Stopped at the point when Mack's deputy goes "Hey, you're at least halfway in love with him, right, I can see it, don't deny, but don't worry, I won't tell" to Oliver, despite that

- he has met Oliver only once before
- Oliver has been in town for about three days
- Oliver is his boss's guest
- he doesn't even know whether Oliver is gay or not
- he is talking to his straight boss's guest of unknown sexual orientation who has been in town for about three days and whom he has met only once

I don't have the patience for this. The MCs just keep ticking romance boxes and the whole town is setting up to be wingmen, and I'm going to stop here.

Grab a cup of coffee or a stiff drink...I'm about to ramble my ass off. It's 3am and I've laid here for an hour thinking about this damn book.

First This had potential and for me started off really nicely.

• A hot police officer (Mack) with hair that begged to be pulled (too bad we only got that once as the thought seemed to have been forgotten)
• A chef (Oliver) with a love for orgasmic kitchens and good food...me too, me too.
• A really intriguing meet up
• Small town New England charm
• A sister's bakery and journals

But but but...
Things moved very quickly especially if you think this is a GFY...nope nope nope. Attention ladies and gentleman: MACK IS GAY or at least BI!!! No way is this guy straight!!! I mean pick and let's move on. The first encounters were all instigated by Mack...the older guy" (yeah that was said at one point...WTF...I'm still think this might be a typo or the author also wanted this to include an age gap but never expanded on that one). Sorry I digress.

The first kiss was smoking hot as well as their next sexual encounter. But straight??? As Marco said, "Mack kissed him after he sucked him off the first time. It doesn't get any gayer than that." No shit. But for 20% you have believed or assumed that Mack had a relationship with Oliver's sister. Well nope...they were just best friends for almost 20 years, had one kiss in middle school and apparently never again discussed sexual orientation or jumped in bed together. Yeah no way.

So we then head into a period of Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs land as this book just became weird.

• Meetings with perfect strangers who immediately call Oliver out on being gay as well as being in love with the sheriff, Mack.
• A return to the 1940s when 10 year old boys wandered town alone and go with strangers to do "science experiments" with no concern from the parentals.
• Miss Lucy and her dancers who apparently Oliver knows all about
• A potential heart condition
• Freakouts
• More sex with no questioning sexual orientation by the straight man. Yeah this is becoming hilarious.
• No communication really and while they have talked Oliver still wonders if Mack is gay. Say whuuut?
• Heart condition confirmed
• Oliver leaves. LEAVES...for months. MONTHS!!!! And doesn't call. No dear john letter. No NOTHING.
• Takes a pill one day I guess and comes to his senses.
• Oh a switch in POV for one damn chapter. FUCKING HELL.
• Yeah they are back together. No issues with being left for MONTHS!
• A stupid random tattoo
• Yeah...we are back to the food!
• A declaration of love. ❤️❤️
• Oh and a cover that while beautiful...that pier never once presents itself.

Overall, this started off great and spiraled out of control. I kept thinking things would get better but it was a mess. A mess. There were definite moments of loveliness in the writing and the sex most of the time was pretty smoking but good grief...this needs major cleaning.

It would seem this might have been Cate's first book so I can only hope there's room for improvement. I'm probably most interested in the third book so we shall see. Let's hope all the men from here on out know what they want and aren't afraid to say so.


**BR with Marco, January 17th**

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