Jessa Gibson may be new in the little town of Granite, Texas, but in no time at all her gourmet food truck business is booming. Soon she'll have enough money to open the restaurant of her dreams. But first, she'll have to appease the hot local health inspector, no matter how strange his "violations" sound to her. No pink plastic gloves? Really?
Max Hager isn't exactly who he says he is. Pretending to be a health inspector is a (mostly) innocent mistake. A mistake made way worse by Max's immediate, electrifying attraction to the curvy, sexy, redheaded chef. Throw in a whole lot of lust, and things in Jessa's little kitchen are about to really start heating up. But can Max find a way to come clean with Jessa before his little deception turns into a recipe for disaster?
MY REVIEW:
I was excited at first to read this book. I was totally impressed with the fresh approach Alison was taking on the plus size. With the being from the POV of Max Hager, a man. To let us into the mindset of a man and just how much they can suffer from the stinkin’ thinkin’ as we women do.
And that when they lose their weight and are trying to maintain their goal weight how it can be a sticky situation. Because I guess they are looked at by other men as superior beings who have much better willpower.
Being that he couldn’t cook left him with little options. Once he left home. Being an only child of a mother who showed her love through her cooking he had to get out and go to a trade school. An electrician was what interested him. He also got a trainer and a food plan. Still one problem. Can’t cook. He was tired of salads and fruits.
He started checking out the restaurants but none had anything on his food plan. Until he walked into The Empty Plate Café, meeting Pops. You see he didn’t see anything on the menu he could eat. Being that the place was so packed he didn’t think anyone would notice him leaving. Pops did though. He asked if there was a problem, in a way Max knew he really cared. Not like his parents who he had told about his eating plan but still served the same food they always did when he visited.
So, Max found himself telling Pops about being overweight as a kid, about losing the weight and being on a maintenance plan. Pops looked at him with some thought and then said I’ve got something I can fix you that will meet your needs. From now on when you come in just ask for the special and I will have something that will meet your eating plan.
From that moment on Max has been Pops’ loyal customer. Now he’s on his way back from a two-week stay at his parents and he can’t wait to get back. All he has thought about is a hot cooked meal from Pops’ place. Since he can’t cook and he didn’t feel he could ask his mother to cook two different meals all he has eaten is fruit and salads all the time back home. But when he arrives it is a packed parking lot but he is the only customer in the place.
He finds out through Pops that a new food truck has set itself up right across the street at the park and is stealing all his business. So, he decides to pretend to be the new health inspector that is not been hired yet. In order to get the guy to move away from the area of Pops place. He really wants to help Pops out. Really? I got to 18% of this book and couldn’t go any further.
Here’s why….I finally figured out why. Max is being a bully. While he talks himself out of the fact that he is really not being one. While the whole time he is, he likes to really think he's a champion of women but he's being a bully. Not overly mean no but lying. But then what got me is that he was being intimidating and sexually harassing to her when he went into the truck for the first time making her feel uncomfortable by the way of her still thinking he was the health inspector who could pull her license. I am all for the people being attracted, which they are. I get the bantering, which they do like sexual foreplay.
For someone who had been teased his whole life, he should have known better than to bully her. He keeps talking to himself about how he is not a douche to women and he would be the first to defend them yet here he is sexually harassing her at her workplace. But the minute he took it inside and put hands on her hips it is no longer a game. Whether he is a real inspector or not that is harassment and I say, “No Stop! Flag on the field!” Nothing may have happened I'm sure but it made her feel uncomfortable. I was done. Story over for me.
Which was too bad. I think this could have really been a good solid book with not only funny moments but good learning tools as to how you can just have an eating plan, exercise, to keep it off that you have to talk about it or you never get rid of the demons that cause you to allow the food to run your life. I really loved her other two books and I really wanted to love this one too.
I give this: 2 stars. Provided by netgalley.com. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com.
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