February 5, 2014

Feel the Heat by Kate Meader

Celebrity chef Jack Kilroy is in town for a few days filming an episode of his Iron-Chef-esque show. His producer, Cara Deluca, is hoping that the publicity will help save her family's restaurant that's on the fast track to failure if things continue the way they are. Along the way, Jack crosses paths with Cara's sister. Lili is the rock in the Deluca family. She runs the restaurant, she takes care of their once sick mother, etc. She's great at doing everything for everyone and neglecting herself. Jack's growing attraction to Lili is met with every possible obstacle, excuse and roadblock as Lili tries to avoid having to take her own wants and needs into consideration. But as he is with his restaurants and with his career, Jack won't stop until he gets what he wants.

The characters...
Lili Deluca is a well-rounded, bright and witty individual. She's struggled most of her life with her body image but has started to come around to believing that she has so much to offer. She's a lot like her sister in that way but you'll have to read All Fired Up to understand what I mean by that ;) Lili's so lovable and you just want to, like Jack, defend her to all the jackfaces in this world. A sweetheart through and through, it's hard to think of her in terms of being so sex-crazed. I love this otherside of her. I love that, for once, it's not the guy who wants to be doing it all the damned time!! Even still, though, Lili is reliable and really has proved to be the rock of her family. The fact that Jack can bring himself to trust Lili in such short time in a life that has, otherwise, surrounded him with superficial and manipulative people really attests to Lili's character.

For the life of me, I could not get Gordon Ramsey out of my head when I was reading this book. Maybe it was the whole chef thing but I couldn't imagine anyone else. This could have been detrimental to my enjoyment of this novel but aside from my skewed mental image, Kate pens Jack Kilroy to be hottest of hot characters (arguably hotter than Shane!!? :o). He's famous, he's good looking, and he's not looking for just a good time. :| Trust issues, yes, but those can be overcome with some effort and commitment from the right woman. Jack is just a ball of intensity. I read the book waiting for the next thing Jack to explode on (I think that's why the whole parallel to Ramsey...)

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Having read All Fired Up first, I already knew of Lili and Jack so it was nice to get to know their story. To be honest, though, I didn't love this one as much! I think one of the main reasons was because I couldn't get Gordon Ramsey out of my head lol. It definitely wasn't bad but I didn't enjoy it as much as the second book in this series. It was nice to see how they all come together, though, since I didn't have much of a back story when I read the second novel! I'm definitely excited to see that Julie and Tad's story is coming out soon, though!!

My Rating: 3.5 Stars


The Kindle version of Feel the Heat is available for purchase on Amazon!

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