Ratings2
Average rating4
#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs returns to sun-drenched Bella Vista, where the land's bounty yields a rich harvest…and family secrets that have long been buried Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the enchanting Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own.
Featured Series
3 primary booksBella Vista Chronicles is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Susan Wiggs.
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More like 3.5 stars. So I guess I'll round up. I didn't like this one as much as The Apple Orchard. The central romance was overshadowed by the World War II flashbacks, the focus on the wedding of the hero and heroine from the previous book, and the introduction of a new female character who has all the signs of being the heroine in the next or future installment in the series. As a result, Isabella and Mac's romance felt condensed into too few pages and I wasn't as engaged in their story. Still pretty good women's fiction/contemporary romance, but just missing a spark somehow.