Review: In the Mood for Love (Cupcake Lovers #4) by Beth Ciotta

Every so often when I can, I will be generating a random number and picking a book from the older ARC's that I have received in the past but have not had a chance to review (life getting in the way) that way I can clean up some of my other ARCs piles and give these books a fair chance.

In the Mood for Love (Cupcake Lovers #4) by Beth Ciotta

Published July 1st 2014 by St. Martin's Paperbacks

Paperback, 320 pages

Series: Cupcake Lovers

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Heat Rating: Kissing to steamy-ish

Source:  I got a copy of this book from the publisher  in exchange of an honest review.
Amazon | Goodreads

Mature Content Advisory, must be 18+ for some adult situations.

Summary from Goodreads

When Harper Day blows into the small town of Sugar Creek, Vermont, she takes the sleepy community completely by surprise. A stunning beauty and frenzied workaholic, the celebrity publicist based out of L.A. maintains she will only be in Sugar Creek for vacations. The cozy atmosphere of Sugar Creek, however, has other plans. Haunted by a troubled past and insecure about her future, Harper finds solace in doing publicity for the Cupcake Lovers. Now if only she could get her life back in line, and put a stop to this newfound attraction she has for

one of the members…

Sam McCloud feels an intense connection to Harper, which makes things way more complicated. Still reeling from his wife's untimely death and focused on raising his two young children, Sam doesn't have the emotional strength to get close to a woman again. But when he finds Harper in a jam and the best solution leads to them constantly being together, Sam cannot deny their attraction. True, Harper is from a different world and still struggling with her past, but Sam is determined not to lose another woman he loves…

I enjoyed Beth Ciotta's previous writing with her steampunk series and was a little surprised when I realized that I have yet to read her contemporary romance. So when In the Mood for Love popped up on my to read list, I did not hesitate to tackle it and came out pleasantly surprised.

Beth tells a wonderful story about two very broken people. One is Harper Day, who is a celebrity publicist and a major workaholic. The other is a widowed father of two children Sam McCloud, a proud member of the cupcakes club. Sam is having emotional connection issues with other women ever since his wife has passed, but Harper day seems to be the only one that he would bother to look twice at. Too bad that Harper doesn't want a major relationship, just a little bit of fun, until she get's fired and is about to be deported to Canada where her not so happy past awaits her. Sam proposes marriage, and Harper has no way of declining.

Great story. It was nice, I enjoyed it. I liked following Sam and Harper as they both slowly healed each others hearts as well as meeting the rest of the Cupcake lovers. Thought I have not read the previous books, I found this one okay without it. Sure I wanted to know more about the characters in it, but that did not stop me from enjoying the story. I liked how Ciotta also threw in chapters with other characters in it, branching out into setting up the possible story for the next book.

It was a sweet read and I liked Ciotta's charming characters and storytelling. To me Cupcake Lovers was more of a comfort read and made me kind of wish my husband knew how to bake some cupcakes heh.