On Any Given Sundae [Kindle Edition]

Marilyn Brant (Author)

Book Description

**Be sure to check out Marilyn Brant's other ebook romantic comedies: Holiday Man, Double Dipping and Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match!**

Nothing tops the sweetness of an unexpected love...

When Elizabeth's uncle Siegfried and Rob's uncle Pauly rush off to Europe for a month, they temporarily relinquish the reins of their ice cream shop to their respective niece and nephew -- two people who may have grown up practically next door to each other but who have next to nothing in common.

Elizabeth "Please Don't Call Me Lizzy" Daniels is a small-town Wisconsin girl at heart. Shy and inexperienced at love, the frizzy-haired dessert cookbook writer still resides in her quaint hometown of Wilmington Bay, stutters painfully when nervous and is only comfortable with her laptop and her tiny circle of cooking pals. She must come out of hiding over the summer to help her uncle, but she's convinced her childhood crush, Rob, barely knows she exists.

Roberto "You'd Better Call Me Rob, or Else" Gabinarri is the town's golden boy and former football star who left home after high school, made a splash in the big city and never looked back. He has to return to Wilmington Bay to uphold a promise to his uncle, but he's counting the minutes until he can escape to the relative anonymity of his fast-paced, commitment-free city life and the sports-themed restaurant he owns in Chicago. Despite his chattiness and charm, Rob was always intimidated by quiet, brainy girls like "Frizzy Lizzy," and he isn't pleased to be back in the place where people like her still see him as that popular but dumb jock -- an image he worked for almost a decade to shed.

The unlikely pair tries to make the best of being stuck together, but Elizabeth has a pressing publication deadline, and Rob has an Italian mother bent on lining up potential hometown brides for him. Rob comes up with an idea -- something that might help them both -- but it involves just a bit of family deception. With time running out to finish her cookbook and her friends already stretched to the max trying to assist them, Elizabeth reluctantly agrees.

Neither Rob nor Elizabeth are used to playing games of pretense, but can love, hot summer nights and, maybe, some chocolate sauce, caramel and whipped cream...turn their farce into reality?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a charming tale of the popular jock and the shy bookworm, both trying to outlive their high school personas and prove to each other there is more to them than meets the eye. This is truly a root-for-the-underdog, feel-good story and a joy to read." (LEK) ~ Chicklit Club's Digital Domain, June 2011

"You'll want to read it for the humor and great characters and a plot that's sure to leave you smiling." ~ Romantic Times Book Reviews, Hot Pick for October 2011

From the Author

An Excerpt from ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE:

Elizabeth rarely swore aloud but, in her mind, she was cursing not just a blue streak, but also a red, orange, yellow and green streak. She was, in fact, well on her way to a complete blasphemous rainbow, and Rob Gabinarri hadn't even arrived yet.

Of all people. She never thought she'd have to make it through so much as a ten-minute soda pop break with him again. The boy who'd broken her heart and didn't even know it.

Or maybe he did know it.

She couldn't decide which was the greater tragedy.

A snazzy red Porsche convertible squealed to a stop behind her sensible blue Toyota Camry, and the town's Golden Boy stepped out of the car and into the empty confectionary shop.

"Hey, Lizzy. Long time, no see," he said, glancing around the shop in a frantic kind of way.

"E-Elizabeth," she corrected automatically.

"Oh, all right. Sorry."

She stared at him, which of course he didn't notice because he was too busy looking at everything else in the place besides her.

He walked into the backroom then out of it again.

He peered into the washrooms.

He opened and shut a few closets.

He paced back and forth, sat down in a booth, got back up and paced some more.

The guy was as tall and muscular and breathtaking as he'd been a decade before when he used to saunter through the unremarkable halls of Wilmington Bay High School, oblivious to anyone and anything beyond the football field and his bevy of admirers. If it were possible, he seemed even more youthful and in command now than he did at age eighteen.

And she felt about as queasy as she'd felt the last time they'd been face to face.

Finally, his pacing stopped. "Where is my uncle?" he asked in a husky whisper, directing the query at a tray of chocolate-dipped sugar cookies. "Uncle?" he called out. "Uncle Pauly?"

She wanted to tell him, but the words were lodged in her esophagus and, anyway, he wasn't talking to her.

He strode into the backroom again, as if convinced the elderly Italian man could be found hiding behind a jar of candied cherries or a vat of butterscotch syrup. The long black eyelashes blinked in confusion when he emerged into the main shop once again, his gaze and those nutmeg-brown eyes directed at her.

"Don't tell me he left already." This was more a threat than a question. He shook his head at her as though that gesture alone would discourage an affirmative reply.

She held her breath and nodded.

"Where is he?"

