Show Me Your Milk Can

"Everybody has a story."

--Alice Clayton, Cream of the Crop

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pages: 384
Publication Date: July 12th, 2016

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Previous Books in Series: Nuts
Find on: Goodreads | Amazon

My Thoughts

The Belle

The Hudson Valley series has become one of my most pleasant surprise series. Nuts was a surprise favorite romance of last year and I've been eagerly anticipating Cream of the Crop especially after meeting the hero in Nuts who is a big, tall, broody farmer. The Wisconsin girl in me swooned hard these boys.


This book was also surprise but in a different way. What started off as a funny, witty, quick-moving read turned into so much more. Alice Clayton not only perfectly capturing that butterflies in the stomach feel of a new crush with potential but the emotional trauma of past relationships as well. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here but I can't not talk about how much I FELT during this book. Natalie is a bonafide city girl who lusts after the cheese guy at the farmers market every Saturday. Normally confident and slaying in everything she does, Oscar the (grouch) dairy farmer turns her into a shy wallflower. Reading about Natalie anticipating seeing Oscar and actually interacting with him later on gave ME butterflies. I could just FEEL how excited she was and that nervous anticipation of a new crush who could turn into something more. Oh, my gosh it made me ache to have a guy I'm interested in. The feelings were that real. On the flip side, when Natalie talks about her past and why she is the way she is my heart broke...actually felt like it was breaking. It made me think about one particular guy who royally fucked me up but we're not gonna go there.

Natalie was so positively kickass that I couldn't get enough of her. A self-proclaimed maneater she is the 'dude whisperer' according to Roxie. She can get any guy to worship the ground she walks on but as I said above she has some past pains. I loved that she was unapologetically herself. She is a size 18 and not afraid to tell you. She's also not afraid to embrace her curves, her love of cheese, and strut through life, if you will. She was just awesome. Fabulous to the nth degree.

Oscar was...difficult for me at times but not in a bad way necessarily. I adored Natalie and her incredible sense of self-possession. Oscar was quiet, broody, intense and such a guy. There is a situation that arises with an ex that he doesn't see as weird or inappropriate but Natalie, as a female, knows there's more that and it drove me NUTS (no pun intended) that he was so naive and oblivious. I was with Natalie on this one, females know how the shitty versions of our gender are. How this resolved was actually really great but I got where she was coming from. Besides that, I adored Oscar, as well. He was intense in the best way in that his attention and focus to Natalie was so swoon-worthy. Totally sigh-inducing. It was great.

The small town vibe continues to be idyllic and fantastic. It's a little ironic that reading this I am now living in a small town and it's a healthy dose of reality that I have seen no hot farmers...nada...nowhere. I also had to laugh a little at the frequent reference to 'living in the stick' but then discussed the 6 blocks of downtown. I was like, yeah I'm literally in the middle of nowhere. Where are THESE types of small towns?! I digress. But I got it and I loved it.

This series is fun, sassy, sexy, and unapologetically hilarious. Natalie's blunt sense of humor and crass vocabulary is amazing. Girl after my own heart. I adore this series and would really recommend picking this series up if you're in the mood for fun and sexy with the right amount of real emotion.

Reserved Seating
If you love country loving, small towns, and hot farmers...this book is for you.