Is it a mistake? Yes.
Do I regret it? Maybe.

Falling for You, an all-new friends-to-lovers romance that delivers all-the-feels from Stacy Travis is available now!

 

Amazon  |  Amazon Worldwide

 

---

---

Blurb

When brilliant, logical Owen Miller walks into my bakery and witnesses the worst break-up in the history of public, mortifying break-ups, I can only think of one thing to do… so I kiss him.

Is it a mistake? Yes.
Do I regret it? Maybe.

Friends aren’t supposed to kiss—or have red-hot moments next to the bread oven. And respected bakers with designs on a San Francisco bread empire aren’t supposed to manhandle their customers.

It’s a rebound, pure and simple. We both admit it. I don’t have time for anything more, especially when I’m on the cusp of achieving my dream—expanding my business into hand-picked, perfect locations.

But Owen is a savvy hotel owner who knows a thing or two about business. So when location scouting leads to wine tasting, long leisurely drives, and a hands-on meeting in a wine cave, I decide mixing business and pleasure with the smoking-hot charmer might be the best of both worlds.

Until an anonymous competitor seems determined to sink everything I’ve put my heart and soul into. Maybe it’s time to end our friends with benefits arrangement before I lose everything.

But what if losing Owen is losing everything? What if I’m falling for my rebound guy?

 

Add to Goodreads

 

---

Review

4 stars

A sweet and fun chemistry-filled friends-to-lovers story, with the most gorgeous hero, this is a great read, and I loved it!

This is the second book in the Berkeley Hills series, and is the story of Isla, sister of Becca, from Second Chance at Us (which I adored). There is some character crossover, but this book can absolutely standalone.

Isla is a successful bakery owner, and one of the best bread makers in San Francisco. But her personal life implodes when her millionaire boyfriend is caught cheating on her by the paparazzi. She’s not devastated, since she had been looking for a way to end the relationship, but she’s embarrassed and furious at the betrayal. To add to her mortification, she has a complete meltdown in front of her most loyal customer, and kisses him in a moment of hot chemistry and not a lot of forethought. But it’s a spark which changes everything between them, and I was right on board for what was to come.

Right then I knew three things.
She was going to kill me with those lips, I was going to fall madly for her, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Owen is a hotel owner who has built his business in to a bit of an empire. But even though he’s a busy man, he still manages to visit Isla’s bakery every morning, coming in before opening time and watching her at work before leaving with his hot loaf of bread. She thinks he’s there because he’s a bread lover, and while that is true, he’s also biding his time until he can make his move on the beautiful bakery owner. And as soon as they share that kiss, it’s all on.

“Is everything okay? I mean, is it still cool that I stop in early or did me kissing you make it awkward?” Might as well own it. If she was going to be weird with me or kick me out of the place, I’d just as soon know about it.
She smiled. “I thought I kissed you.”
“Oh … you kissed me good.”

Isla and Owen have fantastic chemistry, but from her perspective, the timing is all wrong. She is just getting out of an unsatisfying relationship and trying to find her way back to herself, and she doesn’t want Owen to just be a rebound. And not only does her business keep her busy, but her plans for expansion are under threat from a secret competitor and she is distracted trying to figure out who has it in for. So Owen comes board to help her save her business, and they become friends… who kiss… and who eventually have hot and steamy sex that is all kinds of sizzling.

It’s fun, sexy, natural, and so, so easy. The relationship between Isla and Owen is effortless, and over coffee, dinners, roadtrips and more, they slip into becoming a key part of each other’s lives. But while Owen is all in, Isla is determined to keep them as friends with benefits, even though she’s falling for him just as hard as he has already fallen for her.

Walking around every day with my heart in my throat, cringing every time she called me a friend…I couldn’t take it when she’d yet to give me a sign she felt a fraction of what I’d been feeling for her since the first moment our lips connected.

I adored Owen. He’s sweet, fun, funny and caring, and he wears his heart on his sleeve for Isla. She is confident yet stubborn, which does create some issues for them, but Owen’s persistence in being there for her and proving how amazing they are together kept me fully invested in their story.

