Ember's Secret Solstice Quartet Book #1
Romantic Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Urban Fantasy. Werewolves/ Shifters
Inkspell Publishing
Nov 23, 2021
Kindle
240
Amazon
Ember Ngata only wants two things out of life: to be reunited with her sisters, and to see people return to her café. Catering to people she never sees again, she experiences a loneliness that can’t be filled. As one of the last Whakamanu—a descendant of the Maori bird-god Tane—she holds on to the secrets of her decimated tribe. Family first.
TV personality and host of the popular show Back Road Eats, Austin Garten needs more in his life than Breadbasket America grilling. He’s tired of the safe routes and the easy and dependable foods his network loves to display. When his RV breaks down in Wyoming, and he learns about Kai, a Maori restaurant outside of Casper, his interest is piqued. Once Austin meets the proprietor, he wants more than just her food. He wants her.
The Solstice, the Maori New Year, is fast approaching, and with the heat in her kitchen ratcheting up, Ember realizes she can’t keep her secret for much longer. But will Austin be able to accept her? Or will her secret drive them apart?
Review by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Ember Ngata is one of the last Whakamanu, descendant of Māori bird god Tane and sixteen years ago she witnessed the attack on her clan and the death of her mother. Her sister Dia flew away, drawing the hunters away from her family, allowing her and her father and sister Amy to escape. They settled in Casper, Wyoming but an argument between Amy and her father caused Amy to leave, now Ember and her father are all that are left.
Ember has opened a restaurant called Kai allowing her to do what she loves, cook. She puts her heart and soul into her cooking, making the dishes her mom made and keeping her Māori roots alive in the food she serves. The only problem is that her restaurant is rarely busy and the customers who come leave going on with their daily lives and don’t return.
Austin Garten is a TV personality and host of Back Road Eats, a popular show where he visits restaurants and reports on them and now, he is headed to his next destination when the RV he his cameraman and editor are travelling in breaks down. This stop will result in the most unexpected changes in the lives of Ember and Austin, but good or bad changes not for me to say
After Austin and his friends stopped to eat at Kai, and after he was finally able to stop staring at Ember and got to taste the food it was an experience that the three men never had, and they spent their careers tasting food. Their RV will take time to repair, and Austin is determined to make Ember’s restaurant a success. He must convince the network to allow him to do a story on Kai and introduce Ember’s food to the masses.
So many issues stand in the way of getting Ember to agree to the TV show because her desire to get people into her restaurant would make her go against her father’s wishes. Ember was a little girl when the hunters attacked but her father lives with the memories every day, especially the loss of his wife and daughter Dia. Austin and Ember grow close but he will return to California and there is the matter of her turning into a jeweled swan once a year.
I don’t want to go into anything more but will say this book was wonderful, the characters amazing and now that I am finished with this review, I will dig into Amy’s story which I have no doubt will be every bit as wonderful as this was.