Review: Deep Autumn Heat - Enjoyable read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2012
This contemporary romance, centered around two chefs and restaurant owners, has all the makings for a charming romance. Lexie owns her restaurant in small town, Star Harbor, a tourist destination and she's launching her new catering business on the side. Seb, a big time, famous chef based out of New York, grew up with his three brothers in Star Harbor and is back visiting when he walks into Lexie's café. His interest is evident when she doesn't fawn all over him like so many other women do due to his looks, his fame, he outgoing personality. Seb seems like a very happy guy, loving the life he has, but it takes one woman to not think the world revolves around him to make him step up and take notice.I liked that Lexie and Seb share the same passion for cooking. It gave them common ground right away and a little friendly wager is made resulting in a cook-off between the two. It helped to build their romance and made me like these two a little more with each scene. Lexie had a very bad experience with her last boyfriend, so much so that she took out a restraining order against him and moved across the country for a fresh start. She believes he may have tracked her down, and this provides the suspense to the story, along with random threatening letters that are being left at her café, that may or may not be connected to her ex, Frank. Little things with both of the ex and the letters pop up during the story but neither overtake the main romance until the very end.I really enjoyed the romance between the leads. Seb is delicious. He's a big time name in the restaurant and soon to be television world, and he knows it, but there's something sweet and tender in him that comes out when he's around Lexie. For the first time, he really opens his eyes up to his world, the people he's surrounded himself with and starts to make some decisions for himself, all from watching Lexie and the way she managers her workers in the café. Her influence on him was subtle and it's hard not to like a guy that falls head over heels for the woman he loves.**********Seb emitted a quiet groan. Slowly, he slid his tongue between her willing lips. She opened them wider to accept his entry, then tentatively stroked her own tongue against his. It felt heavenly, and she moaned low and soft in her throat.(...)For once, he moved like a man without an agenda. Without all of his arrogance, without his ego, he was just a man. A man who knew how to make her feel more pleasure than anyone ever had before.Long moments passed, and still he made no move to deepen their contact - he just kept kissing her, slowly devouring her lips with his own. His tongue warmed her, soothed her.**********Mentioned above, there are a couple difference suspense elements to the story. The resolution to the threatening letters felt like it came out of nowhere while the ex-boyfriend storyline packed a little bigger punch story wise. I wasn't really captivated by either, but they didn't overshadow the main heart of the story which was Seb and Lexie, and also Seb and the relationship he has with his brothers. We meet all three brothers, each are charming in their own way, and as I've stated many times, I'm a sucker for a series centered around siblings, so I say, bring on the next brother!My rating went down slightly when Lexie made a couple decisions late in the game that had me groaning and wanting to smack her. She has trust issues and because of Frank, issues with love and trusting in the love from a man, rightfully so after what she went through. I don't like when a heroine (or hero) runs away. Lexie does this to Seb when things get heavy emotionally and instead of sticking around to at least have some kind of conversation, she just takes off. She also makes a bad decision when all the signs point toward Frank stalking her. Again, it's something little in the grand story scheme of things, but it stood out to me as something dumb that an otherwise really smart heroine did.Overall, I thought the story was fun, charming and very likable. I liked getting to know Seb and his brothers and even with a couple hiccups at the end, I enjoyed Lexie very much. The romance kept me turning the pages and I'll definitely be checking out the next book.Blog rating: 3.5/5