Hannah is a smallish farm owner (her farm grows a lot of different stuff and even has orchards). Drew is the new head chef of the town's new 'farm to table' restaurant 'Fig'.

Hannah has a contract with Fig (she grew up as friends with the owner of Fig) and when Drew gets sent during her interview to collect ingredients from the farm and is in her interview clothes Hannah assumes she's a fancy restaurant chef and so the two women get off on quite the wrong food (a dirty muddy one). But, cine Drew is the chef and Hannah the provider of veggies, they have to work together and so they start getting closer.

Of course, there are a couple of big twists that happen during the book too. It would be a boring read with those in the story.

I liked most of the characters from the beginning. Excpet for Hannah. I did slowly warm to her a bit more, but, at the beginning-- very n ot so much. I also sort of wish that there'd been more with Clare, Hannah's younger sister, she was such a vibrant character and I would love to know more about her and her burgeoning social media/marketing empire.

It was an interesting and fun novel and I definitely liked the food stuff that was in it. Yum.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.

3.25 Stars. This was a perfectly nice traditional romance, but there wasn’t anything that really wowed me. It’s not my favorite by Rey, but it wasn’t a disappointment either. For me this is squarely in the okay category.

I would recommend the book for people who are foodies. This story is about a woman who runs a vegetable and fruit farm, and another woman who is the new head chief at a farm to table restaurant. Food is everywhere in this book and it is very detailed. I think it caused my stomach to growl a few times. I’ve always thought it would be really cool to own a little vegetable farm so I did very much like the setting of this book.

While the setting, the characters jobs, and all the food is well written about, I did feel the book lacked a little in other places. So much detail went into the food and jobs that I don’t think Rey spent enough time on building the characters. The mains were decently developed, but I felt almost all the secondary characters could use more work. And because this book is so much about food, farming and cooking, the pace was on the slower side. I was never actually bored, but I was close. Rey writing was good enough to keep me reading but I do prefer a little more of something in my books. Even the angst was pretty low key except for the one extremely predictable scene near the end.

The romance itself was pretty good. The characters had a connection and I liked them as a possible couple. The sex scenes were decent and they had some sparks, I just wished I felt that their connection was a little deeper. It was perfectly fine but again it didn’t wow me.

Overall this is a nice foodie romance. I personally have to keep it in the just okay category, but I don’t think readers will be disappointed with this book. Not Rey’s best but not bad either.

I’ve been waiting for this story for while with bated breath and it did not disappoint.

Drew Davis moves to upstate New York after getting a job as head chef at a farm to table restaurant. This job is just a stepping stone to being head chef at a leading restaurant in New York so she can’t have any entanglements and needs to stay focused. If only she could get the the beautiful, Hannah Little out of her head. Hannah can’t help but be attracted to the flashy New York chef straight away but she has a good deal with the local restaurant by supplying them all her farm fresh fruit and veg. She doesn’t need to mess that up by being caught up in a fling with Drew but what if this could be more?

So here’s a few things that always get me excited when Aurora Rey publishes a new book... Firstly, I am guaranteed a hot butch with a sensitive side, this alone is a mssive tick. Secondly, I am guaranteed to throw any diet out the window because the books always have the most delectable descriptions of food that I immediately go on the hunt for - this time it was a BLT with a difference. And lastly, hot sex scenes that personally have added to my fanatsy list throughout the years! This book did not disappoint in any of those areas.

I really enjoyed the build up in this book and found that there was possibly more angst in this story than there has been before in Aurora Rey’s novels. I think it suited this story because there was an element of ‘will they, won’t they’ and then ‘will they make it work?’. Where as, normally I just know these characters are made for each other. Either Drew or Hannah needed to make a massive changed to their life plans for them to ever be together and I was nervous right until the end of how they could have each other and still have their dreams. Don’t get me wrong, this book has a beautiful happy ending but I felt like I worked for it as did the characters and I really enjoyed that. With that in mind, I think it shows how much Aurora’s strengths are growing with every book she writes and when I looked back and saw that I rated her first 5 stars, you can imagine what the future looks like for Aurora Rey and her books!

Like I said before, the sex scenes in Aurora Rey’s books play a big part in my love for her work. She just gets this reader and honestly, I get really excited when I reach those parts of her books. This book had a very unexpected but sexy element that I really enjoyed.

Before I finish up, I just want to mention the cover. It’s possibly my new favourite cover to date. Its clean and fresh with heaps of meaning about the book without ruining the mystery. I found out today it was created by Melody Pond, so wanted to acknowledge the on point design.

Honestly, between the love story, the food and the hot butch, I think I swooned so hard I fell off my bed. Another delicious (in more ways than one) book for Aurora Rey.

