Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Tony Santoro to Inspy Romance! I’ve known Tony for a long time, since about 2011 in Real World Time™, which is about twelve years ago in Story World Time ™. He was a gangly, mouthy teenager back then, but he’s turned into a fine man.
Wild Mint Tea, in which Tony is a lowly teenage dishwasher in Galena Landing.
Tony: You would remember that phase of my life. Man, I hated running the dishwasher at The Sizzling Skillet back in Galena Landing, Idaho. The only good thing about that crummy job was the head chef, Claire Kenzie. She was still Claire Halford back then. Anyway, she was great to work with, but the big boss? What a jerk. I might have deserved getting fired, but it was also a huge relief.
Valerie: Right, I remember. And then Claire took a summer job cooking for a treeplanting crew, and you worked for her directly. Is that when you decided you wanted to be a chef?
Tony: She had a big part in it, for sure. She was totally committed to cooking from fresh, local ingredients. For the treeplanters, it was solid, hearty fare, but also really delicious. My mom’s brother owned a restaurant — still does, actually — in Twin Falls, so he also encouraged me to go to culinary school after high school.
Better Than a Crown, featuring Tony’s chef buddy Levi Esteban.
Tony: Yes. I roomed with Levi Esteban. Your readers might remember Levi. We both worked at the Fireweed in Seattle after culinary school, but then he went to cook at Grizzly Gulch Resort in Helena, Montana. He signed on for a temporary gig, but he met a girl and stayed.
Valerie: That happens a lot to folks who live in my Story Worlds. I remember Levi and Heather well. Did you stay in Seattle until moving to the Santoro family nest here in Bridgeview?
Tony: I spent the interim working for my Uncle Leo at Italiana in Twin Falls. He taught me a lot about the business side of running a restaurant. He also passed on dozens of family recipes. Not the Santoro ones, the Ricci ones (grin).
Valerie: Did you live with your uncle and aunt there?
Harvest of Love, in which Tony appears as a roommate to the hero, Zane Russell.
Valerie: I, uh, might have introduced him to Kenia Akers and given them a nudge or two. It’s kind of my job to be a matchmaking fairy.
Tony: About that. I’d like to talk to you about something.
Valerie: Oh, what’s that?
Tony: I’m going to want a matchmaking fairy in about five years. Can you pencil me in?
Valerie: What’s wrong with right now? You’re in your late twenties now with your own restaurant. Congrats on opening Antonio’s, by the way. I hear it’s a happening place and that Spokane’s food critics are quite impressed.
Dancing at Daybreak, in which Tony helps the hero, Dan Ranta, look after his kids.
To say nothing of kids. I love kids — I adore my niece and nephew, and enjoy being around my cousins’ kids here in Bridgeview. I lived with a single dad over the winter, helping him with childcare while he sorted things out with the children’s mother. I wasn’t as busy then, just helping my uncles with building renovations, planning menus, et cetera. But kids need both parents invested in them, and my schedule these days just isn’t compatible. So, yeah, while a wife and family are definitely my dream, five years from now sounds about right.
Valerie: Oh. Well. There’s a little problem. Remember that bit about being a matchmaking fairy?
Tony (raises eyebrows): Uh huh?
Valerie: I may have (cough) started sprinkling some of that glitter dust around.
Tony: Did you not notice I have zero time and am living with Nonna? She’s almost eighty and had a bad fall a couple of weeks ago. Broke a few bones, including her pelvis. No, you need to vacuum that fairy dust back up and save it for later.
Valerie: But… your grandmother needs a live-in nurse for a while. I was thinking…
Tony: Don’t even start. Seriously. It’s not that I’m not interested in romance, but it’s a bad time right now.
Valerie: So you say…
Nursing the neighborhood matriarch through her convalescence from a nasty fall gives Makenna Johnson the break she needs from the head nurse on her ward. The family is plenty involved. Maybe too much so, since it includes a disapproving grandson who lives in Marietta’s basement.
If chef Tony Santoro weren’t so busy launching his new restaurant, he’d take on Nonna’s care himself, but it isn’t possible. If only the nurse was more obsessed with decent meals and less obsessed with polishing baseboards, he’d rest a lot easier.
How can two driven professionals who clash over Marietta’s care — and everything else — ease up enough to see each other’s hearts?
Lavished with Lavender releases June 23. While it is the ninth tale in my Urban Farm Fresh Romance series, it can be read as a standalone.
Click to pre-order on Amazon today, or stick a reminder on your calendar app to borrow via Kindle Unlimited on June 23! It’s currently $2.99 US, a savings of 25% over the post-release price.
