Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

From the publisher:

Full of cats, coffee, and charm, this laugh-out-loud, fake-dating romance between a brilliant baker and a charismatic commitment-phobe is the perfect treat for fans of Lyssa Kay Adams and Jasmine Guillory.

Frenemies + Fake Dating = Falling for the wrong person…for all the right reasons

Charity Simmons may have great taste in friends, felines, and fruit tarts, but if there’s one thing the baker and co-owner of Meow and Furever Cat Café knows, it’s that she has horrible taste in men. Case in point: Will Schwartz. He may be the best friend of her best friend’s boyfriend, but after their one night together, Charity is positive Will’s nothing but a womanizing charmer—despite his nice-guy persona and adorable, crooked smile. So why then did she pick him to pretend date to get her parents off her back about being single?

Will Schwartz may give relationships a hard pass, but he’s not about to say no to fake dating Charity. She’s brilliant, hilarious, and best of all, she’ll put an end to his mother’s interrogations about his love life. And maybe, after all this time giving him the cold shoulder, Charity will finally warm up to him.  But it’s not long before Will and Charity realize they got much more than they bargained for–and they’re freaking out. What if what they have isn’t make believe but the real, forever kind of love?

“The fake-dating trope and some feisty felines animate this effervescent sequel to Gary’s A Cat Café Christmas. Witty banter between the leads and cameos from the café’s mischievous kittens lace the heartfelt love story… Readers will relish this lighthearted romp.”  ―Publishers Weekly

https://amzn.to/3wfqvKv

This is the sequel to A Cat Café Christmas, which I didn’t know when I read this one -but I sort of wondered. The main characters, Will and Charity, are the best friends of a couple who think they are a good match. But Charity thinks Will is just a playboy, and he doesn’t know how to convince her otherwise. When they both end up at a resort together, they ignore one another until New Year’s Eve, when they create fireworks of their own. But morning comes around, and perspectives shift.

Charity owns a cat cafe and rescue operation with her best friend, a veterinarian. Charity bakes all the treats, and has applied to be on some reality TV baking show. If she wins, the money will certainly help expand their operation. She is in no mood for a meaningless fling; she feels like she deserves more.

Will is strongly drawn to Charity, but because of his family background, he fears relationships, mostly because of money. His parents weren’t good with it, and he is determined to keep his out of the clutches of any woman. But he can’t stop thinking about Charity.

There are a lot of hurdles here, but even more laughs along the way. This was a really fun read, especially if you like cats and baking as much as I do. I loved this lighthearted, fun, terrific, swoony read, and I’m going to hunt down A Cat Café Christmas!

2/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

FINDING MR. PURRFECT by Codi Gary. Forever (January 16, 2024). ISBN: 978-1538708187. 384p.

Kindle

Audible

Coyote Canyon, Book 2

From the publisher:

She’s not here to make friends. She’s here to make trouble.

With her piercings, tattoos and spiky blond hair, Ellen Truesdale doesn’t quite fit in with the other folks in Coyote Canyon—and that’s just fine with her. She’s only here to put her father out of business, as payback for abandoning her when she was young.

Or is she more interested in finally proving that she was worth keeping?

Either way, she’s struggling to keep her rival well-drilling company afloat. And being a single woman in a male-dominated field has started to take a toll. So when Hendrix Durrant steps in to help, Ellen has no choice but to let him—even though he happens to be her father’s business partner and therefore her enemy. But the closer she works with him, the more she sees what she’s been missing…in life and love. And once she lets go of her anger long enough to learn the truth about her past, she might just find the family she’s always wanted.

Coyote Canyon Series

Book 1: Talulah’s Back in Town
Book 2: The Talk of Coyote Canyon
Book 3: The Messy Life of Jane Tanner

https://amzn.to/3ud98cI

This is the second book of the series set in the small Montana town of Coyote Canyon. This one centers on Ellen and Hendrix, sworn enemies for most of their lives. Ellen’s parents divorced when she was a young child, and her father quickly remarried a woman named Vicki. Shortly after they wed, her sister died, leaving her son Hendrix an orphan. Vicki took him in and raised him as her own. But her husband’s daughter, Ellen, was a different matter; she was a tough kid, and Vicki wanted nothing to do with her. It comes out that she was jealous of her husband spending any time with his daughter, and he acquiesced to keep his wife happy.*

Fast forward many years, Ellen has moved into her grandparents’ home that she inherited in Canyon Creek and started her own well drilling company - in direct competition with her father’s company. Her goal is to put him out of business, revenge for abandoning her and her mother. Ellen’s mother is none too stable, and is constantly needing bailing out, adding more stress to Ellen’s life.

When Ellen steals a job out from under Hendrix, he is livid. In retaliation, he offers her one and only employee a job with a huge increase in salary. Things couldn’t be any worse between these companies and people, but when Ellen’s employee puts the screws to her to pay him or he’s leaving, she doesn’t feel like she has much choice. There is no way she can get the drilling done alone. But then he takes off on vacation, stranding her anyway, and shockingly, Hendrix steps in to help, feeling guilty about what he’d done. As they work together and get to know one another, everything starts to change.

There are a lot of family dynamics going on here, some of which really hit home for me. The enemies-to-lovers trope is beautifully and realistically played out here. This was a solid entry into this new series, and I can’t wait for the next book – luckily, I won’t have to wait long. It comes out February 20th, review to follow!

*My parents divorced when I was eight years old. My father flew to Mexico for a quickie divorce and came home a week later married to another woman. He didn’t abandon me or my brother, but she made my life hell, especially after I was forced to move in with them.

I was a hellion as a child, pretty much your basic parental nightmare, especially once I hit my teens and my mother couldn’t handle me anymore. I spent two and a half years living with my father, his wife, and her three children, and it took many years to recover. I had always suspected that his wife was jealous of me; I was my father’s favorite which made her crazy, but I couldn’t understand how a grown woman could be jealous of a child. It made no sense to me, but it finally came out right before my own wedding. We didn’t speak or have any kind of relationship for a few years until he wormed his way back in.

We had several hellish years before I finally found the strength to walk away from all the toxicity. My father was a sociopath, a narcissist, and if his lips were moving, he was lying. I’m not sure he even knew the difference between the truth and a lie; whatever suited him best was always his answer. His wife was another kind of monster. They are both dead and left behind a bunch of screwed-up children who have been squabbling over money for years now. I walked away from it all – and them all – about thirty years ago and never regretted it.

I think this was the first time I have seen a similar situation with the second wife jealous of the first wife’s child. I would hope it’s not a common problem, but I felt almost vindicated to see it here, if that makes any sense!

2/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE TALK OF COYOTE CANYON by Brenda Novak. MIRA; Original edition (November 28, 2023). ISBN:  978-0778305323. 384p.

Hardcover

Kindle

Audible