Avocado Toast, (The Orchard Brides, book 1)

Nancy
Fraser
Genre: 
Contemporary

Single mom Chloe Taylor moves herself and her young daughter from Fresno to Plentiful, California and starts building her marketing business. Her first task is getting the local agricultural co-op to sign into her marketing plan. The only true hitch so far has been the resistance of the Morgan farm of Plenty Good.  She hopes the arrival of the younger nephew might convince the older uncle to sign. Drew Morgan returns to the family avocado farm while on medical leave from the military. He hopes he can convince Uncle Sam, who raised him, to sell Plenty Good since he has no plans to stay around and be a rancher. Then he encounters Chloe Taylor, with her fancy marketing plans and her adorable little daughter. Funny thing about plans… they can always change.

Great dialogue and clear conflicts thread their way throughout this story into a master tapestry. Sparkling with originality, the story weaves Chloe and Drew together in a sweet contemporary romance with generous characterization. Listed as a Christian romance, it seems light on the Christian elements, though PDA is limited to light kissing only. Mixed points of view within paragraphs sometimes lead to slight confusion about who owns the scenes or has the most to lose. Not a cliffhanger, the ending does arrive in a sudden rush of breathlessness, perhaps taking the reader by surprise. While not perfect, “Avocado Toast” is a good start for The Orchid Brides series! Warning, reading this book may give the reader a sudden desire to move to the sun-drenched southern coast of California and begin life as an avocado and fruit rancher!

Emerson Matthews