Review Tour + #Giveaway: Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking by Linda Griffin @LindaGriffinA @GoddessFish

 

Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking

by Linda Griffin

GENRE: Romantic Suspense

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?

Excerpt:

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?

My Review:

Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking is everything the title says it is. There is love, death and cooking. There is plenty of mystery surrounding the deaths alone to keep those pages rolling. Oh, and have I mentioned that there is a hot guy who knows how to cook?

Well, I am now. His name is Reid Lucas and he is new in town. Reid is a software engineer and has just moved from Chicago to California. After his interview, his new boss takes him out for a drink. Reid only has one drink but later on, he is arrested for DUI. In order to get out of jail, Reid needs someone local to post bail.

He calls the one person he knows or sort of knows in town in the middle of the night but he gets her roommate instead, Alyssa Knight. Alyssa is a police officer. Reluctantly, Alyssa agrees to go downtown and post his bail.

There is an instant attraction between Reid and Alyssa. Alyssa tries to take it slow as she is just coming out of a bad marriage but that seems to be impossible as they keep ending up in bed together. Reid is known for dating married women. Alyssa begins to wonder if Reid is only dating her because she is still married and wonders if he will drop her as soon as her divorce is final.

When Reid’s boss turns up dead he is the number one suspect. Reid couldn’t have killed him as he was with Alyssa at the time or could he? But it turns out that Reid just may have been a target himself. Is Reid guilty of murder? Or is he innocent? Is he a target? Does someone want him dead? Why is Reid on someone’s hit list? Why do they want him dead? What did he do? So many unanswered questions.

I enjoyed all the characters especially Reid and Alyssa. I loved the banter between Reid and Alyssa. I loved reading about all the food Reid cooked for Alyssa. It didn’t shock me in the least that a man knew how to cook as my husband is the cook in our family. He cooks and I clean up. Works great for us.

Once I picked up Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking it was so hard to put it down at times but life does get in the way on occasion leaving you with no choice. I wanted to keep reading as I followed all the twists and turns to find out whodunit. When I wasn’t reading I was thinking about all the characters and wondering who the murder was.

If you like a good romantic suspense novel then you are going to fall in love with Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking so I would like to suggest that you one-click your copy today! 

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).

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Buy Link:

Amazon

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon/BN GC

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