""Quite Nice" In California"

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He came to California to write about food. He did not expect to become the most hated man at the market before lunch. Malcolm Dacres is a British food writer with good manners, sharp opinions and a linen jacket that made far more sense in London. Sent to San Diego to write a glossy feature on the real California food scene, he expects markets, interviews, local colour and perhaps the occasional overenthusiastic taco. Then he meets Lily Manners. Lily is a brilliant local chef, owner of the Manners Made food truck, and a woman who knows exactly what her food is worth. So when Malcolm takes one bite of her signature fish taco and calls it “quite nice”, Lily does not hear a compliment. She hears war. Their first meeting becomes Marigold Market legend: one British food critic, one furious chef, several witnesses, and a phrase Malcolm insists was praise. Unfortunately for both of them, the article still needs writing, the city is smaller than it looks, and San Diego keeps throwing them together in markets, kitchens, cafés and conversations that feel far too charged to be professional. Malcolm thinks Lily is impossible, impulsive and determined to misunderstand him. Lily thinks Malcolm is arrogant, repressed and dangerously attractive when he forgets to be insufferable. But somewhere between food-truck chaos, local gossip, accidental honesty and one increasingly inconvenient spark, “quite nice” starts to sound less like an insult… And far too much like the beginning of something neither of them ordered. “Quite Nice” In California is a feel-good enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy full of foodie banter, British understatement, Californian flavour, sizzling chemistry, market chaos and one badly behaved dog with very strong opinions. A true standalone romance, and part of the Sun, Sea & San Diego series — where British visitors arrive in California and fall inconveniently, gloriously in love.