Review: Entertaining First Book in a New Series - Will Keep You Engaged from Start to Finish!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
Miranda belongs to Salvation's notorious Sweet family. Known for being different and difficult, they are also outcasts. When an opportunity to flee Salvation and the horrid treatment of her family presents itself, Miranda left and never looked back...Until her Uncle passed away and left the Sweet Salvation Brewery to Miranda and her two sisters. Now she's back to clean up the brewery, turn it around, and make it profitable before selling it to the company she works for in exchange for a promotion. Things don't go as planned when Miranda's snake of a supervisor does everything he can to sabotage the clean up, sale, and promotion - not necessarily in that order.Miranda now finds her on the doorstep of Logan, her former flame, and son of the local bank's President. Because he needs the property that the Sweet Salvation Brewery stands on, Logan goes out of his way to make things as difficult as possible. That is, until he realizes his feelings for one of the Sweet outcasts never really went away. Now Logan has to decide whether to follow the masses like a lamb to slaughter or do what's right for Miranda, her family, himself, and the town of Salvation.Just as I said in my review of Betting the Billionaire "Avery has some mad skills." I have never read a novel or novella by her that I didn't instantly fall in love with. Her characters are flawed but you can't help but instantly connect with them. Her heroines are strong and feisty - case-in-point is Miranda. Her heroes are strong and very masculine, and when they meet the woman of their dreams (whether he's known her all his life or meets her for the very first time) they melt.Enemies on Tap takes into a day (or a few) in the life of a brewery. We see just how cutthroat and unfair big corporations, small corporations, and loose tongues can be. Miranda made something of herself out of high school and all it takes is the jealousy of her supervisor to shake her foundation; her success and job completely on the line. She belongs to a family deemed as "different" and not worthy of any respect; as proven by the actions of the small town bank and city officials. The townsfolk have been bad-mouthing the Sweet family for years; Miranda and her sisters did nothing to fuel the flames but are getting burned by them anyway. The frustrations felt by Miranda resonate through to the reader. The unfairness of it all seeps into the reader's bones to the point that you want to waltz right into her place of employment, the bank, town square, and the brewery and defend the Sweet family.The rekindled passion between Miranda and Logan is very intense. There is a definite tension of sorts when they are around one another. Without even physically seeing the characters, you can't help but envision the look of love on the faces of Miranda and Logan. It's all very real and proves to be an issue when Logan is supposed to be defending the town's position of closing the brewery and using the land for something else. When emotions are warring and love could be growing, will either Miranda or Logan win? It's apparent that, in the end, someone will lose.Enemies on Tap is a well written novel and I was drawn into the story from the very beginning. I'm from a small town right outside Flint, Michigan and the way Salvation is portrayed is pretty close to how a small town really can be. Everyone knows everyone else and once you're labeled as something (whatever is may be - good or bad) good luck at changing the minds of anyone. Coming back to Salvation puts Miranda right in the middle of a battle field with different groups coming at her from all angles: The employees of her brewery; the only lending institution in town; the corporation she works for; her supervisor; the townsfolk who find her family wholly unworthy of anything; and lastly, her warring emotions involving Logan. Yet, she's still classy, in control, and professional.The novel is fast paced, keeps the reader engaged and extremely enjoyable.  I can't wait for the next book in the Sweet Salvation Brewery series.Note:  This novel contains tastefully written, yet steamy, sex scenes.Sapphyria's received an ARC copy of this novel for review from the author, at no cost, in exchange for an honest review.