If only life were as simple as choosing between shaken or stirred.Sage Jeffries grew up an overachiever. She studied, excelled, and became a mechanical engineer for a firm in San Francisco. Yet much to her family’s surprise, at age thirty, she made a bold move to Los Angeles and became a bartender at The Yard. Now, she spends her time mixing drinks and trying new things. Her life is good, fun . . … life is good, fun . . . except for two teeny tiny challenges—she’s in love with her best friend’s older brother, and her sister bought her a book, Nice to Naughty in Ten Easy Steps, and dares her to master every step. Sage never backs down from a challenge.
Garrett Rye is Ryeland Farms. He grew up under his father’s wing and has now taken over operations. Working the fields was nothing compared to the hassle of managing, but keeping the farm running without hiccups is what’s expected. His brother and sister may run The Yard, but Ryeland Farms is the rock of their family. No matter how many changes swirl around him, Garrett intends to keep it that way.
It’s New Year’s Eve and Sage, who’s had too much tequila, is realizing it’s easier to read about “naughty” than actually put it into practice. Instead of a wild night, she ends up tucked into Garrett’s truck, spilling her heart. Now, Garrett is finding it impossible to concentrate on keeping things business as usual when the woman he’s only noticed behind the bar suddenly wants to raise the bar.
Both stirred and shaken, Sage and Garrett will have to decide whether to keep mixing things up or if they should put their feelings on ice.
more
Tracy Ewens, ‘Stirred’, a love story.
As an ARC reader I received this book for free. And promised an honest review. Here it is. English isn’t my first language. Sorry for errors.
Rating: 4 stars (of 5).
In general: Two people in their thirties find love after intense single twenties.
Leading characters:
– Sage Jeffries.
Grown up in a family with lovely parents and three very competitive sisters. Now about 33 years old. Being very intelligent she studied math. And got an excellent job, but around her 30th anniversary she decided to change. She bowed out of her corporate life in Frisco to become a bartender in LA and she wanted stories and adventures: went to festivals, jumped out of planes, traveled, hiked, loved her new job, competed in cocktail competitions and became involved in her local community center to teach bridge.
– Garret Rye.
An organic farmer, who delivers especially to the Yard, the restaurant/bar of his brother Logan, where Sage is the attractive, talented bartender. Sage has a secret crush on him but he’s too involved in his work and caring for his family to notice that she wants to be more than a friend.
Then Sage realizes that she has to become more active to get Garret’s attention and buys for her Kindle “Nice to Naughty in Ten Steps” to learn how she can get rid of the shyness she feels when Garret is around. At a New Year’s Eve party she tries out her new naughtyness but she drinks too much and accidentally calls Garret to drive her home. During this drive a very tipsy Sage confesses her love for a confused Garret.
Garret feels honored and glad for he admired Sage already for a long time but after arriving at her home he limits himself to caring that the tipsy Sage safely reaches her bed. Next day Sage learns from Kenna, Garret’s sister and her best friend that she in detail informed Garret why and what she loved in him.
The author, Tracy Ewens, then describes how Garret and Sage find their HEA with a lot of ups and downs. Among other things: fear commitment; for Garret it’s difficult to realize that while being a workaholic and caring a lot for his family, he’s completely forgotten to forward to his own happiness; and at first Sage fears that her detailed love confession is the reason that Garret seems to be more interested in her good looks than her personality while she wants more than a sexual relationship. It results in funny dialogues, interesting info about farming, running a bar/restaurant and many scenes of a sweet family life. Perhaps the stubbornness of both main characters to let go of the (sometimes wrong) opinions they have about each other and the (too many?) changes of their minds after conversations with friends makes the story a bit unnecessary long, but all in all it was – for me – again a pleasure to read this book of Tracy Ewens.
R. Huiszoon.
Book five in the Love Story series a well written story that once I started reading I was not putting down. This is the first book by this Author that I have read, and I will be looking for more by her. I received a copy of this book and I am voluntarily reviewing.
The back and forth between then was so much. I cried at their break-up and could totally feel for why she had to let him go. You can only be burned so many times before you have to choose yourself first. If the break-up scene wasn’t gut wrenching, oh boy the ending brought the years again. Great way to show how much he cared and listened.
Garrett and Sage are an intriguing pair for this story if ever. She is an adrenalin junkie always out for the challenge in fact she quit her corporate job to become a mixologist. She has a serious thing for Garrett who is the brother of her best friend Kenya. When she finds herself spilling her heart out to Garrett on New Years Eve it changes the outcome of their relationship. Will these two have a happily ever after or part ways? I voluntarily agreed to receive an ARC of this book for an honest review.
I enjoyed this book so much, I bought the rest of the series. I enjoyed the characters. I also enjoyed learning about their occupations.