REVIEW: Chasing Perfect by Susan Mallery

Title: Chasing Perfect (Fool’s Gold, #1)
Author: Susan Mallery
Format: paperback, 376 pages
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: personal shelf
Published: April 2010 by HQN

Welcome to Fool’s Gold, California, a charming community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. There’s lots to do and plenty of people to meet, especially women. Because there’s just one tiny problem in Fool’s Gold: the men don’t seem to stick around. Maybe it’s the lure of big-city life, or maybe it’s plain old bad luck, but regardless of the reason, the problem has to be fixed, fast. And Charity Jones may be just the city planner to do it.

Charity’s nomadic childhood has left her itching to settle down, and she immediately falls in love with all the storybook town has to offer — everything, that is, except its sexiest and most famous resident, former world-class cyclist Josh Golden. With her long list of romantic disasters, she’s not about to take a chance on another bad boy, even if everyone else thinks he’s perfect just the way he is. But maybe that’s just what he needs — someone who knows the value of his flaws. Someone who knows that he’s just chasing perfect.

Why I Read this Book: Can you believe that as much as I love reading contemporary romance, I have yet to read a Susan Mallery book?!! I’ve had a few of her books on my shelf for some time now, it was just a matter of getting to them. I’m glad I finally have and cannot wait to read more by this author.

What I Liked: Chasing Perfect was a light and cute contemporary romance. The setting for the novel (and series for that matter) is a wonderful small town called Fool’s Gold. The details the author put into this town were so life-like. If it were a real town, I’d want to live there! But the real interesting thing about this town is that there’s a man shortage. For reals. There are way more females living there than males. And Charity’s been hired as the new City Planner in hopes of bringing in more men to the town.

Even though these people live in a small town, a town where there are NO secrets, there are actually a few secrets to be had. And there’s a bit of a mystery to be solved. Not only did the main characters hold my interest, the secondary characters grabbed me as well – Pia and Jo especially.

I love how the author finished the book with an hint of what’s to come. You definitely know that the next book will be Ethan’s. Seems like there’s a woman from his past that has come back to Fool’s Gold. Sounds very interesting!

What I Didn’t Like: This book had what I enjoy reading in a contemporary romance.

Overall Impression: Chasing Perfect was a quick and fun contemporary romance read. Great for an afternoon delight. Can’t wait to read the next book in this series, Almost Perfect, which is Ethan’s story. I really liked him in Chasing Perfect (even though he had a small role in the book) and can’t wait for his HEA. Chasing Perfect was a delightful contemporary romance read and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

 

The Book Vixen’s Rating: