#CBR12 Books 13-15: "The Redhead trilogy" by Alice Clayton

Combined page count: 960 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Grace Sheridan is 33. She's an aspiring actress who completely failed to make any kind of impression her first go-around in Hollywood. After a few years away from the limelight, when she went a bit reclusive and gained far too much weight, she's now healthy and happy and back in Los Angeles, temporarily living with her BFF Holly, who also happens to be a very successful talent agent, while waiting for her new house to be redone. Grace isn't really looking to date anyone, but when she meets Jack Sheridan, she's very quickly swept off her feet.

Jack Sheridan is 24 and very likely to become a massive movie star once the time travel adventure movie based on a series of sexy romance short stories is released. Jack plays the Super Sexy Scientist Guy who travels through time, romancing women in each time period and the movie is one of the most anticipated properties in Hollywood. He's tall, gorgeous, smart, funny, has an incredible English accent and already a considerable fan base. He's instantly smitten with Grace and determined that they have a 'tryst', but no matter how off the charts the chemistry between Grace and him is, publicity-wise, it would be best if Super Sexy Scientist Guy remains single and available in the eyes of his adoring public. Dating a woman nearly a decade older than him would certainly not be advisable. Any romancing would, therefore, have to take place away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi and celebrity journalists.

I'm reviewing this trilogy of contemporary romances as one because I'm not entirely sure I agree that there is enough story or character development to have these extended into three whole books. There is maximum two books worth of story here, probably more like one and a half. The rest is sex scenes. So many sex scenes. By the middle of the second book, I was skimming these scenes, because they were all much of a muchness and really didn't add anything to the further development between the characters. If Alice Clayton had cut about 80% of the extensive and after a while, really rather repetitive sex scenes, and streamlined a bit more of the rest of the plot (there didn't exactly need to be quite so much behind the scenes in show business stuff), this could easily have been one or two books, which would still be a lot more steamy than your regular contemporary romance.

I'm also reviewing the whole trilogy as one because it's now been about a month and a half since I finished the books, and I no longer remember which events happened in which books, they all blur together into one big whole.

What I liked about the books:
- Grace is a fun heroine. She doesn't really want to become huge and she certainly doesn't want to be a favoured target of the paparazzi and gossip press. Once it becomes clear that she and Jack are actually an item, she faces all sorts of crap because of her age (clearly at past thirty she's nearly a crone), her general looks and especially her body size. I liked that after a certain point, Grace refused to give in to the pressure and stood up to the body shamers publically.
- I liked the friendships Grace has. She's extremely close with her agent, and later also becomes close with an old college friend, who writes the off-Broadway production that brings Grace a relative level of fame once it gets picked up as a TV show.
- A lot of the early romance between Grace and Jack is very sweet.

What I didn't like so much:
- I've already mentioned that the books are way too long and feature a frankly ridiculous amount of love scenes. There's not enough plot to sustain three whole books, and padding them out with chapter upon chapter of smexy times doesn't good storytelling make.
- The love triangle that is introduced between Grace, Jack and Grace's old college friend, who she once had a massive crush on.
- Grace's crazy insecurities ruining Jack's opening night and the drama both leading up to and following on from that event.
- The whole storyline where Jack's fame goes to his head and he goes off the rails, drinking and partying and being led astray by douche-canoes. It goes on for too long, and I did not feel Jack necessarily groveled enough to get Grace's forgiveness. It's not a very good romance when I feel the heroine may be better off with someone else.

These books were a fun read, but I had to skim a lot more of books two and three than I entirely liked. Alice Clayton's Hudson Valley series feature books that are a lot better paced.

