by: Cathy Yardley
Series: Ponto Beach Reunion
Genre: Multicultural Contemporary Romance
Release Date: March 22, 2022
Publisher: Montlake
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Two high school BFFs reunite and endeavor to fix each other’s lives in this geeky romance from the author of Love, Comment, Subscribe.
Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word—goldfish. Next thing she knows, she’s on a plane back home.
Josh O’Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he’s the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd Herd friend group, was instrumental in building his self-esteem. When she calls him out of the blue, he jumps at the chance to return the favor.
Josh and Tam immediately get to work fixing her life—but again, it’s complicated. Their close friendship was always a lifeline between them; a blooming romance might confuse things. Still, at least one thing is for certain: their chemistry is un-brie-lievable.
I’m doing great! Thanks for having me.
You’re welcome. Congratulations on the release of Gouda Friends. What can you tell me about the story?
Gouda Friends is about two best friends from high school who have drifted apart, ten years later. Tam has gotten stuck in dead-end jobs and bad boyfriend hell, and although she helped Josh turn his life around a few years prior, she’d gotten cut off from all of her friends. When she catches her boyfriend in bed with his ex (and, more importantly, discovers he threw out her “emergency cheese”) Josh buys her a ticket home to Ponto Beach, and a room in his house, to help her figure out what she wants to do with her life. They’ve only ever been friends, too much of a lifeline for each other to risk it on something more. But they might not be able to help themselves now that they’re under the same roof!
Oh. This sounds really good! I LOVE friends to lovers romances. Why do you like them?
I like the comfort of them, and the appeal of the friendship. They have a history, and they support each other. It doesn’t need all the getting-to-know-you that other books have, and there isn’t the “wait, why are they together?” that can sometimes happen with either a short time period love or enemies-to-lovers. (I like those, too, but it’s a different feel!)
Tell me about the characters of Tam Doan and Josh O’Malley.
I relate to Tam because it took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do in life, and it just felt like I was spinning my wheels. She has a great bunch of friends (the Nerd Herd!) who give her a soft place to land and help her get her life together. And my editor calls Josh a “grilled cheese hero” (warning: there are a ton of cheese references/puns/food descriptions in this thing!) but I think of him as the ultimate cinnamon roll. He would walk over glass and fire to get her a sandwich. Even before a relationship, he loves her so much.
You have me falling for Josh already. What is the connection between them that makes them perfect for each other?
When they were in high school, they both had crappy childhoods… really bad. And when it got too bad, one would call the other, and simply say “goldfish” and then the other would go and offer support, give them a shoulder to cry on or a place to crash. Even as adults, that hasn’t changed. They are the ultimate ride-or-die couple. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other.
What was your favorite part of Gouda Friends to write?
The opening scene is fun, but the reconnecting scene is my favorite. It’s the first time we see Josh spring into action when he knows his bestie is in trouble, and there is zero hesitation.
Tell me about one of your favorite scenes from the book, and why is it a favorite?
There’s a scene where Josh and Tam go to dinner with two of their best friends, Freddie and Asad. I love it for a lot of reasons, but 1) I got to describe Brazilian food, which… yum, and 2) there are a ton of cheese puns. I had so much fun!
Can you tell me a fun fact or two about Gouda Friends?
I am really, really into cheese, and when we jokingly came up with the title, I thought there was no way they’d let me keep it. But it turns out my editors were just as big cheese fans as I am! (Well, almost.) #TeamCheese #CheeseForever
Gouda Friends is the second book in your Ponto Beach Reunion series. Is it a standalone read? What can new readers expect from this series, and are there more books to come?
Gouda Friends is absolutely a standalone read – you don’t have to have read the first book, it will make sense and doesn’t have any information missing. That said, the first book in the series, Love, Comment, Subscribe, does give a bit of background on the Nerd Herd, and it’s a lot of fun. (It’s a frenemies-to-lovers story with two YouTubers who need to work together despite their snarky animosity, and of course wind up falling in love!) And this fall, the third book in the series, Ex Appeal, comes out. That will cover Tam’s brother, Vinh, and his ex-girlfriend Emily, also a member of the Nerd Herd. It’s a second-chance-at-love with shades of enemies-to-lovers. I’m working on that now!
Cathy, thank you so much for answering some questions for me.
Thanks again for letting me share!
Anytime!
He probably should just ignore it, let it go to voice mail. But . . .
Damn it. He knew people in New York, and maybe it was an emergency.
You only know two people in New York, at least well enough for them to call this late, and it’s been years.
He grimaced, then accepted the call. “Hello?”
There was a pause, a long one. And he was ready to hang up when he heard a short impatient huff, then a woman’s low voice. “Goldfish.”
Every muscle in his body tensed.
He knew that voice. And he knew what it meant when she said that word.
“Do I need to kill someone, baby girl,” he said automatically, “or just help you hide ’em?”
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Cathy Yardley is an award-winning author of romance, chick lit, and urban fantasy, who has sold over 1.2 million copies of books for publishers like St. Martin's, Avon, and Harlequin. She writes fun, geeky, and diverse characters who believe that underdogs can make good and sometimes being a little wrong is just right. She likes writing about quirky, crazy adventures, because she's had plenty of her own: she had her own army in the Society of Creative Anachronism; she's spent a New Year's on a 3-day solitary vision quest in the Mojave Desert; she had VIP access to the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Now, she spends her time writing in the wilds of East Seattle, trying to prevent her son from learning the truth of any of said adventures, and riding herd on her two dogs (and one husband.)
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The excerpt has me curious as to what happens next in this book.
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