Joel Fisher has been out of commission from a serious illness for the better part of a year, but now he’s ready to reclaim his life—except his apartment has been sublet, his partner is missing, and their shared food truck is stripped of everything not attached. In short, Joel has nothing. After an uncomfortable night sleeping on the food truck floor, Isaiah and Thomas Morrell give Joel an offer he can’t refuse: a rented room in their house, as well as their help creating a new food truck concept. Joel hates accepting charity, but he’s hit rock bottom and has nowhere to go but up.
Working with seemingly uptight Isaiah is actually pretty fun, and the pair bonds over a challenge to create a unique grilled cheese sandwich. Light flirting melts into a deeper connection neither man expects, but Isaiah isn’t in Reynolds for much longer, and Joel can’t get attached to the gorgeous professional chef. As Isaiah’s feelings for Joel strengthen and grow, he entertains the idea of staying in Neighborhood Shindig for good—but Joel hasn’t asked him to…
Welcome to Neighborhood Shindig, a friendly place where you can snack on a lamb kebab while getting your hair done, pick up your favorite herbal tea blend, and then go listen to live music under the pavilion. We’re happy to have you.
First off, reading this book made me hunnnnnngry. There isn’t much better out there than melty cheese and carbs, so Melting for You was speaking my language and the author did a great job of describing the MC’s culinary adventures so the food became a character as well. Which was important for this story as food was a passion for both Joel and Isaiah. Albeit in slightly different ways, it didn’t matter because the story that was told showed how the love of creating good food is universal and I liked that message very much. From high end haute cuisine to food truck fare, good food makes the people happy.
Joel was a character I could really root for. He had some serious crap he’s going through with his health and when he recovers enough to get back to the food truck he loves he finds his partner/ex has committed felony levels of douchebaggery. Joel’s a tough cookie and all around good guy though, so the nonsense doesn’t break him down and he’s committed to turning the stream of negativity around and make the messy mess into an opportunity.
And he does. Not without the help of some convenient coincidences, overly open strangers and whatnot, but who cares when it’s Joel? Not I. Isaiah and his father are the overly open strangers who opened their doors, their hearts and in Isaiah’s case, his pants to Joel allowing Joel to find his feet with his new food truck concept. It was fun reading about Joel and Isaiah brainstorming and experimenting with their ideas and I liked their culinary chemistry a lot.
I didn’t feel a ton of chemistry between them in the relationship department though. Melting for You is the least angsty A.M. Arthur book I’ve ever read and I like the voice of the less angsty story I just think I needed a little bit more of Joel and Isaiah together just being Joel and Isaiah. Not chefs, not temporary business partners, not anything else but two men falling in love. There always seemed to be something else going on that distracted from their time a bit. And it was all good distractions, all good stuff that I wanted to read about, I just needed a smidge more Joel/Isaiah time.
Melting for You is a good start to a series for foodie romantics and there are a lot of us out there. I’ll be looking forward to reading the next one. And getting hungry all over again.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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