Judging the books by its cover: The covers are quite cute, with the pretty, redheaded cover model partially visible in each of them. They convey a playful tone, which fits well with the books. The plain, white backgrounds of books 1 and 2 could have been more exciting, though.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR10 Book 16: "Buns" by Alice Clayton

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Clara Morgan is legendary in the hospitality business for her ability to turn around pretty much any struggling hotel or guest house. When she's not busy rebranding hotels, she runs marathons and other endurance races. What she rarely, if ever, does is stay in one place for very long. She has an apartment in Manhattan, but travels both domestically and abroad so often that she hardly ever has time to spend there. She never puts down roots anywhere and is careful not to get herself too attached to anyone or anything. Her childhood growing up in the foster care system, being handed from family to family taught her that that's a recipe for disaster. While her friends are all finding partners and getting settled, establishing relationships and traditions of their own, Clara is perfectly happy focusing on her career. Or is she?

Clara's current assignment could lead to her becoming partner, if she pulls it off successfully. The prestigious Bryant Mountain House in Hudson Valley is in desperate need of a face-lift and makeover and Clara is just the woman for the job. She just needs to convince Archie Bryant, fifth generation Bryant and soon to be current owner and manager (when his father retires shortly) that while the hotel is a gem, they're spending far too much money keeping up traditions that no one is very interested in and that they'll be going out of business if they don't renew and update and attract new customers. Archie's not going to give up on a hundred and fifty years of tradition and doesn't want social media stars in his family's hotel anyway. However, he doesn't want to lose his family business altogether either and if that means taking some advice from Ms. Morgan - he may just have to swallow his pride and accept the help.

Buns is the concluding volume in Alice Clayton's Hudson Valley series and features a lot of things that are normally total catnip for me. You have the "enemies to lovers" plot trope - Clara and Archie pretty much hate each other on sight and keep arguing vehemently, until they basically can't keep their hands off one another. There's the "competence porn" aspect - with both Clara and Archie being consummate professionals, very good at their jobs. There's a section where one of the couple nurses the other one back to health (I have no idea why this is a trope that works for me, it just does) There's the larger supporting cast of these novels, the inhabitants of the little town of Bailey Falls and the couples from the previous two novels, all of whom I like - and yet, the book failed to entirely wow me.

While Clara is extremely good at her job, and her reluctance to establish roots and crippling fear of abandonment due to her childhood seems perfectly natural, I never entirely understood why her two very supportive friends, who really seem to know the extent to how bad it was for her growing up, never convinced her to see a therapist. As it's obvious that Clara is deeply private and rarely shares the extent to her lonely and sad childhood with people, I can see why her boss or colleagues never mention it to her - but Roxie and Natalie, her two besties, and heroines of the previous two novels in the series, really should have done her a solid and insisted she get some professional help to process her traumas. This would have been a very different book if that were the case.

Archie's fine, if a bit stuffy and set in his ways. A widower for some years, he has issues of his own to work through, having been with only one other woman, who he'd known since childhood, before meeting and falling for Clara. In a lot of romances, the complications are due to faults of both sides of the couple, but here it's pretty much all on Clara when the relationship falters in the third section of the novel and it's pretty much all due to her crippling fear of abandonment. There's the requisite grand gesture towards the end where she wants to prove her love to Archie, and will say it was pretty spectacular.

With the four books I've read by her so far, Alice Clayton continues to be one of those authors who's books are perfectly fine, but nothing extraordinary and where I struggle to entirely remember the plot a week or two after finishing the novel. Not bad by any means, but she continues to be on my "buy on sale" list and won't graduate any higher based on this book.

Judging a book by its cover: This is another example of the cover designer clearly just having been given a vague idea of the contents of the book. There's a shirtless guy and buns in both the literal and metaphorical sense. See what they did there? Yet the model looks nothing like Archie is described (also, I'm unsure if he ever actually wears jeans over the course of the novel), and the baked goods in question that are mentioned at several points are hot cross buns, not at all what we're seeing in the forefront on this cover. How hard is it to get these little details right, people?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR10 Book 12: "Cream of the Crop" by Alice Clayton

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Natalie Grayson is tall, curvy and confident. She knows that while she may be a bit bigger than a lot of women out there, most men are incredibly attracted both by curves and self-assurance and she can usually walk into a room and hook up with anyone who strikes her fancy. She's got a loving family, an extravagant wardrobe, a bustling social life and a great career as a PR guru. The only thing that makes her even vaguely flustered is her weekly visit to the Union Square farmers market, where she gets her favourite cheese every week, and the owner of Bailey Falls Creamery makes her (and countless others) weak at the knees. Normally, Natalie can wrap any man around her little finger, but around the handsome cheese-maker, she is reduced to palm-sweat and monosyllabic answers.

