Taste Test

One taste of her past, and everything starts simmering again.

When rising chef Eloise Hart gets the call no one prepares for, everything in her carefully built life begins to boil over. Returning to her small hometown of Chestnut Falls to settle her grandmother's estate was supposed to be temporary.

But nothing about home is as simple as she remembers-not the quiet house still carrying her grandmother's presence, not the kitten who refuses to leave her porch... and definitely not Jake Andrews.

He's no longer the boy she left behind. He's steadier. Stronger. And far more dangerous to her heart. Their reunion is meant to be polite. Brief. Forgettable. Instead, it sparks like a lit match in a quiet room-familiar touches, slow-burn tension, and a pull Eloise feels all the way down to her bones. Jake still knows her. Still steadies her. Still makes her want things she's spent years trying to outrun.

As Eloise rediscovers the kitchen that raised her, the dreams she buried, and the boy who once held her whole heart, she begins to wonder if the life she built is really the one she wants... or if she's been hungry for something entirely different.

A heartfelt, spicy, second chance romance about coming home, risking everything, and realizing some loves are worth a second taste. Perfect for readers who love small towns, emotional tension, and exes who never really let each other go.