Reviewed by Donna
AUTHOR: L.E. Franks
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 41,000 Words
BLURB:
Chef Christian De Guisse can’t trust a man who doesn’t love his food, while Detective Andrew Simmons won’t let any man close who thinks he’s broken—somewhere between these two points, love is possible, but only if they get real.
When Chef Christian De Guisse accidently outs Celebrity Chef Jordan Slayer during a fight in front of The Times entertainment reporter—it only gets Christian ex-boyfriend status and a one-way plane ticket to culinary exile in Oregon. But a fortuitous meeting with Detective Andrew Simmons at the Portland airport keeps Christian and his collection of exotic herbs out of the hands of Homeland Security, starting the chemistry simmering between them. Andy isn’t much of a foodie and for a chef who communicates love through his cooking this may be one hurdle too high…until they’re finally ready to get real.
REVIEW:
Christian’s life has pretty much gone to shit. He had the things he thought he needed to make his life perfect and then just like that they were gone. His perfect boyfriend, his dream restaurant and his golden life as a celebrated New York chef, all gone. Luckily for Christian, who is all set to forever wallow in self pity (we’ve all been there), best buddy Zach, swoops in from Oregon, packs up his belongings and shoves him on a plane to start a new life. Unfortunately for Christian, one of those things they pack up is his collection of special, cheffy herbs, which sees him taken off the plane in handcuffs and dragged before a particularly assholish customs agent.
Ok, by this point I was pretty pissed on behalf of Christian. How much shit was this poor guy going to have to deal with? Didn’t those idiots take into consideration that the man is a chef? And he has to go to court because he kicked up a fuss when they cuffed him on the plane with no explanation? And would a passenger flying first class ever really get treated like that without actual proof they’d done something wrong? Because all us common folk are made fully aware at every possible chance that “firsties” are better than us. I mean come on, they still get real knives.
But as luck would have it, once again someone swoops in and saves Christian, and this time it’s Detective Andrew Simmons who plucks him from custom’s evil clutches and spirits him away. To the police station. Where he’s charged. Goddamn stupid airlines.
Anyway, Andrew and Christian as a couple, it didn’t really work so much for me. Actually I think the problem was Andrew’s character. Everything about him just seemed a bit blah and uninteresting. He didn’t come across as having a whole lot of character. Which is strange because I definitely felt a real connection with Christian who I thought was very well developed but somehow I kept mixing the two men up. I know, that doesn’t really make sense. I just said one character stood out much more than the other yet at the same time I kept confusing one for the other. Go figure. Maybe it was just me.
One part of this book, though, really stood out to me and definitely provided a bit of an original twist. Everybody talks about “gay for you” but this story is the first I’ve ever read that has a “straight for you” relationship. Not the main characters relationship obviously but Christian’s best friend Zach who would have sworn he was completely, absolutely, 100% gay until he met Katy. It was just a bit different to see that idea play out in, well, basically the opposite direction.
This book wasn’t bad, some parts I really enjoyed, but as far as I’m concerned, Andrew’s (undeveloped/undecided/uncertain?) character dropped the ball and left me feeling a bit ambivalent about the overall story.
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