By
Erin R Flynn

Imagine there weren’t three main gods of Olympus, but four. A sister who went through something so horrible, so traumatic she left and was written out of history.

Arabella Baker and her two adopted daughters are moving to Boston to open a new business and start over. Things will be different this time with the new names and new life. The twins will live on their own at college—though still right in Boston—and experience something a bit more normal. The store she bought has a hefty price, but the location is fantastic, and she got the best spot in the new development… Which apparently comes with an immensely attractive man who owns it all.

Nothing goes smoothly in opening a new business though, sample days, crazy busy, and fluff interviews taking dark turns. Honestly, it leaves Arabella asking one main question—why did she think opening in such a large city and right before the holidays was such a great idea?

This book opens with a dream sequence, where we see the beginning of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and their unnamed sister, who is having the dream.

Starting over with new identities, Arabella Baker and her daughters Mary and Kary Conan, are almost to their new home in Boston. Mary and Kary will make a stop while Arabella heads directly to the building she purchased. Her bakery will be on the first level with the second level for additional prep and assembling, the third is her apartment.

The first person we meet is Colton Knight, the property developer. He was jogging through the area when Arabella arrived and didn’t realize who she was until she introduced herself.

It smoothed over but later after she posted her ladies or gentlemen escorted by ladies sign, he protests. Kary takes over and explains, not gently the reason why.

This is a favorite scene.

I yanked open the door and stepped into the conversation, Mr. Knight’s eyes full of guilt that I’d heard them talking. Plus, that weird pity look people gave me after hearing a fraction of what had happened to me that made me uncomfortable. I ignored it, instead practically shoving the scone in his open mouth.

“Eat it,” I commanded before turning to Kary. “He’s trying to nicely ask how we’ll ever make any money and not drag down the whole shopping park if I’m excluding men and not all that friendly.”

“You’re friendly to females and people who aren’t annoying,” she defended, getting a smile from me in reply.

“This can’t be a scone,” Mr. Knight moaned before taking another bite. “Seriously, what’s in this? Am I going to get a heart attack from all the butter that has to be in them?”

“No, it actually has less butter than a normal scone. Less sugar too. Way more protein.” I held up my hand when he went to ask. “No, I won’t tell you what’s in them, but Mary and Kary have taken great pains to use those nutritional calculator things to come up with cards for them, labels too that have allergy warnings but not the full ingredient list. I will say the protein powder helps with the taste.”

He bobbed his head as he listened, finishing the scone. He glanced at the container in my hand, and I swear a grown man gave me an adorable pout face. “Do I get more? I’ll be nice.”

“Yes,” I chuckled, handing him the container. “This was to thank your office for handling so much before we arrived. I didn’t even dream the display cases would be in yet.”

“Do I have to share with my office?” he murmured, glancing from the container to me, still pouting.

“I handed it to you as a thank you to you and your office. What you do with it is your choice as you’re a grown man.” I rolled my eyes again when he kept pouting and turned to go back in the store.

“She’ll make more. They’re our favorite, so she normally makes at least one batch five days a week even if they’re only on the schedule three days.”

“But now I can’t buy any on my own since I’m a gentleman and I don’t have anyone to escort me,” he grumbled, hugging the container lovingly.

Kary chuckled and tapped the bottom of the sign. “If there are any questions or arrangements needed for an order, please call the number below. So if there’s something you need, Mr. Knight, you can arrange to pick up an order when Mary and I are here.”

“What does you two being here have to do with anything?”

“Because I can fuck you up before you even got the chance to hit me. We’re not bakers. We’re her security, and I’ll kill you without remorse if you ever touch her.” Her tone went dark, and I knew there would be threats in her eyes if I was looking at her.

“Plus, they have more energy than I could think possible for two young women, and they do manual labor wonderfully,” I sang, my mood improving as I felt Kary’s love for me in her threat.

“I just want more food,” he defended.

“Will you get on board with the way we will do things?” I reached the door to the kitchen when he must have nodded because she invited him in, calling that she would unload the rest of the purchases. I nodded, and she propped open the door as I punched in the code. I sighed and waited for Mr. Knight, realizing he was coming with and joining our lunch so we could play nice.

“Let’s just get the awkwardness out of the way because they’re always awkward after Kary tells them the why of the sign and threatens them,” Mary offered quietly as we entered the kitchen. “He’s developing in the area, so he might be useful, Arabella. I bet he knows all the players and the best people to go to for everything.”

