Manhattan’s It Girl, Natalie Grayson, has it all: she’s a hot exec at a leading advertising firm, known industry-wide for her challenging and edgy campaigns. She’s got a large circle of friends, a family that loves her dearly, and her dance card is always full with handsome eligible bachelors. What else could a modern gal-about-town wish for? The answer, of course, is...cheese.
Natalie’s favorite part of each week is spending Saturday morning at the Union Square Farmer’s Market, where she indulges her love of all things triple cream. Her favorite booth also indulges her love of all things handsome. Oscar Mendoza, owner of the Bailey Falls Creamery and purveyor of the finest artisanal cheeses the Hudson Valley has to offer, is tall, dark, mysterious, and a bit oblivious. Or so she thinks. But that doesn’t stop Natalie from fantasizing about the size of his, ahem, milk can.
Romance is churning, passion is burning, and something incredible is rising to the top. Could it be...love?
*CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION*
This blog entry and countless others have been sitting here on my laptop for a while now waiting for the reviews to be written, but I just haven't had the moment in my life to put everything else on pause and write all of the reviews that are pilling up. So there isn't a better day, then Labor Day to take advantage of the time off from work to provide some reviews for all of you.
First things first, Alice Clayton's Cream of the Crop. Alice Clayton is one of my favorite authors. I love her series Wallbanger and the first novel in The Hudson Valley series, Nuts.
Cream of the Crop focuses on the story of Natalie Grayson. Natalie and Clara were first introduced as Roxie Callahan's best friends in Nuts and I'm interested to see how Clara's story plays out in the next novel. Clayton has not released the name or date for the third book in the series yet, but I am hopeful that it will come out in 2017.
I like Natalie's story when I solely focus just on her past, how she came to where she is currently, and who she is as an individual. I think Natalie's voice as a character is unique and funny. She is like so many of us with secret desires of a life that we are afraid to voice. Afraid that if we speak them out loud or share them with others then that will make the dreams real and us vulnerable.
Natalie is also relatable as a protagonist in her appearance. She is not a perfect Barbie cut woman. She is larger and curvaceous and totally owns it! She wears stilettos and the current fashion trends. She doesn't allow a number on the scale to dictate how she feels about herself or the confidence that she exudes.
Natalie is awesome and like I mentioned, I enjoy her back history, everything overall about Natalie, and her story. BUT...... I felt like there were things lacking with Cream of the Crop and they lie more with the development of Oscar as a character, the plot with his ex-wife, and the pace of the ending of the novel.
I understand the appeal of Oscar as a character. He is a quiet, mysterious, sexy farmer, BUT I wish there was a little bit more developing of Oscar as a character. I wanted more depth and dialogue. Once I finished the novel, it hit me that Oscar didn't really say a whole lot. I didn't feel like I really knew Oscar. Oscar was almost more of a concept of a man. So when some of the more serious scenes and interactions did occur, I completely sided with Natalie and didn't understand why Oscar was behaving the way that he was. It was really frustrating.
The best way I can describe it is when you are dating someone and you know them as the person that you have been dating. You know their name, occupation, and what you have gathered from experiences together, but something occurs and all of a sudden it makes you realize that you don't really know them at all. You thought that you did, because you had the basic information and everything else you filled in with your mind. And it is all of those empty spaces that you filled in that turned out to be completely wrong and now it makes you question who it is that you have been dating and seeing. Now, I'm not saying that Oscar is exactly like this scenario, but this is what comes to mind when I think of how I felt about Oscar at the end of the book. Plus, the epilogue from his point of view was kind of odd.
Now, in terms of the plot with Missy. Missy and her relationship with Oscar completely frustrated me, and I completely agreed with Natalie's feelings and sentiments. Of course, some of you will think that I am only siding with Natalie because she is the protagonist and that I wanted her to be with Oscar, but even if Oscar and Natalie did not end up together I would have still thought that Missy and Oscar's relationship was not healthy and weird. I hated that Clayton made Natalie look like a bully/villain/bad guy for calling out Missy and Oscar on their friendly relationship. I do not believe that Oscar could have a healthy relationship with any woman while Missy was still a large part of his life. It is not to say that two ex-spouses could not be on good terms, but there is a difference between being on good terms and baking muffins for your ex-spouse every week and texting them anytime that you need something. VERY BIG DIFFERENCE! And there is nothing wrong with a woman beginning a relationship with a guy and wanting to be the main woman in his life, wanting his focus and attention. There is nothing wrong with that. I think that most would expect it.
Lastly, is the pace of the book at the end. The beginning and middle had great pace with moving the plot along, but the ending felt completely rushed. I felt like there was really great content at the end of the book that given the opportunity to flesh out and really dive into could have brought a lot of development to Natalie and Oscar as a couple. One example, Natalie had a whole scene where she spoke to Chad and Logan about her previous relationship. This was a really big, important moment for Natalie in the book. It really revealed a lot of information about Natalie as a character. Yet, this type of moment never occurred for Natalie with Oscar, instead it was a short, brief moment. I would think that Clayton and Natalie would want Oscar to have the same, if not, more time and treatment of the topic. It came across to me, as a reader, that Natalie didn't really want to tell Oscar the full story. Like she just glazed over it and how much it impacted her. Another example, Natalie ran into her ex and it did affect her emotionally, but Clayton just grazed the surface with the scene. This was a moment that I wish Clayton would have taken the time and added the extra pages to provide more depth and details, because Clayton did already write the scene. I wish that she would have just really gone for it and written a full blown interaction or discussion between Natalie and Oscar about her ex or even a full discussion between Natalie and her ex. Yet, this never occurred. These are just two examples of content that occurred at the end of the book, but was rushed.
Overall, I really enjoy Natalie and Alice Clayton's works. Sure, there are some things lacking with the book that I personally think would have enhanced the story, but I still feel like the story is worth 3 stars. I still like the book, but I would have really enjoyed the book and would be raving about it if it had these changes.
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