Penny Watson - A Taste of Heaven

Good little widow Sophia Brown always follows the rules. When the producer of a cooking competition requests an amuse-bouche, the chefs stick with proteins. Sauces. A savory concoction. She has only one shot to impress the judges on A Taste of Heaven. But in a moment of defiance, she creates an extraordinary dessert, one that combines both the bitter and the sweet, just like her own life.
That one bite changes everything.
After a year grieving for her dead husband, forty-seven-year-old Sophia is finally ready to break out of her shell. Unfortunately, there is a large, angry obstacle standing in her way. Scottish chef Elliott Adamson has a chip on his shoulder the size of Loch Ness, and he’s blocking her path to victory.
Spurred by her daughters, she embarks on a poignant adventure that takes her from the wildflower fields of Vermont to the wind-swept vista of North Berwick, Scotland. Fear, courage, and inspiration from unlikely places will mark this journey, and Sophia is determined to persevere until the very end.

Comment: Years ago, I have read another book by this author and while it wasn't memorable (I remember nothing about it, to be honest), it seems that it was at least enjoyable, according to what I wrote about in in comment for this blog. After reading that book that I had seen the author had this one, which some readers whose taste was similar to mine were recommending. Well, it was also enjoyable but, just like it happened with the first one I tried, this one ended up not being as amazing as I wanted.

In this story we meet widow Sophia, still mourning the death of husband but trying to keep up with her garden, her interests in food and herbs while being there for her teenage daughters. To cheer her up, they decide to sign her up for a cooking competition, which will be filmed nearby, and on a whim she actually accepts because she knows she needs to set the example. She wasn't counting on chef Elliot, a big bearded Scottish man who acts superior to everyone else, and in a mad scheme by the producers to pair up amateur cooks with professional chefs, she somehow finds herself teaming up with Elliot. But they are very different people, can they find common ground to win the competition?

This is a short story, in the sense that my eBook edition didn't quite reach 200 pages. In a way, I think that perhaps this might have been my biggest issue with the execution, because with a short amount of pages, it didn't feel they were enough to explore some of the situations depicted.

Sophia is a very likable character, she is mourning someone she was in love with and she has daughters who want her to feel excited about something again, and cooking can be it. The cooking show has merit and I've been a fan of those shows, well some of them, thus the idea of seeing it part of the plot and of the main characters' evolution seemed to be great. I was rooting for her and for things to go well on both fronts, for her a woman and as a participant in the show.

Of course, some antagonism was necessary and chef Elliot was quite the choice. He, and the other chefs, signed up thinking this was a competition for professionals, which can in part explain his behavior, but we learn he needs the money to save his restaurant back in Scotland, which hasn't been doing well and is in danger of having to close down. I also understood his attitude of defending Scottish cuisine and traditional flavors, especially when the show was being filmed in the US and part of the competition process was aimed at seeing them use local products.

Sophia and Elliott pair up almost reluctantly but it's the rules, and we can see how they would see things differently in the way each one cooks and thinks about it. Still, considering this is a romance story, they quickly talk and learn about trusting one another for this competition, since they have to do things as a team. This conveniently leads them to be closer and to find a way to respect one another, at several levels. It also helps them to see the other differently and, in particular, as a possible romantic interest, but for me this is where things didn't go as smoothly.

The romance is just too quick, even accepting the fact they are mature people, with no need for games or indecisions. But they both need to deal with how their relationships were before accepting the idea this new person might be better (in his case) or just as great (for her). The proximity due to the show helped but they do have a larger period of time during the plot being at opposed ends of what the whole thing means for them, and I don't think the evolution of their feelings, even if based on sexual attraction too, was done well enough to make me change my mind.

Then, close to the end of the cooking show, they have a frank conversation and things progress between them, and the end comes. To include a little spoiler, I can say one of them is definitely the winner because while they work as a team, the money prize will only be given to one person. This causes some major changes in how they see one another and leads to them deal with this individually. Then, the winner does something that surprises the other and I assume the idea was to highlight what love does and so on. I think the end was a bit exaggerated, even for a romance - which I was convinced was that solid anyway.

I did like the food descriptions and all the cooking references... often some scenes would remind of the cooking reality shows I've watched and liked, and the whole thing was very appealing. However, the romance and the choices for the end were a little far fetched and not truly balancing when I think about the elements I liked the best. It does seem this author is consistent for me, but not spectacular.

Grade: 6/10