Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  In the Fire

SERIES:  In the Kitchen #2

AUTHOR:   Nikka Michaels and Eileen Griffin

PUBLISHER:  Carina Press

LENGTH:  93,000 words

BLURB:  

Because the way to a man’s heart…

Eight years ago, the world was their oyster. Until, that is, competing chefs Ethan Martin and James Lassiter’s hot and heavy relationship fizzled after Jamie left for an internship in Paris. Even though Jamie’s career has taken off since his return to the States, with his own television show and a lot of fame, his feelings for Ethan have never quite gone away.

Ethan’s culinary career has developed more slowly, but he’s almost saved enough to buy the restaurant where he works and re-open it as his dream spot, Bistro 30. If only he could get the sexy chef who loved him and left him out of his mind.

But when someone starts sabotaging the restaurant and a fire threatens to take away everything Ethan holds dear, his only option is to rely on Jamie for help. Back in close quarters, the two men will have to find a way to work through their past if they hope to save the restaurant and their future.

REVIEW:  

This book start roughly 8 years after the end of In the Raw…and apparently a lot has happened between when Jamie went of to Paris, and where we open the story here.

It turns out that the city of love was not so kind to our two lovers. Time, distance, and the influence of a ‘friend’ has torn the two apart, and eight years later they are still bleeding from the wounds. Jamie is rich and famous, but he is also burning out in his career as celebrity chef. Ethan has spent the last eight years working his ass off to buy the restaurant where he is head chef, and he is so close he can almost taste it–except someone seems to be sabotaging all his hard work. And while both men have tried to move on from the relationship that seemed burnt to ash all those years ago, no one ever seems to measure up.

When they are thrown together by fate at an awards ceremony both men balk at even meeting each other, but they also cannot seem to fight the pull between them any more than they could eight years ago. That it all quickly goes up in flames, though, is pretty much a given. The spark between them is still there, but here is also too much anger between them. Too much guilt, too much regret. And way too many secrets. Before they can even begin to heal, they fracture all over again.

But perhaps this time there is something different. Because perhaps this time they are willing to fight for each other, instead of just with. And maybe, just maybe, they can find that when they fight side by side, they can conquer anything…even their own stubbornness.

I tend to dislike when love stories unravel between books. It is just frustrating to come to a new book and see that so much shit has gone down while I wasn’t around to watch it happen. So I probably wasn’t in the best frame of mind to start this book. But I quickly fell into this one, and while I was angry that they let themselves fall apart so completely while I was away, I was enjoying watching them put themselves back together.

And when I wasn’t exactly enjoying it, I was visualizing punching Trustfund–or Trevor the meddling asshole–in the face. So that made me feel a little better. I do feel better about this douche by the end of the book–or at least understand why he did what he did–but I still feel that what he did to the two in the beginning, and in Paris, was horrible. And I really wanted to punch him…just maybe not has hard?

This book was very well written, and I’m glad to see that I didn’t have nearly as much of a problem remembering which one was Ethan and which one was Jamie, like I did in the first book. It definitely made the book go by much faster. And while there were some parts that frustrated me to no ends (Jamie’s father and his slimeball sidekick) I found myself enjoying the tension. Mostly. It helped that all the tension between Jamie and Ethan led to some rather hot sex.

And this book doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, so I was able to walk away with happy feelings all round. Not that I wouldn’t mind another book, if there is ever one to be read, but I feel comfortable leaving this here where it is. Still…if the authors were to write a book about Tyler, I wouldn’t say no…and would probably say thank you very much!

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Carina

Amazon

Amazon.uk

ARe