Susan Volland, Cooking for Mr. Right

Cooking for Mr. Right By Susan Volland

In Seattle, twenty-six years old sous chef Kate Linden feels like drowning in her toilet when her former lover and still friend Gaston informs her he is marrying an elementary school teacher Courtney Davis he just met. Though previously Kate decides that Gaston was too regimented for her, suddenly she feels obsessed that she should be the bride so she cooks up a plan to get Gaston back in her life as her lover.

To achieve her objective, Kate leaves Sounds Bistro to work full time on a recipe for success starting with obtaining work at his office and enlisting his mother as an ally. As her memory of her time with Gaston comes back into focus, she recalls why they were wrong for one another. Still she remains steadfast and obstinate staying the course even as her efforts leave her target, their mothers, his fianc e, and cute Sam who wants her cooking for him, bushed.

Though well written, this chick lit tale is difficult to swallow because Kate is obsessively nasty and willing to do any dirty trick regardless of who she hurts; Gaston is so superficial he belongs in Congress;, and Courtney is a bubbly dope. Only Sam seems nice amongst this generation in which even secondary characters like Chef Dierbocker are cruel, stupid or both. In spite of questionable antics that readers might find amusing (as long as it is someone else), Kate concocts quite a banquet, but shocking herself she remains unhappy even when her intended gourmand seems to desire her home cooking.

Harriet Klausner