New Release: A Chef's Kiss Christmas by Peggy Jaeger

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Romance Author Peggy Jaeger is celebrating her new book, A Chef’s Kiss Christmas (A Dickens Holiday Romance Book 26), by giving away amazing prizes to 2 lucky winners! Click here to enter.

Successful Chef Anton Saparosa had the perfect life. Great marriage; beautiful and adoring wife; trendy, SoCal restaurant frequented by celebrities – many of them his friends.

Then Covid hit.

Anton’s perfect life dissolved before his eyes. With nothing left to keep him in California he starts an itinerant cross-country journey searching for something to give his life meaning again.

Happenstance lands him in the tiny town of Dickens just as Dorrit’s Diner is thrown into chaos.

Literary Agent Portia Avon needs a rest. A messy divorce has her craving quiet and the company of her friend and client A.B. Cards, nee Abra Bree. She comes from the western heat of California to the eastern cold of Dickens and plans to do nothing but rest, relax, and read during her holiday stay.

When Portia spots a familiar face in Dorrit’s, she’s confused. Why is Anton Saparosa, one of the most recognizable chefs in California, working as a fry cook in Abra’s mom’s diner, and going by the name Tony Smith?

A question Portia wants an answer to, but one Tony isn’t willing to share, especially with a woman he can’t stop thinking about.

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Excerpt From A Chef’s Kiss Christmas by Peggy Jaeger

“Tony offered to help the morning Winnie got hurt. Then, when I found out what a marvelous cook he was, I asked him to stay on a bit. God was surely shining down on me that day because he agreed, and he’s been here ever since. Going on almost three months now.”

“That’s him,” Abra said, motioning with her fork to the swing door where a man emerged, garbed in a grease-stained apron and carrying a plate.

Portia craned her neck to see, blinked, then did a double take and blinked again.

It couldn’t be…could it? Was that…?

“What did you say his name was?” she asked Amy.

“Well, I didn’t, but it’s Tony-by-the-way.”

“Bide Away?”

Amy’s laugh was deep, loud, and infectious. “No, hon, that’s not his last name. That’s how he introduced himself to me after making me the best omelet I’d ever tasted in my entire long, life. We were in the kitchen, me trying to get the orders out on time, him proving to me he could cook. After tasting that omelet, I knew I needed him way more than he probably needed a job, but I asked him if he could stay until at least through lunch. He said he could then, introduced himself, saying, “My name’s Tony, by the way.”

Portia grinned. “Cute story. But what’s his real name? His last name?”

Amy, distracted when her name was called again, said, “It’s Smith. Tony Smith. I’ll be back.”

Once she left them, Portia shook her head. Was she wrong about him? Admittedly, he looked a little different than he had before the world went into hiding. Thinner, longer hair, his face a road map of sharp angles.

She could have been mistaken. After all, it had only been a fleeting glance as he delivered the plate to one of the customers. Plus, he’d been halfway across the room and Portia’s distance eyesight wasn’t what it had been ten years ago.

Or even two.

But still…

Meet The Author

Peggy Jaeger writes slow burn contemporary romances and romcoms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. Her stories make you believe in happily ever afters.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at her website where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Interview with Peggy Jaeger

Q: What is your favorite trope to write and why?

PJ: FRIENDS TO LOVERS. I adore the way the two “friends” dance around one another once they both start to feel something more than friendship. And I love discovering who will give in first and admit their feelings to the other. If it’s a he falls first story, even better!

Q: What is your book about?

PJ: I’ve wanted to do a Post-Covid love story for a while now, and finally felt we’d had enough distance that it would work. There were so many people who lost loved ones during that horrible pandemic era, and many never got to see the person to say goodbye because of strict restrictions and protocols for hospital visitors. What must that have felt like for the survivors! In A CHEF’S KISS CHRISTMAS, I explore the aftermath of such a death and the way the spouse moves on…or doesn’t. Now, don’t think this is a heavy tome, because it’s not. It’s filled with humor and quite a few chuckles, proving that even in tragedy we can find the funny!

Q: Describe your main character in three words.

PJ: Anton “Tony” Saparosa: stoic, monosyllabic, grieving. Portia Avon: dedicated, kindhearted, chatterbox.

Q: What were some challenges while writing this book?

PJ: Well, obviously dealing with death in any form can make a book feel weighted down and depressing. The challenge was to treat the death realistically and humanely, and then to find some humor in the story. Most of the humor came from secondary characters, which helped to boost Tony’s mood and character, much like people would do for loved ones and friends in real life.

Q: What is one thing you hope readers will take away from your book?

PJ: That love and loss are universal emotions and that love really does have the power to heal all things, be it a broken heart, a withered spirit, or even a grumpy chef!

Q: How many books have you published and which is your favorite?

PJ: 60 + between traditional and indie publishing and asking that question is like asking which is your favorite child!! I love them all equally for entirely different reasons. Of course I adore my first book because it was my first! But my newest claims my heart because the story is so timely!

THIS or THAT?

Coke or Pepsi? DIET MOUNTAIN DEW ( PEPSI PRODUCT!)
Book or Movie? BOOK, every time!
Shower or Bath? SHOWER
City or Country? COUNTRY
Print or Ebook? BOTH
Early or Late? EARLY