Good morning everyone!
Starting today early we’re very happy to welcome Anna Zabo on From Top to Bottom Reviews today. They are here to talk about their love for coffee as part of the Daily Grind blog tour. Enjoy!

My Romance with Coffee

Daily Grind is very much a romance between Brian and Rob, but it’s also heavily influenced by my love of coffee. The drinks Brian makes are either ones I’ve had or ones I desperately want to have. At some point, I’m going to try to make some of them, as I own four devices to make coffee, including an espresso machine.

Most of the time, though, I use a French press because it’s easy. I have a nice large one that will brew me the amount of coffee I need to get my butt in gear for the day.

Given how much I’m into coffee, you’d think I’d been drinking it since I was a kid of something, but like most fervent evangelists, I’m a convert. I didn’t start drinking coffee until after I graduated from university.

Before that, I actually couldn’t stand the taste and wondered why people drank that stuff. I mean, ground coffee smelled nice and all, but bleh. Coffee was bitter nasty stuff.

So what happened? Well, I was working with and sharing an apartment with my friend Lynne. It was also a time when coffee shops were becoming a bigger thing in Pittsburgh, but before Starbucks had made it out that far, so there were smaller, local chain places.

Lynne and I worked for the same boss at the time, and the most polite think I can say about them was that they were a gaslighting fucknut. The upshot is that we spent our entire lunch hour out of the office. We’d take our sandwiches and walk and eat and talk, no matter the weather because it was better than spending one more second in that office.

On our daily route, there was one of the newer coffee shops that we’d occasionally stop in at. Lynne loved coffee—and one of the times we stopped in, she encouraged me to try a cafe mocha with a lot of sugar. I mean, I loved hot chocolate, and this wasn’t so far from that, you know? Turns out, I liked it. A lot.

So I kept getting mochas. After a while, I didn’t need so much sugar. As time passed, I didn’t really need the chocolate, either. A couple years later, I didn’t need so much cream and you know, coffee didn’t taste so bitter and…

…and now I can and do drink it black, especially when I’m making it at home (because I don’t go through cream that fast) or work (because I don’t like the creamer they have).

So Lynne’s to blame for the coffee thing, but it’s an honor she wears proudly. Coffee also kept us somewhat sane through a pretty hellish period of our younger lives, too.

And while coffee can be bitter nasty stuff, it doesn’t have to be. Yes, I’ve become a coffee snob. Give me a good roast with whole beans and I’m in heaven. Feed me crap and I’ll make faces.

Come to think of it, this is pretty much how I respond to most things in my life.

The best coffee I’ve ever had? A cappuccino in Rome from a little cafe on the right-hand side of the plaza in front of the Pantheon. Unsurprisingly, the Italians know how to rock espresso drinks, and I couldn’t beat the ambiance for that cup!

Since that first mocha *mumble* years ago, I’ve been in love with coffee, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Some love affairs last for years.

About Daily Grind:

A man discovers that love can show up when you least expect it—and in a much different form—in this piping-hot romance from the author of Due Diligence and Just Business.

Brian Keppler, owner of Ground N’At, the coffee shop beneath SR Anderson Consulting, doesn’t have time for a relationship. His most recent girlfriend broke up with him because he’d become married to his shop, which is falling apart without his favorite barista, Justin.

As he struggles to stay afloat, the arrival of handsome British high-tech whiz Robert Ancroft becomes another complication. Rob quickly becomes a fixture at the shop with his sharp wit and easy charm, and Brian soon finds himself looking forward more and more to Rob’s visits—to the point where his heart skips a beat when he walks in.

But will Brian be able to come to terms with his previously unexplored sexual identity and find happiness now that he has a chance?

Purchase Links:

Ebook: 
Amazon / Amazon UK / Amazon DE / Barnes and Noble / Books A Million / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

Audio Book (read by Iggy Toma):
Audible / Amazon / Tantor Audio 

About the Author:

Anna Zabo writes contemporary and paranormal romance for all colors of the rainbow and believes passionately that happy ever afters are for everyone. Anna lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Blog Tour Genre: Contemporary Orientation: Bisexual Orientation: Gay Pairing: M/M Publisher: InterMix Tag: Guest Post Tag: Part of a series Anna Zabo Daily Grind Takeover series