Once Burned
4,25 starsI loved this book! Cooking competition show AND romance, be still my heart. I've read a few Dee Carney books and I have to say this was the best one yet for me!
I love her characters and Pepper and Darien are definite favorites. With Darien it was like Dee Carney peeked into my brain and plucked out what I consider a dream hero: a hot, tattooed, bald-headed chef who knows how and when to grovel.
Don't want to neglect mentioning Jen and Sol. Loved them as secondary characters and sidekicks to Pepper and Darien. They brought the perfect amount of humor and lightness to counter Darien and Pepper's intensity.
I loved how the I/R relationship conflict played an important role in the charcterization and backstory yet it was kept subtle and worked very well with the romance.
I heard Dee is working on book two. I'll be there with bells on when it releases because I've found another author who goves good foodie romance :)
Fave scene:
- the kiss after the team-up challenge awaiting judging > marked the turning point in the romance and it was hot!
Fave Quotes:
His voice smoothed down Pepper’s skin, licking at her as if it were a warm tongue. She wanted to purr.
Priest gritted his teeth, and Pepper was so struck by the intensity of him in that moment, every womanly part of her anatomy awoke with stark awareness. The man was a living canvas of contrasts, and she responded to his enigma.
“Your idea of an apology was to bring me to a broom closet and then grope me like a drunken prom date.” She rolled her eyes, the tears long since dried up. The Pepper standing before him got started somewhere around sad, picked up speed near annoyed, found her stride at angry and orbited in the vicinity of rage.
In her defense, it wasn’t just a kiss. Not just a let’s-make-up kind of kiss, but a soul-robbing, toe-curling, hallelujah-chorus and hot- damn, blow-your-mind kiss. It was the kind of kiss that begged forgiveness and whispered promises, every single one of them buck naked.
