Deep Dish in Crazy Challenge Connection

Mar 01, 2015 LaurLa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-2015-challenge-books

This was only an okay read for me. I loved the premise. I like books with chefs as MCs and I like books that have quirky, sassy heroines, so I went into this fully expecting to love it. But I didn't. I thought the chef parts were great and I thought the contest part was mostly great, the idea of it at least - the execution of it by the author, maybe not so great. I also liked our hoeroine, Gina. She was a bit mousy in the beginning, sort of letting things happen to her. But there was an early sc This was only an okay read for me. I loved the premise. I like books with chefs as MCs and I like books that have quirky, sassy heroines, so I went into this fully expecting to love it. But I didn't. I thought the chef parts were great and I thought the contest part was mostly great, the idea of it at least - the execution of it by the author, maybe not so great. I also liked our hoeroine, Gina. She was a bit mousy in the beginning, sort of letting things happen to her. But there was an early scene where she lit into the hero and I could see that she just might have a spine of steel. We get to see her strengthen and use that inner core of hers as the books progresses, so I ended up liking her a lot. What I didn't like was the hero, Tate, and I didn't like the way the romance developed.

Why I didn't like the romance - I didn't like that so much time was spent at the beginning of the book developing the antagonism between them and the set-up for the 'Food Fight' contest. And I didn't think the author spent enough time developing their romance and what did develop felt forced. I know the antagonism between them was really unwanted attraction, so in a way, that was part of the romantic development, but you have to surmise this because the author really didn't do anything during this time to make you believe they had chemistry or were attracted to each other. And after the contest started and they began spending more time together, there still wasn't a lot of chemistry. Then the author made Tate do things that made me mad and not like him. Bringing me to

Why I didn't like the hero - I actually started off liking Tate and in truth I think he really was a good guy. But the author had him doing a couple of things that I didn't like which made me not like him, even though I really wanted to. (view spoiler)

I wanted to like Tate and I wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't do either. I pretty much left the book angry. Angry at the author for failing both Gina and Tate's characters. Tate WAS a good guy that made a couple of bad decisions but because he never atoned for them, I couldn't like him and thus felt overall 'meh' about the book. ...more

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May 18, 2010 Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2010, chick-lit, five-stars, audiobooks

This was a light read, but very enjoyable.

I especially liked the offbeat minor characters such as DeJohn, the stylist; Zeke, the Post-It Note clad assistant; and Val, the cigarette puffing agent.

I listened to this on CD, and it was a really good representation. Kudos to the narrator for making each character have their own special "voice" that seemed to match their personality. ...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Lori Henrich rated it liked it · review of another edition

Gina doesn't know it yet but her food show is about to be canceled. Tate also has a food show and wants to move up in the world to The Cooking Channel. When Barry comes to town to see Tate do his magic he also takes a peek at Gina's. Barry likes them both and comes up with the brilliant idea to pit them against each other in a contest to win the television spot. The contest will be filmed on an island that is slightly remote and the challenges will be unique.

I liked the story. The main story pl ...more

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