Jessica Bird - Beauty and the Black Sheep

Frances “Frankie” Moorehouse is the head of the family and has been taking care of her family since her parent’s died. Her brother Alex took off shortly after the funeral, so Frankie and her younger sister Joy are running the family Bed and Breakfast that has been in the Moorehouse family for six generations. But if’s not going well with the Inn, there isn’t enough money to restore the building to his full glory and on top of it all, the cook has just quit his job. So when this stranger knocks on her back door and plays cook for that evening, Frankie doesn’t know what to think of him

Nate Walker quits his job as a 4 star chef at a top restaurant, to start his own restaurant with his best friend Spike. When his car breaks down, he ends up at this little Bed and Breakfast. The moment he walks through the back door into the kitchen, he knows they need help that evening. It appears the cook just took off and let the Moorehouse sisters deal with the aftermath. So he takes over the kitchen and plays the cook for that evening and might actually stay for the whole summer.

Beauty and the Black Sheep by Jessica Bird is the first novel in the Moorehouse Legacy series and I have to say it was well written and easy to read. This is a perfect book to read during an afternoon in the weekend or in the evening when you are home from work. You just want to relax on the sofa with nothing on your mind.

Frankie still has a hard time dealing with her parent’s death and taking care of the Bed and Breakfast and her dementia grandmother. She’s frustrated that she might loose the Inn if the cannot get the money for restoring the building. It seems that her problems are only getting worse by the day.
Nate has problems of his own, being a son of rich parents he wanted to rebel and took off to build his won career. Nate succeeds and became a 4 star chef, but that is not enough. His friend Spike and he want to start their own restaurant and are looking around for the right location. But fate has a mind of his won, when Nate’s car breaks down near Moorehouse Bed and Breakfast and its lovely owner.

Although Frankie keep fighting her feelings for Nate and trying to push him away, I really enjoyed Nate’s determination to convince her to see life from a different angle.

I was curious to see what kind of novels J.R. Ward wrote under her alias Jessica Bird and I have to say that is was a nice surprise. I really enjoyed this book.