Small-town biz wiz Jill Hale has been in love with her childhood best friend Brian McConnell for as long as she can remember. A falling out led to years of estrangement, but when Brian returns to Dare Valley after trying to make it big as a chef in New York City, Jill’s determined to make amends. She’s convinced that starting a restaurant together will be the perfect win-win situation, allowing her and Brian to work together and play together.

After a series of missteps sliced and diced Brian’s career in the Big Apple, he came home to regroup and find himself. He’s convinced that reestablishing his connection with Jill, the girl who got away, will put his life back on track. And when she approaches him with her plan for going into business together, he’s certain it’s the one way he can have it all—his dream job and his dream girl.

Jill and Brian are falling for each other all over again when Brian’s ex sashays into town, intent on sabotaging their reunion. Add in a mysterious investor who’s determined to get Jill on board with his project, and the bond between the couple is tested to the limit. Will their second chance at love implode, or will they find their own recipe for a happy ending?

Author Bio:

Ava Miles’ first novel, NORA ROBERTS LAND, kicked off The Dare Valley Series and brought praise from reviewers and readers alike. Much to Ava’s delight, USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog praises the book saying it “combines small–town romance with big–world issues in a full–bodied romance” and noting its “great hero…wonderful, idyllic setting… [and] great characters” while Joyfully Reviewed calls it “warm, funny and totally entertaining” and Romance Reviews Today highlights the “chemistry between Meredith and Tanner, and… [the] dangerous, exciting plot line woven throughout.”

Now, Ava reaches out to readers once more, bringing them her new novel, FRENCH ROAST, and taking them back to the small, Colorado town of Dare Valley and the residents who make it memorable, including the Hale family who, like Ava and NORA ROBERTS LAND heroine Meredith Hale, are descended from a long line of journalists.

Ava’s great–great–grandfather won his first newspaper in a poker game in 1892 and her family has had something to do with telling stories, whether to share news or, in her case, fiction, ever since. In fact her clan is still reporting on local events more than one hundred years later at their family newspaper.

Since childhood, Ava has been scribbling down ideas and writing. Despite having hundreds of pages under her belt, she says it wasn’t until her characters “wouldn’t stop talking” that she knew she had the perfect characters and a story arc she simply had to share, and thus, went on to complete the first of several novels she had begun. Having done so, she went on to write more Dare Valley novels and is currently at work on a novella and plotting her next series.

Having worked as an apprentice chef in a restaurant popular with celebrities, politicos, and other journalistic luminaries, and as a private chef while in graduate school, Ava had no lack of inspiration as she dealt with the foodie aspects tied to FRENCH ROAST and the restaurant central to her plot.

Born and raised in the Midwest, where her family’s newspaper is located, Ava went on to earn an undergraduate degree in writing and advanced degrees in political science and conflict management. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and Washington Romance Writers. She is also part of an unofficial group that regularly convenes a writing retreat at Nora Roberts’ restored Inn Boonsboro in western Maryland. Having left behind the “day job,” which took her, literally, all over the world, she now writes full–time in the peace and quiet of her northern Virginia porch–swinging–friendly community.