I bought this book as chick-lit, but it's a lot raunchier than your typical chick-lit offering. The storyline could have been developed in more interesting ways, but it was really just a device for adding in graphic descriptions of sexual encounters. Fine if you like that, but I wasn't a big fan. ( )

4.5

Abby Coates owns and operates The Coates Inn in Cape Cod, but business isn’t doing so well. She needs a chef and an infusion of cash to do renovations to get her lovely inn back in the black. If she can’t do either she’ll have to declare bankruptcy.

Enter Storm Dupre. A very talented chef from California, Storm needs to get away from the atmosphere of fakeness that surrounds him. When he spies Abby’s ad in the back of a food magazine he falls instantly in love. With The Coates Inn. He senses the owner is desperate and he plots to buy out the inn and make it his own. But we all know about best-laid plans, right?

Ah, Emma Holly, how I love thee, let me count the ways. While this book was originally published in 1998, I didn’t discover Emma Holly until about seven years ago. She has a way of putting the reader right there among her characters and when the scene gets smokin’ hot, well, a voyeur would be right at home.

Take Abby and her sudden need to dump her long term boyfriend who just wasn’t doing it for her just before Storm rolls into her life. Storm loves cooking and sex and he’s made it his life’s passion to be the best at both. He unlocks something in Abby that she didn’t even know was there and now she’s free to explore. And boy does she explore, with Storm and with others. *fans self*

I loved Abby taking charge of her sexual exploration. Some might call her a slut for it, but how can a person know what they like if they don’t experiment? If she were a man no one would raise an eyebrow and that double standard pisses me off. Go, Abby, go!

I didn’t expect to love Storm and his cocky attitude, but underneath it all he has some vulnerabilities that he has to deal with and it makes him an endearing character rather than an irritating one.

Secondary characters are well-fleshed and add a lot to the quality of the story. I wouldn’t mind seeing more stories involving everyone mentioned. All-in-all a smokin’ hot romance.

*Book source ~ My home library. ( )

Before I went to work one day, I decided to check out the new fiction shelf at work. Among all the bestsellers,I saw this book. Now when I first saw the cover of "Cooking Up a Storm," it was just showed a woman carrying a basket of fruit and label as an "erotic romance".What does that mean? I figured that it was just one of the boring, plotless books that the library buys. Boy, was I wrong. Before I began reading, I found out some things about the author. Emma Holly is an author for Cheek Press, a publishing company out of London.This piqued my interest and I wanted to see how a Englishwoman would write about Americans.She impressed me a great deal.Now,on to the book. As I began to read this book about a french chef with plans to take over a small Cape Cod restaurant, I was completely drawn into this book. Not only are the characters well written, but the sex scenes are spectacular. I loved this book so much, I ran out he next day and bought all of Emma Holly's books. Yeah, they're that racy. Abby is a character that I really enjoyed. She is like a lot of women I know, including myself. She is the type of woman that is full of untapped potential and is afraid of her fully exploring her sexuality. However when Storm is finished with her, she is more than ready to fully embrace any experiences that come her way be it professional or sexual. Storm is portrayed as a cad when the book first begins. I really felt that he was a guy who was willing to do whatever he had to in order to reach his goal. It is only seen later in the book that we find out the source of his behavior. I can't stress enough how much I love this book. Not only is it a well written story with a great plot, it also has enough hot scenes to get anyone's pulse racing. ( )

Before I went to work one day, I decided to check out the new fiction shelf at work. Among all the bestsellers,I saw this book. Now when I first saw the cover of "Cooking Up a Storm," it was just showed a woman carrying a basket of fruit and label as an "erotic romance".What does that mean? I figured that it was just one of the boring, plotless books that the library buys. Boy, was I wrong. Before I began reading, I found out some things about the author. Emma Holly is an author for Cheek Press, a publishing company out of London.This piqued my interest and I wanted to see how a Englishwoman would write about Americans.She impressed me a great deal.Now,on to the book. As I began to read this book about a french chef with plans to take over a small Cape Cod restaurant, I was completely drawn into this book. Not only are the characters well written, but the sex scenes are spectacular. I loved this book so much, I ran out he next day and bought all of Emma Holly's books. Yeah, they're that racy. Abby is a character that I really enjoyed. She is like a lot of women I know, including myself. She is the type of woman that is full of untapped potential and is afraid of her fully exploring her sexuality. However when Storm is finished with her, she is more than ready to fully embrace any experiences that come her way be it professional or sexual. Storm is portrayed as a cad when the book first begins. I really felt that he was a guy who was willing to do whatever he had to in order to reach his goal. It is only seen later in the book that we find out the source of his behavior. I can't stress enough how much I love this book. Not only is it a well written story with a great plot, it also has enough hot scenes to get anyone's pulse racing. ( )

This book had promise at the beginning, but ended up turning into a sexual free-for-all (with every type of pairing imaginable) which didn't feel consistent with the characters' development. The erotic scenes were hot and generally well-written (although at times it was difficult to figure out exactly who was where). ( )