Her Big City Neighbor (Cider House Sisters #1) by Jackie Lau

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When small-town engineer Amy Sharpe inherits a house in Toronto, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to start over and go back to school. Away from the family that takes her for granted, away from the ex who expected so much and gave little in return.

The new Amy enjoys wandering around the city and frequenting bubble tea shops, German beer halls, dim sum restaurants, and coffee bars serving Japanese pastries. She has a roommate with the same name as her favorite fictional character, and a group of friends who meet at a cider bar every couple of weeks.

The new Amy is also in lust with her brooding, tattooed next-door neighbor, Victor Choi, who is far from friendly but looks really hot cutting the grass without a shirt. Too bad the grass doesn’t grow faster.

As she starts telling him about her daily adventures—and as a little kissing in the garden becomes a regular activity—Amy begins to feel more than lust. But she fears she’s falling into her old patterns in relationships and refuses to let herself be underappreciated again.

Is Victor really more than a hot fling? And what’s he hiding behind that grumpy exterior?

Source: borrowed; audiobook from Hoopla

It's been one of my goals to get to a Jackie Lau book and let's just say that I now understand why she posts so much about food!

I picked Her Big City Neighbor because I wanted something light-ish and also adventure-ish, and its blurb fit into what I was looking for. I loved Amy's wide-eyed, open to all possibilities attitude and I found it uplifting, something else I realized I needed as I listened along. Moving from a small town to having her own place in the big city is a bit of a culture shock in some ways but her excitement at exploring her new neighborhood and trying new things just made me smile constantly. Having a hot neighbor who's not bad to look at while he's out mowing the lawn is a definite bonus. I was amused by Amy's attempt to befriend Victor who only ever responded to her non-stop cheery commentary with grunts and monosyllables. Her good nature eventually wears him down and before you know it he's sharing beer with her in the backyard. Chatting turns into kissing which turns into ....

So here's what I most loved about the story - Amy's liberation. While she lived at home she was the reliable daughter and aunt who never said 'no' and did everything for everyone. No one in her family could understand or support her decision to move away and go back to school. She was so taken for granted and it was frankly annoying. Living on Toronto and having these new experiences showed her what she had been missing and more importantly, what she had every right to do. She also left behind a an ex boyfriend who didn't bring much to their relationship. In fully enjoying her single life and making new friends, she garnered the strength to set aside any lingering guilt to declare out loud exactly what she wanted and deserved whether it was family or a burgeoning relationship with Victor. For his part, Victor was learning to come out of his self-imposed bubble after suffering a loss that hit him hard. Numbness was his cure to life carrying on. Amy's enthusiasm and energy simply renewed his interest in things around him and gave him the courage to feel again.

The second thing I loved about the story - the food! Oh.My.God. I learned a hard lesson in the first chapter and that I should never read or listen to a Jackie Lau book on an empty stomach. The story is filled with serious food porn which made me ravenous half the time! There is serious joy in someone excitedly trying new things and gaining such pleasure from those experiences. I kind of wished that I was the one trying some of these new foods for the first time again. From pastries to bubble tea to dim sum ... it was all so delicious and I pretty much lived vicariously through Amy. 

I thought the audiobook narration by Emily Woo Zeller was well done. She was animated and captured all of the characters nicely. I especially liked how she captured Victor's mom. It was perfect and so very familiar to me. Her Big City Neighbor was a fun escape for me and I know for the next time I listen to a Jackie Lau book to make sure I have some delicious snacks on hand.

~ Bel

The Negotiator by Avery Flynn

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Wanted: Personal Buffer

Often snarly, workaholic executive seeks “buffer” from annoying outside distractions AKA people. Free spirits with personal boundary issues, excessive quirks, or general squeamishness need not apply. Salary negotiable. Confidentiality required.

Workaholic billionaire Sawyer Carlyle may have joked he needed a “buffer” from their marriage-obsessed mom, but he didn’t need a waiting room filled with “candidates” to further distract him. (Thanks, bro.) But when a sexy job applicant shooes his mom and the socialite in tow out of his office, Sawyer sees the genius of the plan. And the woman. In fact, Miss Clover Lee might just get the fastest promotion in history, from buffer to fake fiancé…

This “free-spirit” might look like hot sunshine and lickable rainbows, but she negotiates like a pitbull. Before Sawyer knows what hit him, he’s agreed to give up Friday nights for reality tv, his Saturdays for flea markets (why buy junk still baffles him), his Tuesdays and Thursdays for “date nights” (aka panty-losing opportunities if he plays his cards right). And now she wants lavender bath salts and tulips delivered every Monday? 

Yup, she’s just screwing with him. Good thing she’s got this non-negotiatable six-weeks-and-she’s-gone rule or Sawyer may have just met this match…



Confession: I had never listened to an audiobook until now and The Negotiator was the perfect book to break me in! 

Audio cover

Right from the beginning I knew this was going to be good. Clover is a fun, sassy, headstrong woman who seems to make the most out of situations. An ad for a "personal buffer" might scare some people away but not her. She has as resume littered with jobs of all sorts. Never keen to stay in one place for long, Clover is all about the adventure. Being a personal buffer sounds like a good way for her to make some quick cash before she heads off on her next adventure: Australia. Sawyer, is a gruff workaholic who has no time for games. But his mother's insistence that he find a wife - and she keeps parading wife candidates in front of him - are making him crazy.  His brother, Hudson concocts this plan for a buffer as a joke and a way to get their mother off of Sawyer's back. When Sawyer sees how Clover doesn't wilt in his mother's presence but instead stands up to her, he thinks this cocamamy scheme just might work. He offers her the job and she accepts.

Yes, this is a ludicrous idea but I loved it! From the cover and the title one might think that Sawyer takes the lead in all matters here but one would be oh so wrong. Clover is equally adept at that and her negotiating skills sometimes put him to shame. Seriously, the guy has met his match and no other woman, not even his mother, could get him to do some of the things Clover has encouraged him to do. I think this is what I enjoyed most about their pairing, that they were always trying to one up each other and it was all in good-natured fun. But even a fun thing can get tricky as their made up relationship gets more complicated and the list of lies grow longer. Clover struggles with her duplicity and eventually it's all too much. Sawyer who is always about the big picture and keeps missing the tiny details, has a lot of growing to do but he'll have to do it in time before Clover slips through his fingers.

I love how Flynn playfully phrases things which had me laughing as I was walking my dog. (yeah, that didn't look funny at all to passers by.) Clover is lovable for all her spunkiness, and Sawyer, well, I loved him despite his grumpiness and general cluelessness with feelings. What got me about him is that he doesn't fall into the aggressive alpha male, you know, the guy beating on his chest declaring that everything including the girl belong to him and only him. Sure, he gets a little jealous and perplexed by why his heart is acting strangely but he's not a jackass. Clover and Sawyer together generate a lot of heat and I did delight in how they'd mess with his mother when she was trying to set him up with her pre-approved snooty socialites. In front of Clover! But the best thing about The Negotiator is how when I thought I had the characters pegged, they ALL surprised me! It's all about their shifting perspectives and I enjoyed how makes that happen.


I was lucky enough to meet Avery Flynn at RT17. In person she is so outgoing and friendly and I sensed that in her writing, too. I'm so happy I finally got around to "reading" The Negotiator, especially now that I know The Charmer, about Saywer's brother, Hudson is coming out later this month. I am beyond excited for that!

~ Bel

Available 9/25/17