DELICIOUS

Author: Sherry Thomas ISBN: 9780440244325 8/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: BANTAM
Time Period: 1880's/1890's

Love has a flavor all its own.… Famous in Paris, infamous in London, Verity Durant is as well-known for her mouthwatering cuisine as for her scandalous love life. But that’s the least of the surprises awaiting her new employer when he arrives at the estate of Fairleigh Park following the unexpected death of his brother. The lawyer Stuart Somerset worked himself up from the slums of Manchester to become one of the rising political stars of England’s Parliament. To him, Verity Durant is just a name and food is just food, until her first dish touches his lips. Only one other time had he felt such pure arousal—a dangerous night of passion with a stranger, a young woman who disappeared at dawn. Ten years is a long time to wait for the main course, but when Verity Durant arrives at his table, there’s only one thing that will satisfy Stuart’s appetite for more. But is his hunger for lust, revenge—or that rarest of delicacies, love? For Verity’s past has a secret that could devour them both even as they reach for the most delicious fruit of all.…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The best way I can describe DELICIOUS is as a cross between a version of the fairytale, Cinderella, and a glorious masterpiece of a foreign film entitled Babette's Feast. Just about everyone, no doubt, knows the story of Cinderella, but not all may have seen the beautifully crafted story of Babette, a 19th century French refugee who makes her way to Denmark and is taken in by two proper sisters in return for work. In short, when Babette, who was a renowned chef in France (which the sisters and townspeople don't know) wins an unexpected lottery, she decides to repay the kindness of the sisters by spending her windfall upon cooking the meal of a lifetime for them as well as their guests, at a dinner in honor of their father's 100th birthday.

What happens when they begin to dine is an overload for the senses, a melding of awakening aromas and scintillating tastes that recall deep human emotion, fond memories and lost-but-not-forgotten loves. In DELICIOUS, Verity (Cinderella) sets before Stuart (her Prince Charming) just such a meal, a delicious array of tastes and sensual aromas that awakens his passion and yearning for the one woman who captured his heart so long ago and then fled into the night. A woman who haunts his dreams still, leaving behind unfulfilled desires and shattered dreams that have affected them both. A woman who now, ten years later and unbeknownst to him, toils in his kitchen below. And in all those years in between then and now, each has put the other on a pedestal, reshaping their memories into ideals far removed from the truth, ideals that neither one can live up to.

It's not just Verity and Stuart who have skeletons they're not proud of, or have experienced life changes over this same length of time. Even the secondary characters of Lizzy, Stuart's betrothed, and Marsden, his secretary, have lives fraught with secrets, hidden skeletons and their own falls from grace that are just as compelling to read about as Verity's and Stuart's.

DELICIOUS is a very complex, sensual and emotional story with complex characters who've experienced the ups and downs of life, the falls from grace and some sort of acceptance of their circumstances in between. There's so much introspection, in-depth soul searching and self discovery going on with all the characters that this is not a quick or easy read. Instead, this Cinderella romance is written to be savored and enjoyed, to slowly dissolve into its fruition like a luscious profiterole or warm crme brulee upon one's tongue.

I loved this book and everything about it. Verity and Stuart's romance is touching, poignant and often times sad, but always with a pinpoint ray of hope within it. You so want Prince Charming to find the foot that fits the lost slipper, see Cinderella swept off her feet and all her dragons slain so that they can ride away into their happily-ever-after. And as in all satisfying romances with a happy ending, they do.

Put into a lovely macaron, Sherry Thomas' DELICIOUS is, as its title implies... exquisitely delicious.

Nancy Davis