SECRET RECIPE: A REDFORD FALLS STORY by Darlene Fredette
Fiction, Contemporary Romance, #4 in series
4****
Blurb: She has one last hope – a small, family-run bakery that might just be baking up second chances. Dwindling finances has Jesse Robinson running out of options. With a past filled with failures, she longs for a new beginning. Applying for a job she isn’t qualified for may be another crazy mistake, but at this point Jesse has nothing to lose. Juggling two jobs, Travis Cooper has absolutely no time for a relationship and isn’t looking for one. But when his mother hires an unqualified baker, he has more to worry about than three-tiered wedding cakes. Like whether to break his own no-dating-employees rule and make a little room in his life for love.
THOUGHTS: This was a different kind of romance story – oh, not in the general sense. We still have boy meets girl, loses girl, gets girl back for a HEA ending. But the characters. Or at least the heroine – and her past. Jess Robinson has moved to Redford falls and lives in a tiny apartment where she’s a month behind on her rent, drives a rusted car that breaks down quite regularly, and is broke and looking for a job. Most places won’t hire her because of her father—Slick Vic—who is in prison for murder. Her father raised her to be a conman (woman) and she was quite good when she was a kid. But she wants desperately to put that past behind her. Unfortunately, fate has other ideas.
Even though she knows nothing about baking, Jess stops in at a bakery that is looking to hire help. The woman who owns the place gives her a test—and Jess passes it (blueberry muffins). Jess discovers that she loves the job, not as a baker, but out front with the customers. Then her father calls her and needs her to do something for him. If she doesn’t he’s in trouble, even in jail. And it has to do with the bakery.
Meanwhile, the owner’s son, Travis, is leery of the new hire. Yes, she’s beautiful and smart, and good with the customers, but there’s something about her…
I loved the tie-ins with the other stories in the series, especially when the rabbit shows up at the moment Jess goes into the bakery (you have to read the other stories to understand why this is important). I love the way Travis’ mother Heather handles everything with a touch of mysticism. This is a sweet romance with a touch of suspense and a HEA that satisfies.
Enjoy!
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