“I do,” he agreed, already stuffing his face with a second scone. He realized how rude he was being and hurried to swallow. “Sorry. I forgot to eat breakfast since there was some mess to handle at another site and I came to drop off your full packet instead of grabbing lunch.” He smiled as he set said packet of keys and contact information on the counter as if knowing we would like him better for it. He took another bite as I checked on the bread, and moments later Kary came in with boxes of goodies from Costco.

I looked it over and smiled, biting back a laugh. “You two are as subtle as airplanes.” I held up a few ingredients and knew what they wanted. “So we’re starting the tastings with the ham and cheese scones. The caramel apple cinnamon ones as well. What else?”

“S’mores please,” Kary answered, carrying in the next load. “We got the stuff for the red velvet ones you said you wanted to try and experiment with. Good for Christmas.”

“And the raspberry white chocolate,” Mary added, making kissy faces at me as she put groceries away in the fridge, organizing them how I liked.

“I want to live here,” Mr. Knight muttered, his tongue practically hanging out. “I’m going to start needing to jog more.” The three of us turned and looked at him with everything from annoyance—well, I did—to the twins’s matching expressions of amusement. “So what do you need done? I’ve got people, and they have people, and if not, I have people who can call people. Just please feed me. No one feeds me and honestly, I’m so tired of fast food and stupid smoothies.”

“He begs well at least,” Kary threw out as her parting words before going for the next load.

“He does,” Mary agreed, fighting a smile. “Should we start with the list?”

“Fine,” I grumbled, knowing when they would win out and to simply give in. “But I want some waffle cones to play with. I want to try that thing I told you about. If they can have pancakes for breakfast sandwich bread, I think this will work.”

“Yes, love,” she teased and pulled out her tablet. “Fine, we’ll feed you as long as you’re useful. We need to get in touch with any charities that help the homeless, like pass out food or trusted soup kitchens we can donate the bread we don’t sell for the day.”

“Do you have an email set up yet? I can get you two contacts that should be able to help you,” he agreed, pulling out his phone.

“Internet comes tomorrow and I’ll set up the servers and whatnot. We—”

“I thought we were doing the email through the website domain?” Kary cut in, dropping off yet more boxes. “We bought the domains even if there’s not a site loaded yet.”

“Right, yeah, I just don’t know if the email will be .com, .net, .guru or what since I haven’t set it up. We pushed it back with the storm.”

“We have weeks before we open, and we’re the only shop even finished, so no rush,” I reminded them.

“But you love Halloween and all the kiddies,” Mary whined. “We have to get ready before everyone starts holiday treats and whatnot or you will pout like he did wanting to be fed.”

“I do like giving treats to the schools,” I chuckled as the timer went off. I pulled out the bread, sliding it directly onto cooling racks before loading the other loaves I’d rolled out. “I made some extras for the construction guys to take home to dinner. Remind them I’ll be sleeping here going forward so to be nice to me.”

“Got it.” He pulled out a business card from his pants pocket and handed it to Mary. “Here’s my info, so just let me know when you have that set up. What else is on the list?”
Flynn, Erin R. Rough Beginnings (Karma Bakery Book 1). Kindle Locations (402-476). Supernatural Script Inc. Kindle Edition.

Now Colton is going to be helpful but there are areas he has no clue about. Arabella is a goddess, her daughters are Lycaon wolves and humans just don’t know about them.

So, we meet an arrogant wolf Alpha, a helpful witch Gina, who informs her of vampires working the night shift at the docks and also recommends a warlock coven for her fish needs. The most important thing Gina informs her of is that she has a curse on her and that’s why men act the way they do around her. Seems the only one not really affected is Colton, which I find very interesting.

Arabella has hired help and I love her new employees.

There is much going on in this book, as they prepare to open the bakery. Not only with the normal stuff but also the paranormal. It’s a good thing Arabella is a goddess as she can double and triple things, make equipment appear and so much more.

I laughed, cried and even rolled my eyes a few times.

5 Contented Purrs for Erin!

Erin is a born Chicagoan who decided to state hop a bit, given she works from home. She currently resides in Georgia with her pup, Lord Vader Flynn. With an eclectic and addictive personality, there isn’t much that doesn’t interest her or she won’t pour herself into if it catches her fancy. She has always been interested in the darker aspects of life and mythologies—especially vampires, shifters, the occult, and anything paranormal.

To date, she has published more paranormal books than she can keep up with the characters for, in different genres with dedicated readers who await each release to her numerous series under any of the three Flynn names she writes.