Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Summer Kitchen

SERIES:  Saving Home

AUTHOR:  E.J. Russell

PUBLISHER:  Reality Optional Press

LENGTH:  306 pages

RELEASE DATE:  April 22, 2024

BLURB:

The foolproof recipe for personal redemption and perfect love…

Take:

• One former rock musician
• One almost-MBA turned cooking school student

Add two heaping spoonfuls (each) of:

• responsibility
• familial obligation
• regret

And a dash of:

• misunderstanding (optional)

Stir together in:

• one small Vermont town

Season with:

• friends
• family
• foes
• and one large ginger feline

Garnish with:

• validation
• laughter
• just deserts (also desserts)

Simmer for one entire summer before serving up a delicious (well-deserved) HEA. Bon Appetit!

REVIEW:

Casey Friel is the son of Donald, a famous chef.  After Donald’s sudden death, Walt, twin brother of Donald, has a grand idea that they will reopen Donald’s high-end restaurant with a new Friel at the helm, Donald’s only son Casey.  Never mind that he can burn water.  Never mind that he’s crashed out of two culinary school tries already.  Uncle Walt and his business partner Bradley Pillsbury are determined.  So Casey is enrolled at a Summer Kitchen school in Vermont as the only student of a famous chef, Sylvia Grande.  The school is at Harrison House in Home, Vermont – a small town that Casey knows nothing about.

Dev Harrison has been thrust into the job of town manager after the tragic accidental death of his other brother and grandfather.  Home was set up as a place that for those who didn’t fit in anywhere else – hence the name Home.  Dev, however, was a musician and he’d never run anything in his life.  And small towns are struggling, including Home.  He’s got to keep things going – it’s his family’s legacy after all.  But he’s running into cash issues – and when the Antique festival starts to fall apart, well he’s not sure what to do next.  Oh, and he’s distracted by the insanely cute student at Sylvia’s cooking school 😉

Casey is not any better at cooking at Sylvia’s Summer Kitchen school than he was in Manhattan.  But he is able to make something edible when he and Dev cook together on his day off from cooking school.  It’s the first thing that Casey has made that didn’t catch fire or otherwise turn into a disaster.   Sylvia has wise words for him about his relationship with cooking.

Dev is shouldering a lot with the upcoming festival and when the vendors start to cancel, Casey decides he can help.  He also was one semester away from finishing his MBA and he can help Dev with his spreadsheets.  He discovers that the cancellations are sort of indirectly related to him and he’s determined to save the day.  He comes up with a brilliant plan to hold another kind of festival and he is able to book great food and music.

What Casey doesn’t expect is that he also has booked Dev’s ex.  And that turns out to be a double-edged sword.  But Casey and Dev and the rest of Home are bound to make it a success.  And everyone gets to witness the success and also Dev and Casey’s romance 😀

Well this was a delightful kickoff to a new contemporary series from E.J. Russell.  Casey and Dev are a couple that on paper are opposites in so many ways.  But in reality they compliment each other perfectly.  And they can be honest with each other about the pressures they face in ways they aren’t with other people.  They each get it about the other.  Dev is demi and he hasn’t felt much for anyone else in a long while until Casey shows up.  I loved how their relationship developed.  They were so adorable.  The townspeople and Dev’s family could see what was in front of them 😉  Even the town cat loves Casey from the get-g0.  Home definitely recognizes it’s own.  I truly cannot wait for the next book 🙂  This town and it’s inhabitants are ripe for the romance picking 😀

P.S. Casey and Dev’s initial encounter is hilarious!!

RATING: 

BUY LINK:

Amazon