Just one Taste: A Recipe for Love Novel by Louisa Edwards

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!!!

Can't Stand the Heat: A Recipe for Love Novel by Louisa Edwards

Can't Stand the Heat: A Recipe for Love Novel by Louisa Edwards. St. Martin's Press Paperback. September 2009. 368 pp. ISBN #: 9780312356491

Miranda Wake is about to write the novel she's been dreaming about perfecting for a very long time. No more rejection slips, no more crushing disappointment! Attending a pre-opening party for Adam Temple's "Market" restaurant, Miranda has far too much to drink and not enough to eat, which leads her to issue an ultimate dare to Adam. Miranda has the press behind her and Adam can't refuse the dare without his new venture falling apart before it's even started. So Miranda is given permission to spend one month in Adam's restaurant and what a month it will be!

At the same time Miranda's brother, Jess, arrives in New York City and won't reveal why he left college out in Brandewine College in the Midwest. She lets it go for now and both wind up working at Adam's electricity-ridden restaurant. The slew of wild characters initially seem like the last thing one would expect in an eatery wanting to be labeled as serving the best cuisine in the country, but that's exactly what it is. The cooks and assistants are "out-of-the-box" who work like a dream together, and the descriptions of the food they are preparing will make every reader drool for joy and want to run out to find something similar to relish or somewhere similar to dine.

For these artists adore the taste and texture of exquisite food, choices and mixtures that titillate the palate and assure that those who enter will want to return over and over again to experience the same joyous experience.

But things get complicated because of the relationship between Jess and one of the other partners and Miranda doesn't know what to do about her novel when Adam begins to charm her with the lustiest, most passionate sex anyone could possibly imagine. An under-appreciated culinary student will add some unexpected havoc and an early leak of information could destroy everything that all have been so carefully and lovingly creating.

The description so far is only a tad of the action that is presented in a snappy, exciting, adventurous, and totally unexpected manner. Can't Stand the Heat... is one of the best light-hearted culinary, romantic novels this reviewer has read in a very long time! Grand job, Louisa Edwards!