Star Cruise Chef’s Kiss (The Sectors)
by Veronica Scott
My Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f
Blurb:
Five star chef Stephanie Clemmons has a contract to cater a Halloweenlike party on the planet where her cruise ship the Nebula Zephyr orbits. Little does she know the dangers of a night where alien demons walk among humans and never expects the deadliest demon of all to offer her a bargain. She has to cook a special dinner to satisfy him or spend the rest of eternity laboring in his hellscape kitchens.But as the night and the meal progress, Stephanie and the demon lord discover they both may be getting more than they bargained for, as undeniable attraction grows between them. Can an ancient Lord of the Underworld and a human chef find a way to make a new bargain for love?
This story first appeared in the Celestial Seductions anthology, which is no longer available. I’ve added 6K words including an epilogue to the original novelette.
My Review
I enjoyed Veronica Scott’s Star Cruise books and was happy to see a new book in the series. Chef’s Kiss has a bit of a paranormal flair added as Chef Stephanie gets in contact with a demon who wants her to cook for him.
This was a fun and quick read. Chef Stephanie has to cook for a demon to be allowed to leave his realm. Their meeting leads to a one night stand after which she returns to the cruise ship. She keeps thinking of her one night stand with the demon and whether she’ll see him again.
I thought the food theme was fun and I liked reading a bit about what Stephanie cooked, although I wouldn’t have minded some more about the food as I like that theme. I hadn’t expected to read about demons in this world, but there are more paranormal like elements in the series so it didn’t clash as badly as I had feared.
I liked reading about Chef Stephanie and her connection with demon lord. Things do turn steamy quite quickly and I would’ve like a slightly longer story to see their emotional connection deepen a bit, but I still liked their romance. Their connection was clear and I liked seeing them figure out a way to be together.
To summarize: This was a fun and quick read in the Star cruise series. This book has a paranormal twist with the love interest being a demon lord. I liked reading about chef Stephanie and reading about what she cooked for the demon lord. Their connection develops quickly and turns steamy. I would’ve liked a few more scenes to see more of their emotional connection develop, but I did like them together.
I felt the same about it being a fascinating blend of sci-fi and PNR, but definitely needed a tad more romance development to be perfect. Those exotic foods she made were definitely fun to read about.
I am glad we could buddy read this one. I definitely enjoyed reading about the foods she make and the blend of scifi and PNR worked well, just a shame there wasn’t a bit more romance.
Sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing.
It sure was an interesting read.
Now this is a genre bender… I love a good foodie book and love the blending of paranormal and sci-fi.
The blend of genres worked well here as well as the addition of the foodie theme.
This sounds like my kind of book.
I can certainly recommend it, it was a fun one.