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River Hill #3
The Baker's Beauty
After tragedy struck, Sean Amory left his job as a music producer in Los Angeles to go back to his roots. He’s come home to River Hill to work in his family’s iconic bakery while he decides what to do next with his life. The warm ovens soothe his raw nerves, while the gorgeous brunette who jogs past every morning has another effect entirely. He’s in no place to start a relationship, but she makes him want to try.
Former beauty queen Jessica Casillas-Moore hasn’t eaten carbs since she was fourteen. But smelling them won’t ruin her figure, so she routes her morning run past the town’s most delicious-smelling site. When she meets The Breadery’s handsome baker, sparks fly ... and cupcakes get frosted. He’s everything she shouldn’t want, while also being everything she needs.
Sean and Jess might be made for each other, with her family refusing to let her her grow up, and his demons threatening to consume him, the odds against them seem overwhelming. Together, the baker and the beauty will have to decide if their love is meant to be, or if it’s all just a recipe for disaster. Can these opposites find their way to happily ever after?
Former beauty queen Jessica Casillas-Moore hasn’t eaten carbs since she was fourteen. But smelling them won’t ruin her figure, so she routes her morning run past the town’s most delicious-smelling site. When she meets The Breadery’s handsome baker, sparks fly ... and cupcakes get frosted. He’s everything she shouldn’t want, while also being everything she needs.
Sean and Jess might be made for each other, with her family refusing to let her her grow up, and his demons threatening to consume him, the odds against them seem overwhelming. Together, the baker and the beauty will have to decide if their love is meant to be, or if it’s all just a recipe for disaster. Can these opposites find their way to happily ever after?
- GenresRomance
Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2018
About the author
Rebecca Norinne
32 books398 followersUSA Today bestselling author Rebecca Norinne writes sexy romance from the heart. When not banging away at the keyboard, she is watching rugby, playing board games, or drinking a pint of craft beer.
Originally from California, she now resides in New England with her husband and two cats where she is renovating a house built in the 1700s and trying valiantly not to be eaten alive by mosquitos.
For more information, please visit http://www.rebeccanorinne.com.
Originally from California, she now resides in New England with her husband and two cats where she is renovating a house built in the 1700s and trying valiantly not to be eaten alive by mosquitos.
For more information, please visit http://www.rebeccanorinne.com.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 5, 2019
Disclaimer: I am friends with the authors; however, I purcahsed this ebook for full price.
Sometimes my interest in the romance between two characters takes a backseat to my interest in the development of the characters themselves. This book was sweet and enjoyable, with all the traditional romance novel tropes, but I found myself much more invested in Sean and Jess as people than as a couple.
We've known Sean for a few books already, and his alcoholism is addressed right away. But it's really his journey from stagnation, a man afraid of his past, to forward progression, a man who knows what he wants out of the rest of his life, that was the true development in this book. Both issues were addressed with care and taste.
Jess had less of a journey, except to get out of her crazy family's thumb. Though the family issues are never quite resolved, I cheered when she went after what she wanted regardless. It would have been so easy for Jess to become Sean's crutch, but the authors were clever enough not to take the easy way out.
I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. When I finished this book, I messaged them and demanded that they write faster.
Sometimes my interest in the romance between two characters takes a backseat to my interest in the development of the characters themselves. This book was sweet and enjoyable, with all the traditional romance novel tropes, but I found myself much more invested in Sean and Jess as people than as a couple.
We've known Sean for a few books already, and his alcoholism is addressed right away. But it's really his journey from stagnation, a man afraid of his past, to forward progression, a man who knows what he wants out of the rest of his life, that was the true development in this book. Both issues were addressed with care and taste.
Jess had less of a journey, except to get out of her crazy family's thumb. Though the family issues are never quite resolved, I cheered when she went after what she wanted regardless. It would have been so easy for Jess to become Sean's crutch, but the authors were clever enough not to take the easy way out.
I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. When I finished this book, I messaged them and demanded that they write faster.
November 12, 2018
Sean comes back home after a tragedy that he feels responsible for and goes back to work in his mother's bakery. Baking and drinking are the only things that seem to keep the devils at bay. Then he sees the beautiful Jess running by his bakery at the crack of dawn and they begin their dance. The dips, the sways, the steps forward, the steps back. Their relationship is like baking, putting all the ingredients together that don't appear to go together, like the Mexican Chocolate Pie. Who would think chili's and chocolate would make a delicious desert? But it is wonderful! And this book is just as delicious! As these two open up with their secrets and flaws, they grow more and more in love but also get more and more scared they are too damaged for a relationship. This perfect confection of a book is the third in the River Hill Series and is a standalone, but you will want to read them all as they all intertwine in each book! I loved this book and give it 5 AMAZING stars!
November 15, 2018
I love this series. I have a fascination with books and series that are set in Vineyards or have some form of cooking in them. I don't know why but I just enjoy reading them.
This is a wonderful story and I really like all the characters - its even better when you get to see how the other townsfolk are doing especially those that are part of the River Hill series.
A sexy hot read
This is a wonderful story and I really like all the characters - its even better when you get to see how the other townsfolk are doing especially those that are part of the River Hill series.
A sexy hot read
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April 29, 2019Another great book in the series filled with emotion.
