Screwdrivered

Screwdrivered is the third book in Alice Clayton's Cocktail series, a playful romantic comedy with plenty of heat. Vivian Franklin, who prefers to be called Viv by most people, designs software during the day. In her spare time she reads romance novels in secret and imagines herself as the heroine, longing for a noble knight, a rugged cowboy on a wild horse, or a brawny firefighter to rescue her.

Her life takes an unexpected turn when a phone call tells her she has inherited a lovely old house in Mendocino, California, from an aunt she had long forgotten. Viv packs up her entire life and moves across the country, convinced the move will be an adventure worthy of the novels she loves. Real life, of course, does not always follow the script of a romance.

Soon two men catch her attention. Hank is a cowboy whose appeal is immediate and hard to ignore. Clark Barrow is a librarian who insists on calling her Vivian. The story sets the tweed jackets and elbow patches of the library against the chaps and spurs of the ranch, and Clark's bookish charm is compared with a certain caped hero, leaving Viv charmed and torn between them.

Alice Clayton blends the comedy and the steamy romance in equal measure, and the question at the center of the story is a playful one: which man, the cowboy or the librarian, is the right match for Viv?