Small Town Romance #2 (The Malone Sisters)
Kindle e-book
Author: Tasha L. Harrison
Birdie Malone needs to get her shit together. She needs to disprove a rumor that she’s not a team player, that she’s “difficult”. She’s been fired from too many jobs and everyone knows she came home from culinary school without her degree and pregnant to boot. The only place that will hire her is the local “meat and three”, so when the opportunity arises to participate in a cooking competition, she jumps on it. She wasn’t counting on one of the judges being Saxon Turner.
Saxon Turner is also in a bad place. Too many drunken nights, too many shenanigans, too many fuck-ups, and he’s at risk of losing his cushy job as a travel show host. This travel show was the lifeline he grabbed on to when he was fired from his teaching position at the culinary school for getting involved with – you guessed it – Birdie Malone.
They both hoped they had gotten over each other, but as soon as they lay eyes on their past love all goes to hell. Saxon can’t jeopardize her chances in the competition, ruining her life again and Birdie has to confess that, when he left her, his parting gift is now five years old, looks exactly like him and is called Amara Rose.
This series is great! I’m not a fan of the secret baby plot but this one is done really well.
Birdie thinks she doesn’t share the same “magic” as her sisters, but when she cooks, she gets into a “zone” that’s almost transcendental. Saxon has the famous bad boy persona and, at 40, is still very immature, but when it comes to Birdie he wants to be the man she deserves. I loved how different they were without being opposites.
Again, the family is a big part in this story and I love their dynamics.
A plus: a book about chefs and cooking! Love it!
(Side note again: I can’t ignore the amount of typos, incorrect use of words and cooking terms, and just bad proofreading in this book too. After the 12th note on my Kindle I decided to stop highlighting. Makes me sad.)
Rep: interracial couple; black author, Gullah heritage. Misogyny in the workplace, allusions to sexual harassment, drug use,
