Publisher: Dreamspinner
Where did you get this book: E-Arc from Publisher
Release Date: Out now
“Peter Stevens believes nothing tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato tended by a farmer’s hands. The craving for heirloom tomatoes leads him to his local farmers’ market and his favorite vendor, Ethan Hart. As Peter becomes a regular customer, the two find they have more in common than a love of good food. Just as Ethan begins to relax, Peter’s ex, Jay, appears and is all the things Ethan is not. A perfect storm of mistakes and poor choices, as well as Ethan’s haunted past, has him ready to admit defeat. With the guidance of friends and a goat far too smart for her own good, Ethan realizes he needs to have a tender hand and patience to grow a home for Peter.”
Ethan runs a small market garden farm and Peter is an advertising executive. The pair meet at a local farmer’s market where Ethan has a stall set up to sell his produce and Peter becomes a fan of his heirloom tomatoes. This is a very food-centric story to the point where I got hungry as I was reading the food descriptions, kudos to the author for that because everything sounded fresh and delicious.
The men are acquaintances and while they’re attracted to each other but both are reluctant to move beyond that because of their history of bad relationships. They do decide to take a chance and this is a slow burn romance but I liked the progression and I liked the men. I enjoyed their friendship as well as the chemistry between them and the sex scenes were hot and worked well for me. I can really get behind drama-light stories where two men fall in love, because sometimes it’s nice to just read a sweet romance. I would say that the build up of the first half worked better for me and what didn’t work as well was the introduction of Peter’s ex, Jay, he seemed to add a lot of unnecessary drama. I did like how the men resolved their issues once they started communicating again but it took a bit for them to get to that point and I just wish that it was done without the forced angst that Jay provided. I’m giving Home Grown a C+