danielle mentioned I could review it during August so I decided it had to shoot up my TBR pile on my Kindle and I’m actually really glad I did.

Although Only Yours has a very modern-looking cover, I’d probably say Susan Mallery is more a contemporary romance author than a Chick Lit author. It’s a fine line between the two, and for the most part they’re very similar, but I figured I’d get that out there. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the novel, but the first chapter managed to make me laugh so I figured I’d made a good spot picking up the novel. The opening of the novel introduces us to Montana as she’s training up a dog named Fluffy to become a therapy dog when Fluffy runs away and ends up in a hospital. Trust me, although my description probably doesn’t sound funny, it was a funny scenario and it was a lovely way to start the book. I was immediately drawn in. To Montana, to her work with the therapy dogs, to Dr Simon and his love for his job, and to all the people in Fool’s Gold.

Only Yours isn’t the first novel set in the beautiful-sounding Fool’s Gold, in fact it’s book five. The books seem to revolve around one person living in Fool’s Gold and the three “Only” books (Only Mine, Only Yours, Only His) for example are all about the Hendrix triplets: Dakota, Montana and Nevada. But the books are about all the other characters in Fool’s Gold, too. Even the previous Fool’s Gold characters – Pia, Charity, Liz – re-appear although their plots are explained so we get fully up to date. The one thing that stood out for me was how wonderful and how community-like Fool’s Gold was. I love novels that are set around a small community and Fool’s Gold is the kind of community you want to be a part of. Montana finds herself being the center of attention as the Mayor, Marsha, tells Montana to try and get Dr. Simon to stay in Fool’s Gold, despite the fact he doesn’t like to stay in any place too long.

I really loved the characters in Only Yours. I loved Montana. When we meet her she’s only just managed to find a job she loves, and I loved how dedicated she was to her therapy dogs. I totally fell for all the sweet dogs we meet. I also totally fell for Dr Simon Bradley. The chemistry between himself and Montana was something else. It’s so rare for the two characters in a novel to be kissing each other so early on in a novel, but it seemed perfect when they kissed each other for the first time. I totally fell for them both and enjoyed their interaction with each other. I also loved Montana’s sisters and mother and brothers. All their friends. I found the entire community to be enchanting and once I was in Fool’s Gold, I never wanted to leave. A particular character who struck a chord with me was Kalinda. She’s a little girl who Dr Bradley is tending to after she was burned in an accident and I was really hoping she would pull through and I loved how brave she was.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Only Yours. It wasn’t what I usually read and it very much reminded me of the Susan Wiggs novel I read a few months ago. Both are such good contemporary romance authors and I really liked reading about Montana. I loved becoming a part of Fool’s Gold, if only for a few days and I’ll definitely be looking into reading the rest of the Fool’s Gold series. I can’t wait to read Pia’s story, along with Nevada and Dakota’s stories. It was such a well-written story, too, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it each night. It had all the ingredients I love in a novel. Great characters, a lovely plot, some beautiful dogs (I loved the dogs!), a brilliant setting… It all added up to a read I loved. I’m so glad I finally decided to read my first Susan Mallery novel, I can see why she’s so well-loved and I can’t wait to go back to Fool’s Gold as soon as I can!