Post listen review: Not the best and not the worst of the lame romances that I have been forced to listen to. It's really hard to go through all the audiobooks in the library without getting a LOT of romance in there. Here is the plot such as it is. Two chefs are in competition to become the next star of The Cooking Channel (because the name the Food Network was already taken). One is a woman who has just had her heart broken by her scumbag producer that cheated on her and lost her the sponsor of her local show. The other is a ruggedly handsome man who has his own very popular local cooking show where he hunts and kills stuff and then cooks it. The two cooks hate each other. Then they don't. Then there is a misunderstanding and they hate each other again. Then the misunderstanding is cleared up and romance ensues. Yawn.But I have some questions for this book and romance books in general.1. Is this really the only formula for romance?2. Does every stylist have to be a gay African-American man (this book and a few others) or a plump but vivacious woman (other books with a stylist)?3. I know this book is about the south but do you have to resort to names like Zeke and Tate? I am gonna guess there are more Rogers and Johns in the south than Zekes or Tates.4. Have you watched hunting or fishing shows? (not the extreme kind just regular hunting and fishing ones) Cause I don't think those guys could be described as having amazing abs and killer physiques. From what I have seen they are either fat or scrawny. (also since when do people watch cooking shows for the "hotness" factor? That's not exactly what Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart bring to mind for me)5. If you have to insist that every man that a woman sees is physically fit, for goodness sakes throw a scene in where he lifts weights! You show the women starving themselves to look good, the guys are obviously doing some work here too.6. When you have a female character who is constantly commenting on how hot several guys are (not so much in this book but in others) it is not that believable that they would be serial monogamists.7. We all really see it coming that these people that hate each other will get it on by the end of the book so just get it over with already.8. Let me get this straight people who produce a show called "Fresh Start" think a show with name "Vittles" has a stupid name? 9. The supportive but reckless sister that makes the main character always realize that she is in love, is annoying. Can we please cut her and have the stylist perform a double role for that?10. Can someone else please listen to the next romance for me so I don't have to?Pre-Listen Guess: Oh man. Romance and reality cooking. I don't know what could be more opposite of cool than that.
This is one of those books that isn't bad, but it just isn't great. It didn't really demand my attention so took far too long for me to read. I like the premise, I even like the hero and heroine. I just didn't quite get the chemistry yet I'm not sure why I didn't get it - all the pieces were there.There was an undercurrent of this book that I cannot be the only one to have picked up on, one of the main character possibly having an eating disorder. Yet it was mentioned and really kind of glossed over. As I read further into the book I started to think that I was mistaken, but if it wasn't meant that way then there is a scene in the beginning of the book that is unnecessary. In the scene the heroine, Regina, is laying in bed hungry. She takes pork rinds from a hiding place in her room of her own house while "avoiding looking at herself in the mirror". Now this just seems like an issue to me and it really could have deepened the story.Another problem with the story is the Thanksgiving scene. Gina is taping a Thanksgiving episode of her cooking show in the summer and goes to the farmer's market for supplies. Now, Gina is supposed to be a fresh ingredients type of cook. So why is it she has no clue that she's not going to find a pumpkin at the market? That really bugged me for some reason. Sure, not everything can be perfectly accurate. But c'mon...it at least has to be believable.Like I said earlier though, I liked Gina. I liked the hero, Tate. He was actually a really nice guy. I just didn't believe his feelings for Gina and I also think they both cheated in their "competition". I may give this author one more try, but it will most likely be a while before that happens.
A Lilac Wolf and Stuff ReviewI accidentally read this twice. As a home cook, I loved the cooking show angle. Regina has a show on Public TV, Tate has one on a Southern channel. They are pitted against each other by the Cooking Channel...can you say Food Network?Regina is in a pickle, her show is over and this is her one chance to save her career. So I felt really bad for her. Plus her and Tate have some incredible chemistry - everyone knows it. I like how strong Regina is. She breaks up with Scott at the beginning and she is never even tempted by that scumbag again. I don't get why she was with him in the first place, but that's another story. Who knew, I was already a fan of this author.
—Lilac Wolf
I was highly impressed by this novel, and also by how much I was invested in their lives by the middle of it. By the end, all I could think about was how I didn't want to finish the book because I didn't want it to end. My only complaint about the whole book is that I didn't feel Gina and Tate were developed enough. Yeah, we know what their physical appearances are, but I wanted to know more about Gina, so that I could put myself a little more in her place and relate to her. When I first started this book, I got through at least 30 pages and was bored and didn't think I'd be able to get into it. There was so much description of the south and about southern people that it almost was predictable. But, oh! that is why you have to go a little further even when you think it won't be that good, because now this is my favorite book!It went from being predictable to a fun getaway vacation book, where, as the tension grows between Gina and Tate, the more fun situations they are being placed into. You get to picture them on an island off of Georgia which took even me to such a fun escape, right here in the south which I thought I knew too well. I love the character D'John and his antics. I could picture him like he was a person I actually knew. "Precious Jesus Lord!" and some of the things he says had me laughing out loud. I enjoyed the Zeke character as well and had the perfect real life vision of him as well as a few others, as if I were casting them in a movie. The best books, in my opinion, is when everything comes together like you are in a movie, but for an author to be able to describe things that well is pure talent. This is the first book by Mary Kay Andrews I have read, and I plan to read them ALL. I sure hope they all have as much romance as this one did, but I'm also very glad I own this book, so I can go and read it again whenever I want!!
—Kristen
The whole set up - A battle of the sexes between two southern cooking show hosts, and the way we're shown how they're SO compatable if only they'll simmer down and see... well it had my hopes exceptionally high that this could be "the one". The next favorite added to my all-time best list. I made my guess as to what would happen, it did EXACTLY. So predictability is high here, but that wasn't the problem for me. I wanted it to go where it did, that was fine. The problem is that the book doesn't know what it wants to be. If it was going to be a romance, it needed a lot of background cut out of the beginning, and focus in on the two main characters. If it wanted to be more "chick lit", it should have taken a page from classics like Bridget Jones or Shopaholic and given us just the heroine's story, and really given her a story outside of the romance. Instead we're left in la-la land where everything is ok, nothing is great.Mary Kay Andrews has mad skills and I love her writing - but this was a wholly unsatisfying read. The characters deserved better. The charm and comedy of the early pages simply didn't carry through. The "they are in love with each other now... because I say so" with no reasoning, no thought process, no proof just doesn't work for me. That said, still 3 stars. If I suspend all reality, if I pretend the author proved that Gina had some personal growth and Tate has a thought in his pretty head then it was pretty dang good.
—May
