This is part of a series of books by this author. Some of the stories are interrelated but could all be read as stand alones. This one happens to be McNaughton brother #2 that we have read about. Patrick is the brains and money man behind the brother's brewery. Aspen is a life long friend of the family and business manager for the brewer.

What follows is a tale of friends to lovers. Both have had feelings for each other over time but never acted on them feeling the other wasn't interested or that it would cross a line in the business. Getting there just seemed to drag a bit for me in this one. There is lots of side story. Lots of characters in their head--angsty, worrying. Friends to lovers is a great idea. It just took these two FOREVER to get there.

I liked the brothers and their family interaction. Liked seeing the workings of the brewery. Not a bad read--just ok for me.

*Complimentary copy provided via Netgalley for an honest review.

Patrick McNaughton owns Foghorn brewery with his brothers. He is the “answer man, the go to guy for all things regarding their brand and their image.” He also does sales and makes rounds on their customers. Patrick is a charmer, smooth talker, and also uptight and driven to always win.

Aspen Pane is the business manager for Foghorn. She and the McNaughton brothers have known each other since grade school. Aspen, her brother and her mom came to live with Grand (her grandma) when she was in grade school. When Aspen’s dad left, her mother moved them around a lot, went through lots of relationships looking for love, constantly getting her heart broken and being taken advantage of. Grand became the stable constant in her life. She vowed to never fall in love because it was just a distraction from her goals.

The whole Joel Siebold storyline drove me crazy. He is arrogant, narcissistic and a total jerk. Patrick was so focused on not failing, he refused to see or acknowledge what was going on with this venture capitalist.

I just couldn’t connect to these two or see them together. Patrick was annoying with his entire focus on not failing. Aspen was ridiculous with her outlook on relationships. The story dragged and felt stilted in parts and became repetitive with their internal dialogues.

Loved Grand.

This is my sixth book by this author and the first that I have not liked, so I’m not giving up on her.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

Such a beautiful story of love and friendship. Patrick and Aspen have known each other since junior high, both pretending to be oblivious of the other and it continued until adulthood. Both organized business people they tend to enjoy time alone more than with others. Something finally stirred in their hearts and they began to look at each other differently and suddenly graved the other person. This book was beautiful in many ways, how their friendship blossomed, their love of family was stronger and their outlook on the future changed. Aspen's relationship with her Grand was inspiring, as was Patrick's with his brothers. While filled with love and silly come backs the book gave us a bit of humor in the form of Joel Siebold, eccentric whackadoo and bully of businessmen. This character challenged the Foghorn crew and helped them see what they really wanted. Another wonderfully written book by Ewens. I requested my copy through Netgalley.

Patrick and Aspen were amazing!! Patrick is all business, yet he employs Aspen to handle a lot and she does great! She tries to deny feelings. The banter is on point. I loved reading about them navigate their work-life balance.

What I completely adore about this series is the callbacks to characters we’ve previously met as well as the familial bond all the characters have!

Smooth – A love story is quite a different type of book to what I have been reading lately but it was very appealing and I now have a new genre and author to follow so I am very happy!
The story follows Patrick McNaughton and his brothers who run a brewery and it begins with Patrick, boarding a plane to fly for a business meeting with one of his brothers. The problem is that Patrick has managed to conceal his fear of flying but this time, medication combined with alcohol find him dropping his guard. Herein begins the problem or the romance, as his brother is unable to make the flight due to a serious injury so Aspen Pane, the office manager, flies in his place. This is the one woman who Patrick has admired from when they were a school together but always considered her beyond his reach. Interestingly enough, Aspen has felt the same way about Patrick.
The romance between the two begins slowly, with both of them very uncertain about making a move. The banter between the couple was very entertaining and having read over the past books in the series, this is an author to follow.
I received an advanced review copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Foghorn's Beer is run by the McNaughton brothers. Great story of the struggles of running Foghorn in the black and finding love along the way. This is the eleventh "A Love Story" by Ewens. I have had the pleasure of reading two in this series and know that they stand alone nicely. Patrick is a driven man who on the surface seems to have everything under control. Aspen Pane is the business manager of Foghorn and because of a mother with unstable romantic encounters; Aspen has always shied from relationships. Full length novel with lots of love and parts that made me need a box of Kleenex. Ewens has a talent as an amazing weaver of romance. "A copy of this book was provided by author via NetGalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion." Save this for a weekend read because it cannot be put down.

Another great and witty book from Tracy Ewens, this time focussing on Patrick McNaughton and the brewery's wonder woman Aspen. Great connection between the characters and you really get drawn in to the story.

