108. Just One Taste by Louisa Edwards...

Title: Just One Taste
Author: Louisa Edwards
ISBN-13: 9780312356477
ARC: 331 pages (not including recipes!)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2010
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository

FTC Disclosure: My copy of Just One Taste was provided by Nancy Berland Public Relations for this review. I am an affiliate at IndieBound, The Book Depository, and Amazon, and any purchases made by clicking on the cover or the links provided may result in monetary compensation.

drey's thoughts:
I think Louisa Edwards is a closet geek. There. I've said it... Not that that's a biggie, as I'm a self-avowed geek myself. Hurrah for girl-geek-power! *grin* Ok, ok. Enough of the silliness.

Wes hides his past from everybody, not trusting that they'd want him around if they knew where he's been and what he's done. Rosemary hides from people in general, uncomfortable with social interactions where her brain overtakes her tongue.

With all that hiding, how on earth did they show up as co-stars in a romance novel? Well, because Louisa gets it all down perfectly, that's how. The chemistry between these two just work. Doesn't hurt that Wes appreciates Rosemary's particular brand of humor, and Louisa's story-telling and dialog makes their story believable. I could "see" their interactions in my head.

Just One Taste is a romantic confection with that little touch of offbeat to make it fresh and yummy. A delicious treat for fans of the genre!

drey's rating: 3.5/5 Very Good

Challenges: 100+, Pub

A return visit from the lovely Louisa Edwards!

Today, I'm very pleased to have the lovely Louisa Edwards visiting drey's library. She has a new Recipe for Love book out--Just One Taste, and is blog-hopping to celebrate! As part of the festivities, she's answering some questions (poor girl!), and has some goodies for you!


About Louisa:
Louisa Edwards grew up in Virginia and graduated from Bryn Mawr College before moving to Manhattan to work with some of the biggest names in book publishing. She later moved to Ohio, where she worked as a restaurant reviewer. She decided to bring her love of romance and cooking together by writing the Recipe for Love series.

Find Louisa online at her official website, www.louisaedwards.com, and her blog, Recipe for Love.

FTC Disclosure: I am an affiliate at IndieBound, The Book Depository, and Amazon, and any purchases made by clicking on the cover or the links provided may result in monetary compensation.

The interview:
drey: Hello, Louisa! Welcome back to Drey’s Library, and congratulations on releasing Just One Taste! I’m jumping right in... Can you share your first sale story with us?

Louisa: My first sale only happened because I jumped off the paranormal bandwagon (I love to read them, but apparently shouldn’t write them!) and started writing a book I thought would never sell. Okay, not never—I obviously hoped it would sell. But I knew it was risky to do a contemporary romance with an unusual occupation for the hero (a chef is not a billionaire tycoon, a small town cop, or a Navy SEAL, after all.)

My incredibly smart agent suggested that I set aside the paranormal manuscript I’d been working on for the past year and a half, and write something I felt truly connected to and passionate about, and for me, that meant the connection between food and love, and the fast-paced pressure cooker of a professional restaurant in New York City. I wrote the proposal in three months, and she sold it to St. Martin’s in two weeks.

drey: That's awesome! Not about the paranormal manuscript, about selling your book in two weeks! *grin* Where do you find inspiration for your books? And when you have one, how do you capture that “a-ha!” moment?
Louisa: I get inspiration from lots of places—food television shows like “Top Chef” and “No Reservations,” culinary memoirs like Heat by Bill Buford and A Return to Cooking by Eric Ripert, and from my own experiences in the kitchen.

I always tell myself I’ll start carrying around a little notebook to write down the funny things I hear and the snippets of ideas that occur to me in random places, but I haven’t managed it yet! I actually have a note file on my phone for that stuff.

drey: Can you tell us about Just One Taste, your latest Recipe for Love novel?
Louisa: Just One Taste returns to trendy Manhattan eatery, Market, and its crew of misfits and renegades. This time, they’re joined by ex-con-artist-turned-culinary-student Wes Murphy, who's hiding out and nursing a broken heart—until the object of his affections, food chemistry genius Dr. Rosemary Wilkins, shows up at Market, looking to continue their research project on aphrodisiacs!