December 1, 2018
4.5 stars
One of the first things I thought reading this book? Sometimes friends can be your true family, the one your heart chooses, those who care the most for you and your family can be a thorn in the side. I loved Noah, Iain and everyone, who decided to face Sean, taking action, putting him in front of the reality of the facts: he has issues drinking problem that runs the risk of getting out of hand.
It's the kind of bond I love to think can really exist with the people you consider your friends.
And it’s true: Sean has problems and alone he can’t solve them, he is tormented by a sense of guilt for something happened in the past and he can’t find peace. He left New York, his job, the life of the metropolis to go home and try to start anew. He returned to work as a baker in the activity that has been part of his family for generations and which is part of the River Hill story and tradition. Baking, creating things and cooking seems to help him to keep a little control over his life, but it ‘s not enough.
It will be Jessica, a beautiful stranger who passes in front of his bakery running and sniffing his delicious sweets, to change things and making him feel emotions and feelings he thought he could no longer feel, pushing him in a new direction.
I must admit it: I have a soft spot for men who can cook, I don’t know why but in my imagination they’re really hot: Sean the baker Vs a billionaire businessman? It’s not even a question for me.
That said, Sean’s work aside, I loved him as a character, he’s charming, his feelings are deep, intense, make him very human, vulnerable. He isn’t perfect, he doesn’t pretend to be, he’s afraid of making mistakes that could hurt Jessica but at the same time he's unable to give up on her.
They learn to know each other, trying to find out where this tagle of need, emotions and sensations could to bring them.
I loved also Jessica right away, she's smart, funny, independent and strong willed. Like all of us she has iher weaknesses and doesn’t like to show them, but with Sean the wall she has created around her, little by little crumbles. What did I love the most in her? How she loves and accepts the real Sean for his strengths and weaknesses, without being conditioned by others and because of she is willing to be there for him, by his side in the time of need.
I liked it very much them as a couple.“The Baker’s Beauty” is romantic, funny, full of passion and very very real.
I fell in love with the atmosphere I found reading the books in this series, the setting in River Hill and the characters are built with so much care, I feel like I almost know them, see them sitting together talking, joking. It's a good feeling, and that's what makes the difference for me when I read a book: feeling part of the story, getting angry at something because it’s characters’ mess or sometimes being fascinated by their charisma.
One of the first things I thought reading this book? Sometimes friends can be your true family, the one your heart chooses, those who care the most for you and your family can be a thorn in the side. I loved Noah, Iain and everyone, who decided to face Sean, taking action, putting him in front of the reality of the facts: he has issues drinking problem that runs the risk of getting out of hand.
It's the kind of bond I love to think can really exist with the people you consider your friends.
And it’s true: Sean has problems and alone he can’t solve them, he is tormented by a sense of guilt for something happened in the past and he can’t find peace. He left New York, his job, the life of the metropolis to go home and try to start anew. He returned to work as a baker in the activity that has been part of his family for generations and which is part of the River Hill story and tradition. Baking, creating things and cooking seems to help him to keep a little control over his life, but it ‘s not enough.
It will be Jessica, a beautiful stranger who passes in front of his bakery running and sniffing his delicious sweets, to change things and making him feel emotions and feelings he thought he could no longer feel, pushing him in a new direction.
I must admit it: I have a soft spot for men who can cook, I don’t know why but in my imagination they’re really hot: Sean the baker Vs a billionaire businessman? It’s not even a question for me.
That said, Sean’s work aside, I loved him as a character, he’s charming, his feelings are deep, intense, make him very human, vulnerable. He isn’t perfect, he doesn’t pretend to be, he’s afraid of making mistakes that could hurt Jessica but at the same time he's unable to give up on her.
They learn to know each other, trying to find out where this tagle of need, emotions and sensations could to bring them.
I loved also Jessica right away, she's smart, funny, independent and strong willed. Like all of us she has iher weaknesses and doesn’t like to show them, but with Sean the wall she has created around her, little by little crumbles. What did I love the most in her? How she loves and accepts the real Sean for his strengths and weaknesses, without being conditioned by others and because of she is willing to be there for him, by his side in the time of need.
I liked it very much them as a couple.“The Baker’s Beauty” is romantic, funny, full of passion and very very real.
I fell in love with the atmosphere I found reading the books in this series, the setting in River Hill and the characters are built with so much care, I feel like I almost know them, see them sitting together talking, joking. It's a good feeling, and that's what makes the difference for me when I read a book: feeling part of the story, getting angry at something because it’s characters’ mess or sometimes being fascinated by their charisma.
December 18, 2018
Unfortunately didn't love this one as much as the other 2 books in the serious. I did love the potential of what Sean and Jess could be. I just didn't get enough of either character, or enough depth to understand their relationship. Both held back, had insecurities and neither seemed all in until suddenly they just....were. Odd. Not enough sustance, too must apphension and general overall unease about themselves, each other and their respective futures. Also this book seriously needed an epilogue. And it has one, but it's held captive in exchange for your email and subscription to the author's newsletter. Sigh...I signed up to see if hopefully there's something to make me believe in this couple. Unfortunately no epilogue has been sent so far and I feel like I'm stuck in limbo.
February 9, 2019
I really enjoyed reading this story about Sean and Jessica. It was a delightfully good book and I loved the bakery scenes. I thought the romance was realistic - both of the characters had a lot of issues in which they needed to address.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews