At first, I was a bit suspicious about this new series. I didn´t know neither what to think of the title nor what to expect from its content. But after I finally read it, I have to say: no matter what title her next books will have, the author is always a guarantor for fantastic stories with the perfect style and language. Oh yes, I am serious about that. Nuts is full of amazing scenes, funny dialogues, and a beautiful landscape. You can actually see the Farmer`s Market, the barn, and all the other places where this novel plays.
Nuts
by Alice ClaytonHudson Valley #1
Publisher Gallery Books on October 10, 2015
Genre Love-Women-Erotica
Pages 308
Format Paperback
Source Purchased
Goodreads
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Roxie Callahan is a private chef to some of Hollywood´s wealthiest, and nastiest, calorie-counting wives. Then a dairy disaster implodes her carrer in one fell ploop, and she finds herself back home in upstate New York, bailing out her hippie mother and running the family diner. When local organic farmer Leo Maxwell delivers her a lovely bunch of walnuts, Roxie wonders if a summer back home might not be so bad after all. Because Leo´s heavily involved in the sustainable, slow-food movement, and he likes to take his time. In all things. Roxie´s determined to head back to the West Coast as soon as the summer is over – but can the pull of lazy fireflies and her very own Almanzo be enough to keep her back home for good?
Story
Roxie grew up in a small town and as soon as she could, she moved as far away from it as possible. Now, a private chef in Hollywood, she not only found finally how she sees her life, but also a way to do what she always loved to do: cooking. No, no ordinary things, and not in a famous restaurant. She has to be on her own. That changes the minute her mother calls and as a result of that, she makes a mistake that costs her almost all of her clients. So she drives all the way back to help her mother out and what she now finds back in the small town is way more than she ever expected.
Style
The entire novel is written from Roxie´s point of view, which makes all those scenes where she is kind of clumsy and bumps on a regular basis right into Leo more fun then you could ever imagine. Alone the scene, with the bee under the walnut tree – priceless. And all those fantastic cakes and meals she is creating, wow!
Alice Clayton digs real deep into the world of food, creating delicious meals and how idyllic country life can be. And OMG all those cakes made my mouth water! I mean literally. And then the perfect mix of different tones. The author used a combination of humor, amusement, and irony in hilarious dialogues and even better scenes. The one, where Leo texts Roxie what he hears is so incredibly fantastic and what he does afterward is even more fantastic. You see, to get the full picture you really have to read it.
Characters
Usually, you don´t expect in such a novel very profound characters. To my very surprise, it turns out, that Leo has quite a past and that he´s not only the handsome and very rich man but also a man with some very strong feelings about how his life and that of his loved ones. And he must be one heck of a fantastic lover – I only say the scene at Roxie´s porch!
Yes, Alice Clayton fascinates the reader with her new characters. And I was very happy when two characters of one of her elder books showed up. Yep, Grace, and Jack from The Unidentified Redhead have their moments in this book; but back to Roxie and Leo. Their first meeting is quite something and nuts are all of a sudden something very special. A kitchen can´t be small enough to be able to cook properly in it, but with Leo and Roxie in one place the space of a kitchen becomes a completely new meaning.
There is no doubt, that Roxie is a fantastic woman. She had an unusual childhood because of her mother being a hippy, yes, but she is adorable, knows what she wants and what she doesn´t want in life, and how she manages the diner during her mother´s absence is one great story.
Conclusion
I AM THRILLED! This was awesome. I laughed tears during some scenes and had a fantastic time reading it. Highly recommended.
Happy reading
Alice Clayton
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Alice Clayton worked in the cosmetics industry for over a decade before picking up a pen (read laptop). She enjoys gardening but not weeding, baking but not cleaning up, and finally convinced her long-time boyfriend to marry her. Now, about that Bernese Mountain dog …
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What a lovely review. The title gained my interest when I saw you read this and because of the titlename itself. :) The description sounds good and I guess - although I'm now more hooked by M/M books - I give this book a try when I have reduced my TBR-pile a bit. xDD
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice surprise :-) Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the compliment. Yes, I had my fun reading it and since today I have the second book already waiting at home *happy dance*
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