REVIEW: Where There’s Smoke by Donna Kauffman

The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap by Donna Kauffman, Kate Angell, Kimberly Kincaid

The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap by Donna Kauffman, Kate Angell, Kimberly Kincaid is the story about three friends, Clara, Abby and Lily living in a small town Pennsylvania, in which every year the annual Christmas Cookie Swap becomes an event that has the whole town talking, but this year things will be different.

Where There’s Smoke by Donna Kauffman:  Clara Parker finds herself in a very public breakup followed by being dumped from her job as the paper’s advice columnist, now she has to write the baking column. Only problem is that she can’t even boil water without burning it and she always seems to catch stuff on fire when she tries to cook. Fortunately for Clara, her baking mishaps land her in the lap of hunky firefighter Will Mason, who happens to be her old college crush and love.

Will is back in town and ready to rekindle his flame with Clara. So when he saves her from her kitchen fire he decides to take her to his house to help her with her cooking. As things heat up in the kitchen, they start to see a future together. But Clara just got dumped and she doesn’t believe that she is ready for another relationship so soon after. Only she has not stopped loving Will.

Clara and Will have some issues to work through but with a little care and patience they can get what they truly want.

Book Info:

September 24th 2013 by Kensington

Where There’s Smoke by Donna Kauffman
When flames from a recipe gone disastrously wrong send hunky fire-fighter Will Mason to pretty Clara Parker’s rescue, the sparks really begin to fly! And once Will gets a taste of Clara, he aches for more than just a little sugar from the famously single food columnist…

In The Gingerbread Man by Kate Angell, Abby Denton is about to have her first Christmas without her grandmother. Abby likes to bake erotic cookies on her spare time and sells them online. Only her friends Clara and Lily know her secret, for living in such a small town she might be judged harshly.

During the cookie auction, Abby decides to sneak in some anatomically correct gingerbread men. Only to be deadly afraid that someone from town will buy them, to her relief a stranger buys them. Unfortunately, on her way home she comes across a wreck and finds the man who bought her cookies. After Abby takes him home she realizes that her cookies caused the wreck.

Now Lander Reynolds and Abby are trapped in her cabin until the electricity comes back and the snowstorm stops. While there he realizes that he is attracted to the woman who helped him. Only once he finds out about the loss of her grandmother he decides to help her heal. And they work together to bring the Christmas spirit and feeling back into the cabin and Abby’s heart.

Both Lander and Abby have suffered losses and they will help each other move forward. But when the time comes for Lander to leave, he finds that he doesn’t want to go but he must. While he may have opened up to Abby, he has not told everything to Abby about his family.

Abby and Lander’s time together is limited and their story is intense, while the romance and scenes are sizzling. Bringing old traditions back to life was very sweet and heartwarming. And the end was a nice surprise.

Book Info:

September 24th 2013 by Kensington

The Gingerbread Man by Kate Angell
Folks have always told fun-loving Abby Denton that her anatomically correct Gingerbread cookies are…impressive. But those erotic cookies have nothing on the sexy stranger Abby saves from a snowy country road. Could Lander Reynolds be the Christmas treat she’s truly been longing for?
In Sugar And Spice by Kimberly Kincaid, Lily Callahan dreams of being a baker and opening her own shop. But to do that she needs to win the cookie competition, with the prize money she will be able to fulfill that dream. Unfortunately for her, she falls for the competition.

Pete Mancuso is successful thanks to his creativity and spontaneity, but he is considered a risk due to his tendency to break the rules. He wants to move on from his parents past, but for that the cookie competition is a great opportunity for him to get all the publicity he needs.

The moment that Peter lays eyes on Lily he is immediately drawn to her, her seriousness, her talent and openheartedness. Lily and Peter are paired up and forced to work together. Which just makes him challenge her at every turn to let go, which she returns by challenging him to show more of himself. In turn, this leads to great success for both of them in their baking.

While Pete and Lily heat things up in the kitchen, the heat was hotter between the sheets. And them opening about their past was really heartwarming. Their banter and challenges make for a fun and entertaining read,.

Book Info:

September 24th 2013 by Kensington

Sugar And Spice by Kimberly Kincaid
When caterer Lily Callahan goes up against hotshot pastry chef Pete Mancuso in the bake-off of the season, the stakes are high – and scandalously passionate. Will the gorgeous gourmand steal Lily’s heart – and the top prize in the Christmas cookie competition?
For a sweet, fun and entertaining read, with three hot stories, don’t miss The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap by Donna Kauffman, Kate Angell, Kimberly Kincaid. And there are recipes included, so you don’t want to miss them. 😉