Now it’s your turn: Do you like your life all planned out? When’s the last time (or a time you can share) when something major derailed your five-year-plan, sending you in a different direction that turned out to be better?
Interested in reading Lavished with Lavender? I’m offering one reader a copy (e-book only, worldwide). If you’d like to put your name in the hat, please comment by Thursday evening, June 11. I’ll contact the winner before the announcement in the Sunday Edition.
“Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.”
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
Sounds like another lovely story!
Sounds great.
I appreciate getting to hear about a new book. Thanks so much for taking time to share.
I LOVE this story!!
This was such a fun interview!
Hi Valerie! Thanks for the fun interview with Tony. The book covers helped put his 8 year journey in perspective. Please post the link on your Facebook page on release day. Definitely a big help when I receive my pre-ordered book Lavished with Lavender. I enjoy the lavender fragrance, definitely the color. Lavender is blooming in SW Michigan. With our cooler spring our area has been so blessed in color this spring – starting with daffodils, tulips, lilac, rhododendrons, peonies, iris, phlox, and now lavender. God’s colorful unique bounty makes the sheltering in place bearable. Michigan is slowly opening up starting today. Best wishes.
This sounds sooo good!! My biggest derail was when I was laid off from my job in November, 2011, and Mom and I finally figured out I wasn’t to look for another one, that it was time for me to stay home with her as her caregiver. I’ve been home with her for 8 years, and started 2 careers I can do from home. Both are going well, and I’m glad I can be with Mom. I always told her I’d be the one to quit work and stay home with her, and while it happened a little earlier than I thought, God knew all along, and things are going well.
Valerie, I love your character interviews! Sounds like a another winner. :)
Interesting interview. Welcome Tony!
Thanks, Pam!
Thank you, Kim!
You’re welcome, James! Thanks for coming by.
Yay, I’m glad to hear it :)
I’m glad you enjoyed :)
Hi Renate! Lavender is beautiful in every way, and I agree — the beauty of spring flowers was even more memorable this (covid) year. Yellow is not my favorite color… except when it’s a huge bed of sunny daffodils. Then suddenly there is nothing more beautiful!
Big life decision you didn’t see coming, at least not at that point in time! I’m glad it worked out so well for you and your mom. What a blessing. :)
Yay, thank you!
Thank you, Debbie!
I’ve got the book pre-ordered, but wouldn’t mind winning a copy 😉
Thank you :) And I guess we’ll see who the randomizer will choose later this week!
I don’t live by my life being planned out. Everything can change in the blink of an eye but God is always there. Therefore go with the flow.
We’ve sure learned that about “everything can change in a blink” the past couple of months, haven’t we!
This sounds really good! My plans often get derailed, so I tend to try and go with the flow instead of stressing. I try, anyway.
I do like things planned out but lately that has been kind of hard. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is this year pandemic. My son is just born and all that I had planned changed. But, I’m learning to trust God, relax in His arms and letting He be in control of everything – not an easy task for someone who likes to be in control, I must say, but nonetheless a good exercise in faith and a very good reminder that I’m actually not in control of anything.
I think we need a balance? If we have no plans at all, we might not be taking life seriously! But we sure do need to hold them lightly. :)
Congratulations on your son’s birth! One of my nieces gave birth in late March, and she could certainly attest to things not being the way they’d planned! Like you, her faith is intact through it all.
Oh my gosh, what a fun interview! Sorry Tony, I think Valerie has other plans for you right now…haha!!
I really want to know what those are and how you will work out all the kinks Valerie! It sounds like a fun challenge…even though Tony doesn’t agree ;-) Please toss my name in the chefs hat!
In the chef’s hat!!!!! hahahahaha love it :)
Great interview! I’ve had several major redirections. Wound up leaving my graduate school career to help my little home church to get through a very rough patch. Took a looong time to be able to see that as something other than a failure on my part (thought I should have been able to do both) but I now see that there would have been bad things down that other path that God protected me from. The changed path led me to my sweetie pie and many years of alternate adventures. I still struggle with the mind set that, when faced with a fork in the road, I should take it. Letting go of one set of possibilities, even dreams, still can seem like a failure on my part. Maybe learning that alternative paths might be God’s leading would make a good story. I’ll have to think about that. =O)
“Alternate adventures!” I like that. My husband and I often refer to “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Yes I would love to win a copy of this book. I’ve read and loved all this series so far. Thanks for the chance.
I’m glad you’ve loved this series :)
I really enjoy your character interviews. Thank you for more insight into your books.
Yay, thank you!