This summer my goal was to read a light and easy book that was set in a brewery. Surely someone had written a cozy murder that starts with a body in a barrel? Instead I was waylaid by the image at the top of this entry. I immediately let our Slack channel know that I was going to be all over this book. I love a good Lifetime movie, and Enemies on Tap (1st of the Sweet Salvation Trilogy), promised that same magic.

The Plot

“Enemies on Tap” is about Miranda Sweet, one of the three Sweet triplets, making her way hometown of Salvation, VA. She and her sisters have just inherited a brewery she inherited from her Uncle–The Sweet Salvation Brewery (…I know). She has a very convoluted plan to flip the sagging profits of the brewery, sell it to her financial firm employer, and make junior partner. Miranda somehow keeps her salaried job throughout the book in a way I’m still unsure of. The Sweet triplets have all abandoned Salvation because they come from a long line of crazy hill-trash, and you get sick of being called crazy hill trash after a while.

Standing in her way is her old high school boyfriend, Logan Martin, who eats a massive slice of pecan pie every day but has chiseled abs instead of diabetes. Logan’s family happens to run the bank from which she desperately needs a loan. Logan has his own plan to revitalize Salvation, and it involves bulldozing the Sweet Salvation Brewery. On top of this conflict, someone is continually attempting to sabotage the brewery and Miranda. She can’t tell who though because the whole town hates Miranda except Ruby Sue–maker of pecan pies. Obviously, it’s a romance novel, so they bone. They bone in her house after she gives him a concussion which he never gets treated for. They bone on a 64-foot yacht that’s somehow in a river in the Appalachian Mountain Range in Virginia. There are lots of decent sex descriptions and straight up bananas sex descriptions. What there isn’t a whole lot of is anything about brewing or beer, outside of a few descriptive metaphors and similes.

The Verdict

The above may sound like I hated the book. I LOVED IT. The entire time I was making fun of it, I was still RACING through this book and telling anyone who would listen to me about Enemies on Tap, including the joys of discovering the legal principle “eminent domain.” My e-reader copy is riddled with highlights of me flabbergasted, outraged and delighted. As a summer read, it also captured some of that Daphne Du Mauier thriller potential–in that basically if two parties would just SPEAK TO EACH OTHER, solutions would come about so quickly, but no one does. Despite all my many, many issues with this book, it was insanely, stupidly enjoyable. Not only did I convince another friend to purchase the book herself, I’m halfway through Book 2: Hollywood on Tap. I’m happy to report Flynn finally gets to some actual brewery issues in book two–and also the sex is better.

By hook or by crook, Avery Flynn not only got me to read, enjoy and get her some coins, she even got me to publicize her book for free for her. My friend and I are considering moving to her Ice Knights series next for Hot Hockey Dad hookups (I assume they’re all divorced or widowed).

The Beer

A sexy book meant to titillate deserves an equally sexy beer, even with a somewhat perfect but juvenile name. Just like Enemies on Tap, Odd Side’s Bean Flicker is a vivacious blonde ale looking to have a good time that also loves the taste of coffee and chocolate. Those who’ve jumped on the cold-press craze will definitely love it as the combination of a blonde ale with coffee notes gives it the same coolly refreshing taste. The ale is very light, as someone who is lifted and carried during sex would need to be. Sweet without being cloying and an excellent mouthfeel, Odd Side’s Bean Flicker is light enough to session through your reading while giving you some real body and depth.

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