Title: Tasting Notes (Canyon Creek #1)
Author: Cate Ashwood and Michael Pauley (Narrator)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press LLC
Release Date: June 30th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5
Blurb:
There’s nothing that can’t be solved over a glass of excellent wine.
Joseph “West” Weston has paid for his wealth and success with long hours at the office and no personal life to speak of. Meetings, conference calls, and paperwork dominate his waking hours and have kept him from honoring the promise he made to his late grandfather years before.
After leaving the Marines, Robert “Rush” Coeman returns to his hometown and settles in as a Christmas tree farmer. His life is quiet and simple, and he likes it that way. When West arrives in town and buys Rush’s parents’ vineyard on a whim, that simple life is turned upside down. The animosity between them is palpable, but Rush shelves his preconceived notions in order to protect his parents’ legacy. He agrees to help West learn how to run the vineyard, and Rush soon realizes that love doesn’t necessarily come in the package he expected.
When billionaire venture capitalist, Joseph “West” Weston drops everything and goes on an impromptu road trip to scatter his beloved Grandfather’s ashes he winds up in Canyon Creek, a small town in California where he spontaneously decides to buy a winery.
Robert “Rush” Coeman has left the Marines and, instead of running his parent’s winery, he’s bought his own Christmas Tree farm. When his parents sell the winery to West, they suggest West tap Rush as a resource in how to run the small operation. However, Rush is antagonistic to West from the start. Belligerent and downright rude, he barely lets the guy get two words in before ripping his head off.
Of course, all that hostility soon segues into sexual heat between the two which finally bubbles over and they have hot, angry sex. Which is hot, I won’t lie, but I like it more when the anger and heat morphs into real feelings and their romance begins. I far prefer the story once they become lovers and start behaving well toward each other.
There’s still plenty of obstacles, the main one being that West’s life and company is in Chicago, and when problems happen at home he’s forced to leave Rush and Canyon Creek behind….or will he?
Fans of the enemies to lovers trope will probably love this one. Personally, while I enjoyed the story overall, especially when the two really become romantically involved, I didn’t really think Rush’s whole early animosity toward West was warranted, even with the backstory we’re finally given.
There is some suspension of disbelief that’s needed for several plot points, but Ashwood makes it all work and it all leads up to a mostly satisfying HEA.
I’m not really sure what happened here for me with the narration. Overall it’s okay and while I really liked Michael Pauley’s character voices and his pacing is good, it really took me some time to get past the almost staccato rhythm of speaking. His tone and rhythm really threw me at first.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed it overall, even if I didn’t love it, and I really liked that this seemed to be the setup to a new series. I’m looking forward to Sebastian’s story.
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