Mixing It Up – Book Review

This is the second book I have read by Author Tracie Bannister, the first one I read was Twin Piques, I really enjoyed it.

So, after hearing that Tracie had a new book out that was a foodie and comedy book, I was very keen to read it. Here are my thoughts on it.

Description:

Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Manhattan upper-cruster Cecily Sinclair now uses that pricey utensil to dish up fancy French fare on her cooking show, Serving Romance. When there’s an executive shake-up at the network, she’s not worried. Not much anyway. Her show’s a hit after all. Why would the new CEO want to mess with success?

The driving force behind several buzzed-about networks, Devlin Hayes is considered to be a wunderkind in the television industry. Although his plans to rebrand CuisineTV and make Serving Romance more Millennial-friendly don’t thrill Cecily, her charming, blue-eyed boss is a hard man to say “no” to and she really wants to keep her job—even if that means sharing screen time with a loathsome blast from her past.

Mercurial Italian chef Dante Marchetti a.k.a. “Il Duce” was once Cecily’s boss, and she has the PTSD to prove it. Now the owner of one of the hottest restaurants in town, Dante’s egomania knows no bounds and his constant attempts to provoke and upstage Cecily make her want to conk him on the head with a sauté pan. She thinks they’re toxic together, but viewers love their chemistry and clamor for more.

As Cecily battles to maintain the integrity of her show, she finds herself scheming and manipulating right along with Dante and Devlin. Is she fighting a lost cause? Does she really belong on TV, or would her culinary talent be better served elsewhere? And could one of the men who makes Cecily’s blood boil ignite a passion in her for something other than food?

 

My Thoughts:

This book was deliciously good, with its array of wonderful eclectic characters, the plot and sub plots, it was a hoot.

Cecily is a Cordon Bleu trained chef who works on tv show called Serving Romance, her boss however decided that the show needs some ‘Mixing Up’, and here we meet Italian chef Dante Marchetti. He is big headed (probably with plenty reason), handsome with many ladies swooning over him and he owns his own restaurant. The relationship between these two is just one of the plot-lines to this tale.  We also read about the relationship between Cecily and her very persuasive boss, and Cecily and her ex fiance. Who will she end up with? Any of them or none of them?

One of my favourite relationships was Cecily and her cousin Dina who is an astrologist. Although they are cousins and best friends, they are so different. Dina kept telling Cecily about what lies in the stars for her, and with Cecily being a Scorpio (the same as me), I found it quite interesting. I asked the Author where she got her Scorpio knowledge from and she told me that she has always had an interest in Astrology, and did research on it for this book. Tracie is an Aries like Dante and her oldest friend is a Scorpio like Cecily (and me!).

Scorpio’s are..”…fiercely loyal, hard-working, love home and hearth, and are good with money.”

Anyone who has followed ChocolatePages will know I am a total foodie, I love food and I love books that talk about food. So a book of two chefs who have cook offs. (See my hashtag #DuckWar on Twitter!) is one I will enjoy. We hear much talk of Cecily’s French food, and how her thoughts wonder to food and recipes while she should be concentrating on other things. Dante’s Italian food sounds good too, but I was won over by the Cordon Bleu. Cecily even uses food as metaphors.

“I’m as happy as a clam being steamed in Sauvignon Blanc …”

This book has everything I would ask for in a chick lit book; fun, food, romance. It is enough to get your taste buds tantalised and your imagination tickled. The cover of the book is a very good reflection on the type of read this is, and I love the cover!  It was a brilliant book, and I eagerly await Tracie’s next book…

Check out Mixing It Up here.

 

 

 

Guest review contributed by Chocolate Pages. The best things in the world are books, chocolate, and baking…or at least, so says this blogger. That sounds pretty good to the rest of us too.

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