Many thanks to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media and the author for the ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Karina Cortés loves her life - her no strings attached, simple life. She works with a family owned Cookie company that also doubles up as her family. Her life is perfect, unlike her friend's that seems to revolve around their men. Karina is strong and does not need a man to take up her focus or time. But when a new mechanic Ian who is hot to boot makes her question her views around dating and her boss seems to be love (the biggest crime), Karina is questioning everything.

This book had an amazing found family and did not end in an HEA involving children - a win is a win. It was enjoyable and fun. The narrator was amazing in characterizing all the characters.

This book is described like a romance, but I honestly see it more as women's fiction. It deals with some heavy topics and I don't think the HEA is the first thing the story is after. I love the metaphor of the cookies and what they mean. The thing that really stuck out to me is the workplace and how vividly it was described and what a perfect backdrop it made for the character development.

This book was not my favourite. It felt cliché and like it was trying too hard. I feel like there could have been more done with the premise, but as it is I actually didn't finish it because the main character annoyed me too much.

Promise I'll try another book by the same author though, this could be a wrong book wrong time wrong reader kind of deal!

Well.
I wanted to like this book. Hello, Cookies???? What a way to grab my attention
I just literally hated the characters. NONE of them had the least bit of likability. This was a DNF for me - I quit shortly after Ian (eye-YUN - as much as I love this narrator - the different ways that Ian was pronounced was different throughout the story and distracted me too much) was offered a "ride". Sorry to say that this one didn't bring me joy - but they're not all supposed to.
I was provided a digital audio copy of One Tough Cookie by Netgalley. My views are my own.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6197372539

I have read many books from my home state of Florida, but never one that takes place in my hometown, so this one was fun for me. As a Fort Pierce resident, reading about my little coastal city and the surrounding area was fabulous. Friday Fest is a monthly staple and the place to be on the first Friday night of every month. The food trucks offer some of the best food around, and Karina was right on target; the ribs are to die for. As a foodie, all the cookie and food references left me drooling; Ian and his dimples did too! The book was a fast, fun, and steamy read that had everything I was looking for in a romance novel. It had family drama, lots of emotion, and some sizzling hot romance that fully satisfied me. I highly recommend the audiobook version of this book, as the narration by Stacy Gonzalez was phenomenal. Give it a listen, and you won't regret it!

Thank you, @NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the ALC of this one to listen to!

One Tough Cookie caught my attention based on its description and my love for cookies. I found the audio narration to be great for this one. I liked the independence of the characters in this novel and how quirky they were. However, I found them almost caricature-like in the way they played out on the page. I found Karina relatable in her desire to shield her heart and keep on "thriving" with her single, independent life, and the never ending doubt that maybe, just maybe, being vulnerable allows your heart to soar.

What a wonderful story! And the audio book was very well done. Excellent actress!
Our heroine has some baggage. She has reasons that make sense to her why she runs from love. That is until our hero manages to change her mind. Now she must convince herself she is the strong, capable woman others see her as.

This was a decent read and just what I was in the mood for. I was able to listen to it all in one go while I worked

Karina Cortés is the head of production at Singular Cookies, having been with the company since the beginning, with its founders treating her like family. Nevertheless, she doesn’t believe in love or family, ever since her mom chose a man over Karina. The company’s new mechanic, Ian Feliciano, is determined to convince Karina that romance doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

I liked seeing a book set in a corporate bakery as a change from the typical bakery in a small town seen in romance books. Their cookies were unique! Karina <spoiler>goes through a big transition at the end, but it took so long to happen that it was hard to care. I did like seeing a HEA that didn’t automatically end with a marriage and children. </spoiler> This book was just OK for me, but I would check out more books from this author in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

I want to like this story, I do. I want to like the strength in the characters, the steadfastness, even their flaws. But they are so much it's almost cringe worthy. It was most I want to watch the trainwreck entertainment and that's not my jam. That said, if you like a ton of high drama (real and manufactured) with a side of cookies, this could absolutely be your jam.

#arc
#netgalley
#onetoughcookie

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

The author has a graduate degree in food science and it shows! We're given a behind the scenes view of industrial food production, cookies in this case. Coworkers that are like family were fun to read. . Toss in there some romance and steamy sex scenes and you've got a recipe for a very good story.

