REVIEW: From Scratch by Rachel Goodman

From Scratch by Rachel Goodman is a sweet foodie books with downhome southern charm. As you know I am a total foodie book lover, and this book was just the ticket for me. Yummy food, a sweet second chance love story, funny characters and family, what more can you ask for. This is the sotry of Lillie and Nick.

Lillie grew up in the kitchen, cooking, baking and creating from the time she was 3. She was also madly in love with Nick. Her mother left her when she was little, and she was raised by her father and in the family diner. Always believing that her mother left her and her father because she needed to spread her wings, one fateful night she finds out that her mother actually left her and her dad, and stated a new family. Nick did not understand, did not want to listen, so Lillie ran, as far away from baking and Dallas as her feet could carry her. But 5 years later, a phone call from her dad has her running back home, and smack dab into the only man that has ever truly held her heart.

Nick grew up with the expectations of his parents, follow in the family footsteps of being a doctor when all he really wants to do is write, record and sing his songs, that an love Lillie. The pressures of medical school and a career that he doesn’t really want took it’s toll on Lillie and Nick. But know that she is back in town, the feelings that he has for her a stronger than ever, but can he trust Lillie not to run again when the going gets tough?

I really loved the relationship between Nick and Lillie. This author did a great job of giving us flashes of what their lives were like together and what caused the rift between them. There are surprises along the way for these two, and like all GREAT second chance love stories, the road to HEA is not smooth for these two. However with the help of well meaning family and friends these two get a beautiful HEA and they both discover that they cannot be truly happy unless they are true to themselves first.
 

Book Info:

 July 20th 2015 | Pocket Star |

Perfect for fans of Kristan Higgins.

A down-home, feel-good debut Southern romance, From Scratch explores one woman’s journey back home to Dallas, Texas, where her family is cooking up a plan that doesn’t quite suit her tastes…

Thirty-year-old Lillie Turner grew up with maple syrup stuck to her skin and bacon grease splattered on her clothes, courtesy of working in the family diner. Thank goodness she escaped all that when she moved to Chicago five years ago. Now a successful strategy consultant and newly engaged to a man who complements her like biscuits and gravy, she has everything she wants.

When an urgent phone call about her father’s health pulls Lillie back to Dallas, she soon learns it was a ruse to bring her home so she can run the diner she’d rather avoid and compete in the Upper Crust, an annual baking competition, with no option to withdraw. Lillie is furious and ready to run back to Chicago, but her father’s haggard appearance makes her wonder if he’s hiding something. Things go from bad to worse when Nick, her handsome ex and the only man she ever truly loved, reappears, looking as scrumptious as ever.

Lillie’s trip home forces her to question the path she’s chosen, find her place in the family she abandoned, and wonder if the life she left behind is what she wants after all.