She pursed her lips, just as she'd learned in her special speech tutorials so long ago, formed the first letter and tried to push it out of her mouth. But she stuttered anyway.

"L-Lufthansa. F-Fl-Flight four-oh-three."

He cocked his gorgeous head to one side and stared at her in the way she'd grown so accustomed to during her miserable school years: Poor Old Lizzy, the look said. What a geeky dweeb.

"What time is it scheduled to depart?" he asked her with an affected gentleness that made her want to rip out his vocal cords.

She tapped her watch and gathered her courage for whatever might happen next. "T-Twenty m-m-minutes a-ago."

Product Details

• File Size: 404 KB
• Print Length: 172 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Twelfth Night Books (May 31, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0053QI4I6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,693 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet and charming! June 6, 2011

By Kate Sterling

Format:Kindle Edition

Rob was a former jock in a small Wisconsin town, and is now a former professional jock and successful restaurant owner in Chicago. Elizabeth was the self-conscious, chubby, stuttering A-student he remembered from high school -- except, now she's not.

These days she's a successful cookbook writer, and while still self-conscious about her speech, she's grown into a far more interesting woman than Rob expected. And now that they've been thrown together by circumstances (guilted into managing their uncles' ice cream parlor while the two crafty business partners are out of the country) they're finding some things never change, while others bring sweet and sexy surprises.

*

I'll admit it - I'm a big fan of Marilyn Brant's writing (practically a stalker by now, lol) and she didn't disappoint with this release.

"On Any Given Sundae" is a (dare I say it?) sweet book about friendship, family, and food - as well as love, limitations, and lust - all delightfully served in a frothy, fun manner. The characters are quirky, believable, and had me laughing out loud and cheering for them all the way.

The buildup of the relationship between Rob and Elizabeth was perfectly done - not too slow, not too fast - and (unlike some romances) their misunderstandings were completely understandable.

This book left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling - not to mention a growling tummy. "On Any Given Sundae" should come with a warning: May increase appetites for food and sex; don't read while hungry. :)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and charming romance June 9, 2011

By Maria E. Geraci

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read this book in one day! Marilyn Brant has written a fun, charming romance that completely swept me in. I loved both leads- Lizzie and Rob, the ice-cream parlor setting, the crazy uncles, the whole thing! Take this to the beach and come back with a smile on your face!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect read June 9, 2011

By E. Ramer

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This fun book has depth and great writing that made me laugh at times, and other times touched my heart. The small Wisconsin town's former golden boy and frizzy-haired brainiac were so well-drawn, with insecurities as well as strengths. I enjoyed reading about their friends and relatives, too. Great characters all around, and I could see this as a TV show. And then there was the food, especially the desserts that made me want to raid my fridge. (Where I had nothing as good as in the book.)

This book is like a light meal ending with a luscious, layered sundae that leaves you with a smile on your face and a desire to come back soon and dip into it again.

More About the Author

Marilyn Brant is a national bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary fiction. She wrote ACCORDING TO JANE, the story of a modern woman who receives dating advice from the spirit of Jane Austen (October 2009); FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE, a tale about three suburban moms, their marriages and what happens a decade or two after the "Happily Ever After" (a Doubleday Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in 2010); and A SUMMER IN EUROPE, a novel about a woman's journey of self discovery as she travels through Europe with her adventurous aunt's Sudoku & Mahjongg Club (a Literary Guild and BOMC2 featured alternate in 2011, and a Rhapsody Book Club Top 20 Bestseller in "Fiction & Literature" in 2012), all women's fiction releases from Kensington Books.

She's also a #1 Kindle Bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty contemporary romantic comedies, available as original ebooks. The first of these, ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE, was released in June 2011 and was a Top 100 Bestseller on both Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The second, DOUBLE DIPPING, came out in September 2011 and was a 2012 International Digital Awards Finalist for Best Contemporary Novel. Her next ebook releases included HOLIDAY MAN in November 2012 and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH in January 2013, which was a bestselling Kindle title in "Single Women's Fiction" and "Humor."

As a former teacher, library staff member, freelance magazine writer and national book reviewer for Romantic Times, Marilyn has spent much of her life lost in literature. She received her M.A. in educational psychology from Loyola University Chicago, dabbled in both fiction and art at Northwestern University, studied the works of Austen at Oxford University and is an active member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Her debut novel won RWA's prestigious Golden Heart Award® in 2007 and a number of awards since -- including the Single Titles Reviewers' Choice, the Booksellers' Best and the Aspen Gold.

Marilyn lives in the northern Chicago suburbs with her family, but she also hangs out online at her blog "Brant Flakes." When she isn't rereading Jane's books or enjoying the latest releases by her writer friends, she's working on her next novel, eating chocolate indiscriminately and hiding from the laundry.

Visit her website: http://www.marilynbrant.com