BLOG TOUR!
From the publisher:
In this finger-licking good rom-com, two is the perfect number of cooks in the kitchen.
Nikki DiMarco knew life wouldn’t be all sunshine and coconuts when she quit her dream job to help her mom serve up mouthwatering Filipino dishes to hungry beach goers, but she didn’t expect the Maui food truck scene to be so eat-or-be-eaten—or the competition to be so smoking hot.
But Tiva’s Filipina Kusina has faced bigger road bumps than the arrival of Callum James. Nikki doesn’t care how delectable the British food truck owner is—he rudely set up shop next to her coveted beach parking spot. He’s stealing her customers and fanning the flames of a public feud that makes her see sparks.
The solution? Let the upcoming Maui Food Festival decide their fate. Winner keeps the spot. Loser pounds sand. But the longer their rivalry simmers, the more Nikki starts to see a different side of Callum…a sweet, protective side. Is she brave enough to call a truce? Or will trusting Callum with her heart mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
Anytime a romance is centered around food, I’m a happy reader. The setting in Hawaii just added more interest.
Nikki’s parents retired and moved to Maui. Their retirement dream wasn’t to lay on the beach, but rather to have their own food truck featuring their Filipino family recipes. When Nikki’s dad suddenly passes away, she leaves her life on the mainland behind and swoops in to stay with her mother and make her parents’ dream a reality.
A couple of years in, a new food truck shows up right next to theirs. Island etiquette dictates that is encroachment and severely looked down upon. It happened to Nikki when they first started out, so she decides to offer a little friendly advice to their encroaching neighbor. At first things are great, that is until the owner, British hottie Callum, realizes that Nikki isn’t an inspector. At that point, he basically tells her to piss off, and walks away.
Nikki is infuriated, and it is quickly apparent that this is going to be an enemies-to-lovers romance, and it’s a good one. It takes quite a while to get to the romance, but once it does the book flies.
I loved learning about Filipino food (as I didn’t know anything about it,) and I loved how these characters eventually worked through their difficulties. I especially liked how Nikki was the hard ass, and Callum was more emotionally available, a nice role reversal.
This was a slow moving romance, but a good story with interesting characters and setting. Take a ride on a food truck with Nikki & Callum and you won’t be disappointed.
10/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™
SIMMER DOWN by Sarah Smith. Berkley (October 13, 2020). ISBN 978-1984805447. 336 pages.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 at 8:00 AM and is filed under Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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