The Candy Apple Café - Donna Ashcroft

 Falling in love can be sweet and spicy… 🍏 🍭🌶️🍏 🍭🌶️ A fun-loving baking queen with a heart of gold. Her gruff neighbour. A tiny Scottish town. Is this a recipe for love – or disaster? This is the utterly unputdownable spicy Autumn romance you’ve been waiting for! Seasonal spice + hot Scotsman = 🧡 🔥🌶️ When Izzi pulls up in her battered old car outside The Candy Apple Café, she takes a deep breath and channels her trademark optimism. She’s run away to Honey Haven to escape the mess her life is in right now. Only, she hasn’t bargained on a handsome, broad-shouldered Scotsman appearing out of nowhere and grilling her on why she’s parked there… it turns out the baking work she has lined up is in his gran’s café and he’s her new landlord… Cameron is immediately rubbed up the wrong way by Izzi’s upbeat vibes and yet, his eyes keep meeting hers across his gran’s cake display at The Candy Apple Café. Cameron’s heart beats a little faster every time she looks up at him through those long, dark lashes and there are only so many times Izzi can pretend she hasn’t noticed the way he towers over her, his dark brooding eyes failing to avoid hers… Then Izzi and Cameron find themselves thrown together to organise the town’s Autumn festival. Planning a spectacular cinnamon-scented event as a surprise his gran, they find themselves pressed up against each other as they work to turn a crumbling castle into the perfect haunted house filled with sweet treats… But he’s closed off his heart. And she’s only meant to be in town for a few weeks. Will the heat between grumpy Cameron and sunny Izzi dial up a notch? Or will their relationship turn as chilly as the Autumn air in Honey Haven? Snuggle up with a steamy hot drink and bed down with this spicy romance, filled with grumpy sunshine vibes and a dreamy HEA. Perfect for fans of Laurie Gilmore, Harper Graham, and Gilmore Girls! 🍏 🍭🌶️🍏 🍭🌶️ Tropes: Grumpy x Sunshine Small town Found family Spicy What readers are saying about The Candy Apple Café: ‘Packed with warmth, cinnamon, sugary treats and autumnal vibes!… A lovely cosy read that has me excited for October days celebrating halloween and drinking chai… Grumpy x sunshine was the icing on the cake! 🍄’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Each page makes you feel like you are walking amongst the cool Fall weather and can smell the delicious aromas coming out of Candy Apple Café!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Had me craving hot chocolate, pumpkin spice treats, and cosy evenings wrapped up with a good book… I had to stop myself from heading to the shop for snacks!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Hooked!… A twist that I did not expect. I could not put the book down and I finished in a day’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I absolutely adored this book! The nostalgic feel was incredible and I absolutely love the fall vibes. If a book has fall vibes, I’m here for it!… I cannot wait to read it again for book club!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Had me reading until the early hours, on my way to work, on my lunch break and on my way home… A page turner… I didn’t want to stop reading’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Pure comfort reading, wrapped up in cinnamon and small-town charm’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved this book!!… I wish Honey Haven were a real place!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Addictive, cozy, heartwarming small-town romance’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved the community of Honey Haven; rather wish I could live there!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved it! Totally here for the drama 🤐😍’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Falling in love can be sweet and spicy… 🍏 🍭🌶️🍏 🍭🌶️ A fun-loving baking queen with a heart of gold. Her gruff neighbour. A tiny Scottish town. Is this a recipe for love – or disaster? This is the utterly unputdownable spicy Autumn romance you’ve been waiting for! Seasonal spice + hot Scotsman = 🧡 🔥🌶️ When Izzi pulls up in her battered old car outside The Candy Apple Café, she takes a deep breath and channels her trademark optimism. She’s run away to Honey Haven to escape the mess her life is in right now. Only, she hasn’t bargained on a handsome, broad-shouldered Scotsman appearing out of nowhere and grilling her on why she’s parked there… it turns out the baking work she has lined up is in his gran’s café and he’s her new landlord… Cameron is immediately rubbed up the wrong way by Izzi’s upbeat vibes and yet, his eyes keep meeting hers across his gran’s cake display at The Candy Apple Café. Cameron’s heart beats a little faster every time she looks up at him through those long, dark lashes and there are only so many times Izzi can pretend she hasn’t noticed the way he towers over her, his dark brooding eyes failing to avoid hers… Then Izzi and Cameron find themselves thrown together to organise the town’s Autumn festival. Planning a spectacular cinnamon-scented event as a surprise his gran, they find themselves pressed up against each other as they work to turn a crumbling castle into the perfect haunted house filled with sweet treats… But he’s closed off his heart. And she’s only meant to be in town for a few weeks. Will the heat between grumpy Cameron and sunny Izzi dial up a notch? Or will their relationship turn as chilly as the Autumn air in Honey Haven? Snuggle up with a steamy hot drink and bed down with this spicy romance, filled with grumpy sunshine vibes and a dreamy HEA. Perfect for fans of Laurie Gilmore, Harper Graham, and Gilmore Girls! 🍏 🍭🌶️🍏 🍭🌶️ Tropes: Grumpy x Sunshine Small town Found family Spicy What readers are saying about The Candy Apple Café: ‘Packed with warmth, cinnamon, sugary treats and autumnal vibes!… A lovely cosy read that has me excited for October days celebrating halloween and drinking chai… Grumpy x sunshine was the icing on the cake! 🍄’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Each page makes you feel like you are walking amongst the cool Fall weather and can smell the delicious aromas coming out of Candy Apple Café!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Had me craving hot chocolate, pumpkin spice treats, and cosy evenings wrapped up with a good book… I had to stop myself from heading to the shop for snacks!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Hooked!… A twist that I did not expect. I could not put the book down and I finished in a day’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I absolutely adored this book! The nostalgic feel was incredible and I absolutely love the fall vibes. If a book has fall vibes, I’m here for it!… I cannot wait to read it again for book club!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Had me reading until the early hours, on my way to work, on my lunch break and on my way home… A page turner… I didn’t want to stop reading’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Pure comfort reading, wrapped up in cinnamon and small-town charm’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved this book!!… I wish Honey Haven were a real place!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Addictive, cozy, heartwarming small-town romance’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved the community of Honey Haven; rather wish I could live there!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved it! Totally here for the drama 🤐😍’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Donna Ashcroft

