Menu for Romance: Love Heats Up for the Chef and the Party Planner

The story grabbed my attention from the first paragraph and I didn't want to put it down. The characters just came to life on the pages and I wanted to keep reading even when the last paragraph came onto the page. Kaye Dacus has a wonderful writing style that is easy to get into and pick up again (if you are forced to put the book down!) I loved the main characters and found it refreshing that the author took the time to explain why she chose the name of one of the main characters, Major. Great read, fun, and refreshing.

I am happy to tell you about a book that will dish up some romance for you, served Louisiana style. Meredith Guidry is a party-planner extraordinaire, and Major O'Hara is a locally famous chef. They've worked together for years, but both refuse to give voice to their growing attraction to one another. Meredith tries to date some other guys to get her mind off Major. He finally decides to tell her his family secret that has always kept him from commitment, but is involved in a car accident on the way. With cracked ribs and a broken leg, he has to admit he can't always take care of everything, while growing in admiration of Meredith's strength of character and heart. Meredith and Major were well-rounded secondary characters in Ms. Dacus' first book Stand-In Groom. I'm glad they got a book with their own story, and I hope we will see many more books about this family and its various members in future books. So go on and satisfy your romantic appetite by ordering this second book by Kaye Dacus and enjoy a well-written, funny and endearing romance. Consider it a yummy dessert without calories!

What an enjoyable contemporary romance read! This is a sequel, but easily could be read and loved alone, but if you skip to this one it will make you eager to go back and read the first novel as well. The characters are real and fast to fill into your heart and bring you along on their journey. The story is told from the point of view of two separate characters that each have a bit of personal and spiritual growth that they must go through before they are ready to know what is capable of coming next in life. I strongly recommend this read for the romantic at heart, whether single or not it is an enjoyable and strengthening read.

I started reading this book over lunch and when I looked up it was three in the afternoon. I don't mean that it was particularly suspenseful, but it has characters weird enough to be interesting but sturdy enough that I felt like I knew them. The characters that will be in the next book seem so (outwardly) perfect that I'll probably be getting that one too. Meredith, the heroine, struggles with detaching--and distinguishing--herself from her large family. Usually in books families are either perfect or emotionally abusive. But a family that's just nosy and demanding of your time? That I can relate to. But where Dacus really shines is in her world-building. Bonneterre seems like a real place. C.S. Lewis wrote about how he read as much for the fun of "living in another world" as anything else, and Menu For Romance achieves this. I love that Bonneterre is a mid-sized city. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little sick of incestuously small towns in fiction. This was a sweet, surprisingly compelling romance.

At the Vul de Ciel in Bonneterre, Louisiana, Meredith Guidry sadly muses that her thirty-fourth New Year's has arrived and she still has never been kissed. Instead she has been in love with her co-worker Major O'Hara since they met eight years ago, but he shows no signs of reciprocating. Instead her unrequited love has left her with nary a kiss or for that matter a date. This year she vows it will be different as she resolves on New Year's Day to move past Major and seek male companionship. Major has loved Meredith since he first met her eight years ago. He wants to ask her out and taste her lips, but fears she will laugh at him; besides he has a family secret that embarrasses him to his bone narrow. Instead he expects to die a lonely old chef. However, when he sees Meredith on her first date, he's jealous and vows to take a chance by telling his beloved how he feels as ridicule would be easier than staying idly on the side. The latest Brides of Bonneterre (see STAND-IN GROOM) is a fun tale of two shy individuals in love with one another, but neither can take that first courageous step. The story line is much more than described above as each has family issues also to cope with. Kaye Dacus provides her fans with a wonderful culinary romance starring a super strong extended cast but especially two people who once believed love was only a fairy tale. Harriet Klausner