Review – Deliciously Sinful by Lilli Fiesty

Publisher: Grand Central
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: NetGalley

Things are cooking in the kitchen…and the bedroom.

Restaurant owner Phoebe Mayle thought she had it all under control. Sure, her new chef has a bad-boy reputation – and a chiseled body to match – but she’s positive she can whip him into shape.

But from the moment Nick Avalon roars into town in his Hummer, he makes her whole world sizzle. Now Phoebe has lost control of her kitchen, and Nick has taken over her mind and her body. His insatiable appetite for pleasure leaves her breathless with carnal cravings only he can satisfy. Yet can their hunger for each other be a recipe for a love that lasts?
*Blurb from Goodreads*

I was really looking forward to this, especially since I’ve enjoy Fiesty’s work in the past, however this book did not work for me. At all…..

Phoebe has inherited her aunt and uncle’s small local cafe, and while she is the best organic farmer around, she can’t cook well enough to keep the cafe successful. She goes out on a limb and hires chef bad-boy Nick Avalon, and the two mix as well as oil and water.

Nick is bidding his time to let the scandal blow over before he can return to LA and the live he loves. The small town is not his idea of a good life, and Phoebe constantly gets on his nerves. But there isn’t anything else to do in town, so spending time with Phoebe seems to be the only way to pass the time, and although they fight constantly, their time together naked is perfect. But when Nick gets the opportunity of a lifetime, will he really be able to say goodbye to the life he’s become accustomed to?

I like romances with chef and cooking in them, so the idea of this book really pulled at me and sounded wonderful, however the characters of Nick and Phoebe just did not engage me at all, and the more I read the more frustrated and annoyed I got.

Phoebe is a bit of a hippie, and loves her small town life and ways. She constantly tells Nick throughout the entire book that she hates him. Even while they are getting busy. I could see it for the first few days, but after almost two months of them working together, sleeping together, she still tells him she hates him every chance she gets. It got to the point where I just wanted to smack some sense into her head. I’ve never read a more fickle pickle character. Phoebe could never decide what she wanted, when she wanted it, or anything else for that matter. Her character really didn’t appeal to me at all.

And unfortunately Nick wasn’t any better. He was a jerk to not only Phoebe, but almost everyone else he met. He constantly slammed their small town, calling them hicks and hippies and simpletons. Even after he started to assimilate to the small-town life, he would snark out snide comments that had me rolling me eyes at him. I just couldn’t get on board with him attitude or reasons.

The romance didn’t work for me either. Maybe it was because they were both such difficult characters to like, I just couldn’t find the time to get invested in their romance. I found myself just hoping it would end soon….

All in all I was pretty disappointed in this Fiesty book. While the sexy times were hot (as always with Fiesty) the rest of the romance and character development that I’ve come to expect just didn’t live up to my expectations.
I give Deliciously Sinful a D