Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: The Ninth Ingredient
AUTHOR: Leon Mauvais
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 98 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2019
BLURB:
The Renaissance has invaded France! When a Medici princess lands with her army of Italian bakers, the royal kitchens of Fontainebleau erupt into chaos.
The Italians serve up something new, gelato, a dessert so fashionable, so chilled, it captures the tongues of the French court. The French bakers are left scrambling. Henri, a young apprentice, is tasked with discovering the secret recipe.
But when he falls for its maker, things heat up beyond the hearth. Is he willing to betray his new love for a list of ingredients? Espionage has never tasted sweeter!
REVIEW:
When going into this story, I expected a tale of historical espionage, maybe a little enemies-to-lovers. Instead, I was left recalling two things vividly—a highly detailed, pages-long bout of blasphemous analingus and a climactic love scene involving an elaborate bird costume. You wouldn’t think a 98-page historical novella about finding a secret gelato recipe would involve those elements, but The Ninth Ingredient defies all expectations.
Henri is a baker’s apprentice in 1530’s France right as Italian culture is taking over the world. Not only is he a mediocre baker, his smart mouth and haughty, bullying ways fail to make him popular among his peers. After souring his reputation once again, he’s given a final test to see if he’ll make it as a pâtissier—he must find the sacred Italian recipe for gelato, the delicious new dessert that has everyone talking.
It’s a good thing Henri is conniving, cutthroat, and not afraid to put himself in harm’s way to achieve his dream of becoming the best baker in France. He offers his “assets” to a priest only to get a good view of the marketplace from the church, which leads to the funniest damn rimming scene I have ever read in my life. He climbs snowy mountains and forges new alliances. But then he finally meets Cosimo, the mountainous, jolly Italian alchemist who created the original gelato recipe, and because Henri is a dumb-ass, he instantly falls in love.
While the romance doesn’t even begin to blossom until halfway through the book, it’s very well-done. There’s flirting, sexual tension, and some very odd kinkiness towards the end when the two men start seeing each other for who they really are. It feels like a natural “thawing the ice prince” type of romance—Henri is used to steeling himself to the world, and Cosimo is always full of joy and ready to embrace life.
Here’s something else I liked—I realized early on that even as Henri began to redeem himself and change his ways, I didn’t even really need him to. He’s living in a highly competitive and unforgiving world fraught with class divides. He grew up in a brothel and thought that his only way out was becoming a prostitute, so he seizes every opportunity he sees. But he also starts noticing the ways others have to muddle through the world, and once he falls in love, he starts putting things into perspective.
This is an odd little story that won’t do it for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s well-written, funny, irreverent, and just plain weird in all the right ways.
RATING: 
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