The Aurelia Palms was finally thriving. Then the chef walked out.
At fifty-five, Margot Laurent expected to spend the rest of her career collecting Michelin stars and lucrative television deals. Instead, she hurled a glazed ham at a producer on live TV—and the internet never forgets.
Her reputation is in ruins. Her career is over. And when a woman named Nora Whitfield offers her a job running the kitchen of a small Caribbean hotel, Margot accepts for one simple reason: It's the only offer she has.
Saint Aurelia, however, has no interest in celebrity chefs or redemption arcs. The island's best produce belongs to one stubborn farmer who's already decided Margot represents everything wrong with modern cooking. Gabriel Mitchell grows heirloom tomatoes, quotes philosophy, and wants nothing to do with egos, fame, or knife-roll bravado.
She needs his vegetables. He refuses to sell them to her. And the only way to change his mind is to show up at his farm every morning and prove she's worth the trouble.
As Margot battles for ingredients, humility, and a second chance she never planned on needing, Nora struggles to run a growing hotel with a man she's still learning how to love and without the systems she once trusted to keep everything under control.
Both women discover that reinvention is messier than success, that belonging can't be optimized, and that the most meaningful transformations happen behind the scenes.
Set against sunlit mornings, clattering pans, and an island that insists on slowing everyone down, Back of House is a witty, heartfelt story about starting over, surrendering control, and discovering that real nourishment—in food, in love, and in life—takes time.
A smart, feel-good women's fiction novella with romance, humor, and hope.
Each book in the Saint Aurelia Island series can be read on its own, but together they tell a richer story of reinvention, community, and second chances.
Genre: General Fiction
At fifty-five, Margot Laurent expected to spend the rest of her career collecting Michelin stars and lucrative television deals. Instead, she hurled a glazed ham at a producer on live TV—and the internet never forgets.
Her reputation is in ruins. Her career is over. And when a woman named Nora Whitfield offers her a job running the kitchen of a small Caribbean hotel, Margot accepts for one simple reason: It's the only offer she has.
Saint Aurelia, however, has no interest in celebrity chefs or redemption arcs. The island's best produce belongs to one stubborn farmer who's already decided Margot represents everything wrong with modern cooking. Gabriel Mitchell grows heirloom tomatoes, quotes philosophy, and wants nothing to do with egos, fame, or knife-roll bravado.
She needs his vegetables. He refuses to sell them to her. And the only way to change his mind is to show up at his farm every morning and prove she's worth the trouble.
As Margot battles for ingredients, humility, and a second chance she never planned on needing, Nora struggles to run a growing hotel with a man she's still learning how to love and without the systems she once trusted to keep everything under control.
Both women discover that reinvention is messier than success, that belonging can't be optimized, and that the most meaningful transformations happen behind the scenes.
Set against sunlit mornings, clattering pans, and an island that insists on slowing everyone down, Back of House is a witty, heartfelt story about starting over, surrendering control, and discovering that real nourishment—in food, in love, and in life—takes time.
A smart, feel-good women's fiction novella with romance, humor, and hope.
Each book in the Saint Aurelia Island series can be read on its own, but together they tell a richer story of reinvention, community, and second chances.
Genre: General Fiction