Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: With a Pinch of Love
AUTHOR: Hayden Hall
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 231 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2021
BLURB:
There’s no one recipe for love.
DALTON
I have it all figured out. I’m going to marry the woman I love and I’m going to put in the work for that promotion. Life can only get better from here on.
Or so I thought. My blushing bride elopes minutes before the ceremony and turns my life upside down. I’m now heading to Vermont with Marshmallow to seal the deal on his soon to be Bed and Breakfast.
After a series of unfortunate coincidences, Marshal and I are fake-dating, but my long repressed desire starts lurking from deep within.
Impossible. I’m not bi, right? I can’t discover that at twenty-nine, can I? It must be the breakup trauma; nothing more. It’s got nothing to do with my homophobic upbringing, surely.
But my broken heart flutters more every time I see him.
MARSHAL
My best friend stole my first kiss and I’ve loved him ever since.
Dalton doesn’t know it, though. Nobody knows. It’s only written in dozens of unsent letters I can’t bring myself to destroy and finally move on.
I can’t stand pretending to be his boyfriend when pining after him is all I’ve ever known. And I can’t let us fool around even when he kisses me again. He’s heartbroken and lonely – that’s a far cry from being in love.
I will not be his rebound.
The charming small town of Rocky Springs quickly gets under our skin and it doesn’t take much to make me fantasize about our future here. Except it’s all fake. Dalton has a career to go back to once his heart is healed and I am building my future here.
We’re a lost cause.
With a Pinch of Love is a slow-burn, fake boyfriends, best friends to lovers, bisexual awakening, close proximity, standalone romance. It’s a heart-wrenching story with a healthy dose of angst and a grand, hard-earned happily ever after. Lose yourself in the sleepy town of Rocky Springs as Marshal and Dalton fall in love against all odds.
REVIEW:
What a wonderful, hard fought love story.
When Dalton is jilted at the last moment at the alter by his fiancé Jenifer, Marshal, his best friend since kindergarten/best man, swoops in to get him far away from the chapel and town. They head to Vermont where he discovers that his BFF is finally realizing his own dream of buying, fixing up and opening a quaint bed-and-breakfast where he could wow his guests with his culinary delights. When the lady selling the old mansion assumed that they were a couple the charade began. But what if it wasn’t as fake as they thought???
My heart went out to Marshal or Dalton’s Marshmallow as I prefer. He had always and forever LOVED Dalton. But Dalton never knew. Even when a stolen moment before Dalton left for college resulted in Marshmallow’s first kiss and Dalton’s revelation that he might possibly be bisexual Marshal never acted on his desires. Between Dalton’s repression of his desires that stemmed from his strict Catholic parents upbringing and Marshal’s reluctance to push his friend for fear of loosing him both men lost ten years of time together.
The one that pissed me off the most was Dalton’s fiancé Jenifer. This woman knew exactly what it felt like to be left standing at the alter. Dalton had brought her back from her devastating event when she was jilted by Jeremy, they fell in love and then that is whom she ran off with in the end! Un-freaking-believable!
I think my most favorite side character was Mrs. Keys. I loved her so much. Probably as much as she loved these two men. Her taking Marshal under her charm and sharing with him her cooking secrets was heartwarming. And I loved when he discovered her secret use for cucumbers, it was hilarious. Seemed they had more on common than they realized.
I was concerned when Jesse started putting two and two together and started pursuing Marshal. I was fearful that this was the beginning of the end of Dalton and his Marshmallow. It may have lead to the start of them unraveling but I realized that it also made each man re-examine their real feelings. Dalton needed to do some self evaluation and going back home was the catalyst in that. I admired watching him stand up to his mother and not caving in to his boss when things got tough. He held to his principles and stayed strong. Strong enough to come back and prove to his Marshmallow that he was the one and only thing he truly wanted and needed in his life.
I always love series and I’m hoping that we eventually get Jesse’s story. I know he gave hints to wanting to relocate to Rocky Springs. Maybe then we could get to see Marshal and Dalton’s wedding. And I would love to hear Rhys and Owen’s story too. They we so wonderful.
I highly recommend this sweet, angst-filled story of true love and self exploration.
RATING: 
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