Sunday, November 10, 2013

Cooking Up Love

18356855
3 of 5 stars false
Mix a chef and her contractor, stir in a mystery, and cook up a romance. Jemima George leads a charmed life as a personal chef and assistant to reality television's latest darling. But that changes in a New York minute when her Aunt Caro dies under odd circumstances, bequeathing her a small restaurant. Jem plans to sell the café and continue her life in NYC, until a dramatic phone call from her cheating boyfriend convinces her to experiment with the ingredients for happiness and accept her Aunt's legacy. Throwing herself into remodelling the restaurant with the help of the town's delicious contractor, Jem revamps the menu and renews her faith in herself. Jack Kerrigan considered Caro a surrogate mother and hates the idea that the cafe could be sold. He doesn't need the remodelling project, but if it means Caro's beautiful, fascinating niece will stay to run the restaurant, he's all in. He wouldn't mind being savoury to Jem's sweet. Jack's brassy ex-wife is cooking up a scheme of her own, where Jack tosses Jem like a salad and comes back to her. Fold in a creepy attorney hiding secrets of environmental mayhem, add Jem's claustrophobia, half-pint niece and nephew twins, one mysterious lockbox, and bring to a boil-a recipe for romance.

Review

****Lyrical Press provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****
I am a sucker for a food related romance, so the title of this one sucked me in . This book started off fast, immediately you are thrown into the present. Jem's Auntie has passed away suddenly and her life is in turmoil as she has been left her Aunties café. Her boyfriend soon to be fiancé turns out to be not so nice so this ends up being a gift at a new sort of life. Throw in the delicious contractor hired to fix up the café and you have a recipe for an interesting romance.
I liked a lot of things about this book. The characters were well written and warm, the setting was the kind I like. The writing flowed and but sometimes I admit to wishing it was a bit faster. I did feel that the storyline was a bit predictable, so the mystery wasn't really a mystery. Everything was sort of alluded to right from the start....although I would like to find out about her aunts mysterious illness. Lets face it, its the romance that I read this book for and it was a good one. Jack and Jem had chemistry that lead to many steamy scenarios. I liked them as a couple and enjoyed reading how they got their happily ever after.
This was a satisfying read.
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