Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: A Teaspoon of Desire 
AUTHOR: Alex Danvers
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 227 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2022
BLURB:
As the competition heats up, these men need a recipe for romance.
Tristan Delgado has talent. How else could he have landed a job working as a pastry chef for one of the most sought-after caterers in Seattle? What he doesn’t have is money. He’s barely making ends meet as it is, and when his sister escapes an abusive husband, he doesn’t hesitate to take her in. Twice the people means twice the mouths to feed, and Tristan is running out of options.
Henry Isaacson is cocky, and he’s okay with that. He has a job he loves, a successful pastry shop, and he’s been chosen to appear on Get Baked, an elite baking competition. This is his chance to prove he’s a cut above the very best and get the recognition he deserves. But his excitement soon deflates like a poorly timed soufflé when he encounters the last person he expects: his old rival, Tristan.
The prize money is just what Tristan needs, but once he realizes he’ll be competing against Henry, everything changes. Henry’s always been smug, annoyingly handsome, and even more annoyingly talented. Tristan can’t afford distractions, but the heat between them is undeniable. Someone will win, and someone will lose, but one thing’s for sure: they’re in for more than a dash of romance.
REVIEW:
Tristan and Henry are rivals in the Seattle food scene. They both get picked for a new baking competition show. They go to San Francisco and their rivalry is renewed along with 8 other competitors. There are multiple competitions around different themes – cake, pies, cookies, bread, etc. But these two are the cream of the crop and consistently perform well.
Besides spending the days at the studios either baking or practicing baking, the competitors are housed at the same hotel. Tristan and Henry have rooms close together and they run into each other as soon as they get to town. This turns out to be rather fortuitous when as the competition on the show starts, their rivalry begins to thaw. And then their relationship really heats up 😉
Tristan really needs to win the competition to handle some issues in his personal life. Eventually he reveals to Henry his past and the situation with his sister who needs to escape an abusive marriage. Henry is very supportive and really does want to see Tristan succeed. There is some drama on the show that makes Henry and Tristan quite nervous, but they both have plans to win. But of course there can only be one winner. In this case though, they both win at life 😀
Overall I enjoyed this story although I think there were a few pacing problems for my taste. I am like the only person on the planet I think that hasn’t watched a single episode of any baking show competitions 🙂 That’s not a knock against them. I just rarely watch any television at all and it’s frankly surprising since I’m obsessed with Noel Fielding who now hosts the Great British Bake Off 😉 The baking part is a LOT of the story and since I’m not much of a baker it kind of went over my head. But if you are a baker or fan of cooking/baking shows, this part of the story might be more appealing to you. It certainly did make me crave desserts! The romance doesn’t get into real gear until about a third of the way through the book when Trist and Henry finally kind of “bury the hatchet” so to speak in their long standing grudge. Then they have to be very discreet because of the competition on the show. I did enjoy this little bit of intrigue. I wished the romance part of the book would have been featured more, but there were some very hot scenes between Tristan and Henry and some very tender scenes as well. I will be awaiting this author’s next book because I think this is an excellent debut. Recommended.
RATING: 
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