Delicious by Susan Mallery - was it?

I really like Susan Mallery’s books. I really do. She is an author who doesn’t get very much buzz at all and I’m not quite sure why. She’s written some wonderful little gems for Harlequin although I admit I haven’t read any lately. Unfortunately they come with some rather bad titles (The Sheik and the Virgin Secretary – blecchh, The Prince and the Pregnant Princess – another blecchh – good grief – I’m looking at some of the other titles here. Who comes up with these titles and who in their right mind wants to read about sheik’s? But I digress) Her earlier Harlequins – before the title names got ridiculous were pretty good. She also wrote some westerns I enjoyed under the name Susan Maccias. So – with a history of good books I’ve enjoyed under her belt, I read Delicious.
I loved it. I thought this was a great book, one of her best ones yet.
This is the story of Penny Jackson and Cal Buchanan. Cal has agreed to take on the task of saving his family’s restaurant. In order to do this, he needs a master chef. The one who is the best and the one he wants to hire just happens to be his ex-wife. This is a wonderful second chance at love stories. Both Cal and Penny are great characters. The reason for their failed marriage rests solely on Cals’ feet – but he realizes this and is very regretful of the fact that he hurt Penny so much in the past. But he thought he had his reasons……. Added to the complications is the fact that Penny is now pregnant. After her marriage to Cal failed, and no one else on the horizon, but wanting desperately to be a mother, she decides to go the artificial insemination route.
I loved both Cal and Penny. They were both fun and very likeable. It was very fun watching them work their way back together again. And I loved the secondary characters, Cal’s younger brothers and sister. Even the evil grandmother was an interesting character, a bit clichéd, but she certainly added to the story. I only had one quibble with the whole book and that was the character of Penny’s best friend Naomi.
Slight spoiler and a chance to use the hide feature

She “does” both brothers and then decides to go back to her husband – her character just made me squirmy.

Unfortunately I disliked her so much the book the grade get’s knocked down a peg.
I found myself thinking about this book at work and wishing I was home reading. It’s been a while since I felt that way.

What’s neat for us Susan Mallery fans is she has her next book – The Marcelli Bride (the brother’s story from a previous series) out in May and the next Buchannan brother out in July. I like that – not having to wait long.

Grade: Grade: 4 ¾ out of 5

(And it looks like I’m back reading again since I still managed to read this one despite my hectic work schedule- Yeah!)

'til later