REVIEW: Cooking Up Love by Amylynn Bright

Cooking Up Love by Amylynn Bright is a summertime feel good foodie love story. It was a fun, flirty, yummy read that made my mouth water and my heart pound for these two wonderful characters.

Holly Darcy is a food critic who can’t boil water without burning the pot. An aspiring romance author and secret heiress, she feels like a fraud, reviewing restaurants when she can’t even cook. She signs up for a beginners cooking class trying to change all of that. What she doesn’t count on is the hot as sin cooking instructor, or finding out that she had given his now defunked restaurant a bad review.

Mark Bennett is a Paris trained chef, but due to bad choices in restaurant partners, a brush with the law and a bad review from The Covert Connoisseur, his dream of running his own restaurant is just that, a dream gone down in flames. He now spends his time working for his brother’s construction company and teaching a beginners cooking class, afraid to put himself out there again, afraid to fail.

The sparks between Mark and Holly are white hot and not just in the kitchen, but when secrets are revealed, and feelings are hurt, these two need to decide if they want to play with the fire or if they are too afraid that they might get burned.

I really loved this book. At times Mark frustrated me, especially the way that he treated Holly after finding out her secrets. But in the end he redeemed himself and that made him more likable. I loved Holly’s character. She lived in a home where love was represented by volatile fighting and a turbulent marriage. She is afraid that she will end up like her parents, so she decides to never fall in love and tries to distance herself from her old family ties. In the end, she truly steps up to the plate and the decisions that she makes and the chances that she takes made me want to hug her. She grew as a character through the pages of this book. The cooking classes were laugh out loud funny and between Mark’s family and Holly’s friends, this book kept me laughing. It was truly a yummy read.

If you are looking for a fun, flirty, fast paced foodie book, pick up a copy of Cooking up Love, I can guarantee that you will not be able to put it down. I gave this book 5 yummy stars.

Book Info:

Published June 2nd 2014 by Carina Press

Is there anything more pathetic than a food critic who can’t cook? That’s Holly Darcy—secret socialite, wannabe author, lousy chef and “The Covert Connoisseur.” Feeling like a fraud for critiquing restaurants when she can’t boil a pot of water, Holly joins a cooking class for beginners…and quickly cooks up serious chemistry with the sexy instructor.

Mark Bennett was born to be a chef, but his foray into restaurant ownership fell far short of his dreams thanks to a scathing review from The Covert Connoisseur. Now teaching is the closest he will venture into a kitchen. Luckily the job comes with an unexpected perk: the attraction simmering between him and a curvy, clever writer with pinup-girl looks.

Flirting over pasta soon leads to passionate kisses and a sizzling relationship. But how can Holly be honest about her job when Mark blames his restaurant’s failure on her review? And when Holly’s secret is exposed, how will Mark be able to forgive her for ruining his life?