The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

The Strawberry Patch Pancake House
by Laurie Gilmore
Recommended Ages: 15+

Michelin-star chef Archer just found out that a sometime kitchen colleague with whom he had a brief fling has died, leaving behind a daughter he didn't know he had. Now he has to move to the quaint small town of Dream Harbor to take care of a tiny girl named Olive. To pass time while they get to know each other, he takes over the kitchen of a diner that specializes in pancakes. It's a humbling experience, from being a high-powered gourmet to being unable to reproduce the pancake recipe the locals swear by. And also, not knowing what to do with a kid.

Archer hires Iris to serve as a nanny, to bridge the gap between his shifts at the diner and when Olive gets home from kindergarten. You know Iris, right? A highly sexed young lady who has never held down a relationship, or a job, for very long. And now she's partly responsible for the happiness of a precious little girl. And also, things are steaming up between her and the sexy chef she works for.

It's a hot romance – we're talking Adult Content Advisory here – set in a twee little village that would riddle the Hallmark Channel with tooth decay. Somehow, everyone in town seems to be either an attractive young adult or their adorable little kid, and the older lot are pairing off like Twix bars. But at the heart of it, there's Archer, who is surprised to find himself losing his heart to a child he just met, and Iris, who is terrified by the feelings she's having for both of them and her certainty that she's going to hurt them. It's a plot you can set your watch by – but executed with charm, humor and a steaminess that belies the family-friendly production design.

This is the fourth and (currently) latest of the "Dream Harbor" novels written by Melissa McTernan under the pen name Laurie Gilmore. The other titles include The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, The Cinnamon Bun Book Store and The Christmas Tree Farm. Plus, a fifth book, The Gingerbread Bakery, is slated to come out a little over a week from now (Sept. 16, 2025), and a sixth, The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, is supposed to follow in May 2026. Fantastic Fiction describes McTernan as an author of "sweet and steamy romantasy," as you could probably guess from these titles. Based in upstate New York, she is also the author of A Curse of Blood and Wolves (soon to be part of a trilogy), Marked for Each Other: The Princess and the Barbarian, some shorter erotic fairy tales, and Secret Family Recipes for Love and Butter Cookies.