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Fresh Pick
HAUNTED HULA-WEEN
📚 New Books This Week 📰 Latest News 🎪 Reader Games 👻 🎃 Halloween Contest Giveaways 🎃

October Reads Worth Falling For

Danger, desire, second chances, and unexpected romanceβ€”discover this month’s Fresh Fiction Featured Books.

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A poisoned cousin, a five-year-old's life, and a family with too many secrets.


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Supernatural sparks fly
between a bookseller
& her hard-boiled ghost.


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If Her Highness thinks I’ll let another man claim her and my child, she’s lost her royal mind. Sophaya’s mine.


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She found a body. Then she started asking the wrong questions.


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He ghosted her ten years ago. Now she’s stuck with him for Christmas.


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She’s the lady everyone overlooks. He’s the prince who can’t look away.

WINE, TARTS & SEX

Wine, Tarts & Sex, July 2007
by Susan Johnson

Berkley
Featuring: Liv Bell; Jake Chambers
304 pages
ISBN: 0425215407
EAN: 9780425215401
Trade Size
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"Is that a zucchini in your pocket?"

Fresh Fiction Review

WINE, TARTS & SEX
Susan Johnson

Reviewed by Diana Troldahl
Posted October 7, 2007

Romance Erotica Sensual

Jake Chambers came to Minneapolis to build his dream restaurant and to take a much-needed six-month break from his whirlwind life as a celebrity chef. He was totally focused on opening the River Joint, a laid back neighborhood place serving the best of everything, with a prime spot along the Mississippi.

Liv Bell was living her dream. She'd saved every cent of the mega salary she'd earned as a top model and used it to buy a vineyard near her childhood home. After six years of hard work and skillful blending, her wines were coming into their own, carried by some of the best restaurants in the area.

Neither look at sex as more than a healthy part of a well-rounded life, until they were blind-sided by an urge for each other that slam-dunked any attempt at self control. The last thing he's looking for is a steady diet of one woman. She has encountered too many shallow members of the Glitterati to be drawn by his fame. Somehow they are unable to keep their hands off each other, some things are bigger than any strength of will power.

Surrounding Jake and Liv, Susan Johnson assembles a cast of likeable characters ranging from a former soap opera star to an ex-detective turned enforcer, and ranges them against a gritty villain easy to despise. Frothy and fun, frank and forthright (along with several instances of other words beginning with "f') WINE, TARTS & SEX minces no words, draws no curtain over down-and-dirty (and oh-so-hot) sex scenes. It's smart, funny, and a fine example of Chick Lit. After you finish the book you'll look forward to long road trips with ambidextrous drivers, be grateful for tinted windows and you'll never look at a zucchini the same way again. Who knew kitchen skills translate so well to the boudoir?

Learn more about WINE, TARTS & SEX

SUMMARY

World-renowned chef Jake Chambers could have had any ingenue he wanted in California since the kitchen isn't the only room in the house where the hard-bodied hunk has special talents. Still, when he realized there might be more to life than glitz and silicone, he left for Minneapolis to buy a local joint and try to clear his head.
But even though he's no longer serving the glitterati, that doesn't mean he's about to compromise quality and serve a Minnesota wine. However, local vintner Liv Bell-with curves even more delicious than his tapas-has other plans once she lays eyes on this Adonis. Determined to promote her vineyard's juicy bounty, this sun-kissed goddess might just bring Jake around to at least tasting what she has to offer.

EXCERPT

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