Review – Nuts by Alice Clayton

I picked up Nuts by Alice Clayton as part of a buddy read with some new friends on Twitter. It sounded like something I would typically pick up if it was free, but imagine my surprise when the e-book was just as much as a paperback!

If you’ve hung out around here for any amount of time, you know I don’t like to pay much (or anything, if I can help it) for e-books. It isn’t that I don’t believe authors deserve payment for the hard work they do, believe me I’d give them everything if I had the ability, but I’m a stay-at-home-mom with TONS of unread books already loaded up on my kindle. Oh dear, I believe I’ve gotten off track.

Well, just after signing up for this buddy read, Nuts went on sale for a much  more reasonable price, and I was happy again.

It was interesting that we had decided to read 5 chapters a day, and the book kind of fell into sections along those lines.

Roxie Callahan is a private chef to some of Hollywood’s wealthiest, and nastiest, calorie-counting wives. After a dairy disaster implodes her carefully crafted career in one fell ploop, she finds herself back home in upstate New York, bailing out her hippie mother and running the family diner. When gorgeous local farmer Leo Maxwell delivers her a lovely bunch of organic walnuts, Roxie wonders if a summer back home isn’t such a bad idea after all. Leo is heavily involved in the sustainable slow food movement, and he likes to take his time. In all things. Roxie is determined to head back to the west coast as soon as summer ends, but will the pull of lazy fireflies and her very own Almanzo Wilder be enough to keep her home for good? Salty. Spicy. Sweet. Nuts. Go on, grab a handful. (Amazon).

I give Nuts by Alice Clayton 3 stars. It wasn’t terrible but I really didn’t feel much love for it.

I know Roxie was supposed to be witty, and funny, and (maybe?) somewhat relatable, and while her voice was distinct, it wasn’t unique, and honestly I found it grating.

There were plenty of fun food puns and embarrassing situations, which were enjoyable. And I really enjoyed that the author tried to bring in aspects of sustainable living and eating locally to a work of fiction, as these are things that I like to think are close to my heart.

The wrench that was thrown into the story around chapter 16 or 17 was really the most interesting part of the story.

The “steamy” parts of the book were a bit interesting. There was a lot of leading up to and thinking back on the sex, with most of the actual action being left between the lines.

Overall I guess I didn’t find Roxie, or the plot, to be all that unique, and the idyllic picture of a small-town on the Hudson seemed too good to be true.