These two were a total blast to write—Rosemary is shy, awkward, brilliant, and a complete nerd, which gave me free rein to let that part of me loose on the page.

(drey: I was very impressed by the ultra-geekiness that resided in Just One Taste...)

And Wes is maybe the most romantic hero I’ve ever written, because he takes Rosemary exactly as she is and loves everything about her.

drey: Will there be more books in this series? What’s next?
Louisa: Can’t Stand the Heat, On the Steamy Side and Just One Taste together make up the Market trilogy, and while each can definitely be read as a stand alone story, there are subplots that arc through all three books. I feel good about how those subplots were wrapped up in Just One Taste, so I’m moving on to a new trilogy in 2011.

Don’t worry, though! It’s set in the same world, and even in real life, the culinary scene is small; chefs tend to know each other. It’s the same with my characters. You’ll see some familiar faces pop up in Too Hot to Touch, Some Like it Hot, and Hot Under Pressure, my trilogy following a group of talented young chefs through a high-stakes culinary competition! The first one is due out in August 2011, with the other two scheduled fairly closely after it.

drey: Your book on the screen: which one, and who’s in it?
Louisa: You know, what I’d really love to see is a television series based on the Market trilogy. There are so many great reality-based shows about chefs; I think the time is ripe for an evening drama set in a restaurant!

As for casting…well, if I could have anyone in the world, I’d steal Jared Padalecki from the set of “Supernatural” and make him play Wes Murphy. And I think Kristen Bell would make an adorable Rosemary Wilkins! Anyone else have any casting ideas, say for Executive Chef Adam Temple or celebrity chef Devon Sparks?

drey: What’s your favorite accompaniment to chocolate?
Louisa: Strawberries, of course!

drey: Um, yeah, I think I knew that... *wink* What do you indulge in, when not writing?
Louisa: When I’m not under deadline, I like to play around with short stories to offer for free on my website. I’ve done a couple of free reads, just for fun, and I love being able to talk about them with readers on Twitter and Facebook!

drey: What books have you read recently? Why’d you pick them up?
Louisa: Right now I’m in the middle of Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain and Something About You by Julie James. Both phenomenal! Tony’s book Kitchen Confidential was a huge inspiration for the Recipe for Love series, and I adore the way he writes about food, chefs, and travel. I grabbed Something About You because it’s a contemporary romance that got a ton of buzz when it came out, and I wanted to see why. Turns out, it’s because it’s great. : )

On my TBR pile: Infamous by Suzanne Brockmann, Heart of Fire by Kristen Painter, Make Her Pay by Roxanne St. Claire, Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole, and Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie.

drey: Thank you for taking the time to visit again! Come back often!
Louisa: Thank you for having me here! It’s always fun to hang out at drey’s library.

Giveaway!

Ok y'all, put your thinking caps on. Who do you think should be cast in a TV series based on the Market trilogy? Up for grabs: why, the books themselves, of course! 1 autographed set (Can't Stand the Heat, On the Steamy Side, and Just One Taste)! US and Canada residents only. Comment with your ideas, include your email address so I can contact you if you win. Tweet for an extra entry (comment with your twitter status). Do it before 6:00pm CST September 23rd, and good luck!!

Louisa Edwards swings by for a lil' chat..

So, yesterday I posted a review of Can't Stand the Heat, by author Louisa Edwards. Today, I'd like to extend a warm welcome as she visits drey's library, and answers some questions. Welcome, Louisa!

drey: So, to jump right in, what prompted you to become a writer? Has this always been an ambition, or did you wake up one day & say, “Hey! Nobody’s writing what I want to read, so I guess I’ll just have to do it myself!”?

