Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Nuts, by Alice Clayton {ends 11/20}

Fired.

Fired?

Fired.

F O R. B U T T E R.

I sat in my car outside Mitzi's house, tucked high up into the hills. I'd packed up my knives, plucked my last check from her perfectly manicured gel tips, then trudged to my 1982 Jeep Wagoneer.

Fired. Over butter. I should have known better than to turn my back on cream being whipped. It can go from stiff peaks to buttery squeaks in seconds. 

I've read a few of Alice Clayton's books, and they're always quite funny, with a dash of sauciness thrown in; her characters are always strong women, who enjoy their love lives.

Official synopsis:

From New York Times bestselling author Alice Clayton, the first in a brand-new romance series telling the humorously sexy tale of Roxie, a private chef who gets a taste of love—but is it to stay, or to go?

After losing almost all of her clients in one fell swoop following an accident involving whipped cream, private chef to Hollywood’s elite Roxie Callahan gets a call from her flighty mother, saying she’s needed home in upstate New York to run the family diner. Once she's back in the Hudson Valley, local organic farmer Leo delivers Roxie a lovely bunch of walnuts, and soon sparks—and clothing—begin to fly. Leo believes that everything worth doing is worth doing slowly…and how! But will Roxie stay upstate, or will the lure of West Coast redemption tempt her back to Tinseltown?

This was a predictable novel, but very cute. Roxie had moved out of her small town in order to attend culinary school in California, about as far away from New York as you can get, but her mother now has the chance of a lifetime - to be on The Amazing Race with Roxie's aunt, her sister - and needs Roxie home for the summer to run the diner. Roxie is now a private chef in L.A., but has recently been fired by one of her clients (over whipped cream turning into butter! Ha), so the timing works out perfectly.

Anyone who has ever lived in a small town will relate to Roxie's need to distance herself from her, and also her wistfulness and nostalgia about being back. She strikes up a summer romance with Leo Maxwell, one of the Maxwells (a rich family in town, even though he's a farmer and is taking the path less traveled), but by the end of the summer, she's wondering if maybe it's more than a summer romance after all. 

I enjoyed this book and it was a quick read. Roxie is a funny character, and Leo is apparently quite handsome, from Clayton's descriptions. Even though she later uncovers some info about him that she didn't previously know, in the end it only makes her love him more, and she must decide if she should go back to L.A. or stay in her hometown. 

This is the first book in the author's new Hudson Valley series, also, and the next book, Cream, is slated for a July 1, 2016 release date.

4 stars out of 5.

{Click here to purchase}

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a paperback copy of Nuts!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, November 20th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified the next day via email and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Nuts, by Alice Clayton