Reviewer: Rowena North to You (Journey to the Heart #1) by Tif Marcelo
Series: Journey to the Heart #1
Also in this series: West Coast Love (Journey to the Heart #3)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Pocket Star
Publication Date: June 5th, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 315
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Series Rating:
In this warmhearted and charming debut from Tif Marcelo, a food truck chef and her long lost Army love clash when they cross paths in San Francisco.
Camille Marino has got a full plate. As the sole guardian of her eighteen-year-old sister and the head chef and owner of a food truck, she’s used to life being a juggling act. With food to cook, social media accounts to manage, and a little sister to look after, she doesn’t have time for much else.
That is, until Drew Bautista walks back into her life.
Drew is Camille’s former high school crush and he returns to San Francisco to repair his relationship with his father before he ships out for deployment. By helping his father renovate his failing Filipino restaurant, he hopes to win back his respect. But when sparks fly between Drew and Camille—his father’s major competition and sworn enemy—Drew is conflicted. Should he join his father in the war against her food truck? Or surrender to the woman who’s given him a second chance at love?
North to You is the first book in Tif Marcelo’s Journey to the Heart series. I’ve been hearing great things about this series and about this book in particular so I was glad to see that I did enjoy the book.
Cami Marino owns a food truck called Luciano and she’s struggling to stay afloat. She’s struggling to keep the lights on at home and the wheels from falling off her truck and the very last thing that she needs is a blast from the past distracting her from all the things that she needs to do. As the sole provider for her younger sister, she’s got bills to pay and schooling to figure out. It doesn’t matter that seeing Drew again makes her heart beat a little faster, it doesn’t matter that Drew’s presence in her life again makes her happy. She’s got shit to do and not a lot of time to figure it out.
Drew Bautista is back home after being gone with the military. He left without a backward glance without his father’s blessing and he’s back to try to fix their strained relationship. He’s back in time to help his family out with the family business renovation. His family owns a Filipino restaurant that is in desperate need of updating and his family is gunning to get that done but when a food truck sets down right in front of their business and becomes a thorn in Drew’s father’s side, Drew is blown away when he finds out that the food truck belongs to Cami Marino. A girl from his past that he really wants to reacquaint himself with.
Things get really complicated, really fast between Cami and Drew because Drew takes it upon himself to try to fix things without telling anyone his plan and as you can guess, that doesn’t go as planned.
The relationship between Drew and Cami was cute and I really enjoyed their second chance romance. I thought Marcelo did a great job of bringing these two together. Their entire story was cute and it was funny and the characters were really charming. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. This is not going to be the last book that I read by Tif Marcelo. Good stuff.
Grade: 4 out of 5
Journey to the Heart Series
Yay, Rowena! I’m so glad you enjoyed this one. I loved both of these characters too and the romance was adorable. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the rest of the series.
I’d also heard good things about this book. Thanks for your review, Rowena.