Melt With You by Jessie Evans
Some fires never burn out…After ten years as America’s sweetest celebrity chef, Naomi Whitehouse is enjoying life out of the spotlight, back in her hometown of Summerville, Georgia. She’s opening a pastry shop with her sister, housesitting for her snowbird parents, and reconnecting with her roots. Life is good until she runs into her high school sweetheart, Jake Hansen, a sexy firefighter who gives her a reception chilly enough to freeze a forest fire. If Naomi wants her homecoming to remain all cupcakes and sugar cookies, she’ll have to win Jake over. But how can she earn his forgiveness when he won’t even speak to her?
When the girl who broke his heart buys a month of dates at the firefighter’s Hunk-for-a-Month fundraiser auction, only honor keeps widower Jake Hansen from backing out of the commitment. He won’t let the firehouse down, even if it means enduring a torturous month with Naomi Whitehouse. And Jake knows being close to Naomi again will be torture. Even after all these years, she still gets to him…not that he intends to let her know it. He’ll be civil, honor his obligation, and with any luck Naomi will tire of playing small-town pastry chef and Jake will never see her again.
But as the month passes, Jake and Naomi discover some fires never burn out. Will the heat between them be enough to melt away the pain of past mistakes, or is their second chance doomed from the start?
5 Star Review by Amber Presley Boyd
Can you ever get over the bumps in the road and your past to find your way back and not let those bumps steal your joy? That’s what Jake and Naomi have to answer in Melt With You.
The next in the Summerville Books, but part of her new Fire
and Icing series, Jessie Evans continues to make me smile. I love Jessie’s
writing and the way the stories are set in this fictional smalltown . Jake and
Naomi were high school sweethearts until Naomi fled to follow her dreams of
being a famous chef and left Jake behind. As she returns to Summerville, its
with her heart tattered around the edges and seeking to go home to the only
place she knows she can remember how to be happy. And if she’s lucky maybe a second
chance with Jake, “the person who had taught her how to love…”
Naomi returns to town to open a bakery after reaching all
her professional goals in the world of food having her own line of gourmet
foods and a wildly successful cooking show. So now with her younger sister Maddie
and their friend Aria March, she’s eager to return to simple things and connect
with her family and the town in which she grew up . Their soon to open bakery
happens to be across the street from the fire station, where Jake is the fire
chief, which she hopes will allow her to run into him and if nothing else
rekindle their friendship. Jake however makes it very clear with each scowl and
run in the other direction encounter Naomi attempts, that he has no intention
of forgiving her or forgetting how she tore
his heart to pieces. So Naomi does what any desperate girl does to make the guy
she wants spend time with her: she buys him at a charity date auction that is a
huge fundraiser for the fire station and guarantees her a month of dates. Jake
however is not amused and makes it clear that while he will fulfill the
commitment he has no intention of anything more.The month and the dates though
begin to show how they have each grown, each changed and each had their hearts
broken. Jake lost his wife two years before and Naomi is still dealing with the
death of her baby as well as being abandoned by her fiancé. As they learn more about each other in the
now, they are also drawn by the pull of the connection from their past that is
still as palpable as ever.
I loved this story and these characters! It has the stuff I
always look for in a good romance; it was sweet, it was funny, it was sexy and a
happy ever after ending that left me a bit emotional. The more the pair spent
time together the more they realize the heat they always felt as teens is just
as powerful and electric as it ever was. Jake can still read Naomi and knows
when she has “sex eyes” and it’s more than he can stand at times and it all
comes to a head when he knows during one of their dates that if it continues
he’s “going to pull her into his arms and
claim her mouth with his own. He was going to cup her sweet ass – his favorite
ass, the one that danced through his dreams when he to bed aching and alone-in
his palms and pull her up his body until her feel dangled. He was going to kiss
her until her toes curled.” But as always there are things in their pasts
that can rock them to their core. Naomi almost “forgot that the past has long arms, arms that can reach out of the
shadows when you least expect it and pull you back into the dark…” I love a
hot firefighter and Jake is no exception! I really liked the dynamic between
not only he and Naomi but also the many other characters that we are introduced
from the bakery and firehouse alike. Can’t wait to see where this series takes
us!
