Bittersweet

Woman with excellent chef skills and ambitions to own a restaurant, with an awful mother, and trust issues, works for an unpleasant restaurant business. On a business trip into the countryside, she meets a handsome cider-making farmer, with whom she had a very brief fling in college. His family immediately love her and her cooking. The usual romance stuff ensues. It passed the time, was inoffensive and instantly forgettable. 

I've been trying to read this book for a long time but I kept picking it up and putting it down. There wasn't anything that really hooked me to the story and I didn't think it got particularly interesting until almost the end. I am looking forward to reading about the rest of the Shipley family.

3.5, rounding down because I'm not a fan of first-person in romance, especially when the MC keeps referring to her “lady parts” or “girl parts” in her internal monologue. Like, you're not 12 and neither is the reader, and if we can have detailed descriptions of the lead dude's junk, let's stop with the cutesy talk, please.

Anyway. I wasn't sure I was going to like this at first, what with the alternating first-person and just how much of a jerk the hero was in the beginning, but once it got past that, it grew on me nicely and I learned some interesting things about apples. I might go back and read the rest of this series, because I really do like the setting, and most of the other potential leads mentioned in the story don't seem like they'd start off as grumpy as Griff.

(2019 summer romance bingo: “wine and spirits”; don't think it'd fit any other square except HEA.)

Loved this.
Everything a rollicking good romance should be.
A sexy, gruff hero in Griff, and a feisty, bold heroine in Audrey.
Their interactions burned up the pages, plus she's a chef and I'm a foodie so I loved the references!
Recommend if you enjoy romance.

Solid primary and secondary characters. Fairly boring on the “romance” side. Will give the others in the series a shot.