The Hideaway Inn

April 27, 2020
Stover (There Galapagos My Heart) launches his Seasons of New Hope series with a gay romance as quaint and enchanting as its setting. After more than a decade away, Vince Amato returns to the bucolic New Hope, Pa., hoping to flip the Hideaway Inn for a tidy profit. But he hadn’t factored Tack O’Leary, the one who got away, into his plans. Tack is now a culinary arts student, and Vince’s business partners convince him to hire Tack as the inn’s chef, offering him room and board at the Inn to sweeten the bargain. Living in such close proximity stirs up old memories, though Vince tries his best to keep Tack at arm’s length. But the bullheaded Vince is reluctantly charmed as Tack drags him to a lavender farm, and out to watch fireworks, and finally to meet Tack’s gender nonconforming six-year-old, Jules. As Vince is seduced by his new life in New Hope, the thought of leaving once the inn is sold becomes more difficult. Stover fleshes out the thin story with vibrant LGBTQ supporting characters, among them the delightful Toula, a transgender bookstore owner who doles out tea, poetry, and tough love. Readers longing for an idyllic escape will appreciate this breezy contemporary. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group.

May 15, 2020
The one person who can help Vince Amato dig himself out of the financial hole into which he has fallen is Tack O'Leary: the very same boy who broke Vince's heart 15 years ago. Vince's plan to flip the Hideaway Inn relies on it having a functioning restaurant, yet just moments after Vince arrives in New Hope and takes command of his new business venture, the inn's chef quits in a huff. Vince would rather trade in his designer suits for dungarees than ask superhot farmboy and currently enrolled culinary student Tack to help him out in the kitchen, but what choice does he really have? Stover debuts his new Seasons of New Hope series (one of two titles?the other is The Girl Next Door by Chelsea M. Cameron, also reviewed in this issue?launching the new Carina Adores line) with a brilliantly written LGBTQ+ take on the classic small-town romance, which beautifully celebrates inclusiveness while also delivering a boldly sensual love story that is effectively amplified by generous amounts of red-hot sexual chemistry and snarky wit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)