Love on the Back Burner by Barbara Oliverio
4 stars
Synopsis:
Youngest in an Italian-American family that includes one brother who is a rock
singer-turned-priest and another who successfully manages the family business,
Alexandria D’Agostino wanted to stand out, so she moved from her small hometown and is enjoying a successful marketing career in Denver.
On the advice of her best friend Keira, as well as office pals Natalie and Elliott, she uses the cooking skills learned from her immigrant grandmother and studies the cuisine of each prospective boyfriend’s background to improve her chances at love.
Alexandria encounters comical mishaps along the way including one unexpected dinner for three and a meat-focused dinner for a vegetarian. After a corporate restructure somehow driven by new office heartthrob Cameron Grayson, she flies back home for counsel.
Will she come back to Denver? Or should she re-evaluate the boy next door from high school? Should she finally admit that being a chef is her true dream? And how does Cameron fit on the menu? BONUS: INCLUDES RECIPES FEATURED IN THE BOOK!
My Review:
A steer away from my normal erotic or paranormal review this book was SO GOOD! I loved it. Witty and cute it was a hilariously hot read. I couldn't stop laughing and I certainly couldn't put it down. Alexandria has quite the luck when it comes to dating. We follow her in her cooking adventures to the perfect mans heart. Now quite working out like she hopes we follow her on the journey to find love. We are shown the joys of wonderful cooking mixed with the hilarity of dates gone wrong on a quest to perfection. Alexandria must find out on her own that food may not be the only way to a mans heart, and if it is maybe she just hasn't found the right man. We get to watch the Love-Hate relationship between Alexandria and Cam our Hunk through most of the story. He annoys her to no end and she just clearly can't see what is right in front of her. Again, its a great relationship to watch unfold. Truly you wont see the ending coming. It really throws you in a good way. I really enjoyed this book. It had just enough serious parts thrown in with the lightness of the book to make it an attention grabbing read. We get to meet a wealth of fantastic and hilarious characters in this story and I hope we get to see more form them in the future. Don't miss a special copy of all the featured recipes in the book. Trust me, by the end of this book you will be glad to have them :) I can't wait to personally try a few. A really great Light romance read all around. <3Executive Teaser:
“Besides, Keira, I wasn’t looking for a marriage proposal, just an indication that he’d be around long enough to maybe goback East with me at some point to a family function.”
Keira stopped chewing, and with a practiced move, gave me a whack on the back of my head. Not just any whack, but the one my Nonna Teresa must have learned in a super-secret grandmothering class somewhere.
“Ow! Just because you’ve spent a lot of time with me back home doesn’t give you the right to pull out the patented Nonna Teresa head whap.”
“Alexandria! You told him you were going to take him into Italian Catholic Central? It’s not enough that you have so many photos and memorabilia in this apartment that it could be the setting for a Fellini film festival? And that you rarely cook a meal that doesn’t include pasta?”
“Hey! You LIKE my pasta!”
“No, I LOVE your pasta, but that’s beside the point. Guys don’t want to feel that they are being wrapped in the Italian flag and tied with a red, white, and green bow when they date you.”