Tuesday, July 9, 2013

ARC REVIEW: Dishing Up Desire by Barbara DeLeo

Title/Series: Dishing Up Desire
Author: Barbara DeLeo
Publisher: Entangled Indulgence
Published: July 8th 2013
Format: eBook | Pages: 179
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review
★★★ (3/5) Stars!

Barbara DeLeo | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Image consultant Blake Matthews is facing his toughest PR challenge yet: salvage the image of celebrity chef Kirin Hart. Once he does, he'll be able to acquire LA's most successful PR firm. But Kirin's no easy fix. She's stubborn about changing her comfortable homemaker image, and is being sued for sexual harassment by a junior staffer. She needs a PR lifeline fast. Only problem is Blake wants more than to make her over... Kirin doesn't need a makeover--her fans love her as she is. But she could lose everything if the sex scandal and reputation that has followed doesn't get quashed right away. Kirin agrees to let model-perfect Blake work his magic for two weeks, but things get complicated when she can't deny the way her body flares to life whenever he's near. 




I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I had a bit of a difficult time getting into this book. I'm really not sure why that is either. The story wasn't bad. The characters weren't either. I was just having a bit of a disconnect that I couldn't really pinpoint. Eventually it swept me up and once it did I grew to enjoy and care about what happened to the characters.

After a horrible sexual harassment scandal from a former, much younger, employee rocks Kirin's world, her image and her cooking empire is left in shambles. I liked Kirin. She was sort of this woman who didn't really know who she was. Since she was sixteen, when she met her late husband, she's always been told how to present herself. How she should dress, talk and so on. She was an image. Half of a wholesome husband and wife cooking empire. The quintessential housewife image. And she was fine with that. She really felt like that was her, because that's all she'd known for the last 15+ years. Enter Blake.


Blake is a former male model. He's confident, gorgeous (obviously), and built an empire of his own as a PR/Image consultant. He's trying to acquire a top PR firm but they won't sell when their reputation is on the line having failed so far at trying to turn things around for Kirin. They give Blake 2 weeks to spin and get Kirin's reputation and career back on track. And she doesn't make things easy for him.


Neither of them are very open or trusting people. Yet somehow these closed off unlikely pair seem to bring out the best in each other. Each one having just that little bit of something the other one needs. A little bit of push in the right direction even though they try to fight and deny what's obviously there. It was sweet and steamy and sometimes just a little bit frustrating! You know those good kinds of frustrating where you want to just say wake up guys! And smack them upside the head a little bit. Even though I was slow to let it sweep me away, it eventually did and I enjoyed it !


Thanks Entangled publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book!!






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1 comment:

  1. Okay. Glad I checked out my Bloglovin feed one more time before bed. I was reading on this one yesterday and having a hard time getting into it too. Decided to take a little break and come back to it later this week. I'm really glad to hear it picks up and you enjoyed it in the end.

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