Cream of the Crop by Alice Clayton

the cream of the cropNarrated by Olivia Song with Deacon Lee

Alice Clayton’s contemporary romance series have a few things in common – they’re funny, with sassy, self-confident heroines and they have a theme. The Cocktail series started with drinks: Wallbanger; the Hudson Valley series is taking on a food theme, starting with book 1, Nuts and continuing with Cream of the Crop. Natalie Grayson is a Manhattan ad superstar, on her way up the ladder of success, bringing in new clients and developing winning marketing campaigns. She has a secret fantasy, however, about a hot dairy farmer from the Hudson Valley who sells his artisanal creamery products at her local farmers market. Oscar Mendoza of Bailey Falls Creamery is surly, tattooed and pretty uncommunicative (she could totally fix that with marketing), but, you know, love is love is love…

Natalie is a little different from the run-of-the-mill contemporary urban heroine, though. She’s totally confident in her body – her size 18 body – but that confidence was hard-won, over years of battling internal and external pressures to conform to what others think “normal” is. While the general tone is light, there’s a darkness in Natalie’s life that still influences her, consciously and subconsciously.

Oscar has a little bit of darkness too – a former professional football player, he barely started playing before blowing out his knee and ruining any chance of continuing. He moved with his high school sweetheart to the Hudson Valley to start over, but they drifted apart and eventually divorced. He’s fairly reclusive – not too many people get very close to him – but he’s found a new passion in creating the cheeses and dairy products he sells in the city.

The town of Bailey Falls – where book 1, Nuts, also takes place – is suffering from a drop in tourism, so the town managers hire Natalie’s firm to start a marketing campaign to fill B&Bs and restaurants on the weekends with city dwellers. Natalie takes the challenge and travels there to get the lay of the land – and maybe get laid by her fantasy man? It could happen!!

I had not heard Olivia Song before, and I’m happy to report she was great at bringing Natalie and her story to life! The story is told in Natalie’s first person POV, with Deacon Lee giving Oscar voice for the epilogue only. Song’s delivery was exactly the way I like it – a very natural pacing that sounds as if she’s just shooting the breeze with you, telling you the local gossip, and sometimes divulging her deepest secrets. The voices she gives the other characters all work well, even though there isn’t that much differentiation in pitch/range between any of them. Generally I had no trouble keeping up with the dialogue. Deacon Lee also did fine voicing Oscar, although it was about 5 minutes, so not much material to judge!

This was an entertaining listen, recommended for contemporary romance fans looking for a new twist on the HEA journey.

Melinda


Narration: B+

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

 

 

 

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