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A review by abrasrose
Nuts by Alice Clayton
3.0
I received a copy of this book at the Romance Times Booklover's convention.
First off, I'm giving this book a very charitable three stars. It barely qualifies.
Nuts is the story of Roxie, a private chef, whose mother is going on The Amazing Race and wants Roxie to take over the family diner. Roxie doesn't want to do it, but she's just (unfairly) lost most of her clients so she goes back to her hometown. Roxie left it at 18 to go to culinary school and has lived in Los Angeles ever since. Almost immediately after her arrival she meets Logan, a super hot local organic farmer. I swear, if there's any aspect of the organic, non-gmo, clean eating, slow food, natural food movement that Logan isn't involved with I'll be very surprised. His house is probably packed full of mason jars. Despite never dating, Logan immediately shows his interest in Roxie. He's impossibly perfect and as a secondary benefit, filthy rich. I thought his perfection was pretty boring. Roxie is ok. She's amazingly sure of herself and has a quick comeback or suggestive comment for any situation. There is a fairly big plot hole at the end, which may or may not bother other readers. I was annoyed.
This is a very familiar story. Girl who left small town has to go back because of family emergency. Her family runs a diner she now has to run/work at. There is the crusty guy running the grill. She goes against her mother's advice and revamps the menu. Everyone loves the new food and start buying her baked goods (they always bake). The local hottie immediately falls for her so there's plenty of summer left for the romance. There are mean girls and there's a precocious seven year old. The only thing I can think of that's missing is the grandma. There's usually a grandma.
Nuts had many, many boring passages listing all the ingredients and techniques used in each meal, which is ok for one thing, but Roxie's meals tend to have more than one dish. About two thirds of the way I started skimming those passages and the book improved considerably. Ms. Clayton also over-introduced a few of the characters. After trying for a while, I eventually skipped pages of description of minor characters. I'm guessing Roxie's friends will have their own books so if you read them I'm sure any info you need will be recapped there.
For me, a familiar story - frequent boring passages = a very low three star rating.
First off, I'm giving this book a very charitable three stars. It barely qualifies.
Nuts is the story of Roxie, a private chef, whose mother is going on The Amazing Race and wants Roxie to take over the family diner. Roxie doesn't want to do it, but she's just (unfairly) lost most of her clients so she goes back to her hometown. Roxie left it at 18 to go to culinary school and has lived in Los Angeles ever since. Almost immediately after her arrival she meets Logan, a super hot local organic farmer. I swear, if there's any aspect of the organic, non-gmo, clean eating, slow food, natural food movement that Logan isn't involved with I'll be very surprised. His house is probably packed full of mason jars. Despite never dating, Logan immediately shows his interest in Roxie. He's impossibly perfect and as a secondary benefit, filthy rich. I thought his perfection was pretty boring. Roxie is ok. She's amazingly sure of herself and has a quick comeback or suggestive comment for any situation. There is a fairly big plot hole at the end, which may or may not bother other readers. I was annoyed.
Spoiler
Logan has a little girl and keeps her existence secret from Roxie. Now, the entire town loves this little girl and yet no one ever asks Logan about her in Roxie's hearing. They never mention her or ask Roxie if she's met her yet. Logan and Roxie's relationship isn't a secret so it makes no sense that no one would mention the daughter.This is a very familiar story. Girl who left small town has to go back because of family emergency. Her family runs a diner she now has to run/work at. There is the crusty guy running the grill. She goes against her mother's advice and revamps the menu. Everyone loves the new food and start buying her baked goods (they always bake). The local hottie immediately falls for her so there's plenty of summer left for the romance. There are mean girls and there's a precocious seven year old. The only thing I can think of that's missing is the grandma. There's usually a grandma.
Nuts had many, many boring passages listing all the ingredients and techniques used in each meal, which is ok for one thing, but Roxie's meals tend to have more than one dish. About two thirds of the way I started skimming those passages and the book improved considerably. Ms. Clayton also over-introduced a few of the characters. After trying for a while, I eventually skipped pages of description of minor characters. I'm guessing Roxie's friends will have their own books so if you read them I'm sure any info you need will be recapped there.
For me, a familiar story - frequent boring passages = a very low three star rating.