5 Stars

Yes, it's a pretty simple love story between Drew and Hannah but sometimes you just want a cute story to read. This is one of those books when you're not looking for huge plot twists or vampires.

I enjoyed the fact that their relationship took time to develop. They went through seasons together. We also got a bit of the push and pull of wanting to like someone but knowing that their situation and possibly even your futures aren't right for each other. A little internal battle is always enjoyable for me as a reader.

The side characters all felt just developed enough but not focused on too much where you feel like you've been taken away from the main characters. They were also very lovely.

My biggest gripe is that the POV from Hannah to Drew would happen a little suddenly. I'm a traditionalist - in that I like chapters or chapter breaks to be where you switch from one to the other.

This book isn't going to be a staple of my favorite collection, but I enjoyed reading it and getting to know these characters. I would recommend a read through.

I enjoy reading foodie romances. Combine mouth watering dishes with a couple of mouth watering women and you have a Recipe for Love. Drew Davis is hoping to advance her career by making a name for herself as head chef of Fig, an upstate restaurant hoping to be a trendsetter offering farm to table dishes using locally sourced produce. Drew knows that success here will speed up her chances to run a kitchen back in her beloved NYC.

Hannah is proud of her market garden operation and eager to prove to her father that she is quite capable of turning a profit with hard work, good marketing and excellent produce. Her contract to supply Fig means she will have to learn to work with big city chef Drew on a daily basis. Let the city mouse vs country mouse confrontations begin.

I liked this sweet traditional slow burn romance. Drew and Hannah might be slow to act on their attraction but once they do the reader is rewarded with some pretty steamy sex scenes. I liked the way both mains dance around their feelings knowing their differences would make a lasting relationship a challenge. No surprise when their budding relationship falters and no surprise again when they find a way back to find their HEA.

More than anything I was impressed with the growth I see in this author’s writing style. I liked the pace and way she slowly doles out details about her mains to hold the reader’s interest. I know when I read a book by Rey I will want to enjoy the mouth watering dishes she describes. It’s nice to see she is adding meat to the bone with her characters and storylines.

3.5 stars

ARC received with thanks from publisher via NetGalley for review.

The story told in this book is quite common, and besides, it does not have anything that makes it especially remarkable, so it remains in only an ok read.

Actually, the two protagonists heve not been very engaging for me. On the one hand Hannah has too many worries, some of it really silly, that hinder her to get carried away and enjoy life beyond her work on the farm. And then Drew, who has so deep in her head the need to succeed in her profession, but her priorities change suddenly and surprisingly.

Also, their families play a really weird and sometimes incoherent role. 

And finally, inevitable final conflict, I know it's necessary but, please, adult women cannot have so little communication and so many misunderstandings.

In short, an ordinary romance, without much more to add.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m pretty sure this is my first book by this author, and it was a nice enough place to start. It’s a fairly by the numbers romance, but nothing too noteworthy.

The two MCs are Hannah, who runs a farm that seems to grow everything and Drew, who is a chef who has taken a role as head chef at a farm-to-table restaurant to boost her chances of running her own kitchen in NY.

The relationship gets off to a slow start, mostly because Hannah doesn’t think much of ‘city girl’ Drew and believes Drew won’t stick around for long. They do spend a lot of time together in varying circumstances, and inevitably move past their reluctance (again mostly Hannah’s) to start a relationship. Their scenes together are fun and cute, and there’s some nice secondary characters (Hannah’s sister Clare, Drew’s boss/Hannah’s friend Nick), as well as some more tertiary character like their best friends and family members that round things out a bit.

My main issue was that there wasn’t a lot of context given regarding certain aspects. Drew’s background for one, she’s described as having ‘sepia’ skin, and refers to herself being ‘brown’ (her mother and grandmother are described in similar ways), but it’s not until roughly the 60% mark that we find out that they are from Haiti, would it really have been difficult to work this in earlier? Same with Hannah’s sister, who is the youngest of four and 12 years younger than Hannah, who is the next to her in age, so one assumes she was a ‘surprise’ baby, but again, no context is given. Hannah’s brothers are mentioned but don’t even rate a conversation with her even when they appear in a scene, but we get detailed descriptions of all the crops Hannah grows and most of the meals they eat. I could have done with less of that and more fleshing out of the characters.

Anyway, that aside, the romance itself is sweet and I enjoyed it up til the ‘miscommunication/breakup’ section of the story, but I did like how it was resolved, and that the story continued past them gettting back together so that we got a glimpse of their HEA. It’s a nice enough romance, and I’d try more from this author. 3 stars.