Recipe For Love by Anne Malcom - A Book Review
Nora Henderson is of the opinion that chocolate cures almost everything.
Which, among a few other reasons, is why she opened her bakery in the small town of Jupiter, Maine five years ago.
People come from miles for her chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. Customers almost come to blows over the last almond croissant. Some even say her chocolate chip cookies help ease the burn of heartbreak.
Nora’s life is good. On the surface, at least.
Underneath the frosting and the sweet décor of her bakery is a broken engagement, doubt and anxiety spirals.
In short, Nora Henderson is a mess.
Not someone Rowan Derrick would ever be interested in. He’s the gruff veteran who owns a construction company, who broods his way around town and can wear the crap out of a backward baseball cap.
He stars in almost every one of her fantasies. She expected him to stay there, to remain her imaginary boyfriend and customer … nothing else.
But Rowan Derrick has had his eye on Nora for a while. Little does she know, she stars in every one of his fantasies too. And now that the beautiful baker is no longer engaged, he’s going to make her his.
Genre: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Tropes:
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Small Town
- He Falls First
- Age Gap
- Opposites Attract
- Bakery Owner
Soft, fluffy romances are something I grew to absolutely love in 2023. It was something unexpected because when I read, I prefer spice and if it doesn’t have any, I’m not interested. Practice Makes Perfect was the book that made me fall in love with the romance trope. It had me giggling and giddy throughout and I’ve been keen to add similar books to my TBR, despite it having no spice and being a closed door romance.
Then, I stumbled upon Recipe For Love and thought it was right up my street, so I added it to my TBR jar and it was my second tbr jar pick in January.
Recipe For Love was my first introduction to author Anne Malcom and the pretty book cover equally had me convinced. “Don’t judge a book by a cover” says who? Cause I choose books based on their covers. Any book that is to do with a shy, female florist or bakery owner and a brooding, grumpy male character who is obsessed with the female character, I’m ALL in – sign me up! Spice or no spice, I’ll read it.
Recipe For Love follows bakery owner Nora, in her recent separation from ex fiancé Nathan. Everyday the shy and anxious bakery owner serves Rowan, a grumpy and brooding builder who she pretends is her boyfriend, in a secret crush she harbours.
Nora does her best to avoid serving Rowan at her bakery, but her colleagues force her to overcome her shyness and push her to serve him. Her flustered rambling ends up sparking amusement from the builder, who has secretly been in love with her for 3 years and has been waiting for her to call off her engagement.
“I knew she was special the second I first saw her.”
Rowan DerricksAfter her flirty exchange with Rowan, Nora returns home to find ex fiancé Nathan in her home, where he is desperate to persuade Nora to get back with him – seeing as it would’ve been the night before their wedding day. Nathan becomes forceful, not taking Nora’s refusal for an answer and grabs her. This makes Nora feel uneasy and results in her banging into an open kitchen cabinet, when attempting to get away from him. He eventually leaves after Nora threatens to contact the police, but she wakes up the next day with a black eye and bruise on her arm.
“Would like to see those sundresses and cowboy boots,” he murmured, crystalline eyes staying on mine.”
Rowan Derricks“This,” he murmured, eyes glued to mine, “is the beginning of us.”
Rowan DerricksRowan makes his daily visit to the bakery and becomes enraged with anger when he spots the bruise on Nora’s face – sparking him to want to know what happened. When Nora retreats after his touch, he discovers the bruise on her arm and is furious with what Nathan did and eventually threatens him to leave town.
“Who did this to you?” Rowan’s nostrils flared, his jaw was set in a rigid line.
Rowan takes it upon himself to stay at Nora’s with his dog Maggie, in a bid to protect her – despite Nora’s reservations. This leads to more feelings developing between the pair and the next day, when making his daily visit to the bakery, Rowan kisses Nora in front of her customers.
“Especially now that she wasn’t wearing that fuck’s ring. Now that I wasn’t in danger of spending fifteen to life in a state penitentiary for killing him after laying his hands on what was mine.”
Rowan DerricksWhile driving home, Nora spots her friend and former employee being attacked by her drunken boyfriend Ronnie, so she stops to help. Only this lands her in trouble with him, but before anything can happen, Rowan comes to the rescue. Rowan is furious at Nora’s attempt at putting herself in more danger, but Nora calms him and they return to her home, where the pair allow their feelings to develop further and take their relationship to the next stage.
As the pair are navigating their new relationship, everything is going well, until Rowan is called to help his friend Kip. After spending tithe night at Rowan’s, he leaves Nora to help Kip, but while she’s at his home, she is visited by a lady who is looking for her and Rowan’s late night arrangements – sparking Nora to realise that their new relationship was too good to be true.
Devastated, Nora leaves a note behind ending their relationship, prompting Rowan to arrive to explain what happened. While explaining, Nora is faced with excruciating pain which she believed to be another one of her over active imagination with help scares. Only she collapses and is rushed to hospital, where she has surgery for her ruptured appendix.
Rowan supports Nora through her recovery and they continue their relationship, with Rowan revealing the greenhouse he built for her.
