She inherited a café she can't bear to lose. He's chasing a dream he can't afford to fail.

Abby Winters pours coffee for the whole town of Aspen Ridge, smiles at everybody, and does the math in her head. Her mother's café is her family legacy, and the bank has given her until January to keep it. Then a moving truck pulls up across the street, and out steps Jake Campbell: former big-city pastry chef, infuriatingly observant, and the new owner of the only bakery on Main Street.

He critiques her muffins. She declares war. The town prints it in the newspaper.

But somewhere between dueling chalkboard signs and a festival committee that forces them to work together, the rivalry starts tasting like something else. Jake fixes her ancient espresso machine. Abby teaches him what it means to belong somewhere. And when he decodes her late mother's handwritten recipe card, the one Abby has never been able to read, the wall around her heart develops a serious structural problem.

Then a storm hits Main Street, the bank comes calling, and a $5,000 bake-off prize becomes more than a friendly competition. Abby can't afford to want a man who's still deciding whether to stay. And Jake is done loving things on his way past them.

Love at First Brew is a sweet, closed-door small-town romance with rivals-to-lovers banter, a meddling town, recipes worth fighting over, and a happily-ever-after worth the wait. Book 1 of the Aspen Ridge Romance series.