Irresistible is the second in a series about the members of the Buchanan family who own a chain of restaurants in Seattle. It’s good cheesy fun featuring a dysfunctional family who all have Issues and Problems. If you like soap operas, this will be just what the doctor ordered.

Elissa Tower has had a hard life, mostly because of her own bad choices. She ran of to California with her boyfriend – the one who was going to make it big in music – but when he turned out not to have much talent, Elissa fell into a job as a roadie and met Neil, who did have talent, but who liked drugs more. When Elissa became pregnant, she came to her senses, left druggie Neil and ran away to Seattle where has raised her daughter Zoe alone. Elissa works as a waitress and makes jewelry on the side.

Walker Buchanan was raised with his siblings by his grandmother, who is tough, snobbish, and the villain of the story. She expected him to work in the family business, but Walker had his own ideas and joined the Marines. He had planned to make the service his life’s work, but after his friend was killed, he quit. Walker is now in Seattle thinking about what he wants to do with his life.

Elissa and Walker meet when she is trying to get the lug nuts off her tire. Walker lives in the same apartment building and being the chivalrous type, attempts to help. Elissa rebuffs him (I wondered at her sanity) but finally allows him to help her. When he sees the state of her tires, he quietly buys her a new one, which makes her very upset (I really wondered at her sanity), but finally she agrees to accept the tire and pay him back.

The book features Elissa and Walker’s growing relationship, interspersed with glimpses of the rest of the Buchanon clan, whom I know we will meet in future books. There’s Cal Buchanan and his wife from Delicious who are having a baby; Reid Buchanan, the hot stud ex-pitcher; and Dani Buchanan, who isn’t really a Buchanan since she was the product of her mother’s affair with another man; and Gloria Buchanan, the grandmother and arrogant grand dame. When she finds out that Elissa has been seeing Walker, she comes over and threatens to have her fired, evicted and “squashed like the bug you are”. Gotta love someone as over the top evil as that!

Most of the book is about Elissa’s problems…she has a lot of them. She is trying to reconcile with her family, and her ex-boyfriend Neil is blackmailing her by threatening Zoe. Elissa is having money problems, and her stubborn pride will not allow her to accept help from Walker. As they grow closer, she does lower her defenses and Walker turns out to be quite the knight in shining armor, especially when Neil shows up.

Okay, it’s not a great romance novel, but Irrestistible is a lot of fun. I cheered the heroes and heroines and hissed the villains and villainesses. Even though I don’t live anywhere near a beach, I can say I’ve read my summer beach read and I will check out the rest of the books in the series.