Karina is a woman in her 20s and she knows exactly what she wants in life. And that doesn’t include love or a steady man. She has been raised to count on herself. So she ends relationships before they start. She has a steady stream of one night stands. Until she meets Ian. He’s a tall drink of water and she’s incredibly attracted to him! But she can’t fall in love! Love changes a person and she’s not about to answer to any man! But what happens when she does fall in love with him? Will she allowed to be changed by this man?

I have to say that while this book is enjoyable, I didn’t like the Karina. I understand that she was raised by a single mother and she felt like she was abandoned when her mom got married and had a baby. But I felt like Karina was extremely rude to her friends when they talked about their relationships. It seemed like she believed that everyone should feel the way she does about men and love and relationships and if they didn’t, then they were weak. Karina does have a redemption arc where she starts to go to therapy and heal from her childhood. Karina works for a company that is trying to get into supermarkets. I really enjoyed the idea of cookies that match personalities! And there’s a decent amount of spice in Karina and Ian’s relationship! Overall this is a good book. And I think it would be a good read for a book club!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

Karina has had a hard knock life. Her mother chose her new family over her old daughter. So Karina does the only thing she thinks she can do, she moves out, quits school and goes to work. Things begin looking up for her when she works with her friend to start Singular Cookies, Inc. They developed cookies based on a person's personality. The company takes off and Karina thinks her friend is trying to push her out even though she insist she is like family. But Karina doesn't really understand what family really is. She doesn't really know how to love or be loved until Ian comes along. She tries to say no to his love but she can't get him out of her mind. She wants to keep work and love separate but will that be possible?

In this debut novel we have a group of women from different life perspectives that are friends due to working for Singular Cookies. Singular Cookies employees our protagonist Karina who loves the cookies they make and defines events and people around her by the type of cookies that they are. The whole premise seems quite endearing.

Karina has some childhood trauma that she needs to deal with, and I do like the way the author talks about therapy. Any positivity towards seeking help is always a plus especially in a world that still looks down on mental illness or seeking help when times are mentally or emotionally difficult. I also really like that way that the author talks about the hard times in friendship. Karina is not an easy person to like, but her friends are there for her even when she isn't the best person to be around. I also know that childhood trauma can make adult situations difficult, but I almost felt like this was going to an extreme, mostly because I don't like repetition. Karina treats Ian awful but he just keeps coming back for more. At the time it kind of seemed sweet, but retrospectively there was a lot of manipulation on both sides of that relationship and it could easily become toxic.

We have two stories here, the romance and the self fulfilment of Karina. The romance aspect I didn't like too much. Like I said, Karina was not a likeable character, most of the characters weren't likeable actually. The discovery of one self part of the story felt more genuine to me. It felt like there was more passion about the growth of Karina's career and finding meaning than any other part of the story. Karina has a GED and never thought she would be able to be better, her mother sure didn't help in that perspective either. Then someone saw something in her and helped her become more. I genuinely liked seeing this part of the story.

Overall, the story is ok. Karina loves sex, hates love, and kind of manipulates those around her and is pretty mean. The story is ok, it has some good aspects, but the overall whole of it just didn't hold up.

First of all I want to thank Dreamscape Media for providing me a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is the story of Karina who is a manager at a locally owned cookie factory and is completely against any type of long term romantic relationship. When a new mechanic, Ian, asks her out and they start dating Karina's life gets turned on its side. Will she get over her commitment phobia or will she lose Ian?

2.5stars
What I liked:
- Narrator, I think the narrator did a great job with her different voices for the different characters especially Ian
- Cookie factory, Karina's job is kind of the dream working for a cookie manufacturer where you help taste test the new cookies
- Ian, he is a really good guy who tries to be patient with Karina and will do whatever is best for her even if it hurts him in the process
-Auditing, I really enjoyed that Karina got into internal auditing and it was explained what that entailed. As an auditor a lot of people don't get it but this book did a great job really making it simple to understand

Now this book was hard for me cause most of the characters were pretty insufferable. There was no in-between in Karina's group of friends, they all just wanted to be married and that was their only goal in life.....and those people are annoying thus me not loving those characters. Also, Karina wasn't likeable even after she started going to therapy and working on her stuff she just refused to trust anything Ian said which was extremely frustrating. I had to take long breaks from this book cause I needed to get into a mental space where I would handle reading/listening about this character that I wasn't rooting for. So much of my reading experience is based around characters and when the main character is this insufferable it was really hard for me to get into the story. Due to this I would rate the story 2.5 stars.

