Review: Into the Fire
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2014
INTO THE FIRE was a scrumptious read -- pun intended. Lila Grant has had eyes for Jackson Calabrese since she first saw him at the Culinary Academy. Too bad he's her arch nemesis and only one of them can win the $25,000 prize during the cook off. She needs that money to pay off her crushing debt of student loans and believes Jack could only want it for more adoration -- he's a Calabrese, after all: wealthy, entitled and attractive. What she doesn't know is that while Jack may be all of those things, he also craves his father's approval and winning the contest will give him that. He's also just as attracted to her as she is to him and seduces her the night before the contest.You'll understand from the blurb that he "steals" Lila's recipe for the contest and wins, but the way this executed is spot on by Usen. Once school is over, Jack pursues Lila to help him with his restaurant menu in time for the opening -- and because he's still insanely attracted to her. Lila finally relents -- she's broke after all -- and while she does help shore up Jack's menu, they can't help but give into temptation along the way.As aforementioned, Usen does a bang up job with the first conflict of the novel and sets it up nicely from there. Both Lila and Jack are fleshed out characters; their decisions and responses are human, not one dimensional characterizations you'd expect because it's a romance and that's how they're supposed to act. The book had the chance of dipping into cliché territory, but it never did. The chemistry between the two characters popped out from the page and the writing flowed. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to other stories from this author!