Jenny Gardiner masterfully blends humor with keen observations of human nature in her writing. Her narratives are characterized by witty dialogue and relatable characters navigating the complexities of modern life. She explores themes of family, relationships, and self-discovery with a light yet insightful touch. Gardiner's work offers readers an engaging and often surprising journey through everyday absurdities and heartfelt moments.
Go hard or go home... After losing her beloved neighbor Violet, Daphne Sweeney realizes her dream when Violet leaves her part ownership of the duplex she shared with her aged friend. Finally, after years of trying to scrape together the money for her own place, Daphne can stay put, establish some real roots, in her humble little home from Violet. Until she realizes Violet left the remaining ownership of the house to a very distant relative, Brady McGovern, who just so happens to be Daphne's college boyfriend who fled town the day after graduation, never to be heard from again. And Brady has touched down in town just long enough to unload the property and get back on the road again, just like the good old days.
Hard up... Sunshine Ferguson had finally gotten her Zen on. After years of being an uptight staffer for a hotheaded senator, she'd been forced to switch careers, changed her name to something more cheerful and less evocative of the implosion from her last job, and became a yoga instructor. It was the furthest thing, career-wise, from what she'd been doing. She really needed to nourish her soul upon being fired when she got caught accidentally making out in a dark bar with a staffer of the candidate trying to take the senator's job. The loud-mouthed press secretary proved once again that men were never to be trusted, though at least his blabbering their secret finally forced her out of the job that had been toxic for a long time. Life was finally good for Sunny. She was calm. She was imperturbable. Until the very man who blew up her career-and ultimately absconded with her job-shows up in her class, seeking to find his own nirvana.
"Shrimply irresistible ... Lola Quigley can't believe her good luck when she wins a spot on the Food Channel's popular Shop till you Drop. The show features amateur foodies competing to produce a prize-winning meal from staples commonly found in food banks, where people often unload their most unwanted pantry items. Having lived on a near poverty-level budget for a few dark years when her life imploded unexpectedly, Lola had grown to love the challenge of creating delicious meals with the cheapest ingredients she could find on the sale shelf of the grocery store, or--in a twist of irony--donated from her local food bank. She just has to win this: the prize money would help her launch the soup kitchen food truck she's dreamed of starting. It'll be her way of paying it forward after she managed to dig out of a financial hole she'd doubted she ever could escape. Levi Patton is pissed. He's stuck doing penance as a guest chef on an annoying cable reality TV show where overly enthusiastic wannabes try to outdo him with random undesirable ingredients. Will he ever get over the meteoric crash of his career after a food critic found the unmistakable tail of a rat floating atop his bouillabaisse at Levi's revered Washington, DC, restaurant? Convinced, but unable to prove, that a jealous sous chef sabotaged him, his name is now mud in the food world; he's drowning in the veritable toilet of the culinary industry: competing on Shop till you Drop. And he's totally screwed when he ends up pitted against the overly cheerful brunette with the tattoo of Popeye on her bicep, the very woman he'd left at the altar nearly a decade ago."
