SUSPICIOUS MINDS Leanne Burroughs Burroughs starts this impressive anthology off to a great start with her SUSPICIOUS MINDS story. In combining all the elements needed for an emotional, passionate story, with a wee dram of humor in special moments when lines from Elvis Presley songs would mysteriously pop out of a spooky juke box at the precise moment needed to keep everyone on track. Darcy had an immense amount of stress to deal with including a broken heart for trusting the wrong man. Only Ross knew she was perfection personified, from the first moment he met her and wanted nothing more than to lift the world off her shoulders and her pert little body into his bed for the rest of his life. A truly delicious start to this anthology with a bonus recipe at the end of this story for Butterscotch Squares looking awfully yummy, too!

A SPAGHETTI KIND OF LOVE Michelle McGinnis - Mama Mia, or better yet Great Grandma Carmella's red sauce; you have to admit if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, shouldn't women have equal rights, too? Well it wasn't just for Dave's grandmother's sauce recipe, but I loved the pure honesty of how Dave went about showing and telling Meggin how much she meant to him and how he wanted their future to progress. This one was short, sweet story complete with a beautifully romantic declaration of love.

A HEART'S HUNGER Anne Elizabeth Memories are like stealthy fun loving puppies, biting you on your heels to remind you to remember what is best not forgotten. The author uses this vehicle with Carolyn and her friend Tina as she and her best friend chat over shared memories as well as sharing the chores of putting together a family meal. The reader sees no matter how much Carolyn wanted to forget her roots, they were always there, especially when every prospective male she met was measured up against Bennett and they all fell short of expectation. This was a sweet story, with a lovely romance stirred into the pot.

KISSING KATE Jaquelin Lorin While this is a very common plot line where the boy runs away from home to seek fame and fortune leaving behind a trail of broken hearts, the authors puts a very sentimental and heart tugging emotional spin on it to reveal facts of the true reasons why Nick left and what events led him to stay away. She revealed Kate's inner turmoil over still loving him so much, in such a way that this reader shed tears as if I were the one left behind who didn't want to get hurt again. This was a perfectly lovely story, and I can't wait to try out Kate's 'peach cobbler' recipe!

BIRTHDAY BLUES Amy Blizzard This was a very sweet, witty and clever story. Claudia was an extremely up-tight and suspicious woman who was surprised at her door by a very handsome dude who could have been a molester or burglar and her reactions to him were completely plausible. Nick, the chef, wasn't quite sure what he'd gotten himself into by doing a favor for her friend Dawn but when Claudia let her hair down, he was ready to prepare any dish she wanted. The dialogs were yummy as is the recipe for Sweet N Simple Fruit Salad.

CLAM CHOWDER FOR SAMANTHA'S SOUL by Jill and Julia Well, I'm not sure about the recipe for 'Whitaker's Clam Chowder' recipe at the end of this delightful short story, but the story itself was mighty tasty. Admittedly, Mitch acted like a real ass when he assumed all the wrong things about Samantha, but thankfully the introduction of a delightful wise-cracking gnome-chick by the name of Lola, gave him the inspiration to save his butt and not let Samantha, the next best thing to ice cream, get away!

THE TROUBLE WITH BELGIAN WAFFLES Kristi Ahlers
I so enjoyed this story! Not only was the author able to make you laugh out loud with Claire's disastrous attempts in the culinary arts, but you had to love her klutziness as well. Detective Drake definitely noticed his neighbor, obviously not for her culinary talents, but as one very sexy looking young woman he would really like to taste. The pacing was just right in this, the dialogs were lovely and the obvious attraction both felt for one another was 'smoking' just like Claire's attempts at cooking! Loved the proposal and had a tear in my eye. Superb!

KEEPING HANNAH SAFE Billie Warren Chai In one short story this author managed to grab hold of your attention with a very funny kitchen disaster, spark it up with a wild attraction, toss in a twist or two with a little bit of suspense and have it all come together in one totally enjoyable and heady romance. Excellent characterizations and with so much going on in this tale, I'd love to have seen this as a full length story!

RECIPE FOR DISASTER Bobbi Dumas The author paints Jason as all that is kind, considerate and loving anyone's ideal of a special person in their life. She also paints a complex guilt ridden heroine who has loved Jason from childhood and relished her summer vacations to visit. This was a very good, sweet and emotionally touching story where the author explained and showed the guilt parents could load up on a young child. Thank goodness for happy and wonderfully romantic endings and a terrific dessert.

SOUP d'AMOUR M.J. Sager Both Connor and Layla were very well defined and giving Layla a gift of sight where she immediately saw herself married and making love to this stranger made this short story all the more enjoyable. What Connor's matchmaking Uncle Leo couldn't do in his life was to arrange to have the two people he knew were soul-mates to get together once and for all after his death. Well-written, humorous and sensual with a wonderful recipe for my favorite soup!

SWEET SAUERKRAUT Gerri Bowen There's nothing more I like than a sweet Regency tale and though this was short and sweet it combined all the elements I look for in a historical read with humor and a little bit of silliness to toss in the pot. The idea of a Regency lady wanting to cook was clever and original. During that period, it was one thing to cook privately in the home, but to enter a contest where the judges would be from the upper echelons of society, now that is original! Very well done, but just can't say I have a fondness for sauerkraut, sweetened or otherwise!

THE MAN HAS A SWEET TOOTH Diane Davis White Sadie the Shady Angel and her mentor Pricilla are back into the swing of things to help two strangers make a match. Bottom line on this story is that the author has a marvelous sense of humor and though not the leads in this story, the reader is definitely going to remember Sadie the Shady Angel and Pricilla as these two angels argue over how to get Joe and Leonora together! The dialogs are witty, and the sexual attraction is strong making the reader smile from start to finish and the recipe for Easy Raspberry Brownies sounds positively decadent!

THE PUMPKIN PIE MURDER Victoria Houseman Shall I say this was sweet, with all the beautifully described pastries that came in only second to this "love at first sight" story? Well, it was sweet, and the old clich of 'love at first sight' was beautifully played out under this author's well-written hand. Both characters, Detective Sara Stone and Silas Edwards were very well fleshed out and with a tad bit of humor added into the pot, you couldn't ask for more except maybe one of Silas's pastries!

CHICKEN WHAT DU HELL DeborahAnne MacGillivray Remy (aka Royce Torqhill Remington Kinross, the 13th Marquis of Dunmoor and Seafeld) and his cat Bubba were not scoring points with the gifts Bubba was dropping off at their beautiful neighbor Catonia's house. Although Bubba, who kept bumping his head in adoration of Catonia's beautiful boobs seemed to be getting a lot further along in the romance department than his master, Remy was bound and determined to change that right quick!