Hi Everyone!
Ready to learn about a romance full of flirting and genuine chemistry?
Taste the Heat by Rachel Harris
Publication Date: July 8th, 2013
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Source- E-ARC from Publisher (Thank you Heather Riccio!)
Rating: 4/5 CHERRY STARS
My review:
My favorite type of story is a good contemporary with
friendship and family drama mixed with romance, and dipped in a gripping
mystery. (Yay cooking diction!) And that reflects Taste the Heat.
Taste the Heat is
on the surface an adult romance where a childhood crush is finally being
requited. The romance that is the main story caused me to occasionally drift.
But the story beats beyond the romance.
It turns to my favorite relationships of family
relationships. There is the sweet close in conversation and character relationship
the female protagonist Colby has with her protective and caring brother Cane
and her romantic sister Sherry. The most powerful is Colby’s terrible memories of
another family member. This member’s betrayal caused Colby to distance herself
from her family for ten years.
The other family relationship rivets in the separation the
male protagonist Jason from his dead wife. The sorrow he feels from what he
lost. The love he feels for his daughter Emma sparks sweetness to my taste buds.
I love how Colby and Jason both understood each other in
many ways. The most poignant is their connection of being separated from a
demised loved one.
Colby and Jason’s interactions left me in amazement. They
hold true chemistry that is a rare victory. So often romances have characters
that love each other, but I do not feel their love beyond the surface.
That is not the case for Taste
the Heat. Colby’s love and longing for Jason and Jason’s admiration and
love for Colby crack through the page like an egg leaving an oozy mess. While
this mess of goo leaves something to clean up, it also leads to character
growth that grows the ultimate happiness.
Another good factor is the sprinkle of surprise turns. I was
surprised by what happened to Jason’s demised wife. The book also scurried away
from the nasty other woman cliché. I’m glad that Jason’s dead wife and the
other women, Angelle, who was attracted to Jason were both portrayed as good
people.
Side- thought - I hope beyond hope that Angelle and Cane are
the main characters of the next book.
Taste the Heat is predictable yes. But it also is a beautiful
story of a cook and a fire fighter finally leaving regret behind and looking
instead towards the bright future.
Thanks for reading!
I'm glad to hear that the chemistry is believable. There are romances in pretty much all the books I read, but only a handful of those ever manage to fully convince me. It's great that you enjoyed this so much! Lovely review as always, Rachel. :)
ReplyDeleteEven though this book IS slightly predictable, I think the fact that this romance is so deep would totally make up for that. It's so hard for a romance to actually be something beyond surface level, so it's so great that you were really able to feel everything in this novel. And it's awesome that this novel doesn't fall back on those stereotypes, especially 'the other woman' ones. The family relationships also sound super deep, which I LOVE seeing portrayed in novels. It adds such a great depth to novels.
ReplyDeleteLovely review, Rachel! I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for this one now. <3
This is absolutely my favorite type of romance too! Emotional, but not angsty, and with a strong focus on family ties. I wish I'd accepted it for review when it came my way, but I was just so busy at the time! Ah, well, I'll just have to buy a copy and I won't even mind. It sounds like a great beach read.
ReplyDeleteLoving the sound of this one Rachel! I so enjoy childhood crush romantic setups, they never fail to suck me in every time, but I'm also glad this book is much more than just the romance between Colby and Jason. Lovely review, I can't wait to give this book a try!
ReplyDeleteOh this sounds like a sweet and lovely romance, Rachel. Ejoy! :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful review, Rachel! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed this book a lot. :) It sounds like a very amazing read. We're always on the lookout for true chemistry in books, right? ;) Love the cooking diction. <3 It's so sweet that the characters finally get to move on from the dark past and embrace the warm future. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing us to this great book, Rachel! :)
I like romance that also talks about family relationships. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteRachel is such a great author. It's nice that TtH has a good story to go with the romance. I love a story with strong family relationships, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Awesome review, Rachel! And you're right a lot of romance often come off as very hot and all about physical with barely any true connection I'm glad this one had it all. I love Rachel's YA books so I definitely want to give this one a try!
ReplyDelete