The Ingredients of You and Me by Nina Bocci
From the USA TODAY bestselling author of the “heartwarming and refreshingly sweet” (Lauren Layne, New York Times bestselling author) On the Corner of Love and Hate comes a story about a baker who takes her chances on a new town…and an old love.
After selling her famous bakery back in New York, Parker Adams visits Hope Lake, Pennsylvania, to figure out her next steps. And soon she’s wondering why she ever loved city life in the first place. Between the Golden Girls—the senior women who hold court—and Nick Arthur, her equally infuriating and charming former flame, Parker finds a community eager to help her get her mojo back.
But even though Hope Lake gives her the fresh start she’s been looking for, Parker discovers that it’s not so easy to start over again with Nick. Their chemistry is undeniable, but since Nick is a freshly taken man, Parker is determined to keep things platonic. With a recipe for disaster looming, Parker must cook up a new scheme, figuring out how to keep everything she’s come to love before she loses it all.
- File Name:the-ingredients-of-you-and-me-by-nina-bocci.epub
- Original Title:The Ingredients of You and Me
- Creator:Nina Bocci
- Language:en
- Identifier:uuid:69815492-5519-4c97-90ca-e416309713ca
- Publisher:Gallery Books
- Date:2020-04-28T00:00:00+00:00
- File Size:2.664 MB
Table of Content
- 1. Cover
- 2. Title Page
- 3. Dedication
- 4. Chapter 1
- 5. Chapter 2
- 6. Chapter 3
- 7. Chapter 4
- 8. Chapter 5
- 9. Chapter 6
- 10. Chapter 7
- 11. Chapter 8
- 12. Chapter 9
- 13. Chapter 10
- 14. Chapter 11
- 15. Chapter 12
- 16. Chapter 13
- 17. Chapter 14
- 18. Chapter 15
- 19. Chapter 16
- 20. Chapter 17
- 21. Chapter 18
- 22. Chapter 19
- 23. Chapter 20
- 24. Chapter 21
- 25. Chapter 22
- 26. Chapter 23
- 27. Chapter 24
- 28. Chapter 25
- 29. Epilogue
- 30. Acknowledgments
- 31. Recipes
- Cucidati
- Apfelkuchen
- Hummingbird Cake
- Italian Wedding Cookies
- Ciambellone
- 32. About the Author
- 33. Copyright
This book ended up as a boring, slightly frustrating read. I really liked the premise but the book was really lacking for me. Too many things were glossed over, the romantic progression between Nick and Parker made no sense at all, the title should be changed, and I feel like some of the story should be restructured. Spoilers start here: 1) Jillian was abusive, plain and simple. They ignored it the entire novel and she got away with it, though one could say Nick dumping her was punishment. However, the author (I feel) missed the opportunity to flesh out this plot point. They could have involved more scenes of her being abusive to Nick with Parker and friends bringing it up/sticking up for him. It's fine that Nick ended things with her because of what she said about Parker and the Golden Girls but it was very anticlimactic how it was handled off screen. Nick should have pressed charges/called the cops after she wrecked his house. 2) My main issue was the romance between Nick and Parker. Their "break up" didn't make sense to me at all and their reunion was lame. They stressed that they just wanted to be friends every chapter and Parker had no intention of being a homewrecker, but they emotionally cheated the entire story. Maybe if they lengthened the time they spent actually dating, the amount of time they were broken up for, and how long it took for Nick to end up with Jillian I would have understood/liked it better. But Nick hooked up with Jillian 1-2 weeks after he "wanted more" from Parker, ignoring her before and after. I wished they had shown Nick (in the past) trying to develop more of a relationship with Parker but she was too busy with all her career obligations and ignoring him. That would at least explain why he thought she wasn't interested in a relationship and reasonably proceed to ignore/break up with her. Instead, I got a wishy washy love interest who was forgiven with no effort on his part. 3) Don't name the story 'The Ingredients of Our Love' only to just have numbered chapter titles. There was a missed opportunity to have ingredient related titles for the chapter that involved the present story and the past relationship between Nick and Parker. Bananas were the only ingredient constantly brought up between them. 4) Overall, I feel like the story really lacked conflict. The author set up Parker with reasonable issues: she lost passion for work, was exhausted, had no social life, was unable to bake correctly, and didn't know what to do after selling her business. But none of that was fleshed out. As soon as she came to town everything rightened out. There were brief mentions of her baking not working out but didn't mention how she resolved them. There were so many opportunities to entail Parker's struggles but nothing of the sort happened. Even with Nick, she had brief conflict but nothing actually happened. Parker barely displayed anger with Nick's wishy washy behavior and let him off at every instance. I love me some mature relationship behavior but she just ignored everything. I basically wished there was another love interest for her, that was how lame and frustrating their "love" for each other was for me.