A young food photographer's appetites are awakened when she is swept off her feet by a handsome billionaire gourmand. Beautiful and talented Catherine Kelly is starting over as a food photographer in Chicago. With her painful past buried in California, she's focused on her career and is hungry for little else. Until she meets a wealthy bachelor with arresting blue-grey eyes filled with enough tragedy to match her own. William Lambourne is rich, powerful, and gorgeous--and as talented in the kitchen as he is in the bedroom. From the moment they meet, William is determined to discover the perfect recipe to unlock Cat's resolve, awaken her senses, and make her his own. Book 1 in The Epicurean series, A TASTE OF YOU will leave you hungry...for more!

Although I generally don’t like the idea of guilty pleasure books – from where I’m sitting, if you’re reading, who cares what it is?! – I can’t ever seem to stop myself from feeling a little guilty about the occasional erotic romance I pick up.  I feel about them the same way I do about ready meals – I feel like I should want to pick up something more nutritious, more healthy, less processed and yet some days, I just want to eat the ready meal (actually this isn’t a great analogy because I frequently want to eat the ready meal and only occasionally get drawn in by the erotic romance, but the idea is the same).

I pretty much knew when I decided to start A Taste of You that it would be very formulaic – insecure woman meets rich, mysterious, secretive man, and the two get involved in a controlling relationship which alternates between awesome sex and terrible communication.  I know the stories are often repetitve, but I just can’t help but pick one up every now and again, and although A Taste of You follows that basic formula, I think it’s one of the better ones.

It thrilled me to think that this man wanted me.  It made me feel sexy and powerful, even though I was completely at his mercy.

Cat Kelley is interesting: she has hobbies, passions, friends.  She has a history.  She’s had relationships – successful relationships – before she ever meets William Lambourne, so she sees the red flags just as we do, instead of being totally naive.  William Lambourne fits the same mould as Christian Grey etc, although we get to see a little bit of personality shine through towards the end of the book which I liked.  Their will-they-won’t-they relationship kept me engrossed, even though some of Cat’s moments of insecurity did make me want to shake her occasionally.  Their back stories are both interesting, the sex-scenes are steamy, and the food descriptions both in and out of the kitchen are evocative, adding an extra dimension to help A Taste of You stand out.

A Taste Of You delivers exactly what you expect and I flew through it in a couple of days.  It was enjoyable enough, but even with the cliffhanger ending (which sadly, I thought was very predictable!), I probably won’t be reading the sequel unless I can find it at the library.