Spiced

Misfit Brides, Book 6

De: Jamie Farrell, Pippa Grant

Narrado por: Emma Wilder

Dueling neighbors, baby fever, fake boyfriends, and pizza... Life in Bliss has never been better!

Pepper Blue wants a baby. Forget the husband. She’s better at training men to be good husbands for other women than she is at getting one herself, so she’s doing this on her own.

But she hasn’t exactly shared the news with her family, and they’re determined to find her a date to the next family wedding. A date that won’t ditch her for one of her sisters or cousins. This time.

Which means Pepper Blue needs a fake boyfriend. A fake boyfriend that she has no chance of actually falling in love with. A fake boyfriend like her obnoxious neighbor.

Tony Cross is a pizza god with a sausage problem. He’s putting on a good show—a different woman at his house every night, flirting with all the right customers, flexing his muscles when called upon—but since his divorce, his meat has been more on the undercooked side. If you know what he means.

Except, unfortunately, when it comes to his annoyingly perfect, always put together, too good for him neighbor. Pepper Blue. Who is not a viable candidate for fixing his “little problem.”

So he’s not sure why he’s coming to her rescue, pretending to be her boyfriend to save her from a bad date at his pizza joint. He just knows it’s fun. And it irritates her. And it turns out, she might be able to help his flagging pizza sales as much as she’s helping his flagging… you know.

So long as this is just business, he’s happy to keep pushing her buttons.

All night long, if he has to.

©2018 Pippa Grant (P)2025 Bang Laugh Love LLC

Fake relationship, interfering family, healing...

Fake relationship, interfering family, healing, rom com with spice!

This is not the first book in the series, but it can be read as a complete stand-alone. However I think you will get more out of it if you have read the other books as you have met some of the characters before. But don’t let that deter you. This can be a stand-alone. But it will make you want to read all the other books!

I listened to the audiobook of this, and loved it! I think that hearing the voices gives you so much more as a reader. You really can feel the emotions. You connect much quicker to the characters as well. These narrators were top notch.

Pizza. And family. And love.

Phew - the feels in this book - it packs quite an emotional punch - laughing, crying, swooning, cringing, teeth gritting, and cheering. And I loved every swoony, heart wrenching, healing, hilarious moment of it. That’s the best kind of romcom for me, the sneaky ones that have all the depth and meaty storyline woven through all the snort worthy laughs. This wonderful love story had the perfect balance of humor, love, real life issues, painful pasts and spice. I loved, loved Pepper and Tony’s enemies to lovers, fake dating healing romance. I was feeling all the feels with this one - wounded characters always draw me in. I just wanna reach into the story and hug them to help them heal. Pepper owns the bridal shop in small town Bliss. She comes from a large family and all of her last boyfriends went on to marry the next woman they dated after her. Tired of being unlucky in love but wanting to be a mom, she’s been secretly undergoing IVF for the last year. Tony is divorced, lives next door to Pepper, and owns Pepperoni Tony’s. After his marriage and life blew up, he’s trying to force his happy but his heart and his body are not cooperating. They are unfriendly neighbors sort of enemies because of his feral cat and her scared dog. To help his business and get her sisters off her back Tony and Pepper agree to fake date just until her sister’s upcoming wedding. But feelings do not always listen to agendas or stay in their assigned boxes and Pepper and Tony need to deal with their pasts to get to any kind of happy life because those scars continue to screw things up. The journey to their HEA was so heart sequencing wonderful to witness though. I love this series and the town of Bliss and the Blue family.

Emma Wilder did a wonderful job narrating the story and characters into life with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly.

Pepper and Tony

Pepper and Tony are not at all in the right place to start a relationship. They have both given up on relationships and HEAs. That makes them a perfect pair for fake dating and giving each other some space from meddling relatives. Through all the trauma, they start to rely on each other and care for each other. But it is still not permanent, right?
Emma Wilder is always a great narrator. She puts all the depth and uncertainty in this one.