Just One Taste: A Recipe for Love Novel by Louisa Edwards. St. Martin's Press. August 2010. 352 pp. ISBN #: 9780312356477.
Wes Murphy thinks he’s failing Food Chemistry 101, a course mandatory for him to pass before he can apply for the coveted externship at one of the famous New York City restaurants. When his professor suddenly takes a leave of absence, Wes can hardly believe the hot, brainy babe who takes over teaching his class. The chemistry of food becomes a brain new topic, one he broaches with Dr. Rosemary Wilkins, little realizing how she is struggling to be an academic success in a field which she adores, the chemistry that makes molecules of different ingredients interact when heated to become something with, yes, aphrodisiac possibilities. But her research is exactly about actual aphrodisiacs and so Wes and Rosemary connect.
However, nothing is easy indeed! Wes’s father is a con man who upon discovering Rosemary’s background engages his son to dupe the woman Wes is coming more and more to love and respect. So Wes chooses the easy way and dumps her to protect her; but he’s haunted by his deed just as she is saddened and even embittered after feeling used and abandoned.
The plot is far from over! A bevy of characters appear in the restaurant where Wes does earn the perfect externship, including two male lovers vying for affection, jealous about others, and scheming to expand their successful business to an even greater site of haute cuisine.
Louisa Edwards obviously loves food and romance, as this novel which is part of the “Recipe for Love” series is replete with the sensual and amazing descriptions of ingredients, recipes, the cooking process, and the proper presentation of culinary delights. Wes and Rosemary will meet again, and the reader will feel the tension as the plot turns moment to moment from tension to connection, back and forth, before a most luscious ending is served, promising years of more amusing and delicious debacles to come!!! Four stars!!!
Wes Murphy thinks he’s failing Food Chemistry 101, a course mandatory for him to pass before he can apply for the coveted externship at one of the famous New York City restaurants. When his professor suddenly takes a leave of absence, Wes can hardly believe the hot, brainy babe who takes over teaching his class. The chemistry of food becomes a brain new topic, one he broaches with Dr. Rosemary Wilkins, little realizing how she is struggling to be an academic success in a field which she adores, the chemistry that makes molecules of different ingredients interact when heated to become something with, yes, aphrodisiac possibilities. But her research is exactly about actual aphrodisiacs and so Wes and Rosemary connect.
However, nothing is easy indeed! Wes’s father is a con man who upon discovering Rosemary’s background engages his son to dupe the woman Wes is coming more and more to love and respect. So Wes chooses the easy way and dumps her to protect her; but he’s haunted by his deed just as she is saddened and even embittered after feeling used and abandoned.
The plot is far from over! A bevy of characters appear in the restaurant where Wes does earn the perfect externship, including two male lovers vying for affection, jealous about others, and scheming to expand their successful business to an even greater site of haute cuisine.
Louisa Edwards obviously loves food and romance, as this novel which is part of the “Recipe for Love” series is replete with the sensual and amazing descriptions of ingredients, recipes, the cooking process, and the proper presentation of culinary delights. Wes and Rosemary will meet again, and the reader will feel the tension as the plot turns moment to moment from tension to connection, back and forth, before a most luscious ending is served, promising years of more amusing and delicious debacles to come!!! Four stars!!!
