Much Ado About a Latte

Fuller returns to small-town Maple Falls, Ark., (after Hooked on You) for a chaste but spirited romance between old friends with clashing entrepreneurial goals. Tanner Castillo gave Anita Bedford her first kiss as a teenager, and she’s loved him ever since. Ten years later, she’s a waitress and he’s the assistant manager at Sunshine diner. Tanner, too, was shaken by their kiss, but since his father’s death when Tanner was eight, he’s kept his focus on working to help provide for his mother and younger brother. When he achieves his dream of buying the diner, he’s depending on promoting his favorite waitress to assistant manager—but Anita has her own dreams and buys the adjacent building to open a café, unwittingly threatening Tanner’s plan to expand his services at the diner. They’re both thrown for a loop and fuming; can their relationship survive the competition? True to small-town romance form, there are plenty of local busybodies and pushy moms to help the couple find their way, but the story fizzles as it comes to an end, short-changing the readers’ glimpse into the happy ending. Still, the cozy atmosphere and spunky locals will leave readers eager to return to Maple Falls. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary. (Jan.)