*I was provided an arc of this book in exchange for an
honest review.
You can find buy links on Goodreads
Discover more of Jessie Evans Summerville Books
Betting on You (#1 in Always a Bridesmaid Series)
4 Stars
So totally enjoyed this book! Got this after one of my favorite author friends turned me onto Jessie's books. Lauren Blakely was so right! I love a story about second chances and finding that love is about growing and doing the work. Lark and Mason were planning a future together, he's about to start his residency and they plan to move in together and build a life. But Mason has issues and despite proposing, he bolts the next day to NYC without a word leaving Lark devastated. Four years later Mason returns to try again. Lark is now a busy caterer, building her business out of her heartache and sarcastically naming it Ever After Catering though she know longer believes a HEA is in the cards for her. Lark freaks when she sees Mason the first time and is furious, but finds herself still as affected as always. Mason convinces her to give him 6 dates to change her opinion about him. What follows is both of them coming to terms with what they want and where they are, and what it takes to move them forward. I love the humor and sweetness in Jessie's writing. It doesn't hurt that she sets it in the South, which is where my heart lies. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Always a Bridesmaids series! Check it out!
Keeping You (#2 in Always a
Bridesmaid Series)
4 Stars
Jessie did it to me again in
the 2nd in the series! Totally enjoyed Nash and Aria in this story of a
marriage of convenience that turns into so much more. It reconnects two people
who had met as kids, started to fall and then are ripped apart; leaving a great
deal of hurt, anger and anamosity in its wake. Aria is raising a baby alone
after finding her ex was cheating. Nash has recently been left by his ex who is
now engaged to a jerk that Nash has never liked. With Aria panicking over being
sued for custody of her daughter and Nash trying to prove he could care less
about his, he proposes they get married and counter her ex's claims she can't
support or provide stability for her daughter. The heat between Aria and Nash
is HOT. He's a cop, she's a pastry chef and then throw in a baby and you've got
a recipe for sweetness.
*I was provided an arc of this book in exchange for an
honest review.
You can find buy links on Goodreads
Wild For You (#3 in Always
a Bridesmaid Series)
4 Stars
The youngest March sister is tired of being the good girl. She has just broken up with her long time boyfriend when she finally realizes that she is fooling herself thinking there is a future with someone that doesn't value her or what she wants. I continue to love this series! Melody and Nick meet when her sister Aria hires Nick to help with one of the sisters' catering jobs. Nick is Aria's brother in law and something of a wild child, bad boy and so completely opposite everything Melody likes. So why is she both equally turned off and completely turned inside out by him? Their paring may seem off but there is something about the other that makes both Melody and Nick want to keep exploring their connection. However, neither of their family's are very supportive which causes more than a little of conflict. No matter the chemistry between them is intense and Nick finds that despite his fear of taking a chance with another "good girl", he can't seem to stay away. Melody on the other hand wants to stop being so safe in all her choices and do things that make her happy and more alive than she ever thought possible. Love these sisters! Love this pairing and the way that Nick and Melody find their truth in each other. Just a feel-good series!
You can find buy links on Goodreads
*I was provided an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Jessie Evans gave up a career as an international woman of mystery to write the sassy, Southern romances she always wanted to read.
She's married to the man of her dreams, and together they're raising a few adorable, mischievous children in a tree house in the boonies. She grew up in rural Arkansas, spending summers running wild, being chewed by chiggers, and now appreciates her home in a chigger-free part of the world even more.
When she's not writing, Jessie enjoys playing her dulcimer (badly), sewing the worlds ugliest quilts to give to her friends, going for bike rides with her house full of boys, and wandering the woods, glass of wine and camera both in hand, on the lookout for Bigfoot.
A southern girl, born and bred, Jessie loves writing Southern romances with just the right amount of sizzle, and hopes you'll enjoy her stories set in the fictional town of Summerville, Georgia. Especially the "Always a Bridesmaid" series!
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