Delicious [Mass Market Paperback]

Story Brief:
Verity is a lady who for unknown reasons has run away from her family. She keeps her identity a secret and works as a cook for Bertie. Her cooking skills are famous in England. She and Bertie have a brief love affair which ends. She goes to London to meet Bertie's brother Stuart. She does not tell Stuart her name or connection to Bertie. She leaves the next day, and he can't find her. She continues to cook for Bertie. Ten years later Bertie dies. Stuart inherits and arrives at Bertie's home. Stuart doesn't recognize Verity, but starts to develop feelings for her.

Reviewer's Opinion:
I wanted it to be over. During most of the book the couple is miserable and apart. They meet, fall immediately in love, he asks her to marry him, she runs away. Ten years later they meet again but cannot be together because he is engaged to another woman. Finally, during the last few pages of the book, they are happy together. I don't like spending most of the book being miserable and sad. Most romance novels spend more time with couple meeting and developing an emotional connection, with a short separation period. Not so with this book. Most of the book is separation.

I was pleased with and enjoyed the relationship between Will and Lizzy. There were some surprises, and I liked what was happening with them. The more I read, the more I liked Will's character and what he did. It's too bad that it was a minor subplot, because it was the best part of the book. Initially, Will didn't tell Lizzy about his potential inheritance. When she learned about it later and confronted Will, the reasons he gave her were good. I liked his reasons and was a little surprised by them. Well done author.

CAUTION SPOILERS:

A major problem with this book was too many conflicts based on inaccurate assumptions and vague communication (my pet peeve). The major plot conflict was Verity leaving her wealthy family and working as a cook. Verity was pregnant. Her Aunt told her she would be locked away for the rest of her life. The Aunt didn't mean it but was trying to scare Verity into better behavior in the future. Verity believed the Aunt's threat and ran away. The Aunt lies to her husband and says Verity died. Later when the Aunt learns where Verity is, the Aunt doesn't make things right, because she believes her husband will be mad at her for lying about Verity's death. Therefore, the Aunt monitors Verity from afar for the next ten plus years. When Stuart tells the Aunt he loves Verity and wants to marry her, the Aunt is happy to accept Verity back into the family and sponsors a big wedding for her. What??? After years of watching Verity suffer, the Aunt makes things nice? I also don't understand why Verity felt the need to keep her relationship to the Aunt a secret. This was too "cooked up" for me. I want something more believable.

Another miscommunication was Verity's lie to Michael for years, which was due to a promise made to Mrs. Robbins. Mrs. Robbins adopted Michael. A few years later Verity arrives to live nearby, and Mrs. Robbins is afraid Verity will take Michael away. Verity tells her no, that she just wants to be around him. Verity promises not to tell Michael that she is his biological mother. I think Verity and Mrs. Robbins could have and should have come to an agreement to tell Michael the truth much sooner than they did. Michael had guessed the truth long before it was told to him. Finally, Verity tells Michael that she is his biological mother, but she doesn't tell him who his grandparents are. This continued lie annoyed me.

Further, I didn't like Verity's lies to Stuart. When they first meet, he asks her to marry him. She is not honest about who she is and runs away. Ten years later, he asks her to marry him again. The same secrets exist, but she says yes this time. Her turnabout didn't make sense, her circumstances hadn't changed. I prefer true intrigue, not this keeping of secrets for illogical reasons. Also, why did she hide from Stuart for ten years? She loved him. If she was going to do this turnabout, why did it have to be so many years later? This was unfulfilling.

Story length: 404 pages. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 7. Length of sex scenes: 1 short scene (1 paragraph) and 6 long scenes (1.6 to 6.9 pages). Total number of sex scene pages: 25. Setting 1882 and 1892 England. Copyright: 2008. Genre: historical romance.

DELICIOUS "should" be a five-star book, but "should" is a pointless word: In the end, it is what it is.

That author Sherry Thomas is one of the best talents writing today is indisputable. Her prose practically sings.

Her research, without question, is thorough and definitive. And she evokes the era of the late Victorian period in England as successfully as anyone could do, blending sociology, politics and manners.

Obviously, however, there is a problem with DELICIOUS. And that problem is the plot; in a novel, however, plot is all-important. Yet the story that Thomas has chosen to tell is implausible, impossible, preposterous.

According to DELICIOUS, roughly one-third of the British peerage has been born on the "wrong side of the blanket," as the expression goes. Certainly, it defies belief that every other character here is illegitimate, or the parent of an illegitimate child.

Second, the young women of that era had to follow a firmly set code of morality. Did some of them stray? Definitely. Yet both the author's primary and secondary heroines are women who would have beeen construed at that time as being of easy virtue, "no better than she should be," as they used to like to say. Again, this seems to be unreasonable, even statistically unlikely.

Additionally, Thomas bestows powers and knowledge on some of the era's Grande Dames that not only are evil and unimaginable but also seem to cross the invisible line to magical in their impact. It's hard to believe in society hostesses, even the most important of the ladies, being as omnipotent and controlling as Thomas needs them to be for her story to move forward to its conclusion.

Finally, in an important plot point, it is difficult to imagine a servant using the private bath tub of the employers in their absence.

The political background clearly is interesting. More significantly, the descriptions of food, involving a character who is a cook, are magnificent, authoritative, detailed -- actually mouthwatering.

There is quite a bit of the real-life Rosa Lewis, the famous "Duchess of Duke Street" written into this character. Rosa's "Cavendish Hotel," with its renowned kitchen, was the favorite of the aristocracy and the true gourmets of that period. Rosa was reputed to have had affairs with several of her regulars including, possibly, even the Prince of Wales. (Later, Edward VII.)

Thomas hammers the fairytale theme, but there is no fairytale quality to the book, no sweetness, and the happy endings--all romances end happily--seem so strained that these are stupid.

Nonetheless, it bears repeating: Sherry Thomas writes exquisite prose ... she does wonderful research ... and she re-creates upper class late Victorian England as well as I've ever seen it done. And these are the reasons to read DELICIOUS.

The review by HeyJudy is spot on and normally I wouldn't write an additional review but for her rating and I wanted to mention a few specific points. I liked her previous book "Private Arrangements" very much (easily one of the best this year) and looked forward to this work but was sadly disappointed. If this was the first book I had read by the author, I would give it a single star but wrestled my way up to two because of the prose and the benefit of the doubt about her "intentions". The plot was awful and the reader does not grow to care enough about any of the characters to make up for this lack. [spoilers ahead] The silly ways the author uses in preventing Stuart from catching a glimpse of Verity's face (wash cloth, darkness, fog, back light, etc.) was irritating and contrived. The forced resolution on the question mistress or wife and the unbelievable dowager duchess character just added to the disappointment. [spoilers end]

The prose is excellent and her ability to place the reader in the historical time is very good. Before this, I would have bought a new book by the author without hesitation. Now, I'll have to read the reviews to decide. A fine point perhaps, but I wish I would have done so before I bought "Delicious".