Guest Post: An introduction to Sugar and Spice by Angela Britnell

Today I'm joined by Choc Lit author Angela Britnell to talk about her latest novel Sugar and Spice which I'll be reviewing shortly as I received a copy of the book in a goodie bag from a recent book launch I attended for two other Choc Lit authors.

Luscious Lily, the sparkly, over-the-top celebrity chef who stars in ‘Sugar and Spice’ is Lily Redman’s alter-ego. She loves cooking, eating and sharing her passion for food with everyone she cares about. Now she’s faced with the worst possible scenario. Against her better judgment she’s fallen in love with a man totally disinterested in food and hasn’t a clue what to do about it, or him.

Kenan Rowse’s culinary palate has been trained by his mother’s plain English cooking, British army rations and the fast-food he lived on as a financial trader. He doesn’t understand the current craze for gourmet foods and the idea of a 24 hour TV channel devoted to cooking ranks alongside the horrors of shopping in his view.

Before we go any further, in the name of full disclosure, I should confess to my own weakness for TV cookery shows and also that I have no desire to be cured! Some people might say I only wrote ‘Sugar and Spice’ to have an excuse to watch more in the name of research, but of course I will strenuously deny this while making sure I don’t miss a single episode of ‘Chopped’. I would watch Lily’s Celebrity Chef Swap in a heartbeat, if I had time to fit it in between ‘Food Court Wars’ and ‘Next Food Network Star.’

It was a lot of fun to write about Lily’s struggle to get Kenan to open up about anything - from 
fried chicken to his disastrous marriage. I imagined her going about it in the same way as she does when she creates a new recipe for her popular TV show. Lily tries different methods
and tweaks the ingredients until the taste is absolutely perfect and that’s what she has to do 
with Kenan. But finding the right balance between sugar and spice in a cake recipe is easy in 
comparison and that’s where the fun came in…Oops, almost forgot, a new episode of ‘Pioneer Woman’ is about to start and I absolutely need to know how to feed a whole bunch of cowboys and rope a steer at the same time!

The Way to a Hero's Heart ...

Fiery, workaholic Lily Redman is sure of two things: that she knows good food and that she always gets what she wants. And what she wants more than anything is to make a success of her new American TV show, Celebrity Chef Swap - without the help of her cheating ex-fiance and producer, Patrick O'Brien. So when she arrives in Cornwall, she's determined to do just that.

Kenan Rowse is definitely not looking for love. Back from a stint in Afghanistan and recovering from a messy divorce and an even messier past, the last thing he needs is another complication. So when he lands a temporary job as Luscious Lily's driver, he's none too pleased to find that they can't keep their hands off each other!

But trudging around Cornish farms, knee deep in mud and meetings with egotistical chefs was never going to be the perfect recipe for love - was it? And Lily could never fall for a man so disinterested in food - could she?