Thomas, Sherry - Delicious

[oyceter]

Verity Durant is the notorious and famed cook of Bertie Somerset: notorious for her affairs and famed for her food, which can invoke the diner's most cherished memory in a bite. And when Bertie dies, she ends up in the life of the one man she swore not to romance ten years ago—Bertie's brother Stuart.

Thomas' first book has some excellent flashback angst, which is a narrative kink of mine (hello manga!), but it fell a little flat when it came to the present-day. This book is much improved; the flashbacks take up less of the plot and the majority of the character development and angst happens in the present. I also liked the secondary couple much better, although that may be my personal propensity toward cynical, practical women and the men who love them. I'm not certain that the secondary couple got much more depth than the secondary couple did in Private Arrangements, but since it supplied me with even more meaningful looks indecipherable to the heroine and obvious to the reader and lots more angst, I was fine with that.

I will note that though I liked the inclusion of homosexuality, I'm not entirely sure I like how it was treated—window dressing and a potential obstacle in the face of forever heterosexual romances in the genre.

Like her first book, Thomas' ending still felt a little too happy for me. On the other hand, it wasn't nearly as artificial as that of Private Arrangements; the pieces were set up ahead of time, and the reader is duly warned in the first chapter that it's a fairy tale of sorts.

On a whole, this is a much more polished second book, and I'm hoping that Thomas' third is even better when it comes to the ending and some of the sex (Thomas seems to do foreplay and UST much, much better than actual sex). Plus, the third one stars a female doctor with a dramatic white streak who is cold and tormented! I love her already.

And if Thomas' propensity for angst, flashbacks, decidedly-not-ingenue heroines, and un-alpha males weren't enough, this book is full of (metaphorical) food porn as well! It gave me incredible cravings for dainty French pastries, particularly for madeleines.

Links:
- rachelmanija's review

Comments

[keilexandra]

You're right about the fairy-tale setup, so maybe I'll give this a try. Because I really liked PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS, all the way up to that sickly-saccharine ending. Also, food porn!

[oyceter]

Yeah! And while I thought the ending was somewhat implausible, at least it didn't involve completely OC or unforeshadowed behavior from the main characters.

[mswyrr]

I wanted to thank you for reviewing this. I crave Romance like this with--as you say-- "decidely-not-ingenue heroines, and un-alpha males" and particularly enjoyed the daylights out of this story. I loved the way that the story's eroticism seemed more... mature, in how it understood the complexity of sexual attraction between people, how it isn't a simple Nubile Nymph + Brawny Bull = HOT equation, but this multilayered thing all tied up with fears and hopes and totally possible between people who don't look like Barbie and Ken.

[oyceter]

I'm glad you liked it! I loved both of the relationships in the book, and though the ending still felt a bit rushed, it was a really fun and sexy read.