Cream of the Crop

By: Alice Clayton

Narrated by: Deacon Lee, Olivia Song

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Alice Clayton, the New York Times best-selling author of Wallbanger and The Unidentified Redhead, brings the sexy and the funny back with this dangerously rich and sinfully decadent dollop of Cream.

Manhattan's It Girl, Natalie Grayson, has it all. She's a hot exec at a leading advertising firm, known industrywide for her challenging and edgy campaigns. She's got a large circle of friends and a family that loves her dearly, and her dance card is nearly always full with handsome eligible bachelors. What else could a modern gal-about-town wish for? The answer, of course, is...cheese.

Natalie's favorite part of each week is spending Saturday morning at the Union Square Farmer's Market, where she indulges her love of all things triple cream. Her favorite booth to visit also happens to indulge her love of all things handsome. Oscar Mendoza, owner of the Bailey Falls Creamery and purveyor of the finest artisanal cheeses the Hudson Valley has to offer, is tall, dark, mysterious, and a bit oblivious. Or so she thinks. But that doesn't stop Natalie from fantasizing about the size of his milk can....

Romance is churning, passion is burning, and something incredible is rising to the top. Cream.

©2016 Alice Clayton (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

About cheese, not cheesey

I really liked this second installment. It unfolded at a good pace, offered a good amount of character development. This book is about Natalie a woman from NYC and a dairy farmer who we met in book one. To be fair, we briefly met Natalie as well. I especially liked the background story of Natalie. Clayton did a fine job of illuminating her strengths and weaknesses making her strong, flawed as we all are, but strong. Oscar, her love interest, had his moments when I wanted to scream at him for being shortsighted., but hey it is a romance novel. Loved the curse-can shaking comic relief.

Most of the book is narrated by Olivia Song (all but 9 minutes) and she does a great job. Deacon Lee did the Epilogue. Song should have got top billing here. Lee gets a pass. In the book, Clayton sets up the next friend ideally to be bitten by Bailey Falls. Can't wait to read it. I give it a thumbs -- big.

I'm going to need more Olivia Song!

Oh how I loved this book! First of all, I have a MAJOR girl crush on the heroine, Natalie. She is admittedly a big girl, she's not ashamed of it and she has so much confidence it's contagious! She's spunky, funny and bold. I had so much fun with this book! I absolutely LOVED Olivia Song's spirited and animated performance. I'll definitely be looking up more of her Audiobooks. Alice Clayton delivers another fantastic story worthy of all the side splitting pain you are going to endure while laughing and all the hot flashes you are going to endure while swooning.

Not as good as nuts.

Would you consider the audio edition of Cream of the Crop to be better than the print version?

I think they are both fine.

Would you recommend Cream of the Crop to your friends? Why or why not?

I mean it's a smutty fun summer read. I just didn't find the characters to be as likable as I did in the first book.

Which character – as performed by Deacon Lee and Olivia Song – was your favorite?

I guess the main character, or Roxy's hilarious daughter.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It just made me laugh, no crying. :)

Disappointing

Generally story was sweet but they frequently point out that they don’t talk enough to really know each other so they jump into bed and forget to talk. The worst was the hotdog incident. Before he went into his long rant about how unreasonable she was being, someone should have asked how he would feel if she was the one with an ex who did not respect her new relationship and observe reasonable boundaries. If he retorted that he wouldn’t be so rude to her ex she could point out that he wouldn’t have to because she would tell her ex he needs to respect her relationship. She was made out to be the unreasonable one and he was allowed to have his muffins and his big bottom. I can’t believe a woman wrote this point of view.

Sexy City Business Executive Meets Dairy Farmer

Cream of the Crop is the second book in the Hidden Valley series. It can be listened to as a standalone.

Natalie is the definition of a New York executive business woman. She is curvy and has learned to be confident in her skin and make men look at her full figure twice. She was burned in a past relationship, so her heart isn't up for grabs, but feel free to grab her body, please.

Oscar is an ex-NFL football player who was sidelined in his seventh professional game. He used his signing bonus to buy a dairy farm. Now he runs Bailey Falls Creamery, making some of the finest hand made cheeses anywhere and selling them at the farmer's market on the weekend.

These two bump into each other almost every week. Oscar isn't big with words, being more of an action man. Normally well spoken Natalie finds herself nervous and tongue-tied as soon as she is near Oscar. For months their only interaction is "Brie?" " Oh. Yes. "

Natalie gets the account from the Bailey Falls mayor to do some advertising and commercials to draw more people to their beloved town. Of course, she gets to finally say more to Oscar also. This fun city vs country romance comedy was a joy to hear. I loved Nuts, the first in this series, and this was fun as well, if a bit more far fetched at times. Cute couple that has a lot to overcome outside the bedroom, but can set the barn on fire inside it.

Might be Alice Claton's besr

I liked it so much, that I listened to it twice. I enjoyed it, laughed out loud, just as much the second time around.

Needed different epilogue voice

the book was great but the male voice in the epilogue did not match the character description. sounded like an old man trying top be young... lost some appeal at the end

Hard to finish

Narration so bland it was hard to finish. Story week, loved the charters in Nuts, but this one didn’t do it for me.

Great storyline but the why the constant swearing?

Apart from a good storyline I was distracted with the boring tone of the narrator. The crassness of the swearing was off putting and took away some of the sweetness of the story.

Fun read

Would you try another book from Alice Clayton and/or Deacon Lee and Olivia Song ?

Another enjoyable installment in The Hudson Valley Series. As in other stories by the same author one can expect humor, swoon and sexual tension of the best kind.

Cream Of The Crop is Natalie’s story and as the character herself, her story is funny, sensual & fast pace. The story itself isn’t filled with intense drama and angst, however, Natalie story holds a painful past that shaped the woman she came to be.

Natalie and Oscar are complete opposites, Oscan is a farmer, he is a man of a few words and a man who keeps to himself. Natalie is the opposite of everything Oscar is, she is friendly, outspoken, a city girl and a woman who usually get away with almost anything. As their story develops we come to realize that while Natalie has her life nicely put together, her past wasn’t without any hurt and pain. But Oscar also keeps secrets and as Natalie, life was also cruel to him just in different ways.

I enjoyed the Natalie & Oscar story, their stories held a sense of reality and while they each had a different background & upbringing they too were hurt in ways that would define them. Natalie is the typical professional city woman, fierce, hard worker, in charge of herself and in control. On the hand, she is also learning to experience life in a different way, with a very different man and in ways she didn’t know possible.

Cream of The Crop is everything I expected, beautifully written and with characters that make us swoon all the way. Natalie is very likable, there is something about Natalie’s character that called to me. I enjoyed how she took control of her feelings and emotions and didn’t let the new experiences scare her. I loved Oscar, he is kind, sexy, funny & sexual. He is the perfect match for Natalie.

This love story falls into place perfectly, all the while giving readers a glimpse into these characters emotions, feelings & fears. Cream of the Crop has all the ingredients of a sweet, sexy and romantic comedy. Oscar is hot and Natalie even hotter.