I really enjoyed this book. On the surface, there is an alpha businessman who has a deep attraction to an employee and is working to win her love. However, Patrick McNaughton isn’t quite as alpha as usual hero business owners are in romance novels. First of all, we meet him in the beginning as he’s panicking about having to fly across the country. Aspen Pane, the business manager of the McNaughton brothers’ craft brewery, is a take charge well-organized woman who has little idea that Patrick has been in love with her since they were kids. Usually, it’s the heroine in romances who has been crushing on the hero, not the other way around.

What I liked is that these two people were so obviously well-matched in character and interests. The romance between them seems to grow organically rather than just being decided by the author that the two lead characters should be in love.

There is a subplot about a quirky venture capitalist whose financial help Patrick would deeply like to access to build their business. I thought that the way this plot would work out is that the venture capitalist would demand that Patrick had a girlfriend and they would have to pretend in one of those phony romances that grows eventually into a real romance. But that is not the way this all worked out and the venture capitalist wasn’t at all as I thought he was going to be. I like being surprised and that was another reason to enjoy this book.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Patrick McNaughton and his three brothers run a craft brewery and pub. Whilst Boyd is the brewer and Cade is the bartender, Patrick is the salesman, the one who gets their beers stocked in bars and restaurants in other towns and cities. Although of course he is now a handsome, charming man when he was at high school he had a brace, glasses and was extremely tall and thin (Luckily he gave up playing a musical instrument or he would have entered total nerd oblivion), this has left him with a bit of a complex about always winning.

Aspen Pane is the whip-smart office manager for the Brewery. Patrick, or Trick, has been infatuated by Aspen since they were at school together but she has never thought of him that way at all. In fact, Aspen's father's desertion at an early age and her mother's subsequent chasing after one unsuitable man after another has left Aspen opposed to love and romance. So much so that she only dates men she isn't attracted to! Because Trick doesn't think he can succeed with Aspen he hasn't tried - he's all about the winning.

Then one day a series of coincidences mean that Trick and Aspen fly together on a business trip, Trick is terrified of flying and a combination of booze and anxiety medication lead him to confess a little too much information to Aspen. From then its merely a matter of waiting to see whether Aspen can overcome her antipathy towards mad, impulsive love and whether Patrick can ever put himself out there and make the first move.

I love a romance involving a family craft brewery and bar- I've even got a Goodreads shelf just for books involving them - so I was eager to read this one when I saw it on NetGalley.

I'll be honest, I'm suffering from a head cold so some of the finer nuances of the interactions between Patrick and Aspen may have passed over my head but honestly they talked in so many similes and metaphors that I got totally lost and, frankly, I think Tracy Ewen did too. There was a lot of talk about diving into the deep end, inching into a kiddie pool, being a good swimmer etc - one of them in my ARC got so muddled up that Aspen wondered what would happen if Patrick was a strong swimmer too when I think she was meant to worry if he was a non-swimmer too.

Frankly at 68% through I thought the two of them would never stop talking themselves out of everything, there's slow burn but this was ridiculous. If it hadn't been that I didn't want to start 2018 with a DNF I would have been tempted to give up at that point.

I must stop using Women's Fiction as a disparaging comment, particularly in relation to books by this author, but this does strike me as belonging to that genre. Lots of talking and examining of feelings and trying to have witty banter like the characters in the old TV series Moonlighting (Bruce Willis as a young man) and I just wanted to scream at the characters to just bloody get on with it. Also Patrick's brothers and Aspen's friends are all so flippin' insightful, yet I am willing to bet good money that if I read their books they would each have been just as clueless about their own relationships. Also, whilst I get the sibling cruel to be kind attitude, Aspen's friends would very shortly have ceased to be friends of mine if they didn't butt out of my private business, sheesh.

Apparently this is the 10th book in the Love Story series, I have also read the eighth book Exposure - A Love Story and made some similar comments.

So,, I think you can tell from my review that my cold has made me a bit tetchy but overall I found the book was overlong for the plot. I would have wanted more things going on (or at least to see more of what was going on in the background) rather than the intense navel-gazing that went on and on.

No one does smart, witty banter and sharp dialog like Ms Ewens. I know that with each story I start written by her I will be swept away for the duration.

Each story in the Love Story journey has been unique and compelling, yet Patrick and Aspen's story struck an accord with my expectations of the foundation a true love story would have. Their give and take, strengths and weaknesses all converge to create the middle with which to live with their own love story.

I have immensely enjoyed each story in this series, Smooth definitely goes to the top of the list in stealing my heart and leaving a warmth long after the last page.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.