Title: Jesse’s Diner
Series: Hope, #2
Author: Cardeno C.
Genre: Contemporary, May-December
Length: Novella (112 pages)
Publisher: The Romance Authors, LLC (29 Sept 2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts
Blurb: Two men with a shared history and a mutual attraction must be honest with themselves and each other so both their dreams come true.
Quiet, unassuming Tanner Sellers spends his time running a diner in Hope, Arizona. Not particularly social, twenty-two-year-old Tanner keeps to himself and enjoys his simple life, but he longs for someone to call his own. In his most secret fantasy, that someone is sexy Steve Faus. But Steve is his friend’s father and mentor’s widower and therefore off-limits.
Despite some challenges, thirty-nine-year-old Steve Faus has had a good life. He’s extremely successful at work, has a great relationship with his college-age son, and lives in a wonderful town. Eighteen months after losing his partner, the one thing Steve lacks is someone to share his life. If Steve is honest with himself, that someone is the young man he has known and cared about for years. Steve and Tanner want one another. All they need is a little push in the right direction to make both their dreams come true.
ISBN: 9781942184331
Product Link: Cardeno C. | Amazon UK | Amazon US
Reviewer: Prime
Review: Jesse’s Diner is the second book is Cardeno C’s Hope series. I will admit that this is the only book in the series I’ve read so far, so I can definitely say that this can be read as a standalone story.
However, in saying that, after reading this book, I want more of this series. That means for the time being it’s back to book one, McFarland’s Farm.
This is a sweet story about the equally as sweet Tanner. He’s quiet and finds it difficult to be around people and so as a result he is quite lonely, too. However, when he moved to live with his grandmother as a teen, he made friends with local boy Mike. Being friends with Mike meant that in school he had “friends” but once school was over and Mike left, no one kept in touch with him.
But Tanner’s one saving grace is that one of Mike’s dads, Jesse, hired Tanner to work and when Jesse got terminal cancer he left his beloved diner to Tanner. Mike calls Tanner one day, worried about his father and asks Tanner to look in make sure that Steve is eating, looking after himself, etc.
Then there is Mike’s other father, Steve. He arrived in Hope as a young man (around Tanner’s age), pretty lost and probably a tad bit burnt out. He met Jesse, who was approaching 40 and ready to settle down with a partner and adopt a child (i.e. Mike).Now, fast forward around 20 years, Jesse is gone and Steve has thrown himself into work and has become something of a recluse when he did change his work habits.
There is a shared attraction between Steve and Tanner and now Steve is the older man in the relationship.
This is just filled with tender, sweet emotion. This is something of a slow burn, which on reflection, probably makes for a more satisfying story. If you like May-December stories, this is a great one to immerse yourself into, especially if you like the whole “best friend’s dad” type of story.