Talented pastry chef Miles Costa is bored. Working at the celebrated Napa Valley restaurant Terroir is supposed to be the cherry on top to a promising career, but instead it’s a creative desert. So when he gets an offer to turn his online video series into a career, he leaves his three best friends in Napa and swaps Terroir for Los Angeles.
With the resources now at his fingertips, turning his pastry series into a hit should be easy. Then Miles meets his producer, Evan Patterson, and realizes he’s screwed. And not even in the good way.
It’s not a meet-cute . . .
Evan lives to work and loves every minute detail Miles loathes. Not only that, he seems hell bent on micromanaging every aspect of Miles’ show despite the fact he knows nothing about the culinary arts. Evan doesn’t even like sweets—until Miles seduces him with a rainbow of delectable confections he can’t resist.
. . . it’s a collision.
With every confrontation, the intensity between them flares even hotter until they’re not sure if it’s hatred they feel . . .or something else. Is it possible for two people with nothing in common to discover common ground and romance?
KITCHEN GODS BOOK 1
M/M ROMANCE
RELEASE DATE: 02.12.17
COVER DESIGN: AngstyG
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
“You’re late,”Evan said, head bent towards his screen, fingers not missing a beat as he typed furiously.
“I know, I’m sorry, I thought I’d grab a coffee.”Miles slid into the chair next to Evan, but Evan still didn’t look up.
“Oh thanks for bringing me one too,”Evan said levelly, even though he had to know that Miles only had one cup in his hands.
“I . . .uh. . .didn’t know you wanted one?”Miles said sheepishly. He’d made it back into the building two minutes late, and then had raced to Evan’s cubicle, only to not find him there. He’d made the rounds, until one of the writers stopped him and said Evan was in the conference room, still working after the meeting had ended.
Why hadn’t it occurred to Miles to bring him coffee? He liked the good coffee place as much as anyone else. It was probably because instead of actively trying to charm anyone in particular, Miles just fallen into bed with willing people and had never wanted someone who didn’t want him back—or wanted him but fought it. Miles knew he was going to have learn to be more aware and less selfish if he was ever going to convince Evan to consider dating him. A great almost-blowjob wasn’t going to cut it. Not with Evan.
Sex was probably off the table now, even though Miles knew Evan wanted it. Miles wasn’t familiar with the sort of self-denial Evan practiced; if he wanted someone and the feeling was mutual, sex happened. It was an easy way to live, and an easy way to get off. Everything about Evan was complicated, but Miles wanted him anyway. Inexplicably.
“I’m sorry I didn’t bring you coffee,”Miles said when Evan remained silent, typing away, the staccato of the keys all the response he probably deserved.
“It’s okay.” Evan paused. “I wouldn’t expect you to be looking out for other people. Me, especially.”
And yeah, that was galling. Especially galling when Miles had spent the last half an hour discovering that nobody had probably ever really looked out for Evan before. It probably wouldn’t take an extraordinary amount of effort to make him feel special and considered. And Miles still couldn’t figure out how to meet even the lowest of expectations.
“I’m sorry, I’m . . .I know it isn’t an excuse, but I was with Lucy, and Chloe and Steph and . . .”Miles hesitated, trying to find the best way to say, sorry, we were gossiping about you and they told me you were a foster kid and I wish you had told me yourself.
All Miles knew was that was definitely not the way to break the news.
Bite Me is the first book in my series about professional chefs. But what if you’re not a Kitchen God, but more like a Kitchen Joke? Are you more of an Evan than a Miles?
You can still make a really tasty dessert that’s impressive while still being easy and very doable.
I adapted this recipe from a few different sources, but they turned out beautiful anyway!
Creamy Cheesecake Parfaits with Chocolate Whipped Cream & Raspberries
Recipe adapted from The Cookie Rookie & The First Year
For the cheesecake parfait:
For the Crust:
- 2-3 low-fat graham crackers, crushed
For the No-Bake Cheesecake:
- 1 cup Custard Yogurt, vanilla flavored
- 2 (8 ounce) packages low-fat cream cheese, softened
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- A pinch of kosher salt
- To make the cheesecake mixture, place all cheesecake ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat until well the mixture is a smooth consistency, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. You can use a hand mixer or a spoon or whisk, as long as all the ingredients are room temperature.
For the chocolate whipped cream
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- First make sure your bowl is very cold. Put it in the freezer for a few minutes, even. Unlike the cheesecake part of the recipe, make sure your heavy cream is very cold. No need to chill the cocoa powder or the powdered sugar.
- This is better to make with an electric hand mixer but can also be made by hand with a whisk if you have arms of steel (or would like to have arms of steel!). Place all ingredients in the chilled bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Yes, stiff peaks. In the bowl, though, not anywhere else!
To assemble (Avengers Assemble!)
- Pint of raspberries, washed.
- Divide the crushed cookies/graham crackers between your glasses. I used really pretty martini glasses, but you could use small parfait glasses, or wine glasses, or whatever you have on hand that will let people see your pretty ingredients.
- Spoon half the cheesecake mixture on top of the crushed cookies. Sprinkle in a few raspberries and top with the rest of the cheesecake mixture. Spoon the chocolate whipped cream over the top, and garnish with the raspberries.
- Chill and then enjoy! Delicious and Miles is very impressed with your developing pastry skills!
I’ve read one other book by this author. And while I didn’t love it, I liked it well enough to try another. Plus this one involves the restaurant business and it is set in the California wine country. Two things I know well.
Miles is a pastry chef at world renowned restaurant in the Napa Valley. Unfortunately he is not the head pastry chef. So to get his creative juices flowing, he posts videos of himself baking. His videos catch the eye of a former chef turned internet show producer and Miles quits his job and moves to LA.
The majority of the book is spent with Miles acting like a brat while his producer tries to get them to work together. Yes, chefs are notoriously obnoxious. But I didn’t feel like Miles had the experience to equal the arrogance. A lot of bickering, then kissing, then more bickering.
Once they did start working together more- with Miles teaching Evan, I liked it quite a bit more. I needed more of that and less of the fighting. That got so tiresome. And the resolution to the problem of what the show would be like came at the very end. I definitely wanted more of that. What a perfect story line to incorporate the sexual tension, etc.
Readable, but not memorable.
3 pieces of eye candy
Beth Bolden lives in Portland, Oregon with her supportive husband. She wholly believes in Keeping Portland Weird, but wishes she didn’t have to make the yearly pilgrimage up to Seattle to watch her Boston Red Sox play baseball. She’s a fan of fandoms, and spends too much of her free time on tumblr.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published eight novels and two novellas, with Catch Me, the next novel in the Kitchen Gods series, releasing in May 2018.
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I haven’t tried a recipe found in a book!
I look forward to reading this.
I have not tried one, but this one looks good.
I have a favorite recipe that came from a Harlequin Romance book (can’t remember which line, though) many, many years ago. It’s for blonde brownies and they are the best blonde brownies I have ever had. This is a treasured recipe that I don’t make too often now simply because I don’t need to be eating them! 🙂