Blog Tour: LOVE, DEATH, AND THE ART OF COOKING by Linda Griffin

 

Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking

by Linda Griffin

 

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GENRE:   Romantic Suspense

 

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BLURB:

 

Software engineer Reid Lucas loves to cook and has a history of falling in love with married women. When he leaves his complicated past in Chicago for a job in California, he runs into trouble and must call a virtual stranger to bail him out of jail. Alyssa Knight, a tough street cop waiting for a church annulment from her passive-aggressive husband, is the roommate of the woman Reid calls for help, and she reluctantly provides bail for Reid. He falls for her immediately, and cooking for her is an act of love. She just wants to be friends, but they keep ending up in bed together. When his boss is murdered, Reid is a suspect—or is he the intended target?

 

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Excerpt One:

 

Alyssa was patting down a suspect, checking for weapons, a task that called for her full attention, but she was a little distracted. Last night’s events had seemed natural at the time, but now she couldn’t imagine what she had been thinking. She had taken an enormous leap of faith—or else she had taken leave of her senses.

 

At first sight she had dismissed Reid as harmless, not sexy, not her type, but he had been a surprisingly physical presence as he escorted Paul out of the apartment. Nothing had changed, but maybe he was a little less harmless than she had thought, a little more interesting? He did have very nice eyes, even if they reminded her of a cocker spaniel’s, and he was a fabulous cook.

 

She had images of him now that she didn’t want to have, sense memories, as her actor friends would say. His body was not as soft as she had expected. He was pretty fit compared to the skinhead slob she was frisking and other guys she had been seeing all day. She had wanted to direct him and then hadn’t needed to. The way he touched her had made her feel soft and warm, as if her flesh was melting under his hands.

 

She tugged the suspect’s right hand behind him and snapped on the cuff. She remembered Reid’s mouth on hers. There was more tenderness in his kisses than she would have expected him to show this soon, if ever. Could he honestly feel that…for her?

 

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My review: After being woken up in the middle of the night, a woman pays the bail of a stranger. In return, he promises to pay her back by cooking for her. And, boy, they really get into the cooking.

The new guy strikes up an instant friendship with the two women. Then there’s the case of the dead man thrown in there.

As the title indicates, there’s love, death, and cooking—three distinct and unrelated facets that had an unusual blend in this story. Everything kind of feels thrown together, all these separate ingredients that don’t really go together. It’s like putting pickles and frosting together—unexpected and unique with a definite difference in taste. It may not necessarily be bad. In fact, it would be interesting as a one-time thing, but it’ll definitely make you think twice about it doing again.

For me, this had a nice romantic element. The writing was good, and the story has a nice, easy, and slow narrative. Story wasn’t really quite my taste though. First of all, I didn’t quite buy how this guy just shows up out of the blue and starts cooking for two strange women. And the death didn’t fit into it. Again, it just felt thrown in. There’s definitely a lot of cooking in it, so much that it actually makes you hungry reading it. In fact, I think the cooking takes up most of the story. For those that like a lot of cooking, you might want to give this book a try.

My rating: 3 stars

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Linda Griffin is a native of San Diego and has a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. She retired from a position as fiction librarian for the San Diego Public Library to spend more time on her writing. Her stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, Thema, The Binnacle, Orbis, and The Nassau Review. Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking is her fourth romantic suspense novel published by the Wild Rose Press, following Seventeen Days (2018), The Rebound Effect (2019), and Guilty Knowledge (2020).

 

Website: http://www.lindagriffinauthor.com/

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaGriffinA

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lindagriffin.author/

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09827RTP2/

 

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GIVEAWAY:

 

Linda Griffin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway