About the Book
Living side-by-side, a fledgling chef and a big-hearted contractor find a delicious attraction.
Trouble is, their chemistry could spoil their dreams.
Spirited PJ McKinley has the touch when it comes to food. Her dream of opening her own restaurant is just one building short of reality. So when a Chapel Springs resident offers her beloved ancestral home to the applicant with the best plan for the house, PJ believes it’s a contest she was meant to win.
Contractor Cole Evans is confident, professional, and swoon-worthy—but this former foster kid knows his life could have turned out very differently. When Cole discovers the contest, he believes his home for foster kids in transition has found its saving grace. All he has to do is convince the owner that an out-of-towner with a not-for-profit enterprise is good for the community.
But when the eccentric philanthropist sees PJ and Cole’s proposals, she makes an unexpected decision: the pair will share the house for a year to show what their ideas are made of. Now, with Cole and the foster kids upstairs and PJ and the restaurant below, day-to-day life has turned into out-and-out competition—with some seriously flirtatious hallway encounters on the side. Turns out in this competition, it’s not just the house on the line, it’s their hearts.
My Thoughts
I absolutely loved the first two books in this series and so I was extremely excited to get to read PJ's story! The premise was so fun and unique and the author did a fabulous job with it!
Cole and PJ were such a fun hero and heroine and I quickly fell in love with them. I loved how PJ was endearingly chatty and how that paired well with Cole's more quiet nature. The way they bantered with each other often left me with a huge smile on my face. PJ was a bubbly breath of fresh air and it was cool to see her stepping out on her own and making her dream a reality. My heart broke for Cole when we found out what had happened to him as a child but I loved how he turned that into a passion for foster kids like him. I also loved how he was always there for PJ when she needed him even if they weren't on the best of terms at that point, and how he kept calling her Sunshine and teasing her about the way they met.
It was great to catch up with the rest of the McKinleys and I really liked the foster kids that Cole took in.
I literally devoured this book and had it finished in less than 24 hours so I guess you can say that I loved it!
Meet the Author
Denise Hunter is the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom and Dancing with Fireflies. She has won The Holt Medallion Award, The Reader's Choice Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist.
Denise writes heartwarming, small-town love stories. Her readers enjoy the experience of falling in love vicariously through her characters and can expect a happily-ever-after sigh as they close the pages of her books.
In 1996, inspired by the death of her grandfather, Denise began her first book, writing while her children napped. Two years later it was published, and she's been writing ever since. Her husband says he inspires all her romantic stories, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too!
When Denise isn't orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking green tea, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband are raising three boys.
You can learn more about Denise through her website
DeniseHunterBooks.com or by visiting her FaceBook page at
facebook.com/authordenisehunter
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.