Much Ado About A Latte

Maple Falls, Arkansas, is a small town where everyone knows not only your name, but also your business.  It seems like a nice place to grow up and to raise a family, because even if everyone's nose is in your business, they care about you.  

Anita is a waitress at the Sunshine Diner, but the building next door is vacant and she wants to open a coffee shop in it.  Tanner Castillo is her high school crush/tutor, and he's also the chef at the Diner.  George, the owner, has decided to sell the diner and Tanner thinks it would make a good investment.  What's really aggravating about the situation with the empty building and the diner is that Anita and Tanner keep their plans a secret and both of them become angry when their plans are revealed.  It takes a bit for them to overcome their anger and to work together for the benefit of both of them.  

Kathleen Fuller is widely known for her Amish fiction, and this is the second in her Maple Falls series.  It's a lot of fun to read about a fictional town in Arkansas close to where I grew up.  Even the small town politics is familiar to places where I've lived.  Recognizing various places named within the story make it all the more compelling for me.  It is so easy for me to imagine the settings and the surroundings.  All of that added to my joy in reading the story.  I did get a bit put out with the knot-headedness of Tanner and Anita about keeping their business private and not telling the other what they were doing since their actions affected both of their businesses.  But that just added realism to the novel.  I could also understand Anita's feelings of inadequacy after being raised with over achieving brother and sister by over achieving parents.  Anita's mother set my teeth on edge with her somewhat narcissistic ways.  Even though she is a psychologist, she never stopped to listen.  My biggest pet peeve in all the world is not being listened to.  Just ask my husband.  😆  All of this makes the tale more believable.  I hope another novel in Maple Falls will be coming out soon!  

Four Strong Stars

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.