Started on: May 12, 2013
Finished on: May 31, 2013
Synopsis
When it comes to competitive cooking, Max Lunden is no stranger to winning…though he’s never been great at working with a team. A master chef—and major hunk—he’s traveled the world, picking up new cooking techniques as well as beautiful women. But when the prodigal chef returns home to his family’s Greenwich Village restaurant, he discovers one too many cooks in the kitchen—and she’s every bit as passionate as he is…Juliet Cavanaugh used to have a crush on Max when she was just a teenager, hanging out at Lunden & Sons Tavern, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owner’s oldest, and hottest, son. Now a chef herself—competing in the biggest culinary contest in the country—Juliet will be cooking side by side with the one man she’s always admired…and desired. But despite their simmering attraction, Juliet is determined to keep her cool—no matter how hot it gets…
Review
I'm finally done with this book! I don't know why but it felt like I took forever getting through this book.
Too Hot To Touch.. How can you not pick up this book? It has a shirtless guy on the cover and the title is already as tense as it can get!
This isn't a love story, it is a sudden romance of rekindled high school crushes, with a cooking competition right new to it. Juliet Cavanaugh ran away from home (I wonder why her mother was never really worried that she left home for 6 years) and what luck, she is taken in by her best friends family; the Lundens. The Lundens eldest son, Max Lunden left around the same time Juliet/Jules left home. He left to explore and learn different culinary techniques of the world. The Lundens own their own very successful restaurant, but as years past, business has been going a little bit down. The Rising Star Chef competition seems to be their last resort into becoming a successful restaurant again. Max is called home by his mother to join the competition with the rest of the team, and guess who's in the team? That's right, Jules Cavanaugh. Tense fire goes back and forth between Jules and Max for the first few days of his return, which will obviously end up into becoming something more. This book tells a story of how the team gets through the competition and the drama that's behind it all.
I was very excited to read this book, I bought the first book off book depository since they didn't have it in bookstores where I'm from. So I picked it up, read the first chapter, and thought, "hmm...maybe it'll get better, most books do". As I kept reading further, it got a little exciting but not over the top exciting. It was okay. As I move further, I began to get bored. I really wasn't feeling the spice of this book. As much as I love cooking and as much as I love reading a romance that involves cooking, I expected the book to be a lot better.
The writing was alright, I noticed a few unnecessary details, but then got used to them as I went through the book, In a few chapters, there are peaks into the judges of the competitions life, and they relationship. I am not sure if I enjoyed this interval or not. I practically skimmed through the last few chapters of the book.
The book cover and synopsis really drags your into the buying the book. Shirtless guy cooking plus the tense synopsis, it makes you go "oooooo... what's going to happen?"
Overall, I think this book is a one-time-read kind of book, just like how some movies are one-time-watch only movies. It was an okay book. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series, I don't know, maybe I will in the future. But right now, no.