Louisa Edwards: I think all writers start out as readers. My love of romance novels began around age 11, when I started stealing Harlequins out of my grandma’s suitcase when she came to visit. Then, a year later, I found The Shadow & the Star by Laura Kinsale, and I was hooked. By the time I finished college, I knew I wanted to write. But I thought it might be smart to get a job in publishing and learn about the business from the inside first.

d: What’s different about being on the writer side of the industry, compared to being on the editor side? Which is easier? Which has better perks? *grin*

LE: I loved being an editor. Essentially, you’re paid to read! What could be more glorious? (d: ahh, my dream job!!) As a writer, though, I have more control over what I read, and I’ve been able to rediscover reading as a joy rather than as a work task, which has been wonderful.

d: Was Can’t Stand the Heat a story that was just waiting to come out? Can’t Stand the Heat pits a cook and a critic against each other. Where did you get the idea for that?

LE: Honestly, I came up with the idea for CStH because I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and just fell in love with him. As a writer, as a character, as a chef—I decided I wanted to write a chef hero. And who has the most obvious, immediate conflict with a chef? A food critic. So there was my heroine. It just kind of flowed from there.

d: How did you do research for what goes on in the kitchen? I imagine cooking in a restaurant is slightly (!) different than throwing together dinner in my kitchen! All the different stations, the role each person plays, to bring food to those on the other side of the doors...

LE: I read a lot of chef/kitchen memoirs, first-person accounts of working in professional kitchens from Heat by Bill Buford to The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I’m also lucky enough to have several close friends who are chefs; I trailed them at their restaurants and bugged them with incessant questions.

d: The next few questions assume you like to cook, and I came up with “food groupie” from “food porn” on your blog... How much of a food groupie are you? Do you like to cook? Do you have one of those “cook’s kitchen’s” as HGTV calls ‘em? If so, how do you find your way around one of those? If you haven’t noticed already (from the questions), I’m not much of a cook...

LE: Food groupie—I like it! Foodie doesn’t work for me, as a term, because it implies I’m only interested in the food itself, not the cooking. For me, the cooking process is part of the fun! I love to cook—not to get all Julie Powell on you, but after I moved to Ohio I did, in fact, start cooking my way through Julia Child’s cookbook. Not with anything like the dedication of a Julia Powell, but still. The experience has been invaluable; I’ve learned so much technique just through trial and error. My kitchen might be classified as a “cook’s kitchen”—I’m not really sure! I find my way around easily, because it’s indisputably my domain. I placed every piece of equipment, every pot, every pan, every spatula, every whisk. I live in my kitchen.

d: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert?

LE: Breakfast, without a doubt. I could eat breakfast for every meal. We have omelettes for dinner all the time. And pancakes and waffles? They’re basically dessert, no matter when you serve them.

d: Follow-up to the previous question: What's your favorite dish? Do you like cooking it, eating it, or both? =)

LE: My favorite thing to cook is also one of my favorite things to eat—my mother’s recipe for buttermilk cornbread. You bake it in a cast-iron skillet and eat it with hot pepper jelly—honestly, it’s so damn good. You can’t even imagine.

And the 10-question Proust-lite:

1. What is your idea of earthly happiness? A farmer’s market
2. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Frozen food
3. Who is/are your favorite heroine(s) in fiction? Anne of Green Gables
4. Who is/are your favorite heroine(s) in real life? Eleanor Roosevelt
5. What sound do you love? My laptop waking up in the morning
6. What sound do you hate? My dogs howling
7. The quality you admire most in a man? Sense of humor
8. The quality you admire most in a woman? Sense of humor
9. If not a writer, you would be an Editor! Seriously, it was a great life. Either that, or I’d open a bakery.
10. What is your favorite swear word? What I find myself actually using all the time is a phrase my mother says: “God bless America!” I know, doesn’t sound like a swear. It’s all in the tone, though. It’s more “God bless America!”

Isn't she just LOVELY?? And now I'm hungry again...

