H&H: Contemporary Romance Edition

I have a new post over at Heroes and Heartbreakers. This time I’m talking about my favorite current Contemporary Romance authors, which means that you won’t find Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips on the list. Instead, I mention authors that may not be as famous or whose careers are relatively new, but that I consider some of the best people currently writing Contemporaries. I know I’m leaving lots of people out, because lucky for us, there are many great authors out there, so I would love to hear your thoughts, if you have read any of those authors and who would make your list!

Review: Hot Under Pressure by Louisa Edwards

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book from the author through NetGalley for review purposes.

Is there anything sexier than a man who can cook? The answer is yes, a man who cooks AND cleans up after himself, but we are talking about chefs here, so let’s stick to cooking. Hot Under Pressure is the last book in the Rising Star Chef series, if you haven’t read the previous books you’ll probably be able to enjoy this one but it won’t be the same so my suggestion is to read them in order.

Henry Beck is the newest member of the restaurant, but despite his taciturn personality he’s an integral part of the team and everyone considers him a member of the Lunden family. His specialty is fish and his secret past has inspired some interesting theories about him, the most popular being that he used to be in jail. Obviously that’s not the case and everyone is about to find out about it when his past comes back to haunt him and compete against him in the form of Skye Gladwell, captain of the rival team and Beck’s estranged wife.

Interview & Giveaway: Louisa Edwards

As you probably know by now Louisa Edwards is one of my favorite contemporary romance authors, so you can imagine how happy I was to be able to interview her. I hope you enjoy reading her answers just as much as I did.

Hello Louisa, welcome to Romance Around the Corner. I’m thrilled to have you here today because I’ve been a fan of your work for almost two years now, ever since first reading Can’t Stand the Heat. So if I start squealing please ignore me, it’s just my inner fan-girl trying to come out, she will go away eventually.

Review: Some Like It Hot by Louisa Edwards

Source: we received an e-ARC of the book from the author and publisher for review purposes.

Contemporary romance is my favorite subgenre because the books in that category are filled with sexy and entertaining stories that are just plain fun to read. Louisa Edwards’ books are a fine example of the genre and Some Like It Hot is no exception.

This is the second book in the Rising Star Chef series and if you’re new to it you should know that the series follows our leads through a cooking competition where teams representing restaurants from all over the country battle it out in order to win. In the first book the protagonists were Juliet Cavanaugh and Max Lunden, both members of the same team, in this book the leads are Max’s younger brother, Danny, the team’s pastry chef, and Eva Jansen, the contest’s host and the person in charge of all the behind the scenes.

Review: Too Hot To Touch by Louisa Edwards

I discovered Louisa’s books about a year ago when I bought a book called On the Steamy Side that seemed like an interesting read even though I wasn’t familiar with the author, it was one of those impulsive buys that turned out to be exactly what you needed. After finishing that book I devoured the second one and then spent a couple of months anxiously waiting for the release of the third one. I was super excited to hear that she was writing a new trilogy.

Edwards' specialty is gastronomy, her books always revolve around something food-related and her heroes are always chefs. This new book shows us yet another aspect of that fascinating world by taking place during a cooking competition.

Waiting on Wednesday: Too Hot To Touch

Louisa Edwards has the magic touch. She writes the type of books that makes me love Contemporary Romance. Her books are sexy, funny and full of wonderful characters, all the necessary ingredients to create a top notch story. You will notice that I’m using a culinary analogy, that is not a coincidence, Louisa’s books have chef Heroes, yep, what Suzanne Brockmann is to Navy SEALs Louisa Edwards is to chefs.

Too Hot To Touch is a bit different in that both the hero and the heroine are chefs (in her previous books the hero was always the chef whereas each heroine had a different profession). This book is set in a Top Chef type of competition and I’m very excited about it because Top Chef is my favorite reality show, so this book will combine my two passions: a hot contemporary romance and a great TV show.

This one is also the first one of a series, I think it will also be a trilogy but I’m not sure. If you are a fan of Julie James you will love this author because I find their styles quite similar, even if their books are nothing alike.