So when her company is asked to help promote the little town of Bailey Falls to new visitors, Natalie jumps at the chance. One of her best friends, Roxie, is already settled there with her handsome farmer boyfriend and can't wait to formerly introduce her to Oscar Mendoza, the handsome dairy owner who Natalie is crushing so hard on. While their first encounter is a bit awkward, it becomes obvious that Natalie's attraction is entirely mutual, and Oscar wouldn't mind getting to know her better at all. It's not only Oscar's charms (and smoking hot body) that appeal to Natalie. She's thoroughly taken with the small town idyll of Bailey Falls and it's many friendly (and attractive) residents as well. Normally reluctant to leave Manhattan for more than a day, she now finds herself visiting the little Hudson Valley multiple weekends in a row, and not just to sample all the treats that Oscar has to offer. Natalie is very much a city person, however, and Oscar is most certainly a country lad. Can they find a lasting compromise which enables them both to be happy?

I didn't really think that this book had the same emotional depth to it as Nuts,the first book in the series, but it was a quick and enjoyable read. While Natalie is confident, body-positive and bubbly in the present, that wasn't always the case. Falling for a manipulative jerk when she was younger, who slowly but surely isolated her from her family and friends and made her feel awful about herself, she has determined never to let herself be that swayed by a guy again. She's financially independent, she flirts with guys but never really let's it get too serious and she goes to brunch at her parents' flat every Sunday, come rain or shine, because she never wants to fall out with them again. Hence, when her feelings for Oscar start getting serious, she's not sure how to handle it, as she's afraid to "lose herself" to a guy once more.

Another slight complication to Oscar and Natalie's relationship is Oscar's friendship with his ex-wife, who lives in the next town over from Bailey Falls. They knew each other growing up, got married after high school and while their marriage didn't work out, Oscar doesn't understand why he can't be on good terms with her. He helps her out around the house when something is broken, she bakes him delicious treats as a thank you. He doesn't see how this in any way should complicate or get in the way of his new, budding relationship with Natalie, but she's thrown by it more than once (and is met with sympathy and understanding by several of her new Bailey Falls friends - cause it is a bit weird, and they can see why she might feel threatened). Natalie works to get past her jealousy, but it takes a while.

My favourite thing about the Hudson Valley books is probably not even the central romances, but the supporting characters and the setting of Bailey Falls, which really does seem utterly charming. Oscar and Natalie are a fun couple, and it was nice to see Roxie and Leo (as well as his serious young daughter, who has gotten a swear jar in this book, and is well on her way to making a fortune) again as supporting characters. Roxie's high school crush, Chad, the former quarterback and his husband are probably my favourites, though, and I'm sort of sorry I never got to read their initial romance. There is one more book in the series, featuring Roxie and Natalie's third friend, Clara. I'm going to check that book out next.

Judging a book by its cover: It's quite clear that whoever was told to design the cover, hasn't had a chance to read any of the book, as while the dude pouring milk is nicely tan and sculpted, he looks nothing like the description of Oscar, who should have tattoos all over his arms and chest, and with his past as a football player seems like he's a lot more brawny than the dude they've chosen for this cover. According to the author's website, her metal image of him is Jason Momoa. This cover model is NO Jason Momoa. Also, it would have been cooler if they included some cheese on the cover, as Oscar makes his own, but that works less well with the title pun, I guess.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR8 Book 127: "Nuts" by Alice Clayton

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Wanting to prove to herself that she can manage on her own, Roxie Callahan moved all the way across the country, away from her somewhat flakey, alternative diner-managing mother and her constant string of usually unhappy infatuations. Roxie has put herself through culinary school and is working hard to establish herself as a private chef to wealthy Hollywood wives. But when a moment of distraction means she screws up with a very important client, it seems as if most of her client base are happy to drop her like the proverbial hot potato. So when her mother calls her and begs her to run the family diner for the summer, while her mother and aunt go off around the world, competing in "The Amazing Race", Roxie doesn't really have a lot of alternatives and returns to the little town in upstate New York where she always felt like a bit of an outcast.

