Time Turner Tuesday ~ Cooking Up a Storm

Title ~ Cooking Up a Storm
Author ~ Emma Holly
Publisher ~ Black Lace
Published ~ 18 June 1998
Genre ~ Erotica/Romance
*Mature Adults ~ 18+*

*Book source ~ My home library.

My Rating ~ 4 bites and a nibble out of 5

Abby Coates owns and operates The Coates Inn in Cape Cod, but business isn’t doing so well. She needs a chef and an infusion of cash to do renovations to get her lovely inn back in the black. If she can’t do either she’ll have to declare bankruptcy.

Enter Storm Dupre. A very talented chef from California, Storm needs to get away from the atmosphere of fakeness that surrounds him. When he spies Abby’s ad in the back of a food magazine he falls instantly in love. With The Coates Inn. He senses the owner is desperate and he plots to buy out the inn and make it his own. But we all know about best-laid plans, right?

Ah, Emma Holly, how I love thee, let me count the ways. While this book was originally published in 1998, I didn’t discover Emma Holly until about seven years ago. She has a way of putting the reader right there among her characters and when the scene gets smokin’ hot, well, a voyeur would be right at home.

Take Abby and her sudden need to dump her long term boyfriend who just wasn’t doing it for her just before Storm rolls into her life. Storm loves cooking and sex and he’s made it his life’s passion to be the best at both. He unlocks something in Abby that she didn’t even know was there and now she’s free to explore. And boy does she explore, with Storm and with others. *fans self*

I loved Abby taking charge of her sexual exploration. Some might call her a slut for it, but how can a person know what they like if they don’t experiment? If she were a man no one would raise an eyebrow and that double standard pisses me off. Go, Abby, go!

I didn’t expect to love Storm and his cocky attitude, but underneath it all he has some vulnerabilities that he has to deal with and it makes him an endearing character rather than an irritating one.

Secondary characters are well-fleshed and add a lot to the quality of the story. I wouldn’t mind seeing more stories involving everyone mentioned. All-in-all a smokin’ hot romance.