When I think comfort food for my sweet tooth, my inner touchstone turns to pie … the physicality of rolling the dough, the aroma of the pie baking that fills the house, and the first taste of a warm slice along with a little ice cream. Melt in your mouth delicious and true down home comfort.
Just as actual pie is my comfort food, Adrianne Lee’s Big Sky Pie series set in Kalispell, Montana, offers down home wisdom, bad boy (and girl) antics, humor, and some HOT love scenes. If you haven’t yet read these books, because initially they were only available electronically, you’re in luck. The first three of Lee’s Big Sky Pie books are now available in paperback! I’ve already taken a look at the first two books (Delectable and Delicious) and am giving books three and four a look here, because I want to experience that comfort read for the soul that Lee delivers so well.
If you’re familiar with the series, like me, you probably wish that there was a Big Sky Pie bakeshop on your Main Street too. But we can all read ourselves virtually to Kalispell and find out what’s been happening with friends and family of Big Sky Pie.
In book three, Delightful, pie shop manager Andrea, who has been the feisty spark to guarantee the success of Big Sky Pie, takes the central role. Now a divorcee/widow, she has less than fond memories of her ex-husband, a rodeo cowboy who tended to lasso a few too many fillies while still married to her.
Now a single mom who’s busy raising two boys under ten, Andrea’s come to realize that perhaps instead of lusting after every bad boy she encounters, she should be looking for a Mr. Right. Someone to be a father for her kids. Even if he doesn’t light her fire, she’s tired of letting her girl parts make all her decisions. It’s time to put her boys and their welfare first.
That’s what Andrea thinks until Ice walks in. Yes, reality television producer/director Ice Erickksen is the ultimate one-night-of-sin bad boy who puts her motor into drive, but she’s gotten tired of that trip.
Ice is tired of all the Hollywood shenanigans he’s been dealing with since he was a kid – and something about Andrea, Big Sky Pie, and Kalispell just seems a bit different to this jaded Hollywood insider.
The first part of the book focused on Ice’s team filming secretly in Big Sky Pie – or rather trying to be secretive about the project – was just hilarious. Several passages had me chuckling to myself then laughing out loud. For those of you who flip pages till you get to the sex, oops I mean, love scenes, don’t worry. They’re there too. The initial scenes between Ice and Andrea are hot. Really HOT. The two of them together are just combustible and the detail of her boots, priceless. (You have to read it, sorry. No spoilers here!)
But it was this description that made my mouth water. Yes, seduction by a slice of pie:
“Andrea spied Molly’s caramel apple pie, cut herself a slice, heated it in the microwave, and lifted a forkful to her mouth. The crust flaked against her tongue, and the sweet apple and spices dissolved like honey, the taste sensation as delightful a pleasure as great sex. As she continued eating, every bite had her mind tumbling, trying to make sense of her life. . .” (p. 69)
Now, don’t you want to run to your kitchen and find that pie on the counter, cut yourself a slice, and heat it up to have that same pleasure experience! (I keep flashing in my mind to the classic Meg Ryan scene in Sleepless in Seattle when I read it.) And for any of you who bake, Lee includes a recipe for this exact pie at the end of the book. FABulous!
That all said it is really the emotional quotient that keeps me reading these Big Sky Pie books. Lee knows how to just hunker in and pull at the reader’s heartstrings. Delightful is a fun, sexy, and tasty read that will delight you.
I’ve had a reader crush on hunky former cherry farmer now go-to Kalispell contractor, Wade Reynolds for a while. We saw Andrea and he date a bit in Delightful, but that wasn’t enough of Wade. I was so happy to see that book four, Decadent, features his story.
Who will tweak this self-effacing and shy, yes, shy guy’s interest? Will it be the sultry and obvious mother of his daughter’s best friend who makes the crock pot into an item of courting? Or will it be Roxy, the former chef-owner of a hot Seattle restaurant, who lost that and much more in her divorce from her Seattle Seahawks hubby, who developed a taste for cheerleaders during their marriage?
Roxy arrives into her hometown of Kalispell during a Montana snow storm. She’s driving a spanking brand new Cadillac Escalade that she’s essentially holding hostage until she receives a check for her half of community property. It seems that cheerleaders weren’t the only things to interest her ex. He also was benched for steroid use and all his accounts frozen till the investigation is complete. Who does she encounter on an otherwise deserted road, but Wade as they slip, slide, and miraculously come within inches of crashing into each other. You have to read this book if only for this scene and the cat and the hat. That’s all I’m going to say. Really. Read. This. Book.
Wade and Roxy are two opposite personality types who have very different life experiences. With the death of his wife from cancer years earlier, introvert Wade essentially focused all his attention on his daughter and his business – and tried to avoid friend’s good-natured matchmaking. Now, he wants to find someone to call his own. Extrovert Roxy, on the other hand, is still bitter and burned from her divorce, the loss of her restaurant, and her inner confidence. What she’s looking for is a fabulous cowboy to hook-up with for fun and also to restore her self-belief in her own sexual attraction.
Once again, Adrianne Lee’s witty dialogue sparks laugh-out-loud moments. I’ll never go on a house tour again without thinking of what happened with Wade and Roxy and the realtor and teacher. Classic.
However, its the exploration of a relationship and its inner and outer dynamics that keeps me reading Lee’s stories. She is incredibly sensitive to adding the nuances that allow a reader to flesh out the characters in their own mind.
I do hope that there will be more Big Sky Pie stories in the future as I don’t want to lose track of these characters that have become true book friends. Plus I want an update on Wade and the Cat and the Hat!
Adrianne Lee’s Decadent proves that true love can be found when you least expect it.
From the Publisher
Big Sky Pie, Book 3
Delightful by Adrianne Lee
Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
ISBN 9781455549191
Price $2.99
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
BAD BOYS ARE HER WEAKNESS
Ice Erickksen has “one-night stand” written all over him. Once he’s finished shooting the Big Sky Pie reality show, this hot-as-hell TV producer is going to hightail it out of Montana and return to his glamorous life in L.A. But Ice gets into hot water when one of the goodies in the pie shop-a delightful blonde with marriage on her mind-burns up the camera lens.
Andrea Lovette, the manager of the shop, always picks the bad boys. But after her divorce, she’s determined to find the good family man that her two young sons deserve. Although Andrea’s body sizzles whenever Ice is near, she knows in her heart that he’s not marriage material. Then why does the bad boy still seem like such a good idea?
Big Sky Pie, Book 4
Decadent by Adrianne Lee
Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
ISBN 9781455574391
Price $2.99
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Contractor Wade Reynolds is having a tough year. His cherry farm went bust, and his construction clients threaten to unhinge what’s left of his sanity. But Wade’s passion for life heats up when he’s hired to remodel a new storefront next to Big Sky Pie -and he falls for the red-hot, bad girl who’s setting up her catering shop there.
Fresh off her own divorce, Roxy isn’t looking for another relationship, just a spontaneous fling or three. Her contractor Wade looks as delicious as her specialty confections, but he’s way too buttoned-up for a casual affair. Yet there’s an ultra-sexy strength about him Roxy can’t resist. What that man clearly needs is something decadent-like her…
