Touchstone (Speakeasy Taproom)by Karen Stivali
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Synopsis:
Sam doesn't think love is in the cards. The cards disagree.
When Phoebe Stevens' life implodes in a spectacularly public fashion, she's desperate to escape Manhattan. So the offer of a job setting up a new Vermont gastropub couldn’t come at a better time. Driving a U-Haul on winding mountain roads is Phoebe's personal version of hell. But when the caretaker of her guesthouse answers the door tousled, shirtless, and baking cinnamon rolls, her first impression of Vermont dramatically improves.
Sam Trembley believes everyone gets one true love, but he’s already blown his chance. He's spent five years avoiding relationships. Now he’s back in Colebury where sunrise tarot draws and moonlit hikes soothe his soul. But why do the tarot cards keep showing him this nonsense about soulmates? Could it have anything to do with the jaded city girl on his doorstep?
Playing tour guide is fun, but taste-testing her culinary creations as she shimmies her luscious hips around his kitchen is downright irresistible. Soon their chemistry burns hotter than the pub's wood-fired oven.
Has fate brought them together for a summer of love...or a lifetime of happiness?
Touchstone contains craving-inducing menu planning, a sassy white witch grandma, seismic sexy times, and tarot cards on a mission to prove soulmates are real.
"A romance with sweet, spicy, and sumptuous on the menu in the kitchen and the bedroom." Kirkus Reviews
Review
Okay I had been DYING for this series to start coming out ever since I first got the list of what we were going to be seeing within the World of True North. I am very pleased to say that I don’t think it could have started off any better. This book features Sam and Phoebe whose lives, in a general sense, are quite different. Phoebe winds up in Colebury after her DICK of an ex invites her to dinner only to tell her that #1 he’s been having an affair and #2 he’s booting her from the restaurant they had been looking to open together (and the cherry on top is that she was turned into a meme over the whole ordeal). Having previously been in culinary school with our lovely Audrey, she was invited down to help open Speakeasy Taproom and build their menu. Sam is a sweetie who helps run his grandmother’s crystal shop and was burned pretty badly by a past relationship. When Phoebe moves into his grandmother’s guest house, the two connect INSTANTLY and the chemistry between them is so delicious.
Knowing absolutely nothing about crystals and tarot and that kind of this, I loved seeing it be such a normal, every day part of Sam’s life. I definitely learned a lot and also loved the soulmates aspect (I’m a sucker for that). Honestly between reading about Phoebe making food, Sam’s smile and overall personality, and their smoking hot chemistry this story was near perfection. Highly recommend!
Huge thanks to Heart Eyes Press for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!♥
