Sometimes her ruminations on her activities, especially gardening, were cliched and somewhat annoying, but even then, I understood why, and could keep reading. But as Tessa talked about gardening and writing down motivational quotes and all the other little things she does to find a tiny portion of happiness, I understood. One of the methods she uses to boost her mood when she’s feeling awful is the Ellen DeGeneres talk show, which seems like a goofy and bizarre way to find motivation, and initially I thought the involvement of DeGeneres’ show was going to become twee and overly cutesy. While at times Tessa’s positivity came across as less than sincere and more like a Successories poster, by the end of the book I understood why it was so important to her to be so relentlessly positive and hopeful. Yet Tessa is so determined to be upbeat and to focus on the right now, because tomorrow, you’ll pardon the really bad pun, could be shitty. Crohn’s can be some misery, and that misery is part of Tessa’s character. There is a real danger of becoming potentially dehydrated and malnourished. If there’s a period of time where symptoms are active- more commonly called a “flare-up” – that person can be housebound, unable to work, and spending most of her time weak, sleeping, and near the bathroom. Crohn’s disease is not a sexy disease, but it does profoundly affect the people who have it, often severely.

The heroine, Tessa, has Crohn’s disease, which means she has periods where she’s very weak, nauseated, and ill, and she’s on a very strict diet to try to control the intestinal inflammation. Blake did a number of really interesting things that made this book different from a lot of contemporary romance: I tweeted about this book after I finished the ARC, and I still think about this book, AND remember the title – which is totally odd for me.

Sugar creek by toni blake