Do you have a favorite fairy tale? Mine is Cinderella, but I am no Disney princess. While I love pumpkins, I’d rather turn one into a pie, cake, or muffin than a sparkly carriage. Unlike Snow White, I’ve cooked more birds than sung to them, and my snoring alone disqualifies me as Sleeping Beauty. My character Clare Cosi has the same suspicious view of perfect princesses. A single mom in her forties, Clare manages a thriving coffeehouse business and cherishes her grown daughter—the best thing to come out of her early, disastrous marriage. Now she’s struggling with a second-chance relationship. While NYPD Detective Mike Quinn is a very good man, he’s also a dedicated cop—maybe too dedicated. Between his career and Clare’s fear of going through the pain of a second marriage Fail, her happy ending is still a fairy tale. At the start of ONCE UPON A GRIND, Clare is living separately from Quinn, whose expertise in narcotics has landed him a temporary position with the US Justice Department in Washington. Missing him greatly, she throws herself into her work by helping her merry band of baristas give their shop’s coffee truck a Jack-in-the-Beanstalk makeover for a children’s festival…