The countdown to the Rising Star Chef series continues! To tide you over until August 2nd, here's a brand new, never before seen excerpt from the first chapter of Too Hot to Touch. If you've been wondering about the smokin' hot hero on the cover, this is your chance to meet Max Lunden! And his heroine (and rival chef) Jules Cavanaugh. Check it out and let me know what you think. Below is a tidbit to get you going! Click on the snippet to read the rest of the chapter...

Chapter 1 

The dining room was deserted, the cracked red leather of the banquettes sagging sadly over the snowy white, tablecloths. 

From here, she couldn’t tell that those linens were all fraying at the edges, but she could see every chip, every indelible scuff mark, in the gorgeous black and white tiles covering the floor. 

Jules Cavanaugh peered out the round glass window cut into the kitchen door and remembered another night when Lunden’s had been empty, just like this. Only tonight, there was no blizzard. No storm. No snow. 

And no customers, either. 

Mind full of the worries that had become all too common over the last year and a half—is it time to talk Gus into shutting down lunch service? Do we really need four servers on Thursday nights if we don’t get more than ten covers all night long? What am I going to tell Gino when he calls about next week’s beef order? They’re not going to extend our credit forever, even if Gino’s great-grandfather supplied the first steaks ever cooked at Lunden’s—Jules had managed to tune out most of the commotion behind her. 

A kitchen full of chefs with nothing to do was a recipe for trouble, and the Lunden’s crew was no exception... 

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 1:56 PM  

Labels: excerpt, Too Hot to Touch