ARC REVIEW:TASTE THE HEAT BY RACHEL HARRIS

Hello Loves! You have no idea how excited we are to bring you this today!

Taste The Heat (Love and Games #1) by Rachel Harris
Expected publication: July 8th 2013 
Publisher: Entangled (Bliss Line)
*e-ARC provided by the publisher in exchange of an honest review*

One sexy fire captain. One Cajun chef, One combustible kitchen…

When chef Colby Robicheaux returned home to New Orleans to save her family restaurant, the last person she expected to reconnect with was her brother’s best friend and her childhood crush. As tempting as a sugar-coated beignet, Jason is one dish she doesn’t want to taste. Colby is counting down the days till she can leave the place where her distrust of love and commitment originated and go back to Vegas. 

Fire captain Jason Landry isn’t looking for love, either. He knows he should focus on finding the perfect mother for his daughter, but when he first sees Colby, all grown up and gorgeous, he can’t help but be drawn to her. And when she suggests a no-strings-attached fling, Jason doesn’t want to say no. 

As their relationship grows more intense, Colby finds that Jason isn’t as easy to leave behind as she thought. Could turning up the heat on something real be worth the possibility of getting burned?

First of all, you might want to grab water and/or wine, some food (preferably spicy) and get some chocolate while you're at it. Now you're all set for reading Taste The Heat ;)

I don't know where to start with this one because I loved all of it, I don't think there's a tiny detail I didn't like in the entire book. Taste The Heat has the perfect balance between humor, love, pain and sexual tension. 

Colby is a Cajun Cook who is back in her home town to help her family's restaurant after her father's death. And that's all she wants: get in, do the job and be back in Vegas at the end of the summer before her memories catch up with her. She's sweet, she's scared. Broken as she would say. But 

Jason is Colby's older brother best friend and her childhood crush. He's a firefighter. He's a dad. He's a widower and he's as sexy as a man can be. He's sweet and caring and very determined.

Emma. Well, Emma is a ball of energy and enthusiasm. She's perky and sweet and a clever girl who wants and needs a mom. She wants to see her dad happy and she loves playing matchmaker... 

Rachel Harris did an excellent job with Taste The Heat. She got me laughing out loud and cringing at the most embarrassing situations life deals to all of us. I wanted Jason and Colby to get together from page one but I could see why they were holding back, what they were risking and how scared of it they were. And the way Rachel portrait all those feelings had me in tears more than once. 

I love how she gave Jason a second chance at love, how he had really loved someone before and he learns to let go and find happiness again. We don't see the line "I never loved someone like I love you" in the sense the character hadn't really fallen for someone. He loved his wife.

Colby also has a big character development and it was just as heartbreaking. Love hasn't been too good on her and she is so vulnerable once she's back in her hometown where everything reminds her of her father and their mistakes. I think this is the part where Rachel really out did herself, how easy to connect to that feeling of regret, guilt and pain from things we can no longer change or fix. Colby's journey to healing and learning to love and trust again is beautiful. 

Together, Jason and Colby can heal each other and discover that maybe, love isn't that bad. 

And while I could end this review here, I'd feel like I'm leaving out two very important characters. And I'm not talking about the other two Robicheaux, even though they're amazing in their own right and the story wouldn't be the same without them. but they'll have their own book (YAY!) so we'll focus on them when the time comes. 

I'm talking about The Food and The City. Yes, with capital letters. 

This two elements are SO important to the story, I don't think there's a way I couldn't mention them. The Food is the way in which both families, Jason and Colby's, come together. And don't we all? but is more than that... Taste the Heat has something any Recipe Book lacks: The feelings that go along with the food and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get hungry just thinking about all of it. 

And The City's presence is so imposing. The sounds, the people, the taste and sights. Everything comes to life in the pages of the book. I've never been to New Orleans but I felt part of it. 

ABOUT RACHEL HARRIS

Rachel Harris grew up in New Orleans, where she watched soap operas with her grandmother and stayed up late sneak reading her mama's favorite romance novels. Now a Cajun cowgirl living in Houston, she still stays up way too late reading her favorite romances, only now, she can do so openly. She firmly believes life's problems can be solved with a hot, powdered-sugar-coated beignet or a thick slice of king cake, and that screaming at strangers for cheap, plastic beads is acceptable behavior in certain situations. 

When not typing furiously or flipping pages in an enthralling romance, she homeschools her two beautiful girls and watches reality television with her amazing husband. Taste the Heat is her adult romance debut. She's the author of MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY and A TALE OF TWO CENTURIES. She loves hearing from readers! Find her at RachelHarrisWrites.com