Turn Up the Heat

Turn Up the Heat is the 3rd adventure in the savory Gourmet Girl culinary mystery series by noted mother-daughter scribes, Jessica Conant-Park & Susan Conant. Turn Up the Heat shines a light on the restaurant industry & what goes on behind the scenes in our neighborhood kitchens by showcasing the lush, elegant, Simmer. Jessica & Susan do a steller job sketching restaurant life & this is the best installment yet. Turn Up the Heat is on fire w/ juicy tidbits on what makes or breaks a restaurant. Yummy goodness. The whimsical cast enriches the series & are in no way padding for Chloe. Appaulse to the talented duo for illustrating just how essential the characters are to making the Gourmet Girl series meld. Chloe is an engaging, fiery, irresistible & fun character. She is definitely one of my favorites. Now as much as I adore Chloe, I also love reading about the other quirky players. Adrianna is a sheer delight. I'd love to spend the day just hanging out w/ her. I love the warm bond Chloe & Adrianna share ~ Lucy & Ethel comes to mind, as does Grace & Karen. I look forward to an even bigger role as the series progresses because she is just too much fun. Owen. Owen. Yes, he is definitely one capricious spirit. I must say, he keeps me on my toes. Psst! Love the name "Daily Catch", guys. I enjoy the vibrant atmosphere the Gourmet Girl series has going on. I always feel like I'm on vacation visiting friends in trendy Beantown. Turn Up the Heat is expertly plotted & brimming w/ red herrings. Love it! I just love a good 'ole fashioned whodunit where everyone is a suspect & you haven't got a clue. Kudos, ladies for this absorbing tale. Turn Up the Heat is wickedly ambrosial, you will not be disappointed.

Chloe Carter is studying for grad school finals in pursuit of her Masters degree in Social Work, and her boyfriend, Josh, is the executive chef at Simmer and working long days helping to make a go of the new restaurant. One morning she gives Owen a ride to the restaurant to pick up his truck. They go inside to visit Josh. Chloe makes the startling discovery of Leandra, a waitress at Simmer, dead in the refrigeration of Owen's fish truck. It is discovered she was strangled by the strings of a Simmer apron. Owen is engaged to Adrianna, Chloe's pregnant best friend. She knows there is no way Owen killed her, but the police think differently, especially as they find he has lied about finances, his job, and his whereabouts. As Chloe also discovers these facts, she begins to question her loyalty to Owen. And is very concerned about Adrianna if she finds out. Chloe interviews everyone at the restaurant and can't believe any of them are a killer. But as she gets closer to the truth, she puts herself in mortal danger. Can help find her in time? I love this series. Chloe is such a fun character. I like the restaurant setting and feel I get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of restaurant life. Josh is great. Knowing the author's husband is a chef, I really feel she has an insider's knowledge of life as a chef. She has done a great job of letting those of us who never get into those kitchens find out what really goes on back there, within reason. Adrianna and Owen are great supporting characters in this series. I feel I get to know them a little better with each succeeding book. I love the Boston setting as well. As always, the plot was well constructed and I was unsure until the end who the real killer was. I highly recommend this book and series.

Gourmet Girl, Chloe Carter, can honestly say that things in her life couldn't be more perfect. Sure, over the past couple of months she has become involved in a few murder cases that put her life in danger and exposed her to some pretty gruesome sights; but she also fell in love with Josh, a hotter than hot chef, who adores spending much of his time whipping up tasty concoctions for her to indulge in; and now, to top things off, her best friend Adrianna is pregnant! All Chloe has to do now is ace her Finals, and she'll be on top of the world. But just as Chloe begins basking in the glow of all things wonderful, things take a nasty turn, and she finds herself smack dab in the middle of more trouble. Bostonian Chloe Carter knows that she should be spending all of her time studying for her Finals, but it's hard to concentrate on cramming for a test about the DSM-IV when she could be surfing the Web for stellar names for her best friend Adrianna's first baby. Or, she could be spending time with her handsome boy toy, Josh. Unfortunately the latter seems like too much to expect. Between spending over twelve hours a day working as the chef at the booming Simmer, and trying to fit in as much sleep as possible, Josh has little or no time for Chloe. Luckily, Adrianna is in the same boat, now that her fiancé Owen has taken on a new job as a fish deliveryman. The two can wallow in their significant other misery together, a quart of Ben & Jerry's beside them. But things go from mundane to worse when Leandra, one of the beautiful Simmer waitresses, turns up dead - in Owen's fish truck! Chloe is convinced that Owen couldn't hurt a fly, and wants nothing more than to clear his name so that he can go back to preparing himself for fatherhood, but pinpointing another suspect is turning out to be more difficult than Chloe ever expected. Instead of finding no one to finger for the murder, Chloe has begun to realize that Leandra rubbed everyone she ever came in contact with the wrong way, and just about everyone had a motive for murder. Chloe is going to have to work overtime if she wants to find the culprit - and fast. But between studying for Finals, making time for Josh, and solving a crime, Chloe realizes that she's in over her head. But she can't put her investigation on hold, because now that she's begun to make some headway, she may be next on the chopping block. Chloe Carter won a place in my heart back when she debuted in STEAMED!, and with each new installment, I only grow more and more fond of the struggling Social Work student. Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant have done a marvelous job with the GOURMET GIRL series. Not only do these books appeal to the typical mystery lover, but they lure in foodie fans, and Sociology/Psychology students and readers alike. Chloe is a relatable, down-to-earth character whose incorporation of Psychology phrases and terms is humorous - especially if you're a Psychology major. Her tremendous appetite and larger than li

Chloe still barely sees her boyfriend, Josh, whose job as a chef keeps him extremely busy. Sometimes the only way to see him is to eat at his restaurant, Simmer. After eating dinner there one night with a group of friends, Owen's forced to leave his ride parked in the alley behind the restaurant. The next morning, Chloe and Owen return to fetch his truck, but, much to their dismay, they discover the body of their waitress, Leandra, in the back - murdered. Despite the fact that Chloe's in the middle of exams and Owen's girlfriend is pregnant, Chloe can't help but attempt to solve the murder herself. Can she juggle everything in her life, or will something blow up in her face? This mother-daughter author team serves up another tasty tale in their third GOURMET GIRL mystery! Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

Chloe Carter is preparing for her grad school exams and writing papers for her classes as she pursues a Masters degree in Social Work. She chose this subject in order to earn her inheritance from her late uncle who added caveats to his will. Chloe believes to her shock that she will be a good social worker because she likes helping people. She only wishes that her boyfriend Josh, the executive chef at his Bostonian restaurant Simmer was not working 12-14 hour shifts as she would like to spend more time with him. One day Chloe visits Josh at Simmers only to find the corpse of waitress Leandra in the back of Owen's fish truck. Apparently she was strangled by the strings of her apron. Owen is engaged to Chloe's pregnant best friend Adrianna; she also knows him well enough to believe he is not a killer. However, the police label Owen as a person of interest because he lied about his accounts, the restaurants where he had them, and that he bought the camping truck when he told everyone it belonged to the company. Chloe theorizes who the killer is and almost becomes the next person on ice. This is an excellent creative mystery due in part to the eccentric support cast that enhances the story line with an insider's look at the kitchen of an upscale restaurant. The protagonist is a bright energetic person who treats her lover the way she wants him to treat her. Josh shows his feelings to Chloe every chance he gets, which endears him to the audience. At times poignant, while at other times humorous, TURN UP THE HEAT is a terrific whodunit repast. Harriet Klausner