Roxie is determined that she's only staying around for the summer, but finds that there are many positive changes to the place she grew up. The quarterback she had a massive crush on is still handsome as ever, but has moved back to town with his equally attractive husband. The two happily take Roxie under their wing and do whatever they can to throw her in the path of local farmer Leo Maxwell, whose farming co-operative is supplying the town and surrounding areas with fresh fruits, berries, vegetables and produce. It's clear that Roxie's interest in the smoking hot Leo is very much reciprocated, and a scorching summer fling would absolutely make her days running the diner into less of a chore. Leo is clearly quite happily settled in town, though. What happens when the summer is over, and Roxie is going to return to LA?

I've only read one previous romance by Alice Clayton, the first book in her Cocktail series, Wallbanger. It was amusing enough, if a bit long overall and there was a drawn-out love scene involving way too many foodstuffs and dirtying of kitchen surfaces to my taste. This book is the first in her new contemporary romance series, entitled Hudson Valley, inspired by the sustainable food movement, organic farming, slow foods and the recent trend in local farming and wanting to know where your food comes from. The hero is a Manhattan playboy turned hipster farmer and the heroine is the local girl who returns to her hometown to discover that the things she's been running from for years might not be so bad after all.

Raised by a hippy dippy single mother who took over the local diner, and witness to her mother's many dramatic love affairs, Roxie has always had to be the practical, pragmatic one, who made sure the bills were paid and their little family could actually make ends meet, even when her mother was in one of her heartbroken periods. Always fascinated by gourmet cooking, she never really fit in among her peers and only found happiness when she went to culinary school far away, on the other side of the country. Making a living by herself in Los Angeles is incredibly hard, however, and when most of her revenue stream dries up because of one unfortunate cooking mishap, she's left with no options but to return home to run the family diner for a summer.

The local land surrounding the town has been owned by the wealthy Maxwell family for generations, but Roxie is surprised to discover that there is now a large and prosperous farming cooperative being run there, by none other than one of the sons of the Maxwell family. Maxwell Farms, apparently based on the Stone Barns Educational Centre in upstate New York is much more to Leo's taste than taking up the family legacy of big business banking. It's clear that every single woman in town has her eyes set on Leo, but according to Chad Bowman, Roxie's former quarterback classmate and new bestie in Bailey Falls, he's not shown any interest in anyone for years. Until Roxie shows up, that is.

Always careful to never get emotionally entangled in her hook-ups, having seen her mother crash and burn romantically too many times, Roxie makes it very clear to Leo that she's only there for a few months and that theirs will be a purely physical relationship. He seems more than happy to agree, and soon the two of them share more than one steamy evening together. As the summer progresses, Roxie discovers that keeping things completely casual with Leo may be harder than she thought, especially after she discovers some of the things the rest of the town apparently knew about his past, that she, the summer fling, has been unaware of.

After finishing The Count of Monte Cristo, I really wasn't up for reading anything long, complicated or demanding, meaning I pretty much settled for romances in December. This is the second one I read, and it was a lot more satisfying on all levels than Managed. By no means perfect, I liked the setting of Bailey Falls, two protagonists who are both very good at what they do and passionate about it, while bantering amusingly and sharing some believable chemistry on the page. Frequently in these stories, the element thrown in about two thirds of the way through, meant to cause complications for our lovers before everything is resolved to the reader's satisfaction can feel contrived and be quite annoying. I thought the elements of Leo's past that were introduced were well-done, and the complications came more from Roxie's insistence on emotional distance than from his having kept secrets.

