Review: Tad and Jules' love story is my fave in this series so far
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2014
The PremiseThe third book in Ms. Meader’s Hot in the Kitchen series, focuses on Jules Kilroy, and her best friend, Taddeo “Tad” DeLuca.  Jules is beginning to stand on her own two feet, taking care of herself and her son, Evan.  Tad is finally making it on his own as well, deciding to open up his own wine bar and after losing his chef, asks Jules to step in and help him out.  This ratchets up the tension between them, which began to build a year ago when Jules made a pass at him, and Tad rejected her.  They are trying not to blur the lines of their friendship, but that’s not as easy as it sounds….My ThoughtsJules is a great heroine, a flawed but strong young woman who struggled most of her life trying to find her way out of the shadow cast by her larger than life brother Jack, the hero from the first book.  She was the girl that no one wanted, raised by her aunt and uncle because Jack was away building his reputation as a chef, and trying to hide her dyslexia from everyone, working dead end jobs and sleeping with men to compensate for the lack of love in her life.  She could easily have devolved into a woe-is-me kind of heroine, but she didn’t - when faced with harsh realities of decisions she’d made, she stepped up and accepted the responsibility for them, which in turn made me respect her as a character all the more.  I thought her character arc was lovely and I fell for her just as hard as I fell for Tad.Which leads me to the hero of this tale - Tad intrigued me from the moment I read about him in Feel the Heat, and I wasn’t disappointed in this book.  Taddeo is dark, sexy, tortured hero who takes care of those he loves but doesn’t feel as if he deserves their love in return for an incident that happened years ago involving his parents.  His motivations and anguish for the wrongs he feels he committed were believable and his love for Jules was clear as day, even if he had a hard time admitting it to himself.  Jules and Tad both have a history of shutting down, but I loved how their love for each other taught them to move on from the past and make their own future.Having read the first book, but not the second in the series didn’t hinder me and I think this book does well as a standalone.  There is a bonus in knowing the DeLuca family and the history involved that enriches the story, though, so I am interested in reading the middle book to get Shane and Cara’s story.The Bottom LineGreat new series, and this installment is definitely my fave - it helped while away the hours during a blizzard and I found a great little love story as a result.  If you haven’t checked out this series yet, I definitely recommend you do so. I was glad I did.**ARC provided by Grand Central Publishing from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**