HE TAKES THE CAKE
by J.
Lynn Rowan
GENRE: Contemporary
romance
BLURB:
Life
is good for Tess Gardiner: Her Savannah, Georgia, bakery and cafe is thriving.
She’s earned Master Pastry Chef status from the American Culinary Federation.
And she’s attending a regional culinary convention in Charleston, where she’s
been invited to sit on a small business panel discussion. The opportunity to
tout her success will, hopefully, lead to bigger and better things in her
professional life. As for her personal life? The relative contentedness she’s
enjoyed for years receives a sudden jolt when she comes face to face with Tyler
Brinks, the ex-boyfriend she summarily dismissed from her life eight years ago.
Tyler’s success as a
highly-trained chef has launched him into the stratosphere. He already owns one
ridiculously successful restaurant, and he’s aggressively working on plans for
a second. But he’s never quite gotten over Tess, and he’s never really been
sure what actually went wrong between them. So when a pastry and baking
competition is announced for the week following the culinary convention in
Charleston, Ty jumps at the chance to tempt Tess with the challenge of being
his partner, giving him the perfect opportunity to remind her how good they
once were together.
As the competition
heats up in the kitchen, it soon becomes clear to Tess that Ty has more than
cream puffs and cupcakes on his mind. And she can’t deny that her feelings for
Ty never truly cooled, but have been simmering all these years, despite the way
their relationship ended. Now Ty’s attention has her wondering—is this just the
path to final closure? Or could this be a second chance at true love?
Excerpt:
If Ty’s thinking about the same
incidents that lead to our breakup, he doesn’t let on. “Only about a year or
so. It . . . wasn’t what I thought it would be.”
“I see.” Though I don’t, especially
given his own slight stumble for words. “Where’d you go in the interim?”
He relaxes a bit and takes a sip of
espresso. “New York for a little while, working as a sous chef in a Midtown
restaurant. That let me save up for Le Cordon Bleu.”
His dream.
I smile, sincerely happy he’d made
it come true. “Were you able to go to Paris?”
“No,” he says with a short laugh.
“But Ottawa was close enough. My mom wanted me to try and get into the program
in Atlanta, but I wanted the international experience. So Canada it was.”
I make a noncommittal sound and lift
my cup again. “Then you settled on Charleston to open your first restaurant.”
“Well, it wasn’t a direct route from
getting my Grand Diploma to opening On the Brink.”
“Nice name, by the way,” I quip,
arching a brow at him.
He leans forward. “Says the woman
who named her own business after herself.”
I give into the impulse to stick my
tongue out at him. “At least mine rhymes. And we’re not talking about me.”
“Not yet, anyway.”
“But you’re opening a place in
Hilton Head. Does that mean you’re moving there, too?”
Ty shrugs. “I’ll probably have to do
a little back and forth for a while. Can’t exactly be the head chef at two
restaurants at the same time.”
There’s the opening I need to hint
at the topic I’m really curious about. “Won’t the back and forth thing make it
hard for . . . your girlfriend?”
For a moment, he freezes, recognizing
by my tone that I’m fishing for information. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Really?” I force nonchalant
surprise, if that’s even a thing, into my voice. “Guy like you, I’d think you’d
have women falling all over themselves to be with you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he
asks, brows lowering and a look of hurt defensiveness playing in his eyes.
I wasn’t expecting that sort of
reaction from him. Again, I fumble for words. “Smart, successful, funny, sexy—”
My hand flies up to cover my mouth,
but it’s too late. Ty stares at me for a few seconds before he busts out
laughing.
“I didn’t mean that I think you’re
sexy,” I insist, dropping my hand.
His laughter subsides to internal
chuckles. “It’s okay, Tess. I know I’m irresistible, even to you.”
“That’s not—”
“For the record, I still think the
same of you.” He sounds like he’s teasing, but a flash of something serious
passes between us as his gaze softens.
My retort dies in my throat, coming
out as a choked snort instead.
AUTHOR Bio
and Links:
J.
Lynn Rowan started writing stories as a small child, usually starring her
favorite cartoon characters. Most of her work through middle and high school
was filled with typical teenage angst and melodrama, and usually mirrored the
books she loved to read. But eventually she found her own author’s voice and
decided to seriously pursue a writing career.
Historical
fiction remains J. Lynn’s “first love”, but she has enjoyed the journey to
becoming an author of romance and chick lit. She is a member of Romance Writers
of America, the Central New York Romance Writers, and the Historical Novel
Society. She is also a teacher who tries to instill a love of learning,
reading, and writing in her students.
When
she’s not writing, J. Lynn enjoys travelling, gardening poorly but
enthusiastically, studying various topics in American history for her own
expertise, and channeling Julia Child every time she steps into the kitchen.
A
native of Oswego, NY, she now lives in Charlotte, NC, with her own Romantic
Hero of a husband and their little rainbow, affectionately known as Babycakes.
PURCHASE
LINKS:
BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE
WHEN IN ROME
THE ONE I’M WITH
Giveaway:
$20 Amazon/BN GC
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better
your chances of winning.
6 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Thank you so much for hosting me today!
thank you for sharing this great Excerpt! Can't wait to read!
Thank you for hosting!! This sounds like a great read!
This is so cool, I live in Savannah Georgia, and me and my daughter are opening a bakery in the next few years.
This sounds like a great read! Thanks for hosting and for the giveaway! :)
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