Just Desserts a romance novel by Barbara Bretton

Barbara Bretton’s writing reminds me a lot of Catherine Anderson’s, who’s writing I love, so it is safe to say that Barbara Bretton ranks right up there in my view. Her books have serious issues with characters that have a sense of humor. Another favorite theme of mine is family because my immediate family is such a big part of my life and I cannot imagine life without my husband or our kids. The other cool thing about Barbara Bretton’s stories are that the main characters aren’t 25 years old but are in their late 30’s, you don’t see many books like this. Why I think this is cool baffles me because I’m still in my 20’s.




Hayley bakes wonderfully designed cakes and owns 60% of Goldy’s bakery. Her bad news ex-husband owns the other 40%. Lizzie’s, Hayley’s 14 year old daughter, intelligence puts her in the genius catagory and she runs the business side of Goldy’s. Hayley’s mother is a great oceanographer who never told Hayley who her father is. During a pre-nup contract work for a famous rocker, Tommy Stiles, lawyer Finn Rafferty discovers that Tommy has another daughter, Haley. Tommy wants to meet and get to know his daughter and granddaughter that he didn’t know existed. Finn goes and commissions a cake for an after party of a concert and is immediately drawn to Hayley and her daughter. Hayley and Finn are cautious around each other because Hayley thinks he’s going to pull the plug on this big contract and Finn is trying to get to know her but is not supposed to tell her who her father is until Tommy meets her and tells her. In the middle of this Finn drives 4 hours to deliver chinese food, they chase down her dog and get covered in mud, Hayley’s neighbors all want tickets to the concert that she can’t get. Hayley and Finn fall in love in spite of the big secret.

There are some great scenes that make you identify with the characters. Hayley finds out that Finn is coming and quickly cleans the bathroom by hiding everything behind the shower curtain, but when they get all muddy chasing the dog she has to fess up move everything so he can shower. Tommy’s relationship with his kids makes you think of a Dad not a rock star, so you have the fun Dad and kid scenes with toys all over the house and teenagers being teenagers. I really really enjoyed this one and hope you do too. Other Barbara Bretton books that I’ve read and loved are Someone Like You, Chances Are, Shore Lights, A Soft Place to Fall, and At Last. I hope you enjoy these as well.

Happy reading.