A Recipe for Christmas

Her career depends on telling his story. His trust depends on what she leaves out.

Ivy Douglas has loved Christmas since she was old enough to hang an ornament. Her editor loves “thumb-stopping” stories and warns Ivy that her warm, feel-good features aren’t earning their keep. With her job hanging by a thread, she chases the one story that can save it: a holiday profile of Barlow’s Bakehouse, the beloved New York institution famous for its Christmas cookies and old-fashioned charm.

When the reclusive owner won’t return her calls, Ivy stakes out the bakery before dawn. She’s expecting the jolly, silver-haired baker who smiles from every Barlow’s box. Instead, a motorcycle roars to the curb, and a broad-shouldered stranger swings off — tattooed forearms, black helmet, don’t-waste-my-time attitude. Obviously, the delivery guy.

Then he takes off the helmet to reveal rumpled dark hair, a devastating face, and the keys to Barlow’s Bakehouse.

Luke Barlow gives her shelter from the freezing rain and a cup of hot coffee. When he learns she’s a reporter, he gives her a flat no — then, cornered by his investors, he agrees. With one condition. His business is on the record. His life is not.

Unfortunately, his life is the only story her editor wants.

Ivy has one deadline, one blank page, and one impossible choice. Because somewhere between a ballet Luke doesn’t get and an ice rink he does, the man she came to write about has become the man she can’t stop thinking about.

A wholesome, heartwarming Christmas romance about what we protect, what we give away, and the gifts we never think to ask for.

Opposites attract · grumpy sunshine · forced proximity · bad-boy baker · clean and wholesome