With a Twist (Wild Hart)

With a Twist by Deirdre Martin is the story of Natalie Bocuse and Quinn O'Brien. Natalie has emigrated from France and is a waitress in her sister Vivi's bistro in Bensonhurst. Quinn, a reporter for the New York Sentinel, lunches at the bistro about twice a week where they trade insults. Natalie has been working with her sister because she is a recovering shopaholic and is looking for a manager's job at an upscale restaurant. Natalie decides she must move back to Manhattan because Bensonhurst is too small for her and has nothing to offer her for nightlife or the job of her dreams. Because Natalie and Vivi's father was a diplomat, they have ties to the diplomatic community and one of them offers Natalie his apartment when he returns to France. Quinn's family owns an Irish pub in Hell's Kitchen and Quinn helps Natalie to get a witnessing job there while she is looking for a manager's job. As Natalie waits tables, Quinn's job at the Sentinel is on the line with a new owner. The new owner wants to change it from a hard news paper to a gossip rag. Quinn is always butting heads with the new editor. When the editor begins to come to the pub and starts romancing Natalie, Quinn gets jealous and stakes his claim. As the changes occur at the Sentinel, Quinn begins researching a story about real estate purchases and changes coming to Hell's Kitchen as well as building owners being given offers they can't refuse, being torched, or being beaten up. His brother Liam looks like he may be involved in the violence occurring. As Quinn goes further into the story his brother is threatened if Quinn doesn't quit working on the story. Liam tells him to continue. Natalie also continues to look for manager's jobs. She and Quinn fall in love. Natalie decides she will be different from the previous woman in Quinn's life and allow him to put his work first in the relationship. Finally, however, she has enough of him putting his work first and they split. But are their lives complete without the other? Can Natalie accept him as he is? Can Quinn change to make his relationship work with Natalie? I couldn't put With a Twist down. I thoroughly enjoyed the character development and plot developments. Because there were two main subplots, Quinn's investigation and Natalie's job search, I felt I got to know the characters and how they would react and think. There was depth in Natalie and Quinn. I could feel Natalie's pain when she dumped Quinn and her anger as he tries to talk his way back into her life. I could feel Quinn's desperation when he realizes he could wind up alone like many of his friends in the newspaper business. As the two work their way through their problems and start to compromise and see what's best for their relationship, I loved how Deirdre didn't have either one cave into the other. The relationship rang true to me with the arguing, the hard work involved in staying together and getting back together, and the compromise needed to make the relationship wor

She's a beautiful French woman who dreams of managing an upscale restaurant in New York City. He's the best reporter in New York City whose only dream has been scooping the next big story. Until, that is, he meets Natalie, after which the only story he wants to write involves Natalie, him, and happily ever after. Natalie Bocuse loves her sister, Vivi, but rather than waiting tables in her sister's quaint bistro, she dreams of managing a classy, chic Manhattan restaurant. When newspaper reporter Quinn O'Brien offers her a position waiting tables in his family's Irish pub, it isn't the position she envisions for herself, but it is in the city, so she'll be one step closer. As Natalie gets to know (and love) Quinn, his family, and the quirky assortment of regulars at the pub, she soon realizes that class and sophistication come in all shapes and sizes and aren't limited to upscale, pricey eateries. Quinn has admired Natalie at her sister's bistro and regularly eats there just to be near her, despite her snooty attitude and frequent insults. When he learns that she has moved to the city and is looking for a job, he is quick to recommend her for the waitress position at his parents' pub. He tries to fit himself into Natalie's mold of the perfect man, but he's finding it an extremely uncomfortable fit. Quinn simply isn't cut out for fancy, expensive restaurants and the opera, not to mention the pinch he's feeling in his wallet. It isn't long before the uptight Natalie has relaxed and is enjoying herself with their zany customers, and surprisingly, trying very hard to make a positive impression on his family. Natalie and Quinn are excellently written as total opposites who are helpless against the attraction between them. As their relationship intensifies and becomes more serious, Natalie is very concerned. She has made serious adjustments in her attitude and expectations, and while she knows that Quinn cares deeply for her, she's beginning to question whether she will ever come first before the next story. Add touches of intrigue and suspense, secondary characters whose own backgrounds and lives are a priceless complement to Natalie and Quinn's story, and WITH A TWIST is a first-class contemporary romance; I give it a very high recommendation. COURTESY LAURIE/ROMANCE JUNKIES

As a big fan of Martin's NY Blades series I was wondering how I'd like the shift in her books to a new location...an Irish pub in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. I shouldn't have worried. This new locale is just as funny, warm and interesting, and it's so closely linked to the world of the Blades and Dante's Ristorante that the transition is seamless. I loved the way she created a heroine and a hero who are real people...not cardboard cut outs. And, as always, the book was filled with great humor. This is another winner and I'm looking forward to reading more about the characters who frequent the Wild Hart.

Deirdre Martin delivers another fast-paced romance novel in With A Twist. Her ear for dialogue and attention to detail set her apart from other romance writers -- the dialogue is always smart and often sassy, and in this book she branches out and we enter into the newsroom of a big paper and get a peek at the quirky characters who inhabit that space. Whether we're in the newsroom, an Irish pub, a French restuarant, or someone's apartment, Martin always lets the reader see and often, smell, the place. Keep cranking them out . . .

Deirdre Martin delivers with another book that fits like a glove. We drop in again on chef extraordinaire Vivi and her sister Natalie AND get to sample the combination of their world and that of Quinn O'Brien and his equally vibrant Irish brood. Martin is expert at creating a world that you can see, feel, taste, root for and fall in love with all at once. FIVE STARS!!