Dining with Joy: TLC Book Tours

Release date: 2010 / 300 pages

Synopsis (from the back cover): Host of a regionally-syndicated cooking show, Joy Ballard has a little secret: she can’t cook. But when her show is picked up by a major network and given a prime time slot, her world heats up faster than lowcountry boil.

First Sentence: Driving the Sea Island Parkway with her windows down, the nose of her Dodge Ram cutting through the swaths of shadow and light cast through the limbs of shading live oaks, Joy surfed her hand through the textured, saline lowcountry breeze.

Review: When TLC Tours contacted me about reading and reviewing Dining with Joy, I accepted based on the above line of plot. I have recently discovered a love for cooking — and reality cooking shows — so spending a few hours “behind-the-scenes” of one such show sounded too fun to pass up.

And, “fun” is an apt description of Joy — both the novel and the character. Joy is a charismatic writer-in-waiting who agreed to take over her father’s cooking show when he died, despite her aversion to cooking and food. However, once the show is sold to a major network, she desperately needs the help of a handsome chef down-on-his-luck.

The genre of this novel is clearly romance, but Hauck is deft with her character descriptions and even the most minor characters are easy to love, even the villainous Wenda Divine who is determined to “out” Joy for who she is — a fraud in the kitchen.

While I enjoyed the characters and setting of this novel — as well as the basic narrative — I was a little surprised by the frequent references to Jesus and God’s Will and found this aspect of the novel discordant. Besides the fact that most romances I have read have not been “spiritual” in nature, I was surprised that Joy could embrace deceiving her myriad fans, yet justify or at least dismiss this behavior by praising Jesus regularly. Now, obviously even the most devout Christian has flaws and blemishes, but lying to a nation of viewers, friends, and the man she loves for so long seemed out-of-sorts with her professed faith. So, the spiritual aspect of this novel was an uneasy fit and a bit of a distraction.

Other than that minor irritation, I did enjoy this romance and think most romance-lovers would, too. So, if you think you might be interested, please leave me a comment below and I’ll choose a lucky winner this week!

In addition, for all of you foodies out there, the author is giving away a free Kitchen Aid mixer – but today is the last day!

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Dining with Joy: TLC Book Tours