Hugs & Quiches

Heating Up the Kitchen, Book 1

By: Candace Harper

Narrated by: Caroline Stacey

Starting over was meant to be a new beginning. Though for Zoe Cooper and Amelia Hughes, it's the very first step toward their happy ending.

It's been a year since Zoe Cooper packed up her daughter and fled her abusive husband with only the clothes on her back. But life as a waitress, food blogger, and "roommate" to her supportive mother has turned into a holding pattern, and her dream of launching her own catering company and cooking school feels like just another fairy-tale ending - when she's no Cinderella. Until the newest cooking competition comes to town, and suddenly magic just might be at Zoe's fingertips with the chance to audition for Heating Up the Kitchen.

If only she can beat Amelia.

Fresh out of a disastrous relationship and determined to prove her ex wrong, Amelia's got a chip on her shoulder and is ready for a grudge match in the kitchen. When she locks horns with Amelia, there's more steaming than their buns as the two competitive young chefs vie for the top spot on the show....and the top spot in each others' hearts.

There's more cooking in this kitchen than the food, and romance is on the menu. When hatred turns to heat and threatens to boil over, their rivalry might just end in disaster. Or, Zoe and Amelia might just find the future they need in each other - in between stolen hugs and quiches.

©2020 Candace Harper (P)2021 Candace Harper

Fun Story/ Great Narration

This is a fun foodie romance enhanced by a super talented narrator. It feels like you stepped through the TV screen on your favorite cooking challenge show and then get to pull the curtain and peek behind the scenes. The competition will have you rooting for chefs Amelia and Zoe to win the prize and each other. Kudos to Ms. Harper the author for her encyclopedic knowledge of the food that gives the story its bona fides. Caroline Stacey the narrator brings the story to life with a cast of different voices. This book was a nice change from some tired tropes. Recommend you curl up with a glass of wine and a stocked refrigerator and binge listen to this slow burn (romance not the food) novel.

I didn’t hate it, but...

I didn’t love it. I REALLY wanted to like this book. The premise was good and there were a lot of interesting things. However, this book has some issues. It could use some good editing, I think. There are some redundancies that I found annoying. It didn’t detract from the story, but I had a hard time getting over them. Also, I found the narration to be less than pleasant. The voice of Amelia was all wrong. It’s described as being soprano, yet the narrator gave her a deep, almost masculine voice. She is very feminine, though that wasn’t made obvious by the voice. Also, it was read too slow for my tastes. The accents were mostly good.
The writing itself was good. The story cute, but also weird.
I won’t discourage anyone from buying this book. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Worth the money

As a retired Chef I can definitely say that the technical portion of this book was spot on.

I also found the love connection cute and quirky.

I definitely could have done without the class In PC wokeness.

It did however have a great storyline and although I initially didn't care for the narration it grew on me and turned out to be an essential part of this book.