We were so good together, it was hard to imagine a future with anyone but her.

There is some drama as they figure themselves out, and there are some angsty and frustrating moments, but of course, true love wins, and there’s a gorgeously happy ending and an epilogue which finishes the story off beautifully.

Isla’s large family are a part of the story, and the dynamics between her and her siblings are so much fun – especially when Owen is invited into the fold. I loved seeing the group together, and I’m excited to read more about them, with Sara’s book up next.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s just the kind of easy and natural chemistry-filled romance that I love, and I loved watching these two find their HEA.

4 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

Berkeley Hills

---

Excerpt

“So . . . I’m going to hope the third ask is the charm here. Can I buy you some dinner? Or even a snack? There’s a CVS down the block. How about a Twix bar? Lays chips?”

It was like he was speaking a foreign language. After getting used to Tom’s big fancy dinner invitations to private tastings at Michelin-starred restaurants, I’d forgotten what it felt like when someone suggested grabbing food because it was dinnertime and I might be hungry.

“Yes,” I said, nodding at him, still a bit dazed. “Yes, okay. Except for Lays. I don’t like them. I need a thicker chip, like kettle baked or Ruffles.”

He nodded slowly. “Noted.”

“And I like sour gummy worms, not that you asked.”

I knew I sounded like a loon, but it felt important that he knew I wasn’t going to be satisfied with any old snack.

There were standards.

Plus, he’d thrown me off and I was having trouble recovering.

The one thing I knew for sure was I wanted to get out of the bakery and have dinner with him. It didn’t matter if he wanted to go to KFC or make me a peanut butter sandwich on the hood of his car. I was hungry.

We were standing in the middle of the bakery floor with the only light coming from the Edison bulbs hanging from two industrial chandeliers overhead. The night beyond him outside the door to the shop was dusky and I could hear the occasional voices of people walking past on the sidewalk.

Watching me with his placid blue eyes, he waited for me to work out the questions that were still coursing through my brain. He seemed unhurried and I wasn’t used to people like that in my life. My sisters were all crazy and my best hires tended to sprint around like caffeinated bunnies.

I had so many questions, namely why he, of all people, had chosen to show up here.

“I’m just…” I didn’t know what.

He waited patiently to find out.

My bakers had watched my meltdown after seeing the pictures of Tom and none of them had asked me to dinner. They’d taken off as soon as their shifts were over, mostly without saying goodbye as though they didn’t want to disturb the crazy person who might bite their heads off or cry. For the record, I was planning to do neither.

I’d called my middle sister, Becca, and the next-youngest sister, Cherry, and vented at them for twenty minutes apiece, but they hadn’t shown up to make sure I remained well-fed.

So what’s with this guy?

Maybe it was gratitude mixed with curiosity or maybe it was that I’d just noticed his lips looked particularly pink and plush, but I reached for his face and ran my fingertips over his cheek and over to his lips, which were just as soft as they looked.

His eyes clouded a little when I touched him and he stood frozen, as if waiting to see what else the crazy baker lady planned to do.

What I planned to do was kiss him.

 

---

About Stacy Travis

It’s a rough world out there, and we all sometimes need a good, romantic beach read, even if we can’t make it to the beach. I’ve spent many lazy days walking the streets of Paris and other gorgeous European cities, and if I’m doing it right, I’m bringing you a dash of romance and a vacay fantasy.

I can’t sit still, so when I’m not hiking, biking or running, I’m playing a very average game of tennis. Background music for writing undoubtedly features some U2, Lizzo, Billy Joel, Pink, Taylor Swift, and Led Zeppelin. Not necessarily in that order. And if I could only eat one food group, it would be cheese. Or wine. Or bread. Are those food groups? Whatever.

Connect with Stacy

Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Amazon  |  Goodreads

Stay up to date with Stacy by joining her mailing list

Website: https://stacytravis.com