While recovering, Nora is looking forward to the arrival of her twin brother, who is arriving to meet Rowan – only a few days later, she’s met with the arrival of her cold, distant mother. This shocks Nora and prompts her to realise her visit means one thing – someone has died. Her mother reveals that her brother died of a drug overdose, leaving Nora devastated.
The story then navigates Nora’s grieve and her feelings towards the loss of her brother – resulting in her to spiral out of control, becoming drunk and being involved in an alteration with Ronnie, the man she’d saved her friend from. Before Ronnie can hurt Nora any further, Rowan arrives to help Nora, but she’s in self destruction mode and attempts to break up with him. Only Rowan is equally stubborn and understands the pain Nora is feeling – refusing to let her go. Rowan reveals his own pain and history of his time in the navy and the people he killed.
The pair come together for the funeral of her brother, where she speaks to her mother. Her mother reveals her own sorrow and regret for the role she played in their negative childhood and how it lead to her brother being sexually assaulted by her mothers partner, which ultimately caused Ansel’s drug problems. During their childhood, Nora had to grow up quickly and look after herself and her brother, as her mother was absent, unloving and unbothered about Nora and Ansel.
Christmas arrives and Rowan and Nora visit Rowan’s family for the holidays, where Nora is made to feel special and much loved in the family. At the Christmas gathering, Rowan’s mum attempts to encourage Rowan to move back home leading to a conversation about Kip’s past. Later it is revealed that while on a navy tour, his wife and daughter died in a car accident and he was unable to be there until after they were buried.
A few months later, Nora and Rowan attend Kip and Fiona’s spur of the moment wedding to each other – prompting Nora to question if their marriage is real. Nora reveals to Rowan that she is pregnant, who then proposes.
The story ends with Nora in labour, where she later gives birth to a baby girl called Ana.
This book gave me all the feels – it had me giggling at Nora and Rowan’s exchanges, laughing at jokes made by Fiona and crying at the death of her brother. This book truly had be on an emotional rollercoaster.
Normally, when it takes me more than 3 days to read a book, it’s because I’m struggling to find interest to read it. This wasn’t the issue with this book. I went back to work the week I started it and it’s safe to say, I was exhausted everyday – making it hard to find time to read it (you would find me napping from 7pm-9pm, I couldn’t stay awake). I did manage to read small snippets at 10pm, but I had to restrain myself from reading into the early hours of the morning because of my 6am wake up. If I wasn’t at work, I 100% would’ve read this in a day!
I really enjoyed this story and knew from the beginning it was going to be the first 5 star read of 2024. With the time it took to read this book, I did begin to loose the feeling that it would be 5 star, but I think that was because I wasn’t reading it in one go, so the 5 star feelings disappeared. However, as I came to finish the book, that feeling came back.
When reading this book, I was shocked to discover the level of spice that it had. I assumed it was a closed door romance, especially since Practice Makes Perfect was {not that they’re by the same author, but I thought the theme would be the same}. I was interested to read this book because of the small town/giggling feeling it would give me, not for the spice. So it’s safe to say, I was surprised at the spice level.
Reading this book has made me need a Rowan in my life and also a Fiona, a protective and supportive Australian friend.
I found myself relating to Nora a lot – I related to her awkwardness and that she wasn’t just an innocent character who was opposed to her sexual desires.
I wasn’t expecting the death of her brother Ansel and my heart ached for her. Although the news of his death didn’t devastate me, I was for Nora’s loss and the grieve she faced. This had me bawling my eyes out at 11pm on a Friday evening – I just wanted to chill and read my book in bed, not be hysterically crying on a Friday night. Just when I thought I was finished crying, I would start again at any mention of Ansel and how proud he would be of her. Pretty sure I woke up with swollen eyes the day after.
After her brothers death, I was expecting Nora to be pregnant with twins or to be surprised in labour with twins, as a nod to her own twin brother. So when she didn’t have twins or a boy, I was a tad disappointed.
When I finished the book, I was torn between 4.5 starts and 5 stars, so when I looked on GoodReads to gage other people’s reactions, I was shocked to see majority of the reviews were 2/3 stars, with most people DNFing it. There were times where the book was slightly cringy, that being when Rowan was referred to as an “alpha male” by Nora, but I still loved the book.
In the acknowledgements, the author mentioned how this book initially started as a standalone, but when creating it, she unintentionally made a story for other characters – those being Kip and Fiona, Lori {drunken boyfriend} and Finn {police officer} and Calliope {Rowan’s sister} and the man she was hinted at seeing. I knew when Kip and Fiona’s wedding was mentioned that it had to be a marriage of convenience with enemies to lovers – especially after Fiona mentioned to Nora that her living visa was coming to an end soon.
I really enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read more by Anne Malcom {adding Kip and Fiona’s story to my TBR jar as I write this}. I throughly enjoyed the story – I’m a sucker for a florist/bakery owner. I have a strong urge to open either one, but I have hayfever and I can’t cook.
“I’m going home to listen to the new Taylor Swift album and eat an entire rotisserie chicken,” she chirped.
Fiona {Why is this me?}
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
♥
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