Beekeeper's Ball

Isabel Johansen is a celebrated chef who grew up in Archangel, a sleepy town in Sonoma. She is turning her childhood home, Bella Vista, into a destination cooking school where other dreamers can come to learn the culinary arts. The rambling mission-style hacienda has working apple orchards, abundant gardens and beehives.

For Isabel, the place is also a refuge where the past can be put aside. Her plans are carefully ordered, and she intends to keep them that way.

Then Cormac O'Neill arrives. He is a swaggering journalist who has reported from war zones, and he has come to dig into old history. He is far more at ease exposing the lives of other people than revealing anything of his own, and he guards his heart closely.

The pleasures of small-town life and the charged atmosphere of Isabel's kitchen slowly draw him into admitting a few truths about himself. Isabel's school plans start to unravel as his questions reach into the past she hoped to leave alone.

This is a contemporary romance set in wine country, with food, orchards and kitchen scenes at the center of the setting. The mood is warm and sensual, and the pace suits a small town where everyone has history.