Nuts by Alice Clayton

Rating: Five stars
Series: Hudson Valley #1
Date published: October 20th 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis from Goodreads:

After losing almost all of her clients in one fell swoop following an accident involving whipped cream, private chef to Hollywood’s elite Roxie Callahan gets a call from her flighty mother, saying she’s needed home in upstate New York to run the family diner. Once she's back in the Hudson Valley, local organic farmer Leo delivers Roxie a lovely bunch of walnuts, and soon sparks—and clothing—begin to fly. Leo believes that everything worth doing is worth doing slowly…and how! But will Roxie stay upstate, or will the lure of West Coast redemption tempt her back to Tinseltown?

The very first Alice Clayton book I ever read was Wallbanger. I loved the characters, the dialogue, the plot, and the humor. Since Wallbanger, I've read all her other books too and while I liked them, I didn't really get that same feeling of pure awesomeness. Until now.

Nuts is a book that made me incredibly happy. The writing was on point. I loved Roxie's POV. Clayton's writing makes it seem like you're right in her head, seeing Bailey Falls through her eyes. A lot of this is because of the descriptions of food. I must say, Clayton has done her research into the world of baking prior to writing Nuts. It's definitely a book you shouldn't read hungry.

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for stories like this where the main character goes from a large city like LA back home to their small town and realizes the small town is better than the city. In this case, Bailey Falls is a close knit community, a place easily considered to be home. I really liked Roxie's interactions with the people of the town, especially with the guy she becomes friends with from high school and the people who work in the diner. You can tell this is a good town to be a part of.

Roxie is not happy about having to come home to help look after the diner while her mom goes off to be on "The Amazing Race." She's set on just doing her part and then going back to LA to see what she can salvage of her job there. But can she resist the lure of Bailey Falls and Leo Maxwell?

Honestly, I think Leo might be the shining star in Nuts. First because he's attactive and then because he's a farmer. I loved Leo and Roxie's interactions. There was always laugh out loud humor between them, and I mean real laughing out loud and not the kind that comes with people abusing lol online. Leo is a sweet guy, and though Roxie is set on not staying, sparks fly between the two and he seems like a very good reason for her to stay.

Nuts is a great read that I'd recommend to fans of contemporary romance. I wanted to buy the paperback for my home collection immediately after reading my Kindle copy, and that should show you just how much I loved it, if I'm willing to pay for it twice. Nuts is a book I will definitely be reading again sometime in the future. It was just that good.