Pepper Basham – Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner

About the Book

ISBN-13:9781400351381

Publication date:05/05/2026

Pages:416

Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble)

In the charming mountain town of Wisteria, North Carolina, Daphne Austen clings to tradition like cream to a scone. She’s built her life—and her late grandmother’s tearoom, Tea Thyme—around all things English: delicate china, Jane Austen novels, and the comforting predictability of routine. The only thing threatening her perfectly ordered world? The loud, aggravatingly handsome Brit opening a pub next door.

After his ex-wife broke his heart and his business partner nearly destroyed his career, Finn Dashwood packed up his six-year-old daughter and left England behind. He’s looking for a fresh start, and the last thing he needs is a fussy, tea-obsessed neighbor criticizing his every pint and playlist. It doesn’t matter that she’s ridiculously kind (to everyone else) and that his daughter is utterly fascinated by her. Finn’s heart is not open to being broken again.

But disagreements turn into prank wars and then a competition when a high-profile wedding needs a last-minute caterer. The townsfolk are thrilled—Wisteria hasn’t seen this much excitement since the county fair lost a goat.

When the wedding demands both sweet and savory fare, Daphne and Finn are forced to put down their swords and pick up their serving trays. Between burnt pastries, brewing tempers, trending hashtags (#SipsAndSpats, anyone?), and one very adorable little girl, rivalry soon gives way to reluctant friendship—and maybe something that feels suspiciously like chemistry.

Can a tea shop princess and a pub owner with a past mix their lives as seamlessly as clotted cream and jam . . . or will their differences keep them steeped in rivalry forever?

My Thoughts

Daphne Austen is the owner of Tea Thyme, an English tearoom in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is barely keeping her head above water when Finn Dashwood comes to town and opens an English-style pub next door to her. The competition begins almost as soon as they meet each other, both trying to create a dish and/or a drink to entice more customers. This is a delightful rom-com with a little drama mixed in too as the town of Wisteria takes the competition seriously and begin to take sides, especially when the prize is being the caterer for a big wedding. Plus there is a natural disaster that occurs, showing how well the town comes together in a crisis. I enjoyed the flirtatious banter between the two main characters and the humor that started each chapter with text messages as the townsfolk lined up to support either Daphne or Finn. The characters were relatable and appealing and the plot was well written and charming, The foods and beverages that were featured made me want to be a part of the town’s population and try some of them. With an emotional depth that was unexpected and a trop of rivals to lovers, this book was fun, flirty and a slam dunk in the romance department for me.
I voluntarily received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

About the Author

Pepper Basham is a best-selling author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the wife of a fantastic pastor, mom of five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus. Her twentieth book, The Cairo Curse, came out in February. Next up is Positively, Penelope, the sequel to her bestselling novel, Authentically, Izzy. She loves connecting with readers and other authors through social media outlets like Facebook & Instagram.

You can learn more about Pepper and her books on her website at www.pepperdbasham.com

Purchase Links

About the Book

“Dear Izzy—I feel certain there’s a book-loving man living relatively nearby waiting to speak bookish to you ’til death do you part. You just haven’t met yet.”

Izzy Edgewood is a wannabe bookstore owner, quote queen, and Lord of the Rings nerd who has been waiting for Prince Charming to sweep her off her sneakered feet. But it’s hard to meet people when you spend more time with fictional humans than real ones. Which is why her pragmatist cousin Josephine decides to take Izzy’s future into her own meddling hands and create an online dating profile for the hopeful romantic.

To Izzy’s shock (and suspicion), Josie’s plan works. Soon, she’s dialoguing with a Hobbit-loving man named Brodie who lives in a small town an ocean away from her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But is their shared love of books, family, and correspondence enough to overcome Izzy’s fear of flying and the literal distance between them? And is a long-distance relationship even worth considering when a local author has been frequenting the library where she works and is proving to be a perfectly fine gentleman?

In this epistolary novel from award-winning author Pepper Basham, bookish dreams and happily-ever-afters collide to create a beautiful sort of magic that’s even better than fiction.

My Review

I was enticed to read this book by a fellow book blogger (thank you, Nicole) and I am so glad that I did! This is a book just made for book lovers like me. Written as an epistolary novel, this is a fairy tale type love story with characters that you just want to embrace. Izzy is looking for love and in a hilarious way seems to find the bottom of the barrel offerings first. When she starts communicating with a too-good-to-be real man from an island that no one has heard of before, then the real fun starts. The emails between Brodie and Izzy show a developing interest in each other and a lot that they have in common. I really enjoyed their quotations from great classics, especially their references to “The Lord of the Rings” and their use of the characters’ names to describe themselves and others. I especially enjoyed the unwelcome and unsolicited advice that Izzy’s well-meaning family members gave her. Levi’s advice was humorous, Penelope’s was wise and cautious, but Josephine’s advice was the best. Josephine was determined that Izzy should be with boring and one-note Eli, but Izzy knows that Eli is a passing fancy and her reaction to Josephine’s advice is priceless. This is a book that uses words well, with tongue-in-cheek humor and not a little bit of a Cinderella focus. I enjoyed seeing Izzy mature through her correspondence and become more like the person she was always meant to be. The pacing is moderately fast and entirely enjoyable. This is an engaging book, perfect for fans of stories with happy endings and a little drama to get there.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishing via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”