Friday, May 12, 2023

Tough Cookie by Talia Hunter [Review]


Tough Cookie (Donner Bakery #3) by Talia Hunter
Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: April 9, 2023

Donner Bakery
1. No Whisk No Reward
2. Dough You Love Me?
3. Tough Cookie - Paperback | Kindle
4. Muffin But Trouble

Talia Hunter
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):
Noah Malone is back in his hometown for a short break from his stunt work, but his mother’s set on convincing him to settle down in Green Valley so he can give her grandbabies like the good Lord intended. Not only is she pushing him to help out at the Donner Bakery decorating cookies, but her matchmaking is relentless.

To end his mother’s awkward set-ups, Noah needs a no-strings-attached pretend girlfriend. And who better than Carla, a mysterious recluse who seems to have taken an instant dislike to him? When she reveals she’s been isolated by illness, he proposes a fake relationship that’ll stop his momma’s shenanigans and help Carla ease back into the world.

Tech-geek Carla creates a spreadsheet of fake-date challenges. She’s serious and focused on her goal of slowly becoming more social… until daredevil Noah starts messing with her spreadsheet. He’s ridiculously charming, and his sexy additions may be even more appealing than the cookies he brings her, but Carla won’t let her resistance crumble.

Opposites may attract, but can such different people find a recipe for love?

‘Tough Cookie’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the Donner Bakery series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.
Thoughts on Tough Cookie: Oh MAN. Noah and Carla are as opposite as opposite can be and they worked SO WELL together. Seriously. I'm smitten with these two. Noah's numbness and cavalier attitude toward how he risks life and limb doing stunt work and the way Carla has to schedule everything to manage the symptoms of this awful illness that practically rules her life.

Opposites. And yet oh so right for one another.

So. Noah. The guy has some serious walls. He's not interested in starting anything with anyone (or so he tells himself) and he REALLY likes how Carla isn't nice to him when they first meet. She's growly and a little mean and it amuses him. Did I mention the walls? Because Noah definitely has those. A scarring experience from his past and women falling for him a little too easily has him doing everything he can to keep his distance. To be fair, while he did initially try to keep his distance from Carla, her fierceness and independence soon had him feeling all the feels. *le sigh*

On Carla's end, that independence Noah admires is came at a price. She's learned the hard way that sometimes the people who you expect to stick around can't handle the bad illness days and she figured it's better to be alone and not expect anything from anybody but herself than to be left in the lurch. She absolutely, 100% does NOT want to burden Noah (or anyone) with what she's dealing with. BUT...Noah is determined and kind and maybe a little relentless and soon they're fake dating and all that jazz.

As you might imagine, soon the fake becomes a little real and THINGS HAPPEN.

Hardcore anxiety, a devil-may-care attitude, cookie decorating, steamy kisses, solid hugs, and a whole lot of banter. *thumbs up*



Excerpt
Pulling my truck up in front of our old farmhouse, the first thing I noticed was how enormous the old oak tree behind the house had grown, and how far its branches stretched over the roof. I made a mental note to trim it back.

The house was even prettier than I remembered, mostly because someone had placed potted herbs along the porch rail to soak up the winter sunshine. My mother had said she hadn’t sent anyone over to check on things since her tenant had moved in, yet the place looked well maintained. The vegetable beds had been covered with cold frames, and the plants inside seemed to be thriving. And chickens were scratching around in the large run I built for Momma years ago.

Who was the mysterious tenant who grew her own food and never asked for anything?

Maybe she was on the run, or in witness protection. She could have stolen a bunch of money before holing herself up in the isolated house and was living in constant fear of being found by the feds. Though in all honesty, that was the plot of the last movie I’d worked on.

Still, when I mounted the steps to the porch with the jar of cookies under my arm—to my credit, it was still more than half full—and knocked on the front door, I was ready for just about anything.

Anything, that was, except what actually happened.

When the door swung open and I saw the woman in the doorway, my jaw loosened. Momma had called her pretty, and though it was a true statement, it didn’t do her justice.

The woman’s face shape was delicate, but her eyes, cheekbones, and lips were generous, like she’d managed to swipe a little more than her fair share. Her eyes were a rich brown. She had dark, wavy hair that fell past her shoulders and was tucked neatly behind her ears. She was wearing thick, fuzzy socks, sweatpants, and what looked like several layers of warm tops. Despite the layers, her bombshell curves were obvious.

I was struck speechless. But it wasn’t just her beauty that made words dry up. It was the way she was looking at me.

Her gaze traveled up from my boots, over my jeans, and cut a slow path across the jersey I’d worn to keep my mother happy. It brushed over the jar of cookies on its way, and grazed my freshly trimmed beard. Her gaze stopped short of reaching my eyes, however. It jerked back to the cookies. And all the while, a frown creased her brow.

She didn’t look happy to see me. The opposite, in fact.


Grab your copy TODAY!



About Talia Hunter
Talia Hunter likes to include her three favorite things in her novels: toe-curling romance, snort-laughs, and heart-warming friendships. She recently moved to Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast, where she's constantly amazed and not at all freaked out by the weird and wonderful critters. When she's not writing, you can usually find her with a glass of wine, a good book, at least one of her three cats, and a jumbo-sized can of bug spray.

Find Talia online
Connect with Smartypants Romance

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)