Stirring Up Trouble by Kimberly Kincaid

Title: Stirring Up Trouble
Series: Pine Mountain #3
Author: Kimberly Kincaid
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: October 2014 – Kensington Books; Zebra
Source: Publisher

Synopsis: Sloane Russo’s turned a decade of crazy jobs and whimsical travel into a career writing steamy novels set in exotic places. Trouble is, Sloane’s flat broke now–and she can’t channel sun-drenched beaches in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The only fast cash in town comes with some seriously distracting temptation: Gavin Carmichael, hot, handsome and oh-so-hard-headed.

Gavin isn’t the impulsive Don Juan of Sloane’s novels. He’s raising his thirteen-year-old half-sister, and he’s pretty sure he’s supposed to act like he’s never heard of fun. Sloane is way too sexy and irresponsible to be his idea of a good tutor for Bree, but the unpredictable anti-nanny may be irresistible as well. . . (publisher)

My take: This is the third book in the Pine Mountain series and even though it’s the first of the series that I’ve read I didn’t feel lost in the setting or with the characters. It can definitely stand alone.

I enjoyed Sloane and Gavin’s story except for a predictable part in the last third of the novel. It moved the plot so I get why it had to happen but still. I won’t spoil it for other readers. Could be it just bothers me and no one else 🙂 I liked the two characters and enjoyed Sloane trying to get the serious Gavin to loosen up a bit. In turn, Gavin encouraged Sloane to believe in herself and to trust her decisions.

I think my favorite part of the novel was the relationship between Sloane and Gavin’s young sister Bree. Bree is learning to live without her mother (who died about a year earlier from cancer) and is in desperate need of a mother figure who understands her and can help with the things girls her age experience. It was handled well, I thought, and covered things I’ve not come across in any other romance novel.

Stirring Up Trouble is the first book by Kimberly Kincaid I’ve read and I look forward to reading more. Recommended to fans of the Pine Mountain series and Contemporary Romance.