Much Ado About a Latte: A sweet, small-town romance with a fun enemies-to-lovers couple

Much Ado About a Latte by Kathleen Fuller is the second A Maple Falls Romance. Each book in the series can be read as a standalone. I enjoy reading Kathleen Fuller’s Amish novels, so I wanted to check out her Christian romances. I found Much Ado About a Latte to be different from her Amish novels. They contain good writing, but I thought the characters were lackluster and flat. Tanner and Anita have been attracted to each other since high school, but neither of them has acted on their feelings. Ten years later, Anita and Tanner work at the Sunshine Diner and their feelings are still present. We get to hear how Anita likes Tanner’s looks (over and over) and Tanner finds Anita to be pretty (numerous times). Tanner also likes Anita’s personality. Tanner wishes to purchase the Sunshine Diner and elevate the food. He has plans to give Anita a promotion. Anita wants to purchase building #3 next to the diner and turn into a café where people can get quality coffee drinks and delicious pastries. Anita figures the diner, and her new enterprise will complement each other. Neither Anita nor Tanner have told each other about their plans. Tanner and Anita need to work through their feelings, their doubts, and insecurities before they can move forward personally. They also need to admit how they feel about each other. Tanner and Anita are friendly characters, but I was not a fan of either of them. I wanted to like them, but they drove me nuts (especially with Anita constantly obsessing over Tanner). Anita is portrayed as a woman with a learning disability (who never received the help she needed to conquer it). She is a wishy-washy woman who I wish had pulled herself by the bootstraps instead of needing a man to help her. I did not feel any chemistry between the pair (no tension or burning love). I was glad when the pacing had a slight uptick in the last half of the book (it was so slow in the beginning). The story had a good ending. Much Ado About a Latte did not feel like a Christian novel. There is a drunken episode that is completely out of place (as well as the comment about knockin’ boots). It was missing the Christian element completely (“thank the Lord” does not cut it). Much Ado About a Latte was not the right book for me. I will stick to Kathleen Fuller’s Amish fiction which she does very well. Much Ado About a Latte is a fluffy romance novel with good food, diner drama, a wonderful wedding, a startling smooch, fine friends, and a meddlesome mother.

This is the first book I've read by this author. I enjoyed the small town which is the setting for this book and the overall story. I can't say that I connected with the main characters too much, however. In most romances, there is always some miscommunication to move the story along. In this book, there seemed to be too many of them. I couldn't reconcile that with a deep relationship! If the couple isn't going to talk about their hopes and dreams, they shouldn't be a couple! That just isn't plausible. I like Tanner's mom a lot, although she did hide her health issues from him when they got serious. Tanner's boss was an interesting guy but what he was like after retirement didn't really jive with the kind of guy he seemed to be! I really enjoyed the friends of Anita and Tanner. They seemed liked a great group of friends and were very supportive of them. If Anita and Tanner had known each other for so long, I just expected more from them and it didn't happen.