The supporting cast, Chad Bowman and his husband, Roxie's mother, some of the colourful townsfolk, as well as Roxie's BFFs in New York, who are clearly being set up as the heroines of the next two books of the series, were also fun to read about. I don't mind sequel-bait if it's done well enough, and since the next hero is large, taciturn brooding dairy farmer neighbour (apparently Clayton's mental image of him is Jason Momoa - I can work with that!), I will probably be checking out the sequel early in the new year.

Judging a book by its cover: Ah, abs. ridiculously sculpted and toned muscles. and some walnuts, just so you understand that the title isn't just a rude pun, but sure, you're supposed to think that too. Since both Leo's ridiculously toned body and his food produce play important parts in the book, I suppose the cover is strangely fitting.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR5 Book 111. "Wallbanger" by Alice Clayton

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Caroline has many things to be happy about. She's got good friends, a devoted cat, a job she enjoys, a very nice Kitchen Aid mixer and a beautiful new San Francisco apartment. What is missing from her life, and has been missing for over six months, since a particularly disastrous date, is the big O. To make matters worse, the main flaw in her otherwise lovely apartment seems to be that the walls between her bedroom and that of the one next door, are very thin. And her neighbour has a very active, frequent and loud sex life with at least three different women (all of whom Caroline gives snarky nicknames). She keeps losing sleep, and one night, in a fit of frustration, pounds on the wallbanger's door (forgetting that she's clad only in a skimpy nightie) and demands he keep it down. Simon, as the wallbanger is actually called, answers the door wrapped only in a sheet, and seems very amused by the whole situation.

Caroline and Simon start out fairly antagonistic to one another, but when his two closest friends start going out with Caroline's two besties, they are naturally thrown together more often than not. They start out with a tentative truce, which turns into friendship, which eventually seems to blossom into something more. Will Clive the cat ever be united with his one true love, the woman who mieows through Caroline's walls intermittently?Will Caroline ever recover her lost O? Will Simon be able to give up his little harem of women and settle for just one woman?

This is a book that popped up in my recommendations on Amazon, and Goodreads, and which I completely discounted because of both the title and cover, which didn't really appeal to me at all. Only after reading rave reviews of it on a number of romance review sites that I follow and trust, did I decide to give it a chance, and I'm so glad that I did. It's a funny and frothy contemporary romance very much in the style of Jennifer Crusie at her best. The confident and very uncomplicated heroine who loves baking seemed taken straight out of one of her books. She's happy with her life, her friends and her job. I did get a little tired of just how much she obsessed about her missing O (really, this is a very central feature in the first third of the book), but in her position, I'd probably be pretty frantic, myself.

Simon is a great hero. He's not ashamed of his sex drive, or his multiple partners, all of whom are aware that he's not seeing them exclusively, and all of whom are vastly different women, in personality and body type. He travels the world in his job as a photographer, and clearly isn't happy with the idea of being tied down to one person or one place for too long. The secondary cast of friends and employers is also very well done, creating a very believable support network for both characters. The romance between Simon and Caroline isn't instantaneous, and even after they admit their attraction towards one another, without obstacles. It felt like a fairly realistic way for a relationship to develop, and I just wish that the climax, so to speak, of all the tension in their romance hadn't played out quite the way it did.

MINOR SPOILER!

I'm by no means I very obsessively clean person, but the mess the two make out of Caroline's kitchen, had me cringing and took me completely out of the book. I don't think smexy times and food should mix, and I certainly couldn't be passionately seduced if there was flour and honey and other sticky substances all over myself, my partner and my kitchen. *shudder*

SPOILER ENDED.

Caroline's somewhat long-winded whining about her missing O in the first part of the novel, and the somewhat messy romantic reconciliation of the couple aside, I really did enjoy this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone who'd like a fun and quick read. It also made me want to learn to make zucchini bread (which Caroline bakes more than once) and re-visit Spain (where parts of the novel take place). None of those are bad things, though. Highly recommended, especially for Crusie fans.