Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Demi, Gay
Reviewer: Linda, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Cake & Cocktails is a steamy, M/M age-gap romance featuring a grumpy teddy bear of a bar owner and a quirky baker just looking for love, acceptance, and a forever family.
Henry is well-aware he’s a bit of a grump. Outside of his passion for running the Riggs Family Roadhouse, and a precious few close friends and family, Henry doesn’t need anything—or anyone—else. But when a mysterious young man walks into the bar, Henry finds himself obsessed with making sure the blue-eyed beauty is taken care of.
Determined to get far, far away, Jack fled his nightmarish home life with barely a hint of a plan. Five hundred miles later, the small town of Haven Grove might just hold the perfect recipe for healing Jack’s wounded heart. Maybe he’ll stay a while, especially if the cuddly bear of a man behind the bar keeps plying him with food, kindness, and sweet smiles.
Henry just wants to help the newcomer get back on his feet. Instead, for whatever reason, his interfering heart is mixing up a different plan. Jack doesn’t know how he could leave when Haven Grove has all the ingredients for his happily ever after, but do Jack and Henry have what it takes to bake up their very own perfect slice of love?
The Review
Henry Riggs runs the family bar and restaurant, and he has his brother Hudson and his father CJ. His love life is lonely, until a stranger walks into the restaurant.
Jackson (Jack) Garner is twenty-five, and has recently left his home, taking a bus and stopping in Haven Grove.
Henry is struck by Jack’s blue eyes and handsome face when they first meet, though he thinks Jack looks too young. Henry doesn’t realize that Jack is the person he saw dumpster diving. jack has been sleeping on an old booth behind the bar. He puts out some food each night, along with a tarp, blanket and pillow. Henry doesn’t know who the stranger is, but will do everything he can to protect someone in need.
Before long, Jack admits to needing a job and a place to live, while never revealing he is the stranger Henry is looking after. Henry offers him his couch, and the two become friends.
When Jack reveals the truth and explains what led him to Haven Grove, Henry is angry.
Jack’s mother died, and he was placed under the care of his aunt, husband, and son. His aunt frequently used drugs, and his cousin and uncle did not treat him well. Jack did not experience affection after the age of six, when he lost his mother. When he left, he found himself at a new place where the people around him offered him what he was missing.
Jack’s love is baking cakes, and when he makes two of them and the only thing left is crumbs. Henry decides Jack is the answer to their dinner dessert menu. It’s the beginning of an entirely new life for Jack and Henry, as they both realized they were the missing pieces in each others’ lives.
Another wonderful story by A.D. Ellis, proving that age is just a number.
Five stars.
The Reviewer
I am an avid reader the mother of 3 sons and grandmother to seven grandchildren. Since retiring I have been doing more reading while volunteering as a CASA worker. CASA is an organization that works with the family court system to ensure that children are in the best living situation. There are way too many children that get overlooked in the foster care system and I visit homes and make visits to the parents. I was born and raised in New York and my husband of 50 years and I live in Upstate New York.
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