Summer Kitchen

Saving Home, Book 1

By: E.J. Russell

Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The foolproof recipe for personal redemption and perfect love...

Take:

• One former rock musician
• One almost-MBA turned cooking school student

Add two heaping spoonfuls (each) of:

• responsibility
• familial obligation
• regret

And a dash of:

• misunderstanding (optional)

Stir together in:

• one small Vermont town

Season with:

• friends
• family
• foes
• and one large ginger cat

Garnish with:

• validation
• laughter
• just deserts (also desserts)

Simmer for one entire summer before serving up a delicious (well-deserved) HEA. Bon Appetit!

©2024 E.J. Russell (P)2024 E.J. Russell

Home

Oh my gosh! This one is so good! I think this is one of my favorite EJ Russell stories now. Casey and Dev and the town of Home, VT have stolen my heart. Talk about finding what and where you are supposed to be!!!! And Greg Boudreaux gives another stellar performance bringing these characters to life. Absolutely amazing!!!🤩 🥰

Good listen

I enjoyed the story. I really enjoy this narrator. I think they did a great job with the story. The characters were great in this book.

Wonderful

So sweet and wonderful- loved the home town feel and the diverse characters. It was super fun to hear Greg sing though the random guitar riffs startled me every time (they were beautiful but loud and unexpected). Overall a wonderful treat to read ❤️

Absolutely loved this one!

Home is where the heart is!! This one shows how true this old adage really hits. Although Casey wasn’t “home” Dev was. From that point a cat helped things along! Great listen!

Just Lovely

I needed a warm comfort book, and this one hit the spot. Loved the characters and the story line. And then add Greg Boudreaux singing. Loved the lyrics of the songs and the background music (which I usually don't appreciate). This was a wonderfully warm story that I'll come back to. Look forward to seeing what other story lines come from Russell in the hometown of Home.

Fantastic Story & Listen🎧A Heartwarming Delight!

This fabulous small-town romance is the first book of E.J. Russell’s new “Saving Home” series and what a wonderful start it is. I even loved the blurb, the foolproof recipe for personal redemption and perfect love and all the rest describe the book completely. I adored the two lead characters, Casey and Dev, some of the secondary characters are pretty amazing too, including R.S. the mystical ginger cat. Casey’s dad was a renowned and award-winning chef and his uncle wants him to follow his late father’s footsteps and bring back his restaurant and famous dishes. Despite practically growing up in kitchens, Casey is the worst cook ever, but that did not stop his uncle from enrolling him in cooking classes, but after getting thrown out of them all his uncle finds a school for him to attend in Home, Vermont. Dev is a rock star, but he left his band and his ex and returned to Home after a tragic accident took the lives of his family. He inherited the Harrison House and the town manager position, and he is struggling with keeping up with the books and finances. Casey’s uncle enrolled him in the Summer Kitchen cooking class for three months and is staying at Harrison House. The chemistry between Dev and Casey was electric, and I enjoyed watching them get to know each other. There is a hiccup in their budding relationship when Bradley comes to visit, making demands and stirring up trouble for them and the town. I loved how everything played out in this book, the writing, plot and world building are fantastic, as are the character growth and development. The story is captivating from start to end and has the perfect balance of drama, charm, humor, heartfelt emotions and a slow burn but worth the wait romance. E.J. Russell, thank you for another wonderful story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧 Greg Boudreaux is a wonderfully talented voice artist, and he did an amazing job bringing the characters and story to life, from the pages to your ears. His character voices are fitting and I loved how he took each role and made it his own, sounding believable and just as I imagined the characters would sound. He set the perfect tone for the story, captured all the characters’ emotions and has you feeling every single one. Great Boudreaux is an entertaining storyteller and his performance elevates the story to another level. Thank you for another exceptional listen.

Home Is Where the Heart Is Found!

I really liked the unique premise of this story. Both characters have been thrown into awkward situations. They are both very dedicated to trying to make things work out. One because of his love for his family and the other for the love of his "Home" town. Their romance is slow burn which makes it feel so very real. They end up giving each other the strength and courage to succeed. I loved that Casey had some snark and was able to break through to Dev and build a relationship. Greg Boudreaux voiced these two very different yet similar guys beautifully! He brought out the snark and the emotions!

Fantastic

This is a super sweet story. I’ve not read anything by this author before, I picked this up because of the narrator. Greg did a stupendous job bringing this story to life. I become completely immersed in the town of Home and Casey and Dev’s budding relationship. Such a great story and absolute perfection with narration.

Welcome Home. Don't be a d*ck.

I am a huge fan of E.J Russell's paranormal books, although I hadn't read/listened to many of her contemporary romances, but with both an author and narrator that I love, I took advantage of a free audio copy of this book. I'm glad I did! MCs Dev and Casey were both the sweetest, and I really appreciated the lack of severe angst. Many problems come up, but they are dealt with without overblown handwringing. Both Dev's ex and Casey's wanna-be boyfriend/stalker are calmly and logically put in their places, and there wasn't a huge communication breakdown (just a little one), I loved the side characters as well. The town of Home is chock full of quirky, engaging characters, and I loved the universal response of mm-hmm, and the town motto (refer to my headline). This is book I, and I am really looking forward to more in the series.

What to say about the narration? Greg Boudreaux is one of my favorite narrators and I would likely listen to any audiobook he narrated. His voice is pleasant and so easy to listen to, and I love the way he brings each characters' personality to life. A narrator can make or break an audiobook (and there are some audiobooks I won't listen to, even though I loved the book, because the narrator is too boring or dry). That is definitely not the case here. I think Greg could make the phone book sound interesting!

I received a free copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

Loved it

Summer Kitchen is the first book in the new Saving Home series. This is the story of Casey and Dev. Casey is sent to Home, a quiet town in Vermont to learn to cook at the Summer Kitchen cooking school. Dev the former musician who is now the town's manager really doesn't know what he's doing. This is a sweet low angst story that I truly enjoyed. I loved that even though there were many places that miscommunication could have happened, it didn't. The story has a great cast of characters with amazing world building. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. If you get the audio narration, Greg Boudreaux does a wonderful job of narrating this book. He makes the change in characters seamlessly. I would definitely recommend this book.