COMFORT FOODS:

A Comfort Stories

Stand-Alone Novel

by

Kimberly Fish

Categories: Contemporary / Second Chance Romance

Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing

Date of Publication: October 7, 2020

Number of Pages: 385 pages

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From the award-winning author of Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs comes a story of two rising stars blitzed by social media. Lacy Cavanaugh and single-dad Rudy Delgardo live a hundred miles apart but meet in the worst possible way. Working at a weekly paper and creating social media for area businesses helps Lacy connect with locals who open her mind to a perspective beyond Instagram. In launching a food-and-wine festival to support Comfort’s new event center, she discovers surprising skills bubbling over, much like the food she’s attempting to cook.

Rudy, on the brink of his restaurant’s takeover, struggles to improve time management so he can create a better relationship with his daughter. Distracted by Lacy and her invitation to the festival, he’s tempted by her beauty, wit, and courage, but as a chef, he rarely gets to enjoy life outside the kitchen. Enemies, illness, and exes add unwelcome spice to the dish they’re concocting—one that will teeter with misunderstanding until the very end.

Will Lacy and Rudy embrace their second chances and discover the perfect seasonings of family, resilience, and grace to create a handwritten recipe of love that will stand the test of time?

An interview by author Kimberly Fish with Drue, the Florist at Comfort Flower Shop from Comfort Foods

Good morning, Drue, it seems you have a big order to assemble judging by the buckets of flowers on your workstation.

You have no idea. People are dropping like flies in these parts and everyone wants a funeral arrangement yesterday. I’d ask Lacy to walk over from next door to help, like she sometimes does, but she’s got her hands full trying to figure out that newspaper business.

How long have you known Lacy Cavanaugh?

Longer than she’d like to admit. She lived here a few years ago, bunking in with her sister when they were getting Provence Farm off the ground, and we met on account of how I was supplying them with flower arrangements for their cheese customers. Lacy was always a beauty, but she wasn’t always charming, if you get my drift. She was itching to get out of here and made no bones about it.

Were you surprised then that she returned?

Surprised doesn’t cover the half of it. When Frank—he’s the newspaper editor who’s been in the office of Comfort News for as long as I can remember—told me he was bringing in an intern—from Dallas—I about laughed in his face. I mean, what person in their right mind, would come here if they didn’t have to. When he told me it was Lacy, I did laugh. That girl had put Comfort in her rear-view mirror, and I reckon, she’d never intended to return.

Did Lacy slink into town or shout her return?

(Setting her clippers on the counter and reaching toward the coffee pot for a refill.) Well, she wasn’t proud to be back, but if I had to pin it down, I guess I’d say she just seemed lost. You know that looks some people get when the lights are on, but no one is home? She stopped by to say hello soon enough, but I could tell, her heart wasn’t in it. We’ll see how this works out. Frank doesn’t expect her to stay long, and he’s always been right about election results, so I’m guessing he knows what he’s talking about.

How long have you owned the Flower Shop, here on 5^th Street?

Long enough to put my kids through school, and see my grandkids come around to help for special occasions. Lord knows why we stayed, but when Comfort gets in your blood, there’s no getting it out.

Sounds like you may be rooting for Lacy to outlast everyone’s predictions?

That Lacy Cavanaugh is something special, but I’m not sure she’s found out what she’s good at yet. I didn’t come to flower decorating until my kids were in junior high, and even then, it was just a means to an end. I didn’t fall in love with what I was doing until years later. I’m saying that to say, don’t put too much pressure on Lacy to have it all sorted out. Life is hard enough as it is, without everyone peeking in on your every move.

I managed to buy this book when it was on sale for $0.99 in December and I am so glad that I did so that I could discover what was happening in Comfort.  This book does stand alone and you do not have to read the first two to enjoy this, you just discover the stories of two other couples that are featured in this book.

Comfort is one of those towns that I would like to escape to when the world gets crazy. It is a small town where everyone knows everyone (or close anyway), the town appears calm and peaceful, and it is close enough to a larger city that allows for a different scenery when the need arises. At least that is what Lacy was probably hoping for when she ended in Comfort after a public incident shuts down her influencer abilities for a period of time. What Lacy doesn’t expect to find in this town is a renewed sense of self, closer ties with family, and love and a future she might never have expected to acquire.

Rudy Delgardo is an up and coming chef with a sweet, young daughter, Luna, that is maybe a little too smart for her own good. I love how she calls Lacy, Cinderella. Rudy has his own issues to deal with and one of them is his ex, Hannah. She is a piece of work that is for sure! I was happy with how this stumbling block worked out and it made me cheer.

If you are a foodie, there are plenty of scenes with descriptions of many delicious dishes that might make you gain 5 pounds just reading about them. From the restaurants in Austin and Comfort to Rudy cooking for Luna, Lacy, and others. There are even some recipes at the end in case you feel the need to whip up a dish or two.

Lacy’s influencer life that I mentioned is shut down by parents with too much money and not enough gumption to recognize the truth for what it is. It is the typical case of blaming someone else and not holding the true party responsible. The upside to this is that Lacy begins working for the small-town paper in Comfort and for its owner, Frank. The relationship between these two develops to more than Frank mentoring Lacy. I feel like he has true affection for Lacy, much like a father would for their child. When certain events unfold, this relationship becomes more evident and there are some very touching scenes. Lacy is able to use some of her social media prowess for her sister’s farm and a few other businesses, she just can’t do anything personally. And to make sure she doesn’t violate the agreement, she has gone old school with a “dumb” phone. This means no internet, no GPS (which she really needed several times), no apps. Just talking and texting.

One aspect of the book that might be a trigger for some, is the subject of human trafficking. Lacy stumbles across a situation that does not seem right for this small town. Many might say that this could not happen in their town, but sadly it happens all across the world in towns large and small. The message I picked up from this storyline is that if you see something that does not seem right, report it to the proper authorities. You might just save someone’s life.

The romance between Rudy and Lacy does not run smoothly.  When it comes to Lacy, Rudy is like a teenage boy that forgets how to converse with her. Actually, they both have this issue. Thankfully they don’t give up, and despite many misunderstandings, they manage to get it right.  Watching them stumble around with each other reminded me of some relationships I have had in the past.

This book kept me up until the wee hours of the morning because I kept saying to myself, “just one more chapter.” (I’m just glad I didn’t have to get up for work the next day.) The descriptions and scenes captivated me until the very end. I can’t wait for the next installment in this series! We give this book 5 paws up.

Author Kimberly Fish resides in Longview, Texas, and enjoys writing contemporary fiction set in the Hill Country. During the seven years she lived in San Antonio, wandering in and around Comfort, Texas, provided endless space for her imagination to develop stories of women discovering their grit. She studied the small Texas town that had seemingly dug its heels into the limestone and refused modern development and thought that was fertile ground for stories about women remodeling their lives. It made a juxtaposition of place and purpose that was hard to ignore. Plus, anything that takes intentional effort has a much higher value than the things that come easily—Comfort personifies this, and the novels remind readers that anything worth having is worth the work.

Comfort Foods is the third full-length novel in the set, Fiction from the Texas Hill Country, and follows behind the award-winning novels Comfort Plans and Comfort Songs. A novella, Emeralds Mark the Spot, is available as a free eBook download to subscribers of the incredibly sporadic newsletter at kimberlyfish.com and is the original story from which all other Comfort novels grew.

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 ONE WINNER

GRANDPRIZE (US only):

Signed copy of COMFORT FOODS +

Ina Garten’s MODERN COMFORT FOOD

Ends Midnight, CST, January 22, 2021

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