Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️

by Jilly Gagnon (April 30, 2024): Many thanks to @prhaudio for the gifted audiobook

Ellie Greco had big dreams of becoming an NYC costume designer before her father died, and she returned home to run their family’s outside Boston-based deli. Now, faced with developers bringing a major epicurean food warehouse to their small town, Ellie must try to convince the developer to abandon the lucrative deal. The only problem? The developer is Theo Taylor, heir to a Boston property empire and a former high school classmate. As it turns out, Theo has reasons to question the deal and thwart his father –  and Ellie is the perfect cover. If they pretend they’ve reconnected and fallen in love, his father and the company can’t move forward with a deal that destroys his (fake) fiancee’s multi-generational business.  As their phony engagement goes on, it begins to feel less and less fake for both Ellie and Theo, but can two people from different worlds ever find peace together?

This book had a lot to love — Ellie’s amazing family and friends, Theo’s complex emotions about family and loss, their witty banter and electric connection, and the story of how a small business connects a community. Although there were some things about their relationship arc that I was frustrated with, I found this to be a fun, light-hearted, highly enjoyable opposites attract, rivals to lovers rom-com!