This HaBO is from Daphnie, who is looking for what was a contemporary romance at the time it was published:
Looking for a book that I previously enjoyed. Possibly from the 1990s or maybe earlier. It wasn’t a historical novel.
It’s about a lady who inherited a southern mansion and she wanted to turn this into a restaurant. A gentleman who already has a restaurant somehow becomes her partner. They had to renovate the mansion and they opened the restaurant successfully. The restaurant’s name was something at River Bend (or something similar).
A renovation romance! Anyone know this one?
i do!!!!!
Agnes and the Hitman. Jennifer Cruisie!
oh wait – maybe not. In Agnes the deal is if she doesn’t pull off a wedding, the mansion goes back to the previous owner – who is a bitch. Agnes’ original partner isn’t very nice either. But such a fun book!
http://jayneannkrentz.com/eclipse-bay/
Their grandfathers hated each other.
Their fathers hated each other.
And as the next generation of the Hartes and Madisons, Hannah and Rafe are expected to hate each other too. But Hannah Harte—a successful wedding consultant with a skeptical view of marriage—remembers the long-ago night on the beach that revealed Rafe as much more than just “that disreputable Madison boy.” And Rafe remembers the heroic gesture that proved Hannah’s fierce spirit was stronger than any feud—and saved him from near-certain imprisonment.
Now—reunited by a surprising inheritance after years of living their separate lives—Rafe and Hannah return to Eclipse Bay, and the hostilities that still divide, and bind, their families. And they are discovering something that is at once delightful and deeply disturbing…
They don’t hate each other. Not at all…
Probably not Emma Holly’s Cooking Up a Storm. I’m sure the OP would have remembered all the menage bits.
I swear I read a book like this in my first year or two of college (early nineties). Could it have been a Danielle Steele or a LaVyrle Spencer? I had a friend loan me her backlogs and I tore through them.
The other parts of the story which I remembered is that the lady had a (younger?) brother that she bailed out from jail and brought to the restaurant. And the guy partner caught the brother with his hand in the petty cash box or something. Which of course caused some conflict.
And it is not a purely renovation romance but a renovation/restaurant romance.
@msknitten — Isn’t “Agnes and the Hitman” just the most wonderful thing? 😀
But sorry, I’m not any help on the search.
Maybe Beauty and the Black Sheep by Jessica Bird. It’s now renamed The Rebel by JR Ward.
Drat – I’ve read this one. Was there something about he didn’t trust her to run it because she didn’t have much business experience? And a (somewhat stereotyical) black woman who cooks … um … cornbread or something similar which becomes a restaurant staple? It must be 15 years since I read this, and I have no idea what happened to my copy.
Investigation is pointing to “Home for Christmas” by Ellen James:
Robert Beltramo was back in Texas, and Gwen Ferris was stuck with him – but only till Christmas! He’d come to claim his inheritance – half of her restaurant. Though what a wildly successful advertising executive wanted with a restaurant was anybody’s guess!
Like it or not – and Gwen didn’t – they were now fifty-fifty partners. And they’d go on being unwilling partners unless she’d agree to Robert’s plan. Robert, being Robert, always had a plan. And his plans always infuriated her.
His plan A had been to buy Gwen out, plan B to drive her out and this plan C of his…well, that was a doozy! Still, if Gwen could make it through to Christmas Eve with her heart and restaurant intact, it was winner take all…!
Is it possibly River’s Bend? First published as Murphy’s Law by JoAnn Ross? http://www.amazon.com/Rivers-Bend-JoAnn-Ross/dp/1941134017