A man discovers that love can show up when you least expect it—and in a much different form—in this piping-hot romance from the author of Due Diligence and Just Business.

Brian Keppler, owner of Grounds N'at, the coffee shop beneath SR Anderson Consulting, doesn't have time for a relationship. His most recent girlfriend broke up with him because he'd become married to his shop, which is falling apart without his favorite barista, Justin.

As he struggles to stay afloat, the arrival of handsome British high-tech whiz Robert Ancroft becomes another complication. Rob quickly becomes a fixture at the shop with his sharp wit and easy charm, and Brian soon finds himself looking forward more and more to Rob's visits—to the point where his heart skips a beat when he walks in.

But will Brian be able to come to terms with his previously unexplored sexual identity and find happiness now that he has a chance?

The fourth book of Anna Zabo’s Takeover series, Daily Grind, is my first exposure to the author’s writing, and it worked just fine as a standalone story. While I have one major and a handful of minor issues with the book, I loved the characters and appreciated the storyline enough to be able to rate this as a novel I can recommend, especially for those who like their romances with a lot of cozy, a good bit of heat, and without contrived drama.

Grounds N’at, the small coffee shop Brian Keppler owns, is basically his whole life. Even when times are not tough, he puts his heart and soul into trying to keep it successful, so much so that it has caused more than one of his past girlfriends to leave him. Brian has always known that he is bisexual, but until the sexy ginger Brit named Robert Ancroft walked through the shop’s doors, he had never acted on his attraction to men. But things aren’t going well at the shop these days, so getting into a relationship is probably not the smart move for Brian. In spite of this, Brian can’t resist Rob’s charms, especially since Rob understands the pressures of having a career that leaves little time for romantic endeavors. The question, though, is whether or not they can balance life’s demands or will this relationship follow the same crash-and-burn that his others have.

Probably the thing I appreciated most about Daily Grind is the positive portrayal of bisexuality it contains, not only in the character who is bisexual but in the character who falls for him. “Gay-for-you” (GFY) is a trope that I admit to enjoying when I first started reading M/M romances, but the more I have read and thought about the issue, the more I find the concept of GFY to be little more than a veiled form of homophobia, or more appropriately bi-phobia. As such, I was glad to see not only that this is not a GFY story but that, from the outset, the reader quickly learns that Brian is bisexual and has compelling reasons for having denied himself permission to explore that side of his sexuality, among them is the real concern that both straight and gay people often shun bisexuality as being something akin to a license to cheat.

Fortunately, Rob has no problem with being with Brian. The relationship that develops between them quickly moves beyond flirting and suggestion, becoming deep and serious before long. The chemistry between them isn’t only apparent, it jumps off the page. The frequent sex scenes are steamy and, like their flirting, full of dirty talk. Because Rob is the first man Brian has been with, there are plenty of “bonus firsts” to be found too, not just things like first kisses and such, but first-timer firsts. Yum! Taking a step back from the hotness, the plot and relationship development follows an uncomplicated and uncontrived, though slightly predicable, path that contains relatively little relationship angst, at least until the final dramatic arc of the story toward the end. Both men have their issues—again, nothing outside the realm of the everyday—and their issues blend together well to allow the other to provide comforting support, a fact that resulted in some very good feels.

While I felt Daily Grind was, as a result, largely an easy and comfortable read, the middle of the story dragged for me because it was a bit repetitive. Brian is overworked, so the book has plenty of scenes illustrating the work-related stresses of Brian’s life—too many hours at work, financial pressures, and the like—and how they manifest themselves in his behavior. These are usually followed by scenes with Rob after not seeing each other for a while, followed usually by a sex scene. Lather, rinse, repeat. Sure, we learned bits and pieces about Rob and Brian within these scenes, but the feelings and concerns their internal monologues shared also lent to the repetitiveness. The scenes were well written, but there simply wasn’t enough going on to justify quite so long a story. And unfortunately, I started getting the same impression about the number of sex scenes. After a while, they felt like filler instead of character/relationship development. It’s also worth noting that though the author tried to make Rob feel like a British expatriate, the impression came across as very superficial to me. Having him overuse only a few “Britishy” words and expressions—things like “lovely” and word differences like “arse” versus “ass”—simply isn’t enough. Instead, it felt a little forced and inauthentic, almost like she was trying too hard.

As a whole, though, reading Daily Grind was a good first exposure for me to Anna Zabo’s writing. I can recommend the book to anyone looking for a laid-back, low-angst, and romantic read. And it’s also good enough that though I could be perfectly content with reading it as a standalone, I am curious about the other couples who appeared in this story that I will be adding the earlier books to my to-be-read list.

The author and/or publisher generously provided me a complimentary copy of Daily Grind in exchange for this fair and honest review.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Anna Zabo  
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Anna Zabo writes contemporary and paranormal romance for all colors of the rainbow and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which isn’t nearly as boring as most people think.

Anna has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, where they fell in with a roving band of romance writers and never looked back. They also has a BA in Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.