Sugar and Salt
Bella Vista Chronicles #4
William Morrow
July 26, 2022
Hardcover
384
Free from publisher
Jerome "Sugar" Barnes learned the art of baking in his grandma's bakery, also called Sugar, on historic Perdita Street in San Francisco. He supplies baked goods to the Lost and Found Bookshop across the street.
When the restaurant that shares his commercial kitchen loses its longtime tenant, a newcomer moves in: Margot Salton, a barbecue master from Texas.
Margot isn't exactly on the run, but she needs a fresh start. She's taken care of herself her whole life, pulling herself up by her fingernails to recover from trauma, and her dream has been to open a restaurant somewhere far, far from Texas. The shared kitchen with Jerome Sugar's bakery is the perfect setup: a state-of-the-art kitchen and a vibrant neighborhood popular with tourists and locals.
Margot instantly takes to Jerome's grandmother, the lively, opinionated Ida, and the older woman proves to be a good mentor. Margot thinks Jerome is gorgeous, and despite their different backgrounds their attraction is powerful--even though Jerome worries that Margot will simply move on from him once she's found some peace and stability. But just as she starts to relax into a happy new future, Margot's past in Texas comes back to haunt her...
My review:
A couple of observations before getting into my thoughts on the story. 1. I would have sought this book out for the cover alone. Give me a book that is going to be about baked goods, and I'm all in! 2. You do not have to read the other books in this series (I have not) to enjoy this one. Now onto the review......
This book was not at all what I was expecting going in. I thought based on the blurb and cover that it was going to be about two restaurant owners falling for each other. That was just a very small part of the story. This had a really dark story about Margot's past that took up a generous portion of the book. I honestly think it enhanced the read for me, I'm not the best consumer of fluffy predictable romance, and this added much more that I appreciated. I will say though, that it is not a light portion of the book, so you may want to check out other reviews to compare their thoughts to mine. Aside from Margot and Jerome's stories, we also get the story of Jerome's mother Ida and her long lost love Frank. We learn why they were kept apart, and while I found the reason interesting, their story did not resonate with me as much as Margot's. I was rooting hard for her to succeed in life!
While this book does have romance elements within, do not expect it to be as light and fluffy as the cake frosting on the gorgeous cover. I'm interested in now going back to read the previous books in this series, I'm hopeful they will be as interesting as this one.
