Photo credits: lumix2004
Edited by Vaishali
Title: Bittersweet
Author: Sarina Bowen Series: (True North #1) Genre/Themes: New Adult, Contemporary Romance, Publisher: Rennie Road Books Year of Publication: 2016 Version: Amazon E-Book - kindle app Review
“One-twelve is an Ashmead’s Kernel. That’s a tasty apple. Want to try one?”
“I want to try the weirdest cider apple you’ve got.” He grinned. “Are you sure about that? Bittersweets can be pretty intense.” “Hit me.” How weird could an apple be?"
This was my first Sarina Bowen novel, and ‘Bittersweet’ is soft with a constant stream of humour throughout. But with a languid paced story that was perhaps too lethargic for me. There were slices of enjoyability because Bowen writes well, with a pace that complements a story of farm-life, plenty of lightness to counter occasional drama while exploring the conflicts of both MC’s, but ‘Bittersweet’ I suppose is an accurate summation to describe my reading experience because it was indeed bitter - not much of a demanding hand to reel me in - with lots of moments of sweet that didn’t compensate for my uninspired thoughts.
This story was as peachy as an apple, but without the textures to slake my eager appetite.
“You can be lonely anywhere…Trust me.”
‘And to think that I hadn’t even needed a lighter to burn my own career to the ground.'
Audrey Kidder and Griffin Shipley meet and clash in this tale of cheerful chef meets ill-tempered farmer. Griffin runs a farm in Vermont with his happy-go-lucky little family. He works long, laborious hours because the complicated responsibility of running a farm and maintaining financial stability for his siblings is a constant weight on his mind, and a worry on his surly shoulders. Always concerned about the future of his family business and whether they will profit from the current plan at play, Griffin’s only attentions are at a limit that boundary his family and their future. He doesn’t have the precious time squander on additional problems, least of all dream about a future he could have had.
‘Every day I got up before dawn and worked like a cart horse without complaint.
But somewhere along the way I’d begun to dream, and dreaming was dangerous.'
Very much an extension of her last name, Audrey Kidder is fun-loving, capricious and doesn’t take life too seriously, perhaps even at a time when she should have. Audrey is a non-achiever, led to believe her talents transcend as far as her lacklustre sense of dedication. Since she was young Audrey has felt like the inept dunce, and as a consequence feeling like a failure for the abilities she just doesn’t possess. But where she lacks in the customary core subjects, she finds sustenance from the nourishment of good and hearty cuisine. A streak of fertile passion for the culinary arts runs through tawdry Audrey’s veins. Knowing that her heart wants the delights of sensation, and the success of making great food, Audrey has a plan.
‘Some women might have trouble staying away from designer shoes or hot actors. My weakness was a star chef in action.'
Audrey is waiting for a chance to demonstrate her sense of culinary dexterity but - just like myself - blunders just seems to be her forte, failing with a stream of mistakes that do little to please anyone, but mistakes that don’t discourage Audrey from her chase. This enthusiastic chef fails because her skills are being overlooked and wasted on jobs that don’t bring out the best in her. Audrey lives and dreams of working in her own kitchen, where she can nurture the art of cuisine - where the magic happens - but magic also makes an appearance when she faces Griffin Shipley for the first time in five years.
‘Apparently all the people who grew pristine organic food were beautiful themselves.’
“Now let’s get your shiny new car out of a ditch, shall we?” Griff was glowering at me. For real. I’d never seen anyone actually glower.'
After making a pig’s ear of her internship Audrey is given a last chance assignment to Vermont where she has to negotiate with the local farmers to purchase their produce. Seeing as Audrey wants to feed her dreams as well as hungry customers off to Vermont she goes! Upon seeing Audrey, Griff isn’t the least bit amused because though they had a short-lived frolick years ago, he doesn’t see Audrey as much more than the careless college girl with a shot in her hand who took life as a careless ride. Griffin is different from the jock she remembers him to because he now has the familial duty that decides the course of his life, but more importantly his family’s.
“Having the sink over here keeps us out of the way,” he said. “And keeps the cooks from getting cranky.”
“What keeps you from getting cranky?” I called after him. “Whatever it is, have some of it."
Butting heads and avoiding the chemistry that hasn’t dampened since college, Griff doesn’t think that Audrey has the intelligence of lighting a single bulb, but she thinks he has enough of a broody aura to demoralise a sugar-infused infant. Griff’s attention marshals his farmly duties, while Audrey’s focus is on building her career and utilising the skills that she knows will bring her the biggest success. Her skill set isn’t varied but she knows what works for her, and it’s cooking. There isn’t a way that Griff can just abandon his family, and after a balking life of finding her calling, can Audrey give her chance for choice up for the farmlands of Vermont?
“Zach said he got my bag out of the car,” she told me as we began walking. “That was nice of him.”
“Now you know who’s the gentleman on the premises.” She gave me a quick poke in the side. “Not you.” “Damn straight."
