Title: Cooking With Kandy (Will Cook for Love, Book 1)
Author: Peggy Jaeger
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Female CEO, Chef-lebrity
Book Blurb:
Sugar and spice and everything sexy make the perfect recipe for romance in this brand-new series by Peggy Jaeger. Look for exclusive recipes in each book!
Kandy Laine built her wildly popular food empire the old-fashioned way—starting with the basic ingredients of her grandmother’s recipes and flavoring it all with her particular brand of sweet spice. From her cookbooks to her hit TV show, Kandy is a kitchen queen—and suddenly someone is determined to poison her cup. With odd accidents and threatening messages piling up, strong-willed Kandy can’t protest when her team hires someone to keep her safe—but she can’t deny that the man for the job looks delicious. . .
Josh Keane is a private investigator, not a bodyguard. But with one eyeful of Kandy’s ebony curls and dimpled smile, he’s signing on to uncover who’s cooking up trouble for the gorgeous chef. As the attraction between them starts to simmer, it’s not easy to keep his mind on the job, but when the strange distractions turn to true danger, he’ll stop at nothing to keep Kandy safe—and show her that a future together is on the menu. . .
Excerpt:
Sitting across from each other at the breakfast bar, Josh’s stomach muscles contracted when her eyes rolled and her lips curled in delight at her first taste.
“You know.” He swiped his mouth with the linen napkin she’d given him. “I think I finally get it about cooking. About the way you cook, anyway.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, forking in another bite.
“Watching you put together a full meal or just cook something simple like this, you get an incredible rush from it, don’t you? From the prep work to the actual cooking to the eating. It calms you. Consoles you. Makes you feel better no matter what kind of a day you’ve had.”
Kandy lowered her fork to her plate, all the while staring at him.
“It also,” he added, “lets you be in total in control. The way the food comes out is dependent on you, on how you prepare it, cook it, and serve it. You’re in absolute control from beginning to end. Comfort and control.” He took a sip of orange juice and met her gaze. “Two very powerful emotions.”
Kandy’s hand continued to grip the fork. “How do you do that?” she asked. “How do you break something so complex down into something so easy? It’s amazing.”
Josh finished off the omelette. “No, it’s not, not really. I’m a good observer. Most people aren’t.”
“More than good. You pegged my mother from the moment you met her. I’ve never seen another man do that.”
Josh’s grin split across his lips. “Your mother is priceless and harmless. My guess is most people don’t look past her blatant flirtatiousness to see the actual woman beneath.”
“You did. From the second you met her, you knew what she really was.”
“Of course I did, Kandy,” he said, refilling his juice glass. “Don’t forget, I’d already met you and Gemma. I figured the rest of your sisters were pretty much like you two, personality-wise. None of you could be the way you are without a strong female in your lives to have influenced you so positively.”
Kandy frowned. “But what about Grandma? She was one of the strongest women I’ve ever known, and she never flirted with anyone. Grandpa was the big tease there.”
With a nod, Josh said, “And a lot of what you are is based on her influence. Who you are is another story.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, finishing off her omelet.
Josh took a breath and then finished his juice. He rose and crossed to the sink, glass and plate in hand. “Sophie gave you a love for cooking. All the aspects of it, including the sense of accomplishment it brought.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Hannah, on the other hand, taught you how to be a survivor.”
Scratching her head, Kandy asked, “Explain that.”
“You were thirteen when your dad left?” She nodded and took her own dish to the sink, rinsed both sets and put them in the dishwasher while Josh continued.“Old enough to understand the implications. Old enough to see how it affected your mom. And old enough to appreciate how difficult it must have been to keep you all together.”
Resting back against the counter, Kandy crossed her arms in front of her, making her breasts swell across the top of her skimpy, tantalizing dress.
Josh’s heartbeat galloped when he saw the beautiful flesh pop up into his view.
“Right. I remember some discussion about the younger ones going to live with Aunt Lucy or Aunt Trudi for a while. Mom refused to split us up.”
“And worked two full-time jobs and a part-time weekend one to make sure you could all live together.”
She nodded. “Mom was a sticker. She could have run out on us just as easily as Dad. Seven kids—and all girls—was a big responsibility. But she didn’t.”
“No. She stayed and tried to make it as easy as she could on all of you.”
They were silent for a moment as Kandy digested that. When her eyes found his again, she said, “So you think seeing how she stood her ground and went on with her life is what makes me the way I am?”
Buy Links:
Books-a-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Cooking-Kandy/Peggy-Jaeger/9781516101108?id=7423724839353
If money were no object, where would you go for a Spring Break vacation and why?
Back to Hawaii. I went with my hubby and my 4 year old in 1994 and haven’t had a chance to get back yet. At the time, we were living in Superior, Wi and we left on a January day where the temp was 42 below ( wind chill) at the Duluth airport. When we touched down in Hawaii, the temp was 82 degrees and balmy. Over 100 degrees warmer than where we’d left. When we got back on the plane to go home 10 days later, my 4 year old and I both cried our eyes out at having to leave paradise. Warm paradise! Hawaii was simply put: beautiful. We didn’t have a day that the sun didn’t shine, we didn’t have a night where the warm breezes didn’t lull us to sleep. The people we met who lived there were lovely and so sweet to my daughter. It was a vacation I would replicate in a nano-second.
What’s your favorite thing about Spring and why?
Can I say the snow melting? No? Well, I guess my favourite thing (aside from the snow melting(!)) is that the grass starts to turn green again. I love a nice lawn. It looks good, smells good, and just makes me feel happy to be alive!
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Open internationally
Runs April 1 – 30
Drawing will be held on May 1.
Author Biography:
I'm a #contemporaryromance writer who writes #RomComs about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If I can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, I've done my job as a writer! #Family and #food play huge roles in my stories because I believe there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, I bring all topics of daily life into my stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents I longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through my books, I've created the families I wanted as that lonely child. When I'm not #writing I'm usually #painting #crafting #scrapbooking or #decoupaging old steamer trunks I find in #rummagestores and #garagesales. A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, I am a member of #RWA and my local New Hampshire RWA Chapter. As a lifelong diarist, I caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit me at peggyjaeger.com where I'm blogging about life, writing, and stuff that makes me go "What??!" daily.
Social Media Links:
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