One spicy Australian romance, one very pink cocktail, one alcohol-free Second Viewing and a plate of Gorgeous Garbo Sliders.
Apparently all it took to plan this week’s reading night was a Sydney luxury property agent, a council garbo and one extremely specific lunch order.
I opened Chapter 1 of Elira Hope’s Ideally Positioned to get some context for the week.
I was hooked almost immediately.
Evie nearly gets collected by a Holden.
The MMC is Davo before he is ever Tristan to me.
Evie has already mentally filed him under “gorgeous garbo”.
And then, after rescuing her from the aforementioned Holden situation, Davo wants Oporto while Evie’s brain is somewhere considerably more linen-napkin-and-wine-list.
At that point, the Saturday night menu was basically planning itself.
A quick book note: Elira Hope reached out to me about her debut and supplied information for unpaid editorial coverage. I grabbed the Kindle edition during her Australian free promotion, which ran from 4 to 8 October 2026. My opinions are my own.
So this week’s Sip, Snack and Smut is:
- The Smut: Ideally Positioned by Elira Hope
- The Sip: The Open House, Elira’s official cocktail for the book
- The alcohol-free Sip: Second Viewing, my raspberry lime mocktail with cranberry and vanilla
- The Snack: Gorgeous Garbo Sliders, my peri-peri chicken sliders inspired by Davo’s Chapter 1 lunch order
Evie brought the open-home polish.
Davo brought the burger.
I brought snacks.
Seems fair.
The Smut: Ideally Positioned by Elira Hope
Ideally Positioned is Elira Hope’s debut contemporary Australian romance, set largely in Sydney with scenes on the South Coast.
Evie Hartley works in luxury property at her family’s fictional agency, Hartcliff Homes.
Tristan Davidson, known in Chapter 1 as Davo, works in council garbage services.
One sells very expensive houses.
The other empties their bins.
Naturally, there is immediate chemistry.
I am still reading, so this is not my review and there are no stars, chillies or final fictional-boyfriend verdicts being handed out here.
But Chapter 1?
Got me.
I already love Evie, and Tristan has made an annoyingly convincing opening submission to the Fictional Boyfriend Department.
When I asked Elira what Tristan might put on his application, her opening pitch was:
“Good with my hands. Calm in a crisis.”
I am saving the rest of that application for later.
The clipboard has procedures.
If you want the spoiler-light introduction before you start, my Ideally Positioned Book News article has the release details, premise and content notes in one place.
Also, apparently Valerie is part of the relationship
Tristan drives a red-and-black 1971 Valiant Charger called Valerie.
Because of course he does.
When I asked Elira what made the book feel particularly Australian to her, she came back to Tristan and his car:
“The man has given his car a name. Of course she has a presence in the relationship.”
As someone whose husband has only ever owned Holdens, I understand exactly how a car can somehow become another household member.
This book knows its audience.
Property language was never going to remain professional
One of the things I am enjoying about the whole Ideally Positioned concept is just how much romance material Elira has managed to extract from real estate.
Open houses.
Keys.
Access.
Second viewings.
Private inspections.
There really was no hope for us.
Elira admitted as much when I asked about researching the property world:
“Also, property language gives a romance writer a frankly unreasonable amount to work with. ‘Private inspection’ was never going to remain entirely professional.”
Correct.
No notes.
And that brings us rather neatly to the drink.
The Sip: The Open House
Elira created an official cocktail specifically for Ideally Positioned.
It is called The Open House.
Good taste. Questionable intentions.
It is raspberry pink, tart, vanilla scented and served in a chilled coupe with half the rim sugared.
Basically, Evie in beverage form.
Elira has given me permission to reproduce her complete recipe here. This is Elira Hope’s recipe, not an EmberSas creation, and you can also find the original on her reader extras page.
The Open House by Elira Hope
Makes 1 cocktail.
You will need
- 45 ml vanilla vodka
- 20 ml Chambord raspberry liqueur
- 25 ml cranberry juice
- 15 ml freshly squeezed lime juice
- Ice
- 3 fresh raspberries, to garnish
- Fine sugar, for half the rim
Method
Chill a coupe and add a fine sugar rim to just half the glass.
Shake the vodka, Chambord, cranberry and lime juice with ice until properly chilled.
Strain into the coupe and garnish with three raspberries on a cocktail pick.
Recipe created by Elira Hope for Ideally Positioned and reproduced here with her permission. Find the original on Elira’s reader extras page.
Not drinking? Have a Second Viewing
Nobody is getting handed sad lemonade while everybody else has the pretty glass.
That is how Second Viewing happened.
It is my alcohol-free raspberry lime mocktail with cranberry and vanilla, created as an EmberSas companion for this reading night.
Importantly, it is not an alcohol-free version of The Open House and it is not an official Ideally Positioned recipe.
