Hotshot by Julie Garwood

Author: Julie Garwood
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Date of publication: August 2013

Peyton Lockhart and her sisters have inherited Bishops Cove, a small, luxurious oceanfront resort, but it comes with a condition: The girls must run the resort for one year and show a profit only then will they own it.A graduate of a prestigious French culinary school, Peyton has just lost her job as a food critic. Out of work and in a bad place personally, a year doing something completely different sounds wonderful.There are countless challenges and too many people who want to stop the sisters from succeeding. Among them are Peytons contentious cousins, who are outraged that they didnt inherit the resort, as well as a powerful group of land developers who have been eyeing the coveted beachfront property.Its soon apparent to Peyton that their efforts are being sabotaged, but she refuses to let the threats scare heruntil shes nearly killed. She calls on her childhood friend and protector, Finn MacBain, now with the FBI, and asks for his help. He saved her life once; he can do it again.

I definitely can't say that this is my favorite of the series, but I did enjoy the book.  I liked the overall story of childhood friends finding each other again and realize there is something more there for them.  I liked both Peyton and Finn together.   Their relationship sizzled off the pages and their love story was fun to read.  The mystery wasn't too hard to figure out.  It wasn't rocket science to figure out who was trying to sabotage the resort. So that part was a little ho-hum.

My biggest issue with the book was all of the TSTL moments that Peyton had throughout the story.  I was surprised that Ms. Garwood would write a character like this.    How many times does someone have to try to kill you to make you stay home? Aside from that, that peripheral characters were fun and there were a few really funny moments.  I do wish that we could have seen more of Lucy and the hotel manager's romance.  I think that one looked like fun as well.