Audio Review: Looking for Trouble by Victoria Dahl

Looking for Trouble

Jackson: Girl's Night Out, #1
Victoria Dahl

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Recorded Books
Narrator: Celeste Ciulla
Date of Publication: November 21, 2014
Abridged or Unabridged: Unabridged
Length of Production: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon    Audible   Downpour

A good reason to be bad...

Librarian Sophie Heyer has walked the straight and narrow her entire life to avoid paying for her mother's mistakes. But in tiny Jackson Hole, Wyoming, juicy gossip just doesn't go away, so the last thing she needs is for history to repeat itself. Falling hard for the sexiest biker who's ever rode into town would undo everything she's worked for. And to add insult to injury, the sexy stranger is none other than Alex Bishop--the son of the man her mother abandoned Sophie's 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 of family drama. But what he finds underneath Sophie's prim demeanor might change his world in ways he never expected.

Victoria Dahl is one of those authors that I keep meaning to read, but just haven't found the free time to do start. So finding a new series in audio format seemed the way to go.

We are introduced to Alex, as he is stopping for some liquid courage before heading to see his mom and brother in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Alex had left home immediately after graduating high school and never looked back. Now he was home for a memorial service for his father. The man who had been missing from his life since a very young age, presumed to have run off with his mistress. Only he was recently found to have died in a car accident, hidden in a canyon for over 20 years. Standing outside his mother's house, he meets Sophie, a fascinating woman who hands him a stack of flyers that his mother has been harassing her with and then stalks off. When he later runs into her at the library, he decided to see if the sexy librarian can help take his mind off being back in Jackson.

It doesn't take Sophie long to recognize Alex. After all, he does look like his brother. She shouldn't be associating with him because it was her mother that his father had "run off" with all those years ago. Leaving little Sophie to deal with the fall out of looking just like her mom. But rough hewn Alex with his shaved head, tattoos and motorcycle  strike a cord in Sophie's inner bad girl - the side takes such pains to hide away from the light of day. She knows she should resist, but she can't seem to help herself.

For all that Sophie calls herself a bad girl, I didn't really see it. Yes, she dresses provocatively under her "good girl" dresses, and she likes a little kink in her love play. But overall, she really was just a girl who still had some seriously unresolved mommy issues. Not that I could blame her as more and more of the backstory came out. Alex on the other hand, was pretty straightforward, but with pleny of mommy issues of his own. Even during the times that I thought he went a bit too far, his reasoning and experience explained his actions.

Celeste Ciulla did a good job on the narration. The character voices were distinctive and she had plenty of empathy and emotion in her voice to really bring them to life.

After reading the book, and looking at previous books, I found out that Alex's brother Shane had his own story in Too Hot to Handle, Jackson Hole #2. So if you are a fan of the other series, this one will apparently be pulling characters and story arcs from that series. This story did work as stand alone, so no issue if you haven't read them. I am going with 3 stars for this book.

Thanks to Audiobook Jukebox and Recorded Books for the opportunity to read and review this audiobook.