Hard Pressed

by Aurora Rey

Overview

For Mira Lavigne, cider is about tradition, elegance, and class. She has little respect and even less patience for self-anointed mavericks who think their ticket to fame and fortune is throwing the rulebook out the window. Dylan Miller is one of those people. The only thing she loves more than pushing the envelope is finding ways to make cider, perry, and a few things she hasn’t even named yet more delicious and more accessible to everyone.

When Mira and Dylan are tapped to co-chair Finger Lakes Cider Week, neither can pass up the publicity and prestige of the role. But professional compromises raise personal stakes, and Dylan and Mira are hard-pressed to keep their businesses—and their hearts—out of harm’s way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636792101
Publisher:	Bold Strokes Books
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	953,261
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Aurora Rey is a college dean by day and award-winning lesbian romance author the rest of the time, except when she’s cooking, baking, riding the tractor, or pining for goats. She grew up in a small town in south Louisiana, daydreaming about New England. She keeps a special place in her heart for the South, especially the food and the ways women are raised to be strong, even if they're taught not to show it. After a brief dalliance with biochemistry, she completed both a BA and an MA in English.

She is the author of the Cape End Romance series and several standalone contemporary lesbian romance novels and novellas. She has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary, RITA®, and Golden Crown Literary Society awards but loves reader feedback the most. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her dog and whatever wildlife has taken up residence in the pond.

Editorial Reviews

10/28/2022

Mira Lavigne, heiress to a prestigious cidery, is expecting to be named chair of the annual upstate New York Cider Week. She plans to use the occasion to highlight sustainable agriculture and raise money for reparations for Black and Indigenous-owned businesses. These goals are complicated when her colleagues name a co-chair: Dylan Miller, whose Forbidden Fruit ciders are more experimental and unpredictable. While the setup suggests a rivals-to-lovers plot, Mira and Dylan align their work plans quickly, and the focus shifts to the disparity between their private, satisfying sexual chemistry and their public, strictly professional relationship. As Mira tries to prove herself to her notable parents, Dylan becomes increasingly jealous of the attention Mira gets from men and the media as an attractive, elegant, and feminine woman. The author does eventually grant Dylan some insight into the ways that Mira also faces prejudice in their predominantly white-male industry—but conflicts around their relative privileges are settled with quick conversations and, perhaps realistically, never feel fully resolved. VERDICT A secondary purchase, particularly for collections looking for more steamy F/F romance. Readers who enjoyed Rey's Greener Pastures will also enjoy background glimpses of Audrey and Rowan's relationship.—Katelyn Browne

Library Journal