Making out in the food truck is definitely a code violation

Summary: Camille Marino owns an up-and-coming food truck in San Francisco. While the truck does well, she’s barely holding her head above water. Coupled with the challenges of being the guardian of her younger sister, Camille is in desperate need of a night out. She gets a little more than she bargained for when that night out leads to reconnecting with her first love, Drew Bautista.

Drew is thrilled to see Camille again, though the timing could definitely be better. His Army unit will be shipping out to Iraq in 30 days, and he’s home just long enough to try to patch things up with his dad.

When it turns out that Camille’s food truck is the same truck that’s interfering with his father’s restaurant, Drew has to figure out how to juggle both his dad and Camille without letting either of them down.

I’m not going to lie: you’re going to pick it up for the romance, but you’re going to stay for the food. I need more of the Bautista family Filipino dish recipes, please and thank you.

The book gets points for the Asian American hero. It’s relatively chaste; I was almost convinced I was reading an inspirational romance when it took the couple a while to move beyond petting. (They do have premarital sex, so if that’s not your speed, this is not your book.)

Drew and Camille are both adults who behave like it; there’s not a lot of miscommunication drama. There’s a bit which is baked into the plot to make it more palatable. Because Drew is leaving in a month, and because Camille just needs to relax a bit, she institutes a “no srs bsns talk” rule which predictably blows up.

Overall, the book is a pleasant, if forgettable, read. Camille and Dan are earnest, but you aren’t going to fall in love with either of them. Dan is a Nice Guy Who Respects Boundaries. Camille is a Hard Worker Who Does Too Much. If second chance romance is your thing, you might enjoy this one.

I was a little dissatisfied with the ending because I felt it was a fairly clear case of HFN, which is an interesting way to kick off a series. Camille is set on staying in San Francisco, but Drew’s military career will take him to duty stations all over. There’s a bit of hand-waving over this looming conflict in the epilogue. I have no idea if it’ll come back in subsequent books, but I’m almost curious.

There are a couple of plot threads that seem like they’re setting up future books: Blake, Drew’s alcoholic buddy, Bryn, Drew’s cousin who plans to open her own restaurant, maybe a book for Jaz, Camille’s best friend and part-time employee. But none of the set-ups are compelling enough to make me want to read the next book.