Audrey is captivated by farm life because it’s so different from her own. But it’s a life she can see living, specially if that means filling time with the adorable Shipley’s and their warm charm. Will Audrey and Griffin part for the second time, or will the time again give them no indemnity? Will Audrey follow in her mother’s no man is to be trusted steps or will she find the adventitious in the farmlands of Shipley’s domain…
Audrey is following a dream that has no backing. Griff is leading one that feasibly isn’t his own.
‘Then she stopped, her chin tilting upward. Her expression was a dare. And I always too a dare.’
‘She and I were a dangerous combination.'
‘Bittersweet’ by Sarina Bowen has an acceptable - if not a bit ordinary - story but the story itself lost it’s presence in a sluggish pace that made the reading feel like a fatigue had descended upon me. As a story that has 300+ pages, this could have packed a better punch if the content was condensed into a shorter story that would have kept me interested rather than a protracted version that didn’t complement it’s gait. There was some, fun, some laughter, but the story was too motionless for me to find something valuable to hold on to. Perhaps I was looking for something more dramatic, something to pack a punch in it’s delivery, but perhaps I went looking in the wrong place?
Timing is everything when you choose a piece of literature to get dissolved in, and maybe it was the wrong time, but ‘Bittersweet’ didn’t appeal to me like the Shipley farm did to Audrey.
‘Two of the best nights of my life were the ones spent with her.
‘For the first time in a long while my senses woke up and shook themselves.'
If you like a story a story that has a nonchalant stride, and instant attraction that takes some time to solidify, with jokes to dot the margins, ‘Bittersweet’ might be for you. What happened in college was fleetingly brief, but Audrey doesn’t think that this man before her now will be so easy to forget. Instead of admitting defeat to her dubious employers, Audrey is more than keen to show that she isn’t the quitter her history knows her to be, because this undertaking is anything but a fool’s one.
‘But I already knew with Audrey that what you see was not always what you got. Beneath her girl-next-door facade beat the heart of a perfect sinner.'
Audrey likes to live for the day with her cheery disposition, but she isn’t as well versed in forseeing or analysing the consequences - which was something I liked a about her character because In daily life I’m meticulously cautious with decisions, so it’s always interesting to me to read about people who make alternative choices, and to wonder of a life where I would do the same. She goes with her impulses rather than the nature of responsibility. She’s Griff’s polar opposite, and it’s why they fit.
“Come on. If you want to talk about apples, it has to be while I’m working. I have a pig to kill. You can watch.”
“Are you sure?” I snapped. “I mean - meow. There must be a whole lot of girls in line ahead of me to watch that.” To my unending surprise, he threw back his head and laughed.'
The problem - or answer - is that Audrey can see Griffin as a likely - even permanent - addition to her life, and she knows that this is a chancy endeavour to humour. And with Griff it’s a case of putting his selflessness aside to make room for the kind of selfish decisions that might make him happy. Griff and Audrey had short history in the form of a college fling when times were different. Audrey alternates between two lives- the low-key, purist life of a farmer who satisfies her well-being, and the busy, commercial parriah’s of the modern world.
Audrey is great with a set of fresh ingredients, and Griff’s farm just so happens to be full of them. With the apprehensive balance of dreams and choice and frolicking between them, distance and obligations could part them or maybe third time is the charm because timing is everything. But so is choice.
‘Holly cannoli. I was cuddling the world’s grumpiest farmer.'
“...Everything good in life can be explained by cider.” - I’m not a drinker, but if I had any taste in the good stuff, I’d put ‘Bittersweet’ down as one of the mildest ciders - Palatable but not distinct enough to make it a favourite.
‘I wasn’t giving up. I was trading up.’
I gave this book 2.5 stars -
Trigger Warning: sex scenes, some swearing. One of the side characters is also in the midst of drug rehabilitation as he had an addiction and recently came out from jail.
My Rating System:
★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read
THIS PART WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!
What I did like:
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1) I liked that Zara - being Griff’s ex-girlfriend - wasn’t the typical jealous ex who tries to interfere in their relationship or tries to bully Audrey into submission. I think the author navigated her character in a healthy way because it didn’t feel like she was there to create conflict for the couple, but rather you could tell that she had her own story. Nice representation of the ‘ex card’. 2) What I love about Audrey’s character is there are so many people who don’t excel in the conventional sense of education and by conventional means because we’re all different, corralling success in different ways. Audrey found hers and it just works for her. She knows what she’s good at and she’s waiting for others to see it. 3) The Cover - I need to give a round of mentionable applause to the cover designer. It’s hard to come by books in the NA genre that aren’t bashful for the eyes. Rippling abs and seductive bodies are fine to an extent, even if done in a tasteful way, but I think the new adult romance genre needs a good revamp, and to try something a bit more diverse than covers that almost make me feel embarrassed for reading the books they grace, and even more embarrassed to share my literary choices with others. This cover is sweet and lovely! I don't mind saucy covers, but some just racy covers are very questionable. 4) The bits of farm knowledge I learned and the cooking scenes!
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