The Open House belongs to Elira.
Second Viewing is mine.
They just happen to live in the same raspberry, cranberry, lime and vanilla neighbourhood.
Second Viewing is tart, raspberry-forward and fizzy, with cranberry underneath and a soft vanilla note in the background.
It also gets a half sugar rim and three raspberries because the alcohol-free drink is absolutely allowed to be the pretty one.
And the name?
In property language, a second viewing means you liked what you saw enough to go back for another look.
In book language?
I think we all know what going back for another look can mean.
For research purposes.
Obviously.
Get the full recipe: Second Viewing: Raspberry Lime Mocktail with Cranberry and Vanilla.
The Snack: Gorgeous Garbo Sliders
And now we return to the real reason any of this exists.
Davo’s lunch order.
After getting Evie out of the path of a car, he is offered lunch as a thank-you.
Evie’s brain starts planning linen napkins and a wine list.
Davo wants Oporto.
Specifically, there is a Bondi burger he is apparently not willing to sacrifice for anybody.
Meanwhile, Evie has already thought the words:
“gorgeous garbo”
I am only one woman.
There was never going to be another name for these.
My Gorgeous Garbo Sliders are juicy peri-peri chicken thigh with properly charred edges, crisp iceberg lettuce, buttery toasted brioche and a peri-peri lime mayo that has no intention of remaining politely inside the bun.
They are not an Oporto copycat.
They are my own reading-night response to Chapter 1 putting peri-peri chicken into my head and refusing to remove it.
Casual enough for Davo.
Just polished enough for Evie.
Messy enough that perhaps she was right about the linen napkins after all.
Get the full recipe: Gorgeous Garbo Sliders (Easy Peri-Peri Chicken Sliders).
Why these three belong together
This is the bit I love about doing a full reading-night cluster instead of just throwing a random cocktail beside a random book.
Everything came from the story.
The Open House is Elira’s official cocktail for Ideally Positioned.
Second Viewing takes the property theme and gives the alcohol-free side of the table its own proper drink.
The Gorgeous Garbo Sliders came directly from the Chapter 1 collision between Evie’s expectations and Davo’s lunch order.
And the whole thing feels a little like the two leads themselves.
One side is polished coupe glasses, sugar rims, raspberries and luxury-property presentation.
The other is peri-peri chicken, toasted buns and a man who would quite like everyone to stop overcomplicating lunch.
Put them on the same table.
Apparently it works.
Your Ideally Positioned reading-night setup
If I were setting this up for Saturday night, I would keep it very simple.
Make the slider marinade and peri-peri lime mayo earlier in the day.
Chill your coupe glasses and get your drink ingredients cold.
Cook the chicken and toast the buns shortly before you want to eat.
Then choose your sip.
- Drinking alcohol: make Elira’s Open House.
- Not drinking: make Second Viewing.
Pile the Gorgeous Garbo Sliders onto a plate.
Add the Kindle.
Maybe a brass key somewhere on the table if you are committed to the bit.
And if you want to take the fictional-world commitment even further, Hartcliff Homes has an actual website.
It is a fictional agency and no real estate services are offered.
But yes, you can absolutely browse Evie’s fictional workplace while drinking something called The Open House.
I respect the commitment.
A quick comfort-level note before reading
For all the pink drinks, burger jokes and extremely Australian fictional men, Ideally Positioned is still an adult romance dealing with some genuinely heavy material.
Elira’s content information includes frequent explicit sexual content, consensual kink, coarse language, alcohol and drug references, coercive control, blackmail, assault, addiction themes and violence.
The consensual kink and the coercive-control storyline are deliberately distinct.
Check Elira’s full content note before reading if any of those topics are outside your comfort level.
Dark or heavy themes are not a surprise party.
Make the drink.
Check your triggers.
Then open the Kindle.
Haven’t started the book yet?
Elira has Chapter 1 available free on her website.
Which is how I got here.
I intended to read one chapter so I could understand the lunch scene.
Instead, Evie nearly got hit by a Holden, Davo happened, there was a burger order and suddenly I had planned an entire Saturday night around these people.
Reader behaviour:
Questionable.
I regret nothing.
If you want the spoiler-light introduction before you start, read my Ideally Positioned Book News article.
The Last Sip
So tonight’s plan is very simple.
Make the sliders.
Choose your pink drink.
Open Ideally Positioned.
Try not to get sauce on the Kindle.
No promises regarding anything else.
Tristan is still officially Under Review.
The application is looking promising.
Evie has already won me over.
And apparently I now have very strong opinions about fictional real-estate terminology.
Read the book. Make the drink. Eat the sliders. Question your fictional priorities.
That sounds like Saturday night to me.
More weekly pairings live on my Sip, Snack and Smut page.
