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Food & wine – any contemporary romance set in these worlds immediately grabs my interest. This one is set in a vineyard with a twist, it’s in Delaware.

Cammie has always wanted to own her own bar. After graduate school, she feels ready and falls in love with a chef who wants his own restaurant. They join forces, Cammie invests her entire inheritance, then the chef dumps her and moves to another restaurant.

Broke and almost homeless, Cammie jumps at the chance to help out the aunt that raised her. Aunt Ginger has invested her retirement into the Delaware winery in Black Dog Bay, the beach town they summered in most of their lives. Her cousin Kat is there too, and the women are as close as sisters. But none of them has any wine making experience, so this could be a disaster.

Turns out Kat is on the run from her marriage. A former superstar skateboarder, an injury forced her into retirement and Kat can’t deal with her life at the moment. Her husband is as supportive as can be, even showing up with a beautiful dog for her, but she needs to work stuff out on her own.

Cammie has some history in Back Dog Bay; her first love owns a farm there. She left him for grad school in California but the attraction is definitely still there. The women work together to turn Aunt Ginger’s folly into something worthwhile, that dog becomes an internet sensation, and love, well, love wins out.

Strong women are always a plus, and these girls are all fighters, which I admire. This was a sweet, fun read, and I really enjoyed it.

10/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

ONCE UPON A WINE by Beth Kendrick. NAL (July 26, 2016) ISBN: 978-0451474193. 336p.

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A Rose Harbor Novel, Book 5

I’ve read several of Macomber’s books by now and I’m still confused about the relationship between her different series. Sweet Tomorrows is the conclusion to the Rose Harbor series, which is set in the same town as the Cedar Cove series and possibly the Blossom Street series? There are some characters that overlap or maybe I’m just confusing it all with her Hallmark TV series, “Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove.”

No matter, they are all the same in style, tone, writing, and characters, as they should be – it’s what her readers expect, and Macomber doesn’t disappoint.

The owner of the Rose Harbor Inn, Jo Marie, is suffering as the man she loves, Mark, declared his love then took off to finish a secret mission in Iraq. Jo Marie was widowed when her husband was killed while in the service, and she is bound and determined not to repeat that. Before he left, Mark told her to get on with her life and she does, meeting a very nice man who quickly falls in love with her. And then Mark returns, seriously wounded and hanging at death’s door.

Emily is a young lady who has suffered two broken engagements. She’s basically run away to Cedar Cove, and arranges to board on a week to week basis at the inn until she finds a house to buy. She stumbles across a house under renovation a few blocks from the inn, but Nick, the owner, at first ignores her then chases her off his property. Nick has some severe psychological issues and he and Emily seem to be able to help one another, but she has serious trust issues.

The book alternates chapters between Jo Marie, Mark, Emily and Nick, so we learn about each of them in their own voices. These are very likeable characters, although Nick’s voice sounded a bit too high school at times for a grown man.

I’m always surprised that these characters are as young as they are, they read much older to me, which probably harkens to their behavior, especially the complete lack of sex between consenting twenty-thirty something year olds. Despite that minor annoyance, I enjoyed this book and it was a quick read. Sometimes it’s just pleasurable to read about really nice people, as Macomber’s characters tend to be. Sweet Tomorrows is another charmer from the Debbie Macomber collection.

9/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

SWEET TOMORROWS by Debbie Macomber. Ballantine Books; 2nd edition (August 2, 2016). ISBN 978-8900720341. 352p.

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I am a fool for any contemporary romance set in the food world. This one revolves around a British cooking competition; think Great British Bake Off/Baking Show with more than just baking.

Zoe is thrilled to find she qualifies for the competition, one of only 10 to make it. She arrives on location a bit early to find that she will be staying in a cowshed on a farm. The farmers, Fen and her husband Rupert, are expecting their first child and Zoe immediately helps out.

That helping gene almost costs her the competition as she helps out with several events that cut into her competing time. But that’s not the worst of it.

Zoe’s roommate is the model perfect Cher, who admits to not even liking cooking but is looking for fame and fortune. I was put in mind of Paris Hilton (but I don’t know if she can cook.) Cher is ruthless and ambitious and plays the game to win, including blackmail if necessary.

Zoe falls for one of the judges, always a no no. But she can’t help herself, and neither can he. On more than one occasion I really wanted to yell at Zoe to wake up, but I don’t think she would have heard me.

This story was right up my alley and I really enjoyed it. If you like your romance to be extra delicious, this is the book for you.

NOTE: This book was originally published in 2012 but is just coming out as an ebook.

9/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

RECIPE FOR LOVE by Katie Fforde. Bookouture (September 14, 2016) ASIN: B01KX9KDFE. 300p.

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Annie Rush is the producer of one of the most successful food shows on network TV. Her husband, Martin, is the star and life is good – too good, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it did. When Annie finds out she’s pregnant, she can’t wait to tell her husband and goes rushing down to the set. Catastrophe ensues, and Annie ends up in a coma for over a year.