As with all Dreamscape Media audiobooks, the quality of the audiobook and narration was amazing, I would give the audiobook quality a 5 star.

Cute. Sweet at times. Touching at times. But, a bit too L O N G…
I had originally received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but for some reason it disappeared from my shelf. No worries though…I was able to get it on Hoopla!
Karina is a young woman with VERY STRONG POV’s. She grew up in a one parent household and her views were jaded by her Mom who taught her to be a strong, independent woman who does NOT need a man…but then she went and got married…and kind of left Karina on her own.
We pick up the story as Karina is working at a cookie factory/plant with her friends. She doesn’t understand why they allow themselves to get wrapped up in men?! And has NO INTENTIONS of ever doing that herself.
Unfortunately, other plans were made for her when a handsome new mechanic starts working at the plant and has his eyes on her!
But she does NOT want a relationship.
Sex…ok. Long term stuff..no way.
And so it begins…and then it seems to go on F O R E V E R…
I think a lot of stuff could’ve been left out here, but I will definitely cut her some slack, as this was her DEBUT novel!
Good bones here, and as I said, some touching scenes, some heartfelt scenes, and some LOL scenes as well.
Also, some heartbreak, and some lessons learned…
And I loved the T’s that Karina wore…cracked me up!
And I love how they named the cookies!
Triggers: Some sex scenes in the book, as well as abortion…
3 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars for me, but I rounded up to 4, as I really liked the basic story, and I loved the characters! And I also loved to see Karina growing a little wiser as time went on!
One Tough Cookie by Delise Torres (Debut Book)

One Tough Cookie by Delise Torres was a mediocre read for me. I had trouble connecting with the main character. Karina and was actually more invested in the side characters stories. Karina had good reasons for her personality and actions but she was still annoying to me and I think that's why I couldn't get into the book very much. I really liked her love interest Ian although he was kind of a love at first sight head over heels type guy and that seemed a bit weird as well. The narrator was amazing and I really liked her accents and the way that she brought the characters to life. I'm giving this book three stars because the storyline was interesting once you got past the main characters. Annoying personality.

Happy Pub Week to Delise Torres and One Tough 🍪 Cookie! Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for allowing me to read an ALC (Advanced Listener 🎧 Copy) for an honest review!

📅 One Tough Cookie by Delise Torres was published YESTERDAY (Tuesday, July 18, 2023). 📅

The beginning of the book draws the listener in with a charming ad about Singular 🍪 Cookies and how to take a quiz to find out your cookie personality!

Karina Cortés, the female main character, may rub a reader the wrong way. But, I believe a reader may be put off by Karina because she reminds the person listening 🎧 to her story a little bit about their younger self. They are most likely reminded of a quality that they are not proud of, an action that they did not take ownership of, or a time in their life that wasn’t fulfilling. We’ve all shown that we have a little Karina in us…whether that be in the past or the present.

Karina believes that she is a strong and independent woman, one tough cookie, that does not need a man in her life to achieve success and happiness. Her peers and the reader may say that she is stubborn, immature, arrogant, selfish, scared of commitment, and shows lack of empathy. Society teaches us that these characteristics are wrong. To Karina, these characteristics feel right in the moment. She uses them as a defense mechanism to protect her from: 1) trusting others, 2) displaying emotion, and 3) showing vulnerability.

Ian, the main male character, is the complete opposite of Karina. He falls in love quickly, can be gullible, is very dependent, and can be too caring and nurturing. These are all qualities that we are taught show a sign of weakness in men.

The author does a great job building each character in a way that they elicit such strong emotions and reactions from the reader. She also defies gender norms in a way that sometimes leaves the reader feeling uncomfortable. Kudos for that!

This book can challenge the reader’s beliefs in a positive way if they open their mind to the possibility.

This was a good read even if the main character really was one tough cookie! I also like the deep dove into all the characters so you felt like they were a family.