Review: Falling for You by Julie Ortolon

Opposites attract, right? In Julie Ortolon's contemporary romance, this couldn't be more true. Oliver Chancellor and Aurora St. Claire are both from old Galveston families but this is where the similarities end. Chance is a staid and proper banker whose father once owned the major bank in town. He has been a part of Galveston high society for his entire life. He's cautious, studied, detail-oriented, and content to live the life that everyone expects him to lead, including getting engaged to the very proper debutante his mother has chosen for him even if he's never once been tempted to kiss Paige. Rory, on the other hand, is the descendant of the scandalous Marguerite Bouchard, who was never herself accepted by Galveston society. Rory is a tour guide with big dreams for the future. She's passionate and impetuous and not afraid to reach for what she wants.

What Rory wants is to buy the wonderful old Pearl Island mansion where Marguerite once lived and her ghost is said to reside still and turn it into a bed and breakfast. Rory and her siblings don't have the money to turn this dream into a reality without a large business loan. But Rory ran into Chance out at Pearl Island, having known him when they were younger and he was her brother's friend, and so she turns to him to help the St. Claires get the loan they need. Chance had a crush on Rory when she was younger and he still finds himself wildly attracted to her. Agreeing to help her with securing the loan and then with starting the business, he gives himself the opportunity to be around her again and again. And the two of them do spark off of each other constantly. But Chance is still determined to marry Paige, as is expected of him.

How can Rory and Chance work to reconcile their differences, in outlook on life and in social class, turning them into complimentary assets? There is never any doubt that the novel will end up as expected but the ways in which the secondary characters take on bigger roles is unusual. Rory actually likes Paige and although it is awkward when Paige befriends Rory's sister and gets deeply involved in the opening of the bed and breakfast, it adds a new spin to Rory and Chance's struggles to find the right path. As characters, Rory is definitely more appealing than Chance, who is so focused on appearances that he comes across as a right snob. The fact that the two of them plummet immediately into clothes tearing lust and that Chance is never bothered by the fact that he's enjoying the heck out of steamy sex with Rory while planning to marry Paige is just a bit dirt-baggish too. On the whole though, the novel is a fun romp of a romance and a quick and easy read.