A Rare Find: A Celebrity Chef Opposites Attract Contemporary Romance

School Ties Trilogy #2

by Tracy Kelleher

How does a rule-abiding, accomplished woman fall for a rebel college dropout? It's something rare-books curator Penelope Bigelow is still trying to figure out! Regardless of what logic she tries to use, the proof remains that when celebrity chef Nicholas Rheinhardt is around, her composure takes a vacation. With all the reunion festivities, it's hard to avoid him…especially since he needs her expertise in antiquities for an upcoming episode of his cable travel show.Too bad the past isn't what Penelope's focusing on when she's with Nick. There's more to him than his infamous reputation-and that intrigues her. Penelope isn't looking for perfection…even though Nick's coming very close!

Genres: Romance

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

After graduating from Yale University, Tracy Kelleher spent the next few years working in Italy. She returned to the United States to study medieval history in graduate school at Cornell University, but decided that academic life was not for her. She migrated to the Big Apple, where she worked at an advertising agency. Fast-forward through marriage, two children, one dog, and freelance writing for newspapers and magazines. After her children entered school, she became a staff newspaper reporter and later the communications director for a non-profit organization that mediated disputes in Central and Eastern Europe. Eventually she returned to publishing as a magazine editor. Tracy sold her first romance to Kensington while she was a reporter and finally quit her day job after she found a home writing at Harlequin. Tracy values the flexible lifestyle that writing affords her. She has carried her laptop across three continents and swears that having to write in places such as Australia and Southern France has not hindered her ability to focus on her work. She currently lives in New Jersey and is hard at work on her next novel.

Reviews

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une romance contemporaine originale par sa façon d'être traitée mais qui ne nous marquera pas plus que cela.

Contrairement à d'habitude, cette romance a pour narrateur le héros, Nick Rheinardt, baroudeur et présentateur d'une émission culinaire et de voyages. Suite à la demande de son ancienne université (où il n'a passé qu'un an et sans avoir son diplôme), Nick se retrouve à devoir préparer une émission sur le lieu et à écrire un discours pour la remise de diplôme des dernières années. Il espère retrouver ses anciens camarades, aller à des fêtes où la bière coule à flots et retourner dans les anciens restaurants qu'il a fréquentés étudiant pour son émission. Sauf que tout ne se passe pas vraiment comme prévu. Il rencontre la soeur d'un ancien ami, qui travaille à la bibliothèque du campus, et tombe sous son charme. Il se voit aussi contraint de s'occuper de sa fille, qu'il n'a presque jamais côtoyée, le temps d'un week-end prolongé. Obligé de jongler avec plusieurs éléments en même temps, d'assumer des responsabilités dont il n'a pas vraiment envie et essayer de séduire une jeune femme légèrement asociale, Nick n'est pas sûr de survivre à ce week-end.

Le personnage le plus intéressant est Pénélope, la bibliothécaire. Sa personnalité assez étrange constitue tout l'intérêt du livre. Le héros est par moments sympathique et à d'autres franchement nul. Ayant vécu toute sa vie en égoïste, on a du mal à croire qu'en quelques jours à peine, il puisse devenir un meilleur père et un petit copain modèle. Le personnage à tout du baroudeur qui ne se fixe pas et qui change de nana comme de chemise. L'auteur nous fait suivre aussi plusieurs personnages secondaires ce qui nous empêche de nous concentrer vraiment sur le couple principal. Sachez également que ce livre peut être lu indépendamment, mais qu'il suit Le défi de Lilah, paru en juin.

Au final, cette histoire est sympathique mais sans plus, vite lue et vite oubliée. Des personnages intéressants mais pas assez poussés, ce qui gâche un peu l'effet recherché par l'auteur. Pas indispensable.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. I could see in the earlier books that the relationship between Eli and Laurel wasn't the strongest, so the end of their engagement wasn't a surprise. It was something of a surprise to me that Eli fixated on Kara so quickly, but he was surprised by the flare of attraction he felt that night he went to her house. Once he realized that the feelings he had for Kara were far stronger than those he had felt for Laurel, he set out to convince her that they belonged together. He had some great ways to do it (besides the obvious) and I loved their picnic on the beach. Kara had been in love with Eli for years, and wasn't convinced that his pursuit of her wasn't just some sort of rebound thing. I loved the ending when she went to him at the park, and again at the dinner with her family. I'm really looking forward to the next two books in the series - I think I know who the bad guy is, but I'm not positive.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. It has elements of farce, like the TV food & travel guru hero and his epic encounter with a crazy masseur in one of the "stan" countries. The heroine is a rare book librarian with poor social skills. The flaky hero has a teenaged daughter who brings conflict with her. He comes to the college he never graduated from for a pre-graduatiom speech. His TV show wants to do a show at the college town, which creates more conflict. It's a good story with some nice angst. I liked it a lot.

[Arlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by a friend, this is my first and last Harlequin Romance. She gave it to me, and admittedly, these sorts of books do not appeal to me. It's wonderful that Tracy can be so successful writing this kind of novel.

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: School Ties

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: School Ties