DELICIOUS

Author: Susan Mallery ISBN: 0373770561 2/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: HQN

Appetizer...Cal Buchanan needs a top-flight chef to take over his failing Seattle restaurant, The Waterfront. He can afford to hire the best in town -- the only problem is that the best happens to be his ex-wife, Penny Jordan. Entree...Penny really needs this opportunity, but she doesn't need the distraction of working with her ex. She's sworn off romance -- she's even having a baby on her own. But before she knows it, the heat is on ... and the attraction between her and Cal moves from a low simmer to full boil! Dessert...The rest should be easy as pie, but a secret from Cal's past could spoil everything. Maybe it's true that too many cooks spoil the broth -- or maybe two is enough to make it irresistible.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Susan Mallery's latest offering, DELICIOUS, is the first book in a four-part series about four siblings who live in Seattle. They have been under the thumb of their controlling grandmother all their lives, and have done some interesting things to escape her. They are millionaires, managers, baseball stars, Marines. But they keep getting drawn back into the family business. The family owns a diverse group of restaurants, one of them The Waterfront. And this is where our story begins.

Penny Jackson survived the traumatic breakup of her marriage three years ago. She has completely reinvented herself and has become a strong-willed, in-demand chef. Her ex-husband needs exactly that, since his grandmother has coerced him into returning to the family business to shore up their flagship restaurant. He talks Penny into running the kitchen of The Waterfront, but the changes in her life are going to cause them to reevaluate their history, present lives, and family relationships.

As always, Mallery's prose flows, and it is very easy to read "just one more chapter" multiple times before you put DELICIOUS down for the night. It's fun (and sometimes disturbing) to get this kitchen-eye view of what goes on behind the scenes in a restaurant. I hope real restaurants don't keep rat-catching cats in the kitchen! The Buchanan siblings are an appealing lot and readers are sure to enjoy the upcoming books in their series for HQN.

Heather Hiestand