The Family You Make (The Sunrise Cove #1) by Jill Shalvis #bookreview #contemporary #romance

Title: The Family You Make

Author: Jill Shalvis

Publisher:  William Morrow Paperbacks

Publication Date: January 11, 2022

Page Count: 383

My rating: 5 stars

About the book:

Beloved New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis begins a new series—Sunrise Cove—set near beautiful Lake Tahoe, with a heartwarming story of found family and love.

During the snowstorm of the century Levi Cutler is stranded on a ski lift with a beautiful stranger named Jane. After strong winds hurl the gondola in front of them into the ground, Levi calls his parents to prepare them for the worst…but can’t bring himself to say goodbye. Instead, wanting to fulfill his mother’s lifelong wish, he impulsively tells her he’s happily settled and Jane is his girlfriend—right before his phone dies.

But Levi and Jane do not.

Now Levi’s family is desperate to meet “The One.” Though Jane agrees to be his pretend girlfriend for just one dinner, she’s nervous. After a traumatic childhood, Jane isn’t sure she knows how to be around a tight-knit family that cherishes one another. She’s terrified, and a little jealous. But an unexpected series of events and a host of new friends soon show Jane that perhaps this is the life she was always meant to have.

As Jane and Levi spend more time together, pretend feelings quickly turn into real ones. Now all Jane has to do is admit to herself she can’t live without the man she’s fallen in love with and the family she has always dreamed of.

The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis is the first book in the new contemporary romance The Sunrise Cove series. As with a lot of contemporary romance series the location is the theme of the series and each book will feature new main characters. Since the characters will be changing each book of this series can be read as a standalone if choosing to do so.

Levi Cutler was in Sunrise Cove visiting his family when he decided to head up to the mountain but as he was in a gondola going up alone when a winter storm took a turn for the worse. When the gondola reached the top Levi is of course told he needs to head back down the mountain but the trip down he will not be alone as Jane is also evacuating the mountaintop and joins Levi in the last gondola down.

Jane is overly nervous as the storm rages around them and Levi does his best to try to calm her. However, the gondola stops and both Levi and Jane see the car in front of them fall scary them both. Levi decides to call home, possibly as a last goodbye, and to make his mother happy who only wants her son to find a wife he lies that Jane is his girlfriend. Well Jane and Levi survive which puts Levi in a place of either confessing to his mother or talking Jane into pretending to be his girlfriend.

The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis began like a blockbuster action movie and pulled me in right away with the tension of the storm and the precarious nature of the gondola ride. I found that I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters getting to know them as they fought to survive a horrible situation. It probably did help that the fake dating trope is often one of my favorites too but it made it all that much more exciting with the fast and furious beginning to the book. I will definitely look forward to seeing what will come in book two of this series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

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About the author:

Multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is … mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning heartwarming and full of humor novels wherever books are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures. Her most recent book, ALMOST JUST FRIENDS, was just published last month and her next book, THE SUMMER DEAL, comes out in June.

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