About Louisa:
Louisa Edwards grew up in Virginia, surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. By age 11, she was sneaking Harlequins out of her visiting grandmother’s suitcase, making her parents nervous about what, precisely, their little girl was learning from those books. Naturally, they were relieved when Louisa decided to attend Bryn Mawr College, hoping the Seven Sisters vibe might instill the intellectual rigor she thus far seemed to lack.

To their dismay, however, even the ivy-covered halls of Bryn Mawr couldn’t distract Louisa from her addiction to romances. Instead, she traded in her Harlequins for longer, juicier single titles, reading everything from Laura Kinsale to Jennifer Cruisie. She also managed to graduate cum laude with a degree in Romance Languages (which is not as sexy as it sounds—mostly she studied Spanish, French, and Italian literature, although some of that French stuff did get fairly racy.)

After graduation, Louisa moved to Manhattan, landing a job as an editorial assistant at Penguin Group (USA), where she worked directly for the smart, savvy president of Mass Market Paperbacks, Leslie Gelbman, who guided Louisa as she built her own list.

Vindication! It was possible to make a living from reading romance novels. Louisa’s parents were equal parts surprised and thrilled. While at Berkley, Louisa was lucky enough to work with some great authors, assistant editing Leslie’s heavy hitters, Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz. Louisa’s own list included, among others, Lucy Monroe, Jennifer St. Giles, and Shelley Bradley. All of which led to Louisa being promoted to assistant editor.

Then real life romance ensued: Louisa married a journalist and was promptly exiled to Ohio so her husband could work for his family’s newspaper. There Louisa started reviewing romances for FreshFiction.com and took a part-time job at the Culinary Vegetable Institute. Personal interaction with chefs, plus the limited repertoire of local restaurants stoked Louisa’s interest in food. She began critiquing restaurants for the local newspaper, got sucked into Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, trailed a chef friend at his restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, started cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and decided to bring it all together by writing CAN’T STAND THE HEAT.

Now she awaits the response of the masses to her foodie-inspired romance. Meanwhile, Louisa will continue to eat in as many wonderful restaurants as possible—purely for research, of course. Find Louisa online at her official website, www.louisaedwards.com, and her blog, Recipe for Love.

And, wait! There's more. To help celebrate in Louisa's new release, here's a chance for one of you to win a CStH apron and spatula set! Here's how:
-- Contest is open to US and Canada residents, no PO Boxes please!
-- To enter, comment and share: Are you a food groupie? Why or why not? =)
-- Follow for 1 extra entry.
-- Share for 2 extra entries (let me know what & where, please).
-- Do it all before 6:00 pm CST October 5th. Good luck!

163. Can't Stand the Heat by Louisa Edwards...

About the book:

SHE'S HUNGRY FOR EXPERIENCE.

For sharp-tongued food critic Miranda Wake, the chance to spend a month in Adam Temple’s kitchen to write an exposé is a journalistic dream come true. Surely Miranda can find a way to cut the hotshot chef down to size once she learns what really goes on at his trendy Manhattan restaurant. But she never expected Adam to find out her most embarrassing secret: she has no idea how to cook.

AND HE KNOWS JUST HOW TO SATISFY HER CRAVINGS...

Adam’s not about to have his reputation burned by a critic who doesn’t even know the difference between poaching and paring. He’ll just have to give the tempting redhead a few private lessons of his own—teaching her what it means to cook with passion…and doing more with his hands than simply preparing sumptuous food.

drey's thoughts:
Mmmm... Louisa Edwards' debut effort--Can't Stand the Heat--is yummy!! The witty repartee between Miranda and Adam, the snappy dialog between Adam and his staff, make this a fun, sizzling, read. Loved Frankie. Loved Jess. Loved Adam teaching Miranda how to poach eggs. And all the food talk in between these covers? Make sure you're not reading while hungry. =)

Want more Louisa? Come back tomorrow & see what she has to share with y'all...

Title: Can't Stand the Heat
Author: Louisa Edwards
ISBN-10: 0312356498
ISBN-13: 9780312356491
Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2009

Challenges: 100+, Pub