Hurts from her past keep freegan Vanessa Fauchon stuck in a dead end relationship that feeds her heart about as much as an unvarying diet of stale bagels feeds her body. When she digs a scrapbook from the dumpster, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with the sexy Latino man in its pages. With the rich friendship and hands-on love of her strong and zany female friends—a luchadora, a yarn-bombing midwife, a professor and foraging partner, a psychic Jewish grandmother, a savvy fellow bartender, and her deeply religious, unofficially adopted mothers—Vanessa heals from her past and begins to build the graceful life she thought was out of her reach. Her love story with Javier seems on course for a happy ending, until Vanessa is publicly humiliated and loses Javier's trust. Faced with losing Javier for good, Vanessa must decide if she's willing to fight for what she loves. This is a tale of romance, friendship, and healing the hurts of the past. Fans of The Sugar Queen (Sarah Addison Allen), The Lost Recipe for Happiness (Barbara O'Neal), or Julia's Chocolates (Cathy Lamb) are sure to wrap themselves around Can't Buy Me Love.