Beauty and the Feast

Beauty and the Feast is a very hot romance novel, featuring Eva Raines and Gabriel Abbott. Eva is a chef who left the restaurant business, moved to Napa and now is working for a small company, called All Things to All People. ATAP provides cleaning services, as well as upscale cooking and catering. Gabriel is a self-made rich man, and owner of a vineyard. Eva and Gabriel meet when ATAP was contracted to cater a dinner for Gabriel and his current girlfriend. The moment Gabriel heard Eva’s voice over the phone, he was smitten, but when he tasted her food he was in so deep that he could not get her out of his mind. So, when they finally met, sparks fly and clothes come off. But because of a very jealous lady, Eva and Gabriel might not reach their happily ever after.

Beauty and the Feast was a great read. One thing that made the book so great was Eva. Eva was a farm girl, a bit shy, and not very experienced with men. I was a bit surprised that she fell into bad with Gabriel immediately. I was even more surprised how strong, intelligent and resourceful she turned out to be. Eva was a great character who cooked amazing meals. Each meal was depicted in such amazing detail that one might become hungry while reading the story.

Unfortunately there were two things that diminished the story. First was the dialogue. In general, I found them to be too open. It was difficult to believe that people who work together talk so openly about their intimate life. Also very often I found the conversations between Eva and Jason, the eighteen-year-old son of Eva’s client, improper. There were a few times when Jason crossed the line of improper behavior. The second thing was the description of Eva’s tasks. Several times, the author decided to describe what Eva was doing in the kitchen, down to the smallest details, from cooking to cleaning the counter. It slowed down the pace of the story.

Despite some flaws, Beauty and the Feast is a fun read, spiced with very explicit love scenes. It is a fast-paced story with a great heroine and an interesting plot. As a bonus, the last chapter contains recipes of the food Eva prepared in the story. This story is the right choice for romance novel lovers who like hot sex and good food.