Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Stir in a pinch to stir up his passion (#MFRWHooks #romance #cooking)

Her Secret Ingredient cover

Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop!

Today I’m featuring my humorous erotic romance Her Secret Ingredient. Emily Wong is one of my favorite heroines. In fact, I liked her so much I made her the heroine of an entire follow-up novel, The Ingredients of Bliss!

When you’re done reading my snippet, I hope you’ll visit some of the other authors joining Book Hooks this week. Just use the links at the end of this post.

Blurb

Stir in a pinch to stir up his passion.

When the Tastes of France food channel offers Mei Lee ‘Emily’ Wong a series of guest spots, she jumps at the opportunity to take her culinary career to a whole new level. Ultimately, she wants a show of her own, but first she has to prove herself to Michelin-starred network founder and effective dictator, Etienne Duvalier. A legend in the world of classic French cuisine as well as a domineering perfectionist, Etienne is sceptical about the culinary abilities of a woman from Hong Kong. To make things more difficult, the master chef is also so gorgeous that Emily can’t help being attracted to him.

Emily tries to solve both problems by spiking her luscious profiteroles with an ancient Oriental aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, Harry Sanborne, the low-key, bespectacled producer for Emily’s show, samples the delicacies she intends for Etienne’s consumption. His powerful reaction to her secret ingredient comes as a pleasant surprise to them both. Harry turns out to be far more impressive in bed than on the set. However, he can’t do nearly as much to advance her ambitions as Etienne. Emily tries once more to tempt the exacting M Duvalier with her special cooking as well as her feminine charms. The outrageous results threaten to end her TV career forever—until Harry steps in to save her reputation and claim her heart.



The Hook

I selected a six-inch blade from the rack on the counter and began peeling carrots. “Anyway, you were saying the viewers are bored?”

Harry swivelled his seat so he could watch me work. I didn’t mind—I’d cooked in open kitchens, and if I was going to be on television, I had to get used to having an audience. And somehow, though I’d known him for only a few minutes, the dishevelled young producer made me feel comfortable.

Yeah. The ratings for the channel as a whole are falling, because he won’t work with any chef who refuses to toe his line. That’s one reason the execs pressured him to contact you. Fresh blood and all that.”

Hmm.” My knife rose and fell with satisfying precision, creating uniform half-inch cubes of crisp orange. I swept the diced carrots into a pile at one end of the cutting block then started on the onions.

Amazing. I could never do that. When I try to cook, the results look like something from a slasher movie.” He flipped his hair out of his eyes. “Anyway, the first two guest chefs the network hired—Etienne drove them away.”

I set the blade down. I’d chilled the onions ahead of time, but my eyes watered nevertheless. Harry handed me a handkerchief. What a sweet guy. If only Etienne were more like him.

He’s not going to drive me away, Harry. I swear it.” I’d been the only woman in my class at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris, and the only Asian. They’d made it clear I didn’t belong. I’d stuck it out, three gruelling years to get my Grand Diplôme. Then there was all the time working my way up the ranks—commis entremets, chef saucier, sous chef.

It would take more than one sexy, stubborn Frenchman to stop me.

Buy Links

Amazon


BN


Totally Bound (Now 99 cents, at TB only!)



Don’t forget to visit this week's other Book Hooks posts!


1 comment:

Janet Lane Walters said...

Loved the slasher comment. Reflectsmy cooking techniques.

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