Monday, July 8, 2013

ARC Review: Taste the Heat by Rachel Harris

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!

10 comments:

  1. 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. :)

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  2. Even 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.

    Lovely review, Rachel! I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for this one now. <3

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  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.

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  4. Loving 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!

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  5. Oh this sounds like a sweet and lovely romance, Rachel. Ejoy! :)

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  6. Wonderful 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

    Thank you for introducing us to this great book, Rachel! :)

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  7. I am a sucker for books with food references. I love romances like this one where a childhood crush finally iginites. This sounds like a sweet little book perfect for summer!

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  8. I like romance that also talks about family relationships. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Rachel 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.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  10. 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!

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