Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Never Say Never
SERIES: Lost in New York
AUTHOR: Felice Stevens
NARRATOR: Kale Williams
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 10 hours and 16 minutes
RELEASE DATE: October 9, 2020
BLURB:
One taste leaves them wanting more….
Ingredients:
Francisco “Frisco” Martinelli. Hot and spicy. Beautiful on the outside, dark and damaged on the inside. Handle with extreme caution.
Salvatore “Torre” Rossi. Sweet with a kick of spice. Gentle at first, can become swiftly and irrevocably addictive to the heart.
A recipe for romance:
One snobby food critic who doesn’t believe in love.
One down-to-earth food blogger who does.
Add a touch of suspicious brother.
A heaping serving of a best friend who’s been waiting for this to happen.
Blend with secret identities, past hurts, and judgments.
Stir in equal portions of desperate longing, desire, fear, and snarky humor.
Set over open flame, step back, and wait for sparks to fly.
Serve as is for an explosive love story that will leave you with a full heart and a ridiculously happy smile at the end.
This is the third book in the Lost in New York series but can be listened to as a stand-alone.
REVIEW:
One of the things I’ve loved most about this series is that the characters are all so real and they’ve all worked hard to overcome some pretty deep-seated issues. Frisco has had one of the toughest journeys. He’s been really damaged by his parents and his first love. All of the them had a hand in the construction of the walls around Frisco’s heart. At the beginning of this story, he has absolutely no interest in forming any kind of relationship with anyone. He’s got his best friend Presley, he’s got a friendship with his boss and he’s fine with his one-night stands for when he’s got an itch to scratch. His betrayal at the hands of his family – including the mother that he hasn’t spoken to in over 20 years and his philandering deceased father has led to a bit of stunted emotional growth on his part. While he lived with Presley’s family, he did come to love and trust them, but when they died when he was still a teenager, he has long dealt with abandonment issues as well.
Frisco is a classically trained chef, but he has made his life as a food critic in NYC. Because of that, he’s very adept at deception. He can’t let it be known who he is or the integrity of his reviews would be in question. So he’s got a lot of aliases 🙂 He also has a target on his back from one particular blogger, Salvatore Grant, who takes issue with the tone of his reviews as well as the type of restaurants he reviews. He really doesn’t care, but the guy has made his life miserable. And because of that, he’s being asked to change his usual pattern and review restaurants in the outer boroughs and maybe at a lower price point. He’s not at all happy about it.
Torre Rossi has a completely different set of circumstances. He’s got a brother he whole-heartedly supports as well as a loving mother. His brother has a restaurant that he helps out with when not working on his very successful blog. He had a long term boyfriend that broke up with him when he wouldn’t “help” his business enough. He was also pretty awful in his breakup and had been cheating. So he’s done with looking for a boyfriend for the time being and wants to concentrate on his business and his family. When he meets a customer at his brother’s restaurant one evening though, he makes an exception and goes out with the guy. When he’s gone, he assumes he won’t see him again. Of course we know who said customer is 😉
When Frisco goes back to the same restaurant with Presley as cover and in disguise, he again enjoys his meal. He comes back later to try to convince Torre to go out with him again. While Torre initially declines, Frisco manages to convince him to take him home. He’s not sure what this means because he doesn’t double-dip without very clear parameters. But for some reason, he can’t stop thinking about Torre. Torre is very suspicious of Frisco, but he does like him and he seems to like Torre too. But of course Frisco ghosts him again for a while and then tries to get back in his good graces. This little cat and mouse game goes on for a while.
Things get more complicated when there are changes afoot with both of their jobs. The fact that they are unaware of each other’s secret identities keeps us on our toes as readers 🙂 We also get a front-row seat to how Torre’s family and Presley try to help both men without ever knowing the real scope of what they are dealing with. It’s really enjoyable to watch this sliding doors type of story unfold with both men just missing each other multiple times. Key to their continued misunderstandings and missing out is the fact that they are each sharing their past hurts and Frisco for the firs time is sharing the wounds that he’s covered up completed.
Of course comes the inevitable where they discover the true identity of each other and wheat that really means. Of course this has an immediate impact on their lives. But though some intervention and counsel from their support systems and some honest discussion, both men work to find a way forward. They definitely come from different worlds but if they really want to they can make it work.
One last word about the bonus material. At the end of this story there are bonus chapters that cover the other couples in this series. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I was thrilled to see the beyond the HEA for all of these couples 😀
I thoroughly enjoyed this story – might be my favorite in the series. Frisco is sooooo damaged. I was so happy to see Torre be able to help him heal. I loved getting to see Pres and Nate happy in this one. Torre is such a breath of fresh air. He’s such a good guy and the perfect match for Frisco’s abused heart. They both had to learn to compromise and overcome the initial reaction to avoid any possible pain. I loved Torre’s family so much! What an awesome mom! As usual Kale Williams does a beautiful job narrating. I loved all his voice choices and felt like the performance really added to the overall enjoyment of this beautiful story. Highly recommended for this series and book!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Audible