Date Published: July 2009
ISBN: 978-0-440-24432-5
Victorian, Historical Romance
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lil
Verity Durant has made a name for herself not only for her glorious cooking but also for her scandalous, thoroughly fallen-woman private life. The man she once believed to be her prince turned into a frog when he researched into her background and found her lacking. He continued to be her employer but she never allowed him more than that, again.
Ten years later, Bertram Somerset passes in the midst of one of her superb repasts. All is inherited by his bastard half-brother with whom he had had a complicated and combative relationship. Whereas the legitimate brother has been a sybarite, the illegitimate one is ponderously correct in behavior. The latter has had much to prove, and he has done so thoroughly enough that there is talk of a career at 10 Downing Street.
Verity and Stuart have met before and shared a brief but fiery passion. She never admitted to whom she was, and now he is engaged to someone else.
Ms Thomas’ phrasings, descriptions and dialogue are a joy to behold. Her writing is one of the most beautiful that I have had the pleasure to come across.
She offers characters that could never be described as run-of-the-mill. Verity is a woman who goes through ruin, desperation, and finally has the opportunity to re-make herself. Likewise, Stuart is besmirched by the circumstances of his birth and grows up trying to do everything better and more properly than anyone else in order to prove himself worthy. Through most of the story we ache for the hero and heroine as they skirt about identity, desire and social expectations. The characters are put through a very hard and winding road, tumultuous in the extreme in their search for happiness and peace. The distressing beat is lightened by the secondary characters’ romance. The two have a wonderful flirtation and some of the most charming dialogue.
My problems with the book had to do with the contrived situations that kept the hero from recognizing his past lover, the passion of his life. The initial coyness became exasperating with the progression of the tale. Unfortunately, the end also felt rushed and stilted with information poured forth almost too quickly to be fathomed.
Be that as it may, DELICIOUS is a sumptuous treat for food loving romance readers. One can’t help but become addicted to this author’s writing.
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