50books_poc | 'Delicious' by Sherry Thomas

'Delicious' is a historical romance novel by Chinese-American writer Sherry Thomas, and it is the most joyful, sexy, entertaining and good hearted romance novel I think I've ever read. The heroine is 33, and not a virgin! The hero is sweet and doesn't act like a domineering alpha male! Food is sexy. Food is really sexy. 'Delicious' has been reviewed here and here. I disagree with the second review in that I don't think Stuart acts like that much of a jerk. I think his actions are quite in keeping with his social conditioning, and the world he's been brought up in, not to mention a reaction to the way that Verity treats him which is, let's be fair, a bit unreasonable at times. She keeps him in the dark, manipulates him, and plays the 'woman of mystery' card far too much. And he comes through in the end, when he declares that he will marry her, no matter what. To me, his failings are what makes the novel seem real.

I was, however, slightly disapppointed with the treatment of homosexuality in the book. I spent the first half wondering if there was going to be a central bisexual or gay male character, but that rather fell through, which I thought was a shame. Ditto the other main female character who briefly was revealed to have had a girl-girl encounter, but that was dropped fairly rapidly. Nevertheless, I did still like the secondary romance and found it really quite a nice contrast to the average 'snarling alpha male gets virginal girl' narrative than most romance novels follow.

And can I go back to the food? I've never seen food used in a romantic novel before, nor really thought about how damn sexy food can be, and found it fantastic. I loved the descriptions of the food, of the contrast between Thomas' very honest description of how years in a kitchen affects someone, combined with the incredibly sensual fairytale descriptions of the food produced as a result. It was just amazing.

I adored this book, despite its failings. This may be because I'm a sucker for romance novels, and might be because I'm a sucker for really nice food, but either way, I'm happy to recommend.