Donna has had sixteen books published in total. Four have been in the Amazon top 100 and one even made it to number seven in the UK and US Kindle charts, another made it to number one in the UK, US and AU free Kindle charts. She was also shortlisted for the RNA Debut Romantic Novel of the Year in 2019.

She lives in Hertfordshire, with her own romantic hero, two grown up kids who pop in occasionally and two grumpy cats. She loves a happy ending and is never happier than when she’s escaping into a romance novel or movie.

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• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17793043.Donna_Ashcroft

Revenge Puck - Sara Ney

 

When I catch my girl with my hockey teammate and best friend—scratch that, ex-best friend—I’m done playing nice.

Declan betrayed me. But I have the perfect way to get even: his sister.

Juliette is sweet, bookish, gorgeous… and completely off-limits.

Fake dating her should be easy. A little wining and dining, a little harmless flirting, and I’ll get revenge on the guy who wrecked my life.

But Juliette throws me completely off my game.

Beneath her button-up shirts and wide eyes is the sexiest and most fascinating woman I’ve ever met. All good-girl by day, lacy underwear by night.

She sees right through my bad attitude… and somehow likes me anyway.

Suddenly the one thing worse than losing my best friend, would be losing her.

I’m desperate for revenge. But hurting Juliette? That’s a penalty I just can’t take…

My Review

This is one of those books that you just can't help but 'greedy read'. I only started it yesterday, and by this morning I'd already got to the end. I loved the relationship between Aaron and Juliet. They seemed so good for one another, even though they are complete opposites. I didn't even mind the way they got together; obviously, it was all going to blow up in Aaron's face at some point, but he comes to realise how he feels about Juliet pretty quickly.

Having said all of that, this wasn't a perfect read. There were a few things that were introduced as though they might be a key plot point and then never mentioned again. Why did Bailey cheat on Aaron? What did Declan know that led to it all? Perhaps some of that will come out in the next book, because that features Declan and he's really going to have to do something special, as at this stage he's pretty unlikeable.

What really stopped this book from getting another star was the end. It seemed incredibly rushed, and although I could see we were heading towards a conclusion, the ending was sudden and didn't give you that nice tie-up of everything that you usually expect at the end of a romance like this. It's a bit of a shame, but I still really enjoyed the book overall.