Title: Brimstone
Series: Culinary Creatures: Book One
Author: L Eveland
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 122 Pages
Category: Paranormal Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
At a Glance: Brimstone is an amusing little tale, but I needed a bit more for it to satisfy. I did like both Inzo and Adam and their complementary passion for food and the art of its creation, though.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Becoming Brimstone’s head chef is a dream come true, even though I’m the only human on the staff.
Working for Chef Inzo Amoretti? Not so much. Sure, he’s a talented genius and distractingly gorgeous, but he’s also a demanding incubus with impossibly high standards, especially when it comes to me. It seems nothing I do in the kitchen is good enough for Chef Inzo.
Yet he’s so sinfully attractive, I can’t stop thinking about him, even when he’s shouting at me.
Falling for my boss is bad enough, but for an incubus? Is it worth putting my soul on the line for a little taste of heaven?
Review: Brimstone is categorized as a high heat/low stakes monster romance, which is accurate, though sometimes to its detriment. There are some pretty high stakes involved for Inzo Amoretti should he allow himself to claim his human soulmate, but it’s largely brushed aside in favor of maintaining this novella’s light and spicy intent.
There’s so much more I wanted to know about the world in which these characters move. Instead we get a brief intro called “Dear Monsterfuckers,” in which the author tells readers that the world is essentially the same as our own but different. Werewolves, incubi, and minotaur are just a few of the paranormal beings that inhabit this story in which humans are in the minority, and in fact Adam is the only human to grace these pages. That he is a world-class chef is an anomaly, but it’s nonetheless his passion and one of the reasons Inzo is so wildly attracted to his head chef.
What this story delivers is akin to an office romance, except set in a Michelin starred restaurant in LA. The conflicts go beyond the conundrum of an employer/employee romance, though, venturing into the dilemma of Inzo’s and Adam’s difference in species. Sex was off the table . . . until it was on the table (sorry) and every other flat surface. There was no way that’s not where the author was leading their characters. Inzo is an incubus, after all. That’s the point of Brimstone, and while it’s an amusing little tale, I needed a bit more for it to satisfy. I did, however, like both Inzo and Adam and their complementary passion for food and the art of its creation.
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