Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  The Cook and the Gangster

SERIES:  Farthingdale Ranch Book 5

AUTHOR:  Jackie North

PUBLISHER:  Blue Rain Press

LENGTH:  308 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 22, 2022

BLURB:

“Time cannot erase the love I feel for you, my friend.”

Levi has worked very hard to find a private corner of the world where his past can’t catch up to him. His life, with its fourteen-hour days working in the ranch’s kitchen, is a little humdrum, but he likes it that way. And it’s safe, because he lets no one get close.

While cutting onions one day, Cassidy sees a clip of a documentary on TV, and lo, he sees his old friend Levi, who he’s been looking for for years. The next day, he’s traveling west to Wyoming, taking a job as a chef at a guest ranch.

When Cassidy shows up in his kitchen, Levi’s world is turned upside-down.

A gay m/m cowboy romance with opposites attract, emotional scars, grumpy/sunshine, friends from childhood, and desire that simply won’t go away. A little sweet, a little steamy, with a guaranteed HEA.

REVIEW:

The Cook and the Gangster is the fifth delectable entry in Jackie North’s sweet, swoony, romantic Farthingdale Ranch series.  It tells the tale of two childhood best friends, Levi and Cassidy, who fell in love and then had it fall apart with a shocking abruptness that left a hollow place inside each of them. Even thirteen years later, nothing and no one has been able to fill the void.  

Levi, Farthingdale Ranch’s exceptionally talented chef, is a man of many rules but not many words.  He keeps his life like his kitchen –  tidy, controlled, and efficient. He pours his love and passion into his food, but he keeps everything else about himself locked away. As a result, Levi’s whole life is work, and he lacks joy and companionship. He even keeps himself apart from the others at the ranch, so he is persistently lonely.  

When Levi was younger, his mother kept them running running running, looking over their shoulders, sleeping with triple locks on the doors.  Her paranoia became ingrained in Levi’s thinking.  As a result, even now, safe in the beautiful open-air and sky of Wyoming, Levi’s always afraid because he knows how fast even the most beautiful things can be taken away.

Cassidy, his father, and grandfather owned a restaurant in North Tarrytown, New York. They “accommodated” some mafia activities by allowing them to use their space and by providing “delivery” services for drugs and other contraband.  While not mafia, albeit mafia-adjacent, Cassidy nevertheless looks like a gangster. But his appearance belies his sweet, benevolent spirit and welcoming demeanor that pulls everyone in.  

When Cassidy met Levi in junior high school, Cassidy’s world narrowed to “the prettiest boy in school”.  It took time and patience to get Levi to open up to him.  However, once he did, he and Levi became thick as thieves, with Levi learning how to cook in the Three Cassidys restaurant kitchen at the hands of Levi’s father, grandfather, and his Uncle Mack.

Then one day, a tragic, horrific turn of events caused Levi and his mom to flee town and never look back.  Levi and Cassidy never saw each other again.  Levi let his mother jaundice his view of those events and convinced himself they were at least partially Cassidy’s fault.  It was only later that he realized how wrong that conclusion was, but by then, he thought it was too late to go back. Cassidy, though, never understood why Levi left or where they went.  He just knew he was heartbroken and missed his friend.  He searched and searched, hoping against hope that Levi would return … but he never did.

Cassidy is a gem of a character.  I absolutely adored everything about him, from his humor, to his smile, to his ever-optimistic viewpoint and generous and forgiving spirit.  He is loyal, dedicated, and unwavering in his love and affection for Levi.  While he’s completely transparent with his feelings, we still get to plum the depths of his emotions.  Levi is the opposite – taciturn and scared, afraid to let people in.  Yet he realizes his feelings for Cassidy run deep and true and never went away.

In The Cook and the Gangster, Ms. North tells a surprisingly low-angst, straightforward story, yet she still manages to pull the heartstrings.  The most beautifully romantic, breathtaking moments in the book concern Cassidy and Levi’s neverending search for each other.  Cassidy never stopped searching, longing, wishing to be with Levi again. 

“I looked for you every day.  My heart looked for you every day.”

Levi feels guilty for not having looked at all.  However, his heart and his soul were constantly searching and waiting for Cassidy even though Levi didn’t consciously realize that’s what he was doing.  His friends at the ranch knew it, though.  It was evident that Levi was sad and alone, hoping for something he never thought he’d have again:

“[A]ll that you did was mope over your beer and watch the door like a hound dog.  Like you were waiting for someone.  And now [we] know who …”

No one does equanimous prose like Ms. North.  And absolutely no one does imagery better than her either.  Ms. North’s preternatural ability to create gorgeous worlds for her carefully constructed love stories, enables her to create a consuming escape for her readers.  It’s what keeps me coming back for her stories time and time again. 

Here, her picturesque, vibrant descriptions immerse you in the world of Farthingdale Ranch.  You feel the wind, see the azure sky, smell the rain, and experience the peaceful joy that only Farthingdale Ranch can bring to its inhabitants. Every time I finish one of these Farthingdale Ranch romances, I’m ready to hop a plane to Wyoming.  Ms. North’s Farthingdale Ranch is a place I truly wish were real.

I highly recommend The Cook and the Gangster.  While it can be read as a standalone, you will enjoy it more if you have the other stories for context. Start with The Foreman and the Drifter and read them in order.  This is a series of swoon-worthy love stories that should not be missed. 

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

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