A Recipe for Reunion by Vicki Essex
Released: March 3, 2015
Contemporary Romance
Harlequin
Reviewed by Mandi
This is the first I’ve read of Vicki Essex and I like her voice. Stephanie grew up wealthy and was always popular in school, even if she didn’t get good grades. She actually was short one credit and never graduated high school. After all her friends moved on and went to college and got jobs, Stephanie felt a little lost still being pampered at home. So she decides to grow up and get her own apartment. She finds fulfillment in her town’s local bakery. Earning the trust of the elderly woman ‘gran’ that owns the bakery, Stephanie proves she can use gran’s secret recipes and make delicious baked goods just as good as gran can. Stephanie finally finds herself happy.
Aaron is gran’s grandson and went to school with Stephanie. He lusted after her in high school, but was geeky and a little intense and he remembers not so great times those four years. After graduating from Harvard, Aaron starts working as a lawyer. Gran raised him when his parents died in a car accident, so when gran has a small stroke, he picks up his life and moves back to his hometown to help gran recover. He decides to turn the dining room portion of gran’s bakery into a bookstore, and then he realizes Stephanie works there. All the bad memories from high school come rushing back.
Forced to work together, Aaron is quite rude to Stephanie when they first reunite – but I kind of liked it. As the reader, you don’t know the specifics of what happened in high school to make Aaron moody and grumpy around Stephanie, but he has a sharp tongue and isn’t afraid to use it. Both Aaron and Stephanie feel protective over gran and the bakery – so they butt heads a lot in the beginning fighting over how things should be done. I felt like this all felt – realistic. This author never tried to sugar coat her character’s behavior. Aaron is kind of a jerk – he is a good guy, starting his life over to help his grandmother, but he is a jerk to Stephanie. He realizes it and tries to make amends and I like how it all plays out.
Stephanie has an undiagnosed learning disability. She has trouble thinking of the right words to say, she has trouble spelling, and she has trouble balancing the cash register till. Aaron quickly picks up on these things and he also quickly realizes how defensive Stephanie can be if he mentions anything about her troubles. It’s truly a struggle for her and something she is embarrassed about but she also has parents who coo over her and have never told her a bad thing in her life. She is caught between wanting to be independent and free of being coddled, but also not quite ready to accept all her faults. I really enjoyed her.
The ending seemed a little rushed to me. I wish we would have had just a little longer with Aaron and Stephanie together – I believe in their HEA but it tumbles quickly to the end. Overall a nice read.
Rating: B
I love the nerd/cheerleader trope, but I had no sympathy for the heroine. She read like a petulant, entitled 12yo diva. I get what she said she wanted, but I didn’t feel like we saw enough of how she was going about getting it. I blame the rushed ending. It felt like a third of the story was just filler and when the story actually gets going, boom! HEA.
It definitely could have had a slower ending.