For Butter or Worse is a contemporary romance following workplace rivals who fake a relationship for public relations reasons, only to find themselves actually enjoying the charade. Nina is a female chef in a fairly male-dominated industry, and the last thing she needs is her coworker throwing her under the bus on live TV. Nina…
Cooking competition romance time! Sadie on a Plate is all about a young Seattle chef who, following a messy break-up, becomes a contestant on a nationally televised cooking program and tries to bring kosher cooking to the masses. Sadie is in a career crisis. This top-flight chef has been fired from her spot in a…
The Love Con is a fun, funny, and tender contemporary romance that takes on geek culture, con culture, and gives us a fun best-friends-pretend-dating-to-really-dating romance. It’s delightful and warm-hearted. Kenya – KeKe – Davenport is a geek ne plus ultra. She loves anime, fan conventions, cosplay and wants making a living designing costumes. That’s a…
I was generally charmed by The Charm Offensive, which is funny, romantic, a little ridiculous and a lot of fun. But the book fails to set up any proper representation for its Indian protagonist, which caused me to dip the grade a little bit. Dev Deshpande is a total romantic, a fact that leaks into…
Lucy Parker has another winner on her hands with Battle Royal, the first book in her new Royal Insiders series and also her first novel published under the Avon Imprint. I’ve enjoyed all her books so far and have loved quite a few of them; they’re stylish and engaging and wonderfully romantic, featuring three-dimensional protagonists…
If the Shoe Fits is a charming, modernized reimagining of Cinderella with a strong body positive message and an emphasis on inclusiveness. Cindy Woods is headed from NY to LA when she meets Prince Charming. She’s pretty sure he has another name but that’s what she privately calls him as they share a flight, conversation,…
Faking Reality is a sprightly and fun romance about a girl trying to avoid love – and the way love finds her anyway. It feels very young though, so older readers might not enjoy it, especially because the characters feel a little underwritten, and the way the heroine’s parents react to the machinations of others…
Anyone with a cable TV subscription has at least one channel that involves watching attractive and skilled characters do some kind of home renovation. That’s the theme behind Rosanna Leo’s Handymen series with a trio of brothers, Michael, Eli and Nick Zorn who have successfully parlayed their skills into a Toronto-based TV show with the…
Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of…
Skye is, at size 16, an average American girl – but much larger than the average Korean (something her mother will never let her forget) and downright gargantuan in the world of K-pop. Skye, however, won’t let other people’s beauty standards hold her back. Knowing she can dance and sing, she enters a K-pop talent…