One Tough Cookie

Debut author Torres pays homage to her Puerto Rican heritage with this rom-com featuring 27-year-old Karina Cortés, a deeply independent woman working at a small, family-owned cookie company in Florida. At Singular Cookies, everyone is said to have a personality that matches one of their uniquely flavored cookies. Without a doubt, Karina’s cookie would be the flirty cookie. Karina is happy with her hit-it-and-quit-it, carefree lifestyle; she’s not looking for love, just a good time. However, when sexy mechanic Ian shows up at the cookie factory and pursues Karina with a dogged passion, she finds some defenses crumbling. Still, she wonders if any relationship is worth giving up her independence. The audio is fantastically narrated by Stacy Gonzalez, who captures the steamy but not overly explicit scenes with aplomb. Even so, listeners will likely be frustrated by the characters, who become increasingly unlikable as the story continues. Ian turns into a stage-five clinger, and readers may struggle to understand what he sees in rude, elitist, and selfish Karina.