Title: Can't Stand The Heat (#1 Recipe For Love)
Author: Louisa Edwards
Genre: Chick lit / Culinary Romance
Description: For sharp-tongued Miranda Wake, the chance to spend a month in Adam Temple’s kitchen to write an exposé is a journalistic dream come true. Surely Miranda can find a way to cut the hotshot chef down to size once she learns what really goes on at his trendy Manhattan restaurant. The trouble is, she never expected Adam to find out her most embarrassing secret: this critic has no idea how to cook.
As for Adam, well, he’s not about to have his reputation burned by a critic who doesn’t even know the difference between poaching and paring. He’ll just have to give the tempting redhead a few private lessons of his own—teaching Miranda what it means to cook with passion.
Review: This was the first Culinary Romance book I have ever read and I've truly enjoyed it. I can definitely relate to the main character Miranda, as I also love food and know a lot about it, but absolutely can't cook myself. That's what brought Miranda into trouble in the first place. She got beyond drunk and insulted (hot) chef Adam, he then retaliated by issuing a dare Miranda all too gladly accepted. She sees this as her shot to make it big, namely a tell all book of behind the scenes in the kitchen. This ensures us of hot passion and delicious food all mixed together.
The secondary storyline gives us more background about Miranda and where her ambition comes from. Jess is her younger brother and she has taken care of him since she was 18, when her parents died. Being overprotective of him is putting it mildly, when she finds out he's been hooking up with Frankie, the sous-chef. Frankie is my absolute favorite character in this book. A british punk-rocker, with a very colorful word palette, who jokes around like crazy, but is still the best sous-chef in town.
Can't Stand The Heat is very well written and reads very fluent. Nothing felt forced and it even made me laugh out loud a couple of times (mostly thanks to Frankie). The only minor thing is, I find the plot a bit meager and about halfway through the book I was more interested in Jess and Frankie's story line. But by now I've read Louisa Edwards' other books and I must say the plots get better throughout her books. Which I believe is a good thing, a writer should keep making progress.
So if you want to read a fun book, filled with yummy food and passionate chefs, then "Can't Stand The Heat" is a definite must.
★★★☆☆
Extra: At the end of each book you'll find the recipes Louisa Edwards used in the story. Very fun, if you now how to cook :)
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