Rating: ★★★★ | Husdon Valley #1 | 308 pages | Gallery Books | Contemporary | 10/20/2015
L.A. private chef Roxie Callahan begrudgingly returns to her Hudson Valley hometown to run the family dinner when her Mom gets accepted on The Amazing Race. Within a day she catches the eye of the hot farmer in town and decides to have a little fling, after all, it’s only for the summer. Right ? Right ?
I can’t believe how long I’ve let this book just sit on my shelf! This delightful rom-com has everything; a simmering romance, a small town with character, competency porn, the 2008 housing crisis (no seriously this comes up…and it works ?) and all of the food-related double entendres you could ever want.
This book is told from Roxie’s first person POV and I loved her character and enjoyed being inside her head. She’s passionate, hard working, slightly facetious and yes a little messy as a character. At first, I thought she was kind of needlessly rude to her mom but it comes around. Leo was a great hero and I liked how Clayton was able to flesh him out even though he doesn’t have a POV. That’s always been the struggle for me with one-sided romances–the other person always feels half done.
Clayton must really do her research because I know a little bit about agriculture and the stuff in this book about Leo’s farming operation felt authentic. You find out pretty early Leo is from wealth and literally, the only way you can start an organic farming operation like the one described in this book is by being rich. The culinary aspect was detailed and done well too. I would have believed Clayton was a chef. I’ve read food books before but this is the one that made me the most hungry. I wanted to bake all the cakes.
Now, there is a reveal that comes out towards the end that I didn’t love. It just didn’t make sense that in a town that is described as gossip-y no one mentions this thing to Roxie. Either that or the entire town is somehow colluding to keep a secret from her.
The audiobook is read by Shayna Thibodeaux and she does such an amazing job. Her voice has a Zoey Deutch-like quality and her comedic delivery is spot on. Now, Sebastian York is also listed on the audiobook but it looks like Clayton only gives her hero’s POV in the epilogue so if you were getting this for York you will be disappointed.
Nuts is absolutely delicious in every way! If you’ve read this book and enjoyed it I really think you’ll love Intercepted by Alexa Martin.
I get the pun and all but the title of this book is not my favorite. It sounds weird out of context.