While she was asleep, her husband divorced her and moved her home to her family in Switchback, Vermont. And then she wakes up. A year in a coma is no joke, and Wiggs handles the recovery process with grace and skill. Eventually she is able to come home to the maple syrup farm where she grew up and learned her love of food from her grandmother. Gram is gone, but her mother and brother and his family are there, and her father, who had walked out on the family when she was just a kid. And her high school sweetheart and first love.

The book is written moving back and forth in time, “then” and “now.” Wiggs creates her usual excellent, fully realized characters and I couldn’t help but be drawn into the story. Another wonderful read from this supremely talented author.

9/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

FAMILY TREE by Susan Wiggs. William Morrow (August 9, 2016). ISBN 978-0062425430. 368p.

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I may have reserved this book at my library a while ago, because when it showed up yesterday I didn’t remember asking for it. Maybe I read a great review a while back or maybe someone else reserved it for me. I have great co-workers and every now and then a book shows up and I’m not sure where it came from. No matter, I took a look at it and once I saw the blurb from Susan Elizabeth Phillips, “I highly recommend,” I knew I had to read it.

I took it home last night and started reading during the Miami Dolphins-Tennessee Titans game. It didn’t look good for Miami, so I went book instead. Dolphins lost their last pre-season game – and first home game in their newly renovated and renamed stadium. But I won – this was a terrific read.

Lucy Hutton is a petite woman who shares an office with Joshua Templeman. Lucy has always wanted to work in publishing, and when the company she worked for was on the brink of going under, they merged with another publishing house, creating co-CEOs and co-assistants to those CEOs, and those assistants were Lucy and Joshua. Lucy lost her only friend in that merger when 150 people were laid off, but she kept her job. And their were days she almost regretted it.

Their first day together Lucy gave Joshua her biggest, winningest smile. Lucy is a people pleaser, a genuinely nice person who just wants to get along with everyone. Joshua saw her smile, looked her up and down then turned away. Thus started the war.

They sparred nonstop, bringing competition and passive aggressive behavior to the sort of heights that often had Human Resources involved. And then came the announcement; the CEOs were hiring a Chief Operating Officer and an outside firm would be doing the interviewing. Josh and Lucy were the top contenders, but that just caused the competition to heat up. When Lucy proposed a day of team building to help bring the staffs of the two companies closer together, Josh took over and made it a day of paintball. And that’s when the fun really begins.

Any girl who ever had her hair pulled by a boy on the playground knows where this hate fueled relationship ends up, but it was a really fun ride to get there. If you are looking for a light, fast romance with some laugh out loud moments, look no further.

8/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

THE HATING GAME by Sally Thorne. William Morrow Paperbacks (August 9, 2016). ISBN 978-0062439598. 384p.

A Chicago Stars Novel

First I ramble…

Many years ago I learned a speed reading technique of sorts. It’s not for reading books, but rather looking at books. As a librarian, we get in tons of new books every day and there is no way to read them all. But this technique, that started out as How to Read a Book in Five Minutes then progressed to Ten Minutes, is very helpful at getting a good feel for a book.

I decided to test it out and asked a co-worker, Barbara, to pick out five romances that she was very familiar with, since I hadn’t read a romance in probably twenty years. I locked myself in a room and spent about an hour using this technique and looking at these books. Then I sat down with Barbara and told her about each of the books. We were both astounded at how much I got out of these ten minute reads.

Spring forward a few years and I’m in library school, where my professor assigns us to read a book out of our comfort zone. I chose a romance, again because back then I wasn’t reading any. The book I selected was NATURAL BORN CHARMER, the winner of the American Library Association Genre Fiction Award as the Outstanding Romance of 2007. As I was reading it, I kept thinking it seemed so familiar yet I knew I had never read it. The further I went, the more it kept gnawing at me until I finally realized that one of those ten minute reads was by this same author.

I loved that book and by now I think I’ve read all her books, so I’m always excited when she has a new one. The Chicago Stars series is like most romance series, it is completely unnecessary to read them in any kind of order, they all stand alone beautifully. The series centers around the fictional Chicago Stars football team and each book is about one of the team. Phillips writes smart, sexy books that have a lot of humor, and I would say she is my favorite contemporary romance writer.

First Star I See Tonight is another excellent addition to the series and it has one of the prettiest covers Phillips has ever had.

Cooper Graham was the star quarterback for the Stars, and for some reason, a woman is following him. Piper Dove is that woman and she is determined to live up to her father’s legacy and become a top notch private detective. Except Graham spots her, so she improvises, telling him she’s actually his stalker, albeit a harmless one. And that my friends, is the “meet cute.”

Graham is newly retired from football, and has opened up an exclusive, swanky night club. He eventually hires Piper, ostensibly to help out with security – but she quickly becomes his bodyguard, not that he thinks he needs one. They are a great couple, but face a lot of bumps along the way. But this is a romance and a happy ending is required, and Phillips does not disappoint. Another winner in the Chicago Stars series, and a terrific read. I loved it.

8/16  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

FIRST STAR I SEE TONIGHT by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. William Morrow (August 23, 2016). ISBN 978-0062405616. 384p.