Guest Post – The Matchmaking Chef Collection

Tags

Better Than Chocolate, Dates Du Jour, Hot Crossed Buns, Maddie James, Mate To Order, Perfectly Matched, Romancing The Scone, Side Dish, The Matchmaking Chef Collection

Now I get the pleasure of welcoming Maddie James as she talks about the awesomeness of her heroine, Suzie Matthews, from The Matchmaking Chef Collection.

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When I grow up, I want to be just like Suzie Matthews. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be like her?

Suzie Matthews has a hunky, bad boy of a husband who rides a Harley. He literally made a plan to win her back and pursued her like nobody’s business. Of course, Suzie grew weak in the knees and gave in to him, body and soul. Besides her hubby, Brad, Suzie owns a B&B sitting on the edge of Lake Legend, on the outskirts of Legend, Tennessee. She can see Legend Mountain across the lake, and the Lodge that her husband owns. Suzie not only is a chef and B&B owner, but a cookbook author. And after a few successful pairings of Legendarians, she is now known as a matchmaker. In fact, she landed a TV show on The Food Channel, called The Matchmaking Chef Show.

What more could a girl want? See why I want to be her when I grow up?

Suzie didn’t start off to be a matchmaker. I created her character back in 2007 when my friends and writing partners and I started to write a series set in a small town in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Suzie Schul (later Suzie Matthews) was my character. What started as a writing exercise ended with a popular and bestselling series that continues today. The Matchmaking Chef series is a spin-off series from that original, Ladies of Legend series.

I quickly fell in love with Suzie. I gave her that quaint Victorian cottage that she turned into a B&B. Soon she was cooking and catering and writing cookbooks. And along the way she took up matchmaking. Suzie debuted in Bed, Breakfast & You, and she was a prominent character in her sister’s story, Home For The Holidays. From there, the Matchmaking Chef series took off with this first story, Perfectly Matched. Seven more stories followed, and the entire collection is now available in one volume, titled Perfectly Matched, and the rest of The Matchmaking Chef stories.

I hope you want to read more of Suzie and her matchmaking adventures. And stay tuned, because Suzie’s life will alter a bit after the end of this series, when she turns sleuth in a cozy murder mystery titled Deadly Scoop (Coming in 2015).

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is a description of the collection:

THE MATCHMAKING CHEF COLLECTION

The eight novellas of The Matchmaking Chef Series

When Suzie Matthews accidentally cooks up a scene that causes her sister to get back together with her high school boyfriend, she wonders if she can help other singletons living in the small mountain town of Legend, Tennessee find the loves of their lives.

Being a matchmaker isn’t really on her list of things to do—after all, she has a bed & breakfast to run, cookbooks to write, and a television show on The Food Channel to keep up with. But baking is her thing, and perhaps matchmaking can be her thing, too. After all, there is a song going through her head that goes something like this…

Matchbaker, Matchbaker, bake me a match? No wait. Make me a match. Nevermind! You get the picture, right?

Welcome to Legend, Tennessee. And welcome to the matchbaking, er, matchmaking world of Chef Suzie Matthews.

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Includes the 8 novellas: Perfectly Matched, Dates Du Jour, Hot Crossed Buns, Side Dish, Mate To Order, Romancing The Scone, Better Than Chocolate, and Hard Candy Kisses, @ 133,000 

Novellas also available separately.

Available at the following retailers:  AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | KOBO | IBOOKS | SMASHWORDS | ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

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Blurbs from each novella:

Perfectly Matched, Book One

Suzie Matthews is hard at work on her new cookbook, Perfectly Matched, when she asks the local “wallflower” to help her with a project. Mary Lou Picketts dreams of falling in love with country music star, Nash Rhodes, but is ready to settle for Thurman Phillips down the street. But she doesn’t want to. Not really. When Nash comes to Legend for a music benefit and stays at the lodge, Suzie wonders if she can perfectly match this miss-matched couple.

Hot Crossed Buns, Book Two

Wild Katie Long, she’ll never settle down. But Chris Marks has had his eye on her for a long time. When Chris hires Suzie to set him up with a romantic dinner for two, Suzie does all she can to set the mood. Thing is, Katie isn’t about to be wooed and she’s hotter than hot crossed buns when she figures out what Chris is up to. Then Suzie turns the tables by supplying Chris with a couple of items that just might tame Katie after all—handcuffs and a leather riding crop.

Dates Du Jour, Book Three

Speed dating? Speed eating is more like it. When Suzie sets up lunch date after lunch date for Lyssa Larkin, Legend’s homegrown homecoming queen of 1992, she knows she’s bit off more than she can chew. Lyssa rejects dates in two bites and sends them on their way. Suzie wonders if she really wants to date or just eat two lunches, and worries that soon Lyssa’s hips won’t fit on her dainty chairs. That is, until Suzie takes a risk with a man that Lyssa knows, but doesn’t, and who is falling for her hard and fast.

Side Dish, Book Four

Becca North doesn’t want a boyfriend but her best friend Nora certainly does. Becca is soooo off men. But when Nora, owner of Nora’s Novel Niche, meets Suzie the Matchmaking Chef, during a booksigning at her store, she pays the matchmaker to arrange a romantic picnic date lunch for her—a blind date, no less. Nora drags Becca along all the way from Pigeon Forge for moral support and to check out her date. Thing is, Nora’s date would rather check out Becca, instead.

Mate to Order, Book Five

When Suzie’s success as a matchmaker hits the national scene about the same time as her debut cooking show on the Food Channel, her new producer comes to her with a list of requirements—not for Suzie’s job, but for a husband. Patricia Plum has a specific list and if Suzie really wants to make it big in New York City, she’ll make every attempt to deliver, Patricia’s “Mate to Order.”

Romancing the Scone, Book Six

High tea or sweet tea? As long as there are scones, it doesn’t matter. In fact, Sydney Schul, owner of Sydney’s Sugar Coffee Stop and Bakery, makes the best damned scones east of the Mississippi, and there was an article written about her in Southern’s Best magazine to prove it. All is well and life in Legend is good, until a mysterious male stranger comes to town, stalking her scones and coercing Legendarians to nab her recipe.

Better than Chocolate, Book Seven

When Scott Matthews escapes to Legend to visit his brother, Brad and his wife Suzie, he has only one request—he doesn’t want to talk, smell, or taste chocolate. Nor does he want to discuss getting fired as chocolate taster from world-renowned Bianchi Chocolates. What Jillian Bass needs is to make it in Legend. This Manhattan transplant knows nothing about small town living other than she wants to make it big here real bad. Forget New York, she’s trying to set up her small chocolate shop and impress the locals. And all is fine until she smacks straight into Scott.

Hard Candy Kisses, Book Eight

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner and Legend Elementary teacher Patti Jo Baker has tried every trick in the book to land a date for the annual New Year’s Eve Bash at The Lodge. This includes setting up a kissing booth at the Legend Elementary Winter Carnival—a booth which Principal Jim Hamilton promptly shuts down. Because if Patty Jo Baker is passing out kisses, any kind of kisses, he wants to be both first, and last, in line—and he definitely doesn’t want to sample them in front of the student body.

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Giveaway: 

Maddie is giving away 1 ebook copy of

The Matchmaking Chef Series Collection

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/Yzc0NThmNDMxY2FlNDZkZGQ0NGVlNDgzNzBkZjkyOjIy/

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