Cream of the Crop (The Hudson Valley, #2)

by Alice Clayton

[EBookObsessed]

Alice Clayton does it again. Cream of the Crop is delightful and delicious and not the least bit cheesy. She makes you want to pack up and move to the Hudson Valley. Wait...I live there. I have to find this town.

Advertising executive, Natalie Grayson is a New York City girl from the top of her salon haircut, down to her designer heels. But lately she has been fantasizing what it would be like to be a farm girl. More particularly, a dairy farm girl. Natalie's weekly trip to the Saturday Farmer's Market in Midtown has started garnishing her more than just fresh produce since Bailey Falls Dairy started selling their wares. Their Brie is to die for, but Natalie would rather be getting her hands on the gorgeous maker of that cheese, Oscar Mendoza.

Imagine her surprise to find out that Oscar's dairy farm is right next door to the organic farm owned by Leo Maxwell, the man currently playing Farmer in the Dell with her BFF, Roxie Callahan.

Natalie's need to go visit her friend Roxie gets a boost when Natalie's boss received a call from the Town Council of Bailey Falls. It seems they want an ad campaign to draw the tourists to their bucolic town. Natalie jumps at the excuse to spend a few days looking around town, getting to know the people better, maybe a private tour of the local farms and hopefully getting lai....the lay of the land. Um, you know, so she can start on that ad campaign.

Natalie wasn't the only one at the market fantasizing about playing hide the cheese log and it doesn't take long for Oscar and Natalie to start churning some butter. *nudge,nudge* But life on a dairy farm isn't as idyllic as Natalie daydreamed it would be. What's a NYC girl to do with herself in a quaint little town? Can Oscar and Natalie merge their two worlds or is Nat just destined to be left Bleu?

THOUGHTS:
I just love Alice Clayton. Her stories are hysterical and her characters are outrageously crazy.

I loved that Natalie was a vibrant, confident woman who could get men to follow her home like the pied piper with just a wink and a smile. The fact that she was a plus-sized heroine was secondary. I do wish a little less time was spent on Natalie's flashback on her first serious boyfriend, who slowly but surely played and mentally abused the shy, vulnerable overweight girl. I loved the self-assured Natalie. She is an awesome role-model that confidence is sexier than skinny jeans. She knows she's smart and talented and beautiful. Her weight doesn't matter. So I didn't like seeing her brought down like that and she didn't even toss him off with a big, bold F.U. Since weight wasn't an issue in her household, it would have been nice to see her raised with that "I'm big and beautiful. Love me or F-Off!" attitude.

Together Oscar and Natalie burned up the pages. It was funny seeing all the women in town and at the farmer's market giving Natalie the evil eye for winning Oscar. The only one to make a snide comment about weight was Oscar's ex-wife and he shut that down right away.

I loved how Alice Clayton brought in a plus-sized heroine but her weight was not a definition of her, it was no more than a description of her such as auburn hair and light eyes.

I can't wait to see what our next to Bailey Falls will bring.