Thursday 10 November 2016

Mixing It Up – by Tracie Banister

Original Cover
My own copy

The blurb:

Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Manhattan upper-cruster Cecily Sinclair now uses that pricey utensil to dish up fancy French fare on her cooking show, Serving Romance. When there’s an executive shake-up at the network, she’s not worried. Not much anyway. Her show’s a hit after all. Why would the new CEO want to mess with success?

The driving force behind several buzzed-about networks, Devlin Hayes is considered to be a wunderkind in the television industry. Although his plans to rebrand CuisineTV and make Serving Romance more Millennial-friendly don’t thrill Cecily, her charming, blue-eyed boss is a hard man to say “no” to and she really wants to keep her job—even if that means sharing screen time with a loathsome blast from her past.

Mercurial Italian chef Dante Marchetti a.k.a. “Il Duce” was once Cecily’s boss, and she has the PTSD to prove it. Now the owner of one of the hottest restaurants in town, Dante’s egomania knows no bounds and his constant attempts to provoke and upstage Cecily make her want to conk him on the head with a sauté pan. She thinks they’re toxic together, but viewers love their chemistry and clamor for more.

As Cecily battles to maintain the integrity of her show, she finds herself scheming and manipulating right along with Dante and Devlin. Is she fighting a lost cause? Does she really belong on TV, or would her culinary talent be better served elsewhere? And could one of the men who makes Cecily’s blood boil ignite a passion in her for something other than food?

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*

I have read Tracie’s first two novels; they have actually been one of my first one as a real book blogger. Anyway, I really adored them both, so I was really excited when Tracie asked me to read and review this.

This story follows Cecily Sinclair who’s a chef and works at a TV network. She is really passionate about food and cooking, but is somehow not doing what she really wants to in her life (I won’t say more here ;)). She knows what she wants though and is ready to fight for it.

Let’s get to the leading men now. Yes, you heard right, men in plural. First up there  is Italian chef Dante Marchetti. He was once her boss and now she has to work on this live TV program with him. You can assume how pleased Cecily is. And then there is Cecily’s boss Devlin. He is very handsome, but Cecily has difficulties figuring him out. She has great chemistry with both men and it was really excited to see in what direction the story will go in that sense. Let me tell you this: I was pleased!

There are also some other lovely characters in this story and some of them get their story told as well, which is great. The characters were all very well lined out and it was fab following them around.

Tracie’s writing is quirky, exciting, fun and full of sparks. I really enjoyed this story. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get into the story, but Tracie’s writing totally made up for it and I was able to dive in.


Rating:




My possible cast:

Cecily: Claire Holt
















Dante: Giulio Berutti















Devlin: Dan Stevens
















AUTHOR BIO

An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O'Hara. Her work was first seen on the stage of her elementary school, where her 4th grade class performed an original holiday play she penned. (Like all good divas-in-the-making, she also starred in and tried to direct the production.)

Tracie’s dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a "real" job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, she decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Mixing It Up is her fourth Chick Lit release, and in it Tracie finally got to live out her fantasy of being a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. 

CONNECT WITH TRACIE

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1 comment:

  1. I love your casting choices, Simona! I'm unfamiliar with Giulio Berutti, but YUM! He would make a perfect Dante. Thanks so much for your wonderful review of Mixing It Up. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. :)

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