Chrissy’s Review: Mixing It Up by Tracie Banister

Mixing It Up
written by Tracie Banister
published by Tracie Banister, 2016

find it here: (affiliate links) Amazon, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: I have really enjoyed Ms. Banister’s books, so I was really excited to read Mixing It Up. It was a fun read!

Cecily Sinclair is a successful TV chef and is entering a new phase of her career . . . with a co-star, the insufferable yet dashing Italian chef Dante Marchetti. These two have amazing on-camera chemistry. And let’s not forget the station’s new CEO, Devlin Hayes. He’s handsome, smart, and willing to take some risks.

The food is well researched. Ms. Banister describes the meals and dishes with great detail. You will definitely be hungry while reading this book. I know I was! The relationships are all different and interesting. I love the two male leads, but I think my favorite relationship was between Cecily and her cousin, Dina. They have a great relationship–one that is more like sisters than cousins. They are so different from one another but so close to each other.

This book is definitely filled with some heat, some good food, and some great romance!

 

Would I recommend it: Sure! But definitely read her other books, too! =) (You can check out my reviews here: In Need of Therapy and Twin Piques.)

 

About the book – from Goodreads: Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Manhattan upper-cruster Cecily Sinclair now uses that pricey utensil to dish up fancy French fare on her cooking show, Serving Romance. When there’s an executive shake-up at the network, she’s not worried. Not much anyway. Her show’s a hit after all. Why would the new CEO want to mess with success?

The driving force behind several buzzed-about networks, Devlin Hayes is considered to be a wunderkind in the television industry. Although his plans to rebrand CuisineTV and make Serving Romance more Millennial-friendly don’t thrill Cecily, her charming, blue-eyed boss is a hard man to say “no” to and she really wants to keep her job—even if that means sharing screen time with a loathsome blast from her past.

Mercurial Italian chef Dante Marchetti a.k.a. “Il Duce” was once Cecily’s boss, and she has the PTSD to prove it. Now the owner of one of the hottest restaurants in town, Dante’s egomania knows no bounds and his constant attempts to provoke and upstage Cecily make her want to conk him on the head with a sauté pan. She thinks they’re toxic together, but viewers love their chemistry and clamor for more.

As Cecily battles to maintain the integrity of her show, she finds herself scheming and manipulating right along with Dante and Devlin. Is she fighting a lost cause? Does she really belong on TV, or would her culinary talent be better served elsewhere? And could one of the men who makes Cecily’s blood boil ignite a passion in her for something other than food?

 

 

About the author: An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O’Hara. Her work was first seen on the stage of her elementary school, where her 4^th grade class performed an original holiday play she penned. (Like all good divas-in-the-making, she also starred in and tried to direct the production.)

Tracie’s dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a “real” job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, she decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Mixing It Up is her fourth Chick Lit release, and in it Tracie finally got to live out her fantasy of being a Cordon Bleu-trained chef.

Find Ms. Banister here: blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, Newsletter – The Banister Buzz