Taste of Love #2
e-ARC, NetGalley
Author: Chandra Blumberg
Simone Blake has done her time in Chicago and when she’s betrayed and fired from the corporate world, she goes back to her small town to run her family’s barbecue restaurant. Simone’s always felt she was “second best” – even the restaurant that’s now hers was first given to her sister. She wants to fit in again and has this idea to sell the restaurant’s BBQ sauce at the local farmers’ market (a market she plans to help expand and grow).
Simone’s plans find a a small road block with the arrival of chef Finn Rimes … selling his own BBQ sauce! An outsider, the nerve! So, she sics the “knitting group” on him and does everything in her power to drive him out of “her” town.
If Simone has feelings of being second best, Finn has always felt like he is “the last”, or worse, the unwanted, the one no one chooses or cares for. He grew up in the foster system, has no idea what it’s like to have “a home”, and all he wants is to belong. His BBQ sauce business is just a means to an end. He wants to open a cooking school for people like him, Cooking saved him and he wants to give that to others.
When a reality show (think Shark Tank) throws them together in the most unexpected way, they’ll have to either team up or forfeit the prize. Small problem; they can’t stay away from each other.
This is a lovely rivals to lovers romance. Book #2 in a series, it can be read as a standalone, but maybe I needed to have met Simone in book 1. I fell in love with Finn from the moment he showed up but I had trouble warming up to Simone because of the way she treated him right off the bat. As you spend more time with them and figure out what moves them, you can’t help but root for them to find a way to each other.
I liked that the reality show plot didn’t take over and it was more of a road trip story than anything.
A sweet (as in zero spice) romance for lovers of food, trips and found family.
Rep and possible triggers: interracial romance (BW/WM). Feelings of inferiority, growing up in foster care, mentions of homelessness and hunger.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you, NetGalley, Montlake and the author for the advanced copy.
