Lips Like Sugar: A Bluebird Basin Romance
Jess K. Hardy
Fake Date. Real Feels. It’s official, Mira Harlow has finally lost it. Between running her small-town bakery, parenting her 14-year-old son, and taking care of her mom, she’s a stretched-thin mess. But kissing a total—and very sexy—stranger before begging him to be her date to Ashley and Madigan’s wedding just so her ex won’t see how lonely she really is? That’s a new level of chaos, even for her. The last thing drummer Cole Sanderson expects when he drives into the small ski town of Red Falls, MT is to score a date to his best friend’s wedding. But since his life in Seattle is stagnating, when the gorgeous, green-eyed bakery owner propositions him to be her long-distance boyfriend, stirring his punk-shenanigans roots to their core, he doesn’t even hesitate to tell her, “Hell yes!” Mira hopes for a fun night with her fake date, but when their wedding weekend turns into a genuine connection, when Cole returns to Seattle and she tries to go back to her normal life, she can’t help but wonder if she missed out on something real. But Cole isn’t done with her yet, and when he finds his way back to Red Falls, she’ll have to decide what’s more important, holding down her world, or taking a risk, embracing the chaos, and maybe even falling in love. Lips Like Sugar is book 2 in the Bluebird Basin Romance series but can absolutely be read as a standalone. This story features two main characters in their fifties, lots of laughs, plenty of open-door steam, and so many butterflies. Content notes: Living with and caring for a parent with mild cognitive impairment, addiction, relapse, an unhealthy ex, grown men deeply in their feels, strong friendships, conversations about love languages, and an absurd amount of Say Anything references, including a steamy riff on the airplane seatbelt sign scene…
Publication Year: 2024
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Sometimes you make up a fake boyfriend when your ex walks into your bakery and then this random dreamboat walks in and plays along and then he's kind of great and you don't want to fall in love with him because it would hurt too much to lose him. It could happen to anyone, really. It definitely happens to Mira when Cole (who was the drummer in a top 80s band) stops in to pick up some tarts.
Jess K. Hardy is so good at what she does. This and the previous book, Come as You Are, are both spectacular. Mira is strung so tight, taking care of her mother whose memory is failing and her teenage soon, who's a teen boy, plus running a bakery. Her walls are built so high, Cole can barely see over them. Cole has no walls. He'll pretend to have them to not freak Mira out, but he wants inside her heart so bad. But Mira can't see how they can make it, when Cole lives in Seattle (with his daughter and tiny granddaughter) and she's in Montana.
I really appreciated how both characters are over 50, both have full lives and backgrounds, and they're both into each other so bad. The spicy scenes are SO strong. Jess makes it clear how much they connect physically.
You don't have to have read Come as You Are to enjoy this one, but it does give you a fuller picture of life in Bluebird Basin.
But yeah, I loved it.
But Mira can't see how they can make it, when Cole lives in Seattle (with his daughter and tiny granddaughter) and she's in Montana.
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