Warm Up Wednesday- TJ Wilder

It is ^&#%$&#@% COLD in PA right now and this is coming from the Yankee Princess, so I am more than happy to be writing this weeks "Warm Up Wednesday" and spend a little time thinking about TJ Wilder!  TJ is the third and oldest Wilder brother feature in Jill Shalvis's Instant Temptation.  Anybody else wishing for a long lost Wilder brother?  Yeah I'm sad this is the last in the Wilder series too!

The story focuses on TJ and Harley, two characters we have met in the previous two books.  TJ is the typical big brother and is the Wilder that takes the long (week- month long) excursions for Wilder Adventures.  TJ is an extremely skilled outdoorsy mountain man, just like his brothers.  These lengthy excursions satisfy TJ's need to stay unattached and escape life and painful memories.  Those painful memories mostly revolve around the loss of Sam, his girlfriend who was killed in a tragic accident on the river kayaking.  Sam while experienced and skilled herself, often took unnecessary risks, and her death prompted TJ to become a very careful and prepared outdoor kind of guy and also a guy unwilling to open his heart.  Harley, is a local girl who grew up with the Wilder boys, closer in age to Stone and Cam, she's like the little sister they never had.  Harley is finishing up her degree in biology while moonlighting as a tow truck/mechanic at a local garage, all while vying for a position with a wild life conservation project in Colorado.  TJ and Harley have a strange relationship full of confusion, sexual tension and Harley's seemingly incessant need to shoot snide comments and dirty looks TJ's way.  When Harley sets off on a trip into the wild in any effort to land the conservation job, her least favorite Wilder (or so she says) tags along as her guide and what follows will more than warm you up on the coldest of winter days!  Along the way, we get plenty of other Wilder quirkiness, discover why TJ is the Wilder Harley loves to hate, and a thing or two about packing a survival backpack! 

I'd say Instant Temptation was my second favorite Wilder adventure (Cam and Katie's story reigns steamy supreme), and its a very close story.  I loved that TJ and Harley had a history and that once again the wild boy is tamed by the hometown girl next tour type...though growing up I don't recall the likes of any Wilder brother in my childhood neighborhood!  Sigh.... And it wouldn't be a Warm Up Wednesday without a visual, this is MY TJ Wilder...Somebody sign me up for an excursion!