Let’s Give ’Em Pumpkin to Talk About

Love grows in the vegetable patch in Popp’s delightful debut. Prickly textile artist Sadie Fox is single and struggling in Los Angeles when her father implores her to return to small-town Pea Blossom, Ind. He needs Sadie’s help to preserve his reputation as the area’s premier pumpkin grower at the upcoming Seasonal Produce of Indiana Celebration and Exposition, or SPICE, while he heads to Florida to care for his injured brother. But he fails to warn her about his new neighbor: the entirely too friendly Josh Thatcher, a burned-out tech bro attempting to reinvent himself as a gentleman farmer. With a proprietary new breed of squash, Josh presents fierce competition for the SPICE Pumpkin Weigh-off. Worse, Sadie discovers her father’s prized pumpkins trampled by hogs. She’s incensed—but when Josh steps in to help her resolve the issue (incidentally caused by Sadie’s high school boyfriend and his burgeoning hog business), opposites attract, sparking a spicy physical relationship. As their connection deepens, both toy with the idea of a full-fledged relationship—until a tornado blows everything off course. The small-town setting charms and lovers of the grumpy/sunshine trope will easily fall in love with Sadie and Josh. Popp should win plenty of fans with this. (Aug.)