Gouda friends

Cathy Yardley

Book - 2022

Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it's a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word--goldfish. Next thing she knows, she's on a plane back home. Josh O'Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he's the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd Herd friend group, was instrumental in building his self-esteem. When she calls him out of the blue, he jumps at the chance to return the favor. Josh and Tam immediately get to work fixing her life--but again, it's complica...ted. Their close friendship was always a lifeline between them; a blooming romance might confuse things. Still, at least one thing is for certain: their chemistry is un-brie-lievable.

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Subjects
Genres
Romance fiction
Published
Seattle, [Washington] : Montlake [2022].
Language
English
Main Author
Cathy Yardley (author)
Physical Description
294 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781542030021
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"Best friends for-chèvre" help each other find and then follow their bliss in Yardley's charming, slow-paced second Ponto Beach Reunion rom-com (after Love, Comment, Subscribe). People-pleaser Tam Doan is stuck in a bad pattern of "dating jackasses and taking low-end jobs." Then, after an 18-hour work day, she walks in on her boyfriend in bed with another woman. Worse, he's thrown out her emergency cheese. Tam dumps him, quits her job, and moves home to Ponto Beach, Calif., to reconnect with old friends--especially her equally cheese-loving BFF Josh O'Malley. Five years earlier, Josh hit rock bottom and Tam helped him pull his life together to create Ghost Kitchens Unlimited, several delivery-only restaurants operating out of one commercial kitchen. Now Josh wants to return the favor. As Tam searches for a career and Josh expands his business, the pair become friends with benefits in a series of sizzling sex scenes. But when Tam is offered her dream job in Seattle, will she choose to prioritize her personal or her professional life? It's palpable how much Tam and Josh care for each other, and though there are few belly laughs here, the plethora of cheese puns are sure to make readers smile. Yardley's fans will gobble up this gentle but steamy romance. Agent: Tricia Skinner, Fuse Literary. (Mar.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Not only did Tam Doan's boyfriend throw away the gourmet and expensive cheese she'd saved up for, he's also cheating on her. Dumping him, metaphorically, into the bin along with her cheese, the also newly unemployed Tam flees to her best friend. Josh O'Malley, once a troubled teen and a member of Tam's high school "Nerd Herd" friend group, is only happy to help. Studious Tam was essential to helping Josh find his confidence and his career in pop-up restaurants. As they try to figure out what Tam's dream career might be, sparks fly, and they must navigate the cost to their friendship. The novel is chock-full of cheesy puns, food descriptions, and excellent banter, with deft narration by David Lee Huynh and Jenapher Zheng. (Zheng's narration for Vietnamese American recovering perfectionist Tam is especially delightful.) VERDICT A promising debut and a good fit for any contemporary romance collection. Libraries building more multicultural collections will be especially interested.--Elizabeth Gabriel

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Tam and Josh have been the perfect couple since high school, but not romantically--they're best friends. When Tam Doan arrives home from a failed business trip for the advertising job she despises, she doesn't think her night can get any worse. That is, until she finds her boyfriend in bed with his ex and also discovers that he tossed her prized stash of Cloud City Creamery sheep's milk cheese, which she'd special ordered from Seattle. Seven ounces of wasted cheese is precisely what pushes Tam to finally leave Brent in New York and send out an SOS to her best friend, Josh O'Malley. It's been five years since she's seen him, and Brent's jealousy was the driving force behind the fact that she'd lost touch with Josh and the Nerd Herd, their close-knit group of friends. But for Josh, half a decade of minimal communication with his high school BFF proves no problem at all, and he's more than happy to fly her back to Ponto Beach, California, to stay with him as he helps her start anew. They easily fall back into their old ways as he helps Tam "[find] her bliss" professionally, but what they didn't expect? A newfound sexual tension neither of them can escape. Tam and Josh soon find that living together as adults is much different--and much hotter--than a teenage sleepover, and maybe it's time for them to save their friendship by ruining it. The second book in Yardley's Ponto Beach Reunion series welcomes back some familiar faces, including Lily and Tobin from Love, Comment, Subscribe (2021), and the Nerd Herd is back and friendlier than ever. Yardley's prose is summery and light--"The afternoon sun was high and hot, so the cool air off the Pacific felt like a benediction"--and you'll get swept up as Tam and Josh breezily fall right back into place as the lovably cheesy duo known as Jam. A mouthwatering romance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.