Book Review: Love, Death, & the Art of Cooking

About Love, Death & The Art of Cooking

Software engineer Reid Lucas loves to cook and has a history of falling in love with married women. When he leaves his complicated past in Chicago for a job in California, he runs into trouble and must call a virtual stranger to bail him out of jail. Alyssa Knight, a tough street cop waiting for a church annulment from her passive-aggressive husband, is the roommate of the woman Reid calls for help, and she reluctantly provides bail for Reid. He falls for her immediately, and cooking for her is an act of love. She just wants to be friends, but they keep ending up in bed together. When his boss is murdered, Reid is a suspect. Or is he the intended target?

My Review

I received an audiobook copy of Love, Death, & the Art of Cooking, from the author, Linda Griffin in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The story is well-crafted and well-paced, feeding the reader the backstory one small taste at a time, with minimal servings of exposition. The narrator, Catherine Hein Carter, did a good job with the narration of the story, although I felt like this story, with it’s male protagonist might have been served better by a male narrator.

When Reid Lucas takes a new software job in a new town, he’s hoping for a new start on life. But when his boss turns up dead, it brings back memories of why he left Chicago, and as the events back there come to light, it makes him first a prime suspect and then, a possible target. Alone in a new town, there are few people he can turn to for support except a girl he only knows from a chance meeting, but he gets her roommate, Alyssa instead, a woman he doesn’t know at all, who turns out to be a cop. Alyssa doesn’t trust him, her roomate wants to sleep with him, and all he wants to do is cook for them. But can his delicious meals win overcome her doubts and win Allyssa’s heart? No spoilers here. You’ll have to read the book.

Everything a romance suspense novel should be, I give Love, Death, & the Art of Cooking four quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.