Review: A wonderful morsel of a romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 8, 2011
I read and enjoyed Kristen's book Heart of Fire, even though I don't usually read fantasy romance, so when I saw that she had a book out that was a contemporary romance featuring a chef, I knew I had to read it. I loved this book. The hero, Kelly was just delicious. He's cute, a successful and innovative chef, and he cares deeply about his sister, so much so that he goes out of his way to approach Dr. Meredith Black, a noted grief specialist, in hopes that she can help his sister learn to deal with the loss of her husband. What he doesn't expect is that he will fall hard for Meredith. Unfortunately, she has already lost two husbands herself, and even though her head knows that their deaths weren't her fault, her heart does not want to open up to a new man for fear of being hurt yet again. Adding to the obstacles to overcome is a fairly significant age difference between the two leads. Meredith is 10+ years older than Kelly and she sees that as yet another reason why they shouldn't get involved, even though he doesn't see it as any kind of obstacle at all. All he knows is that he's wildly attracted to her and wants to explore that attraction. In addition to this, Kristen throws in just a touch of magic to make the book even more fun to read.The characters (both primary and secondary) were well-drawn and sympathetic, there was lots of good dialog, and the food descriptions were pretty tasty also. I also liked that although there was plenty of heat, sparks, and chemistry between Kelly and Meredith, the bedroom scenes were not explicit. Sometimes I get so tired of romances that are just one sex scene after another. It's a lovely change of pace to read one that isn't a Christian romance, but that keeps the bedroom door pretty much closed. All in all, a fast read and a satisfying contemporary romance that I would recommend to anyone.