This Guest Review is by Catherine Heloise, author of a recent Book Rant about Shakespearean retellings with rock stars. This time, she’s gleefully squeeing about Laura Florand’s new book.
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Let me start by saying that I adore Laura Florand’s work. She’s basically my perfect author for when I need utterly joyful, light, sensual escapism. Her novels are all set in Paris or Provence, and centre around food and cooking and chocolate, or else around flowers and perfumes, with every scent and taste lovingly described. As a Francophile who is obsessed with cooking, particularly desserts, these books basically could not be more perfect for me if they tried. Also, she won my heart entirely in The Chocolate Touch by having her hero take his issues to an actual psychologist to help sort them out, which is something that does not happen anywhere near enough in romance novels, in my view.
So when Ms. Florand sent me a review copy of Chase Me, I basically sat down after work and after choir on a weeknight and devoured it in one sitting. Sleep? Who needs sleep?
And I loved it – in fact, I think it’s one of her best books to date – but not for any of the reasons I wrote in the first paragraph.
In her afterword, Ms. Florand mentions that this book was going to be much lighter than it turned out. But she had already written her hero as an American military type who was working with the French to foil a possible terrorist plot when the real-world attacks on Paris occurred last November, and this could not help but change the tone of the story. References to the November attacks, and their effect on Parisians are dotted through the story, and compared occasionally to the effect of the September 11 attacks on the US psyche.And so this book feels different to her other work. Paris is still there, as beautiful as ever, and almost a character in its own right, but it is not fantasy-Paris – it’s the Paris that was subjected to two terrorist attacks in 2015. And there is a lot more real-world stuff going on underneath the banter, the sexy romance, and the gorgeous food, notably the relentless sexism that Violette has to deal with both in the kitchen and on social media. Where Ms Florand’s other novels are reminiscent of the fantastical spun-sugar and chocolate sculptures that she writes about so lusciously, this novel is a bit less frothily escapist, a bit more real: a savoury, truffle-filled omelette, not a delicate dessert. Delicious, but with a bit more substance.
(You will be glad to learn that Ms. Florand also writes far better – and subtler – food metaphors than I do…)
The heroine of this novel is Violette, a chef who has earned two Michelin stars for her kitchen at the age of just 28 and who has that combination of utterly professional, serious focus on food combined with the joy of feeding people that is, I suspect, necessary to survive the sort of horrendous working hours that are part and parcel of working in the food industry.
The hero, Chase, is an American black ops / counter-terrorist type (I’m not sure his actual job is ever specified, in the end), who is investigating rumours that someone plans to use Violette’s restaurant for a mass poisoning with ricin. Chase is cocky and arrogant and charming, but really is almost as good as he thinks he is. Incidentally, I love that both hero and heroine know exactly how good they are and are not afraid to say so, nor does the plot punish them for this.
On rereading, I noticed that the story comes together in three acts. The first act really is straight out of a James Bond or heist movie. Chase breaks into Violette’s restaurant to check on said rumours, but Violette is still there. She throws a knife at Chase, and as far as he is concerned, it’s love at first sight:
The knife she held whizzed right past his ear and buried itself in the wall two inches from his head.
“Jesus H. Christ!” he yelled, jerking far too late to the right. “What the hell? You almost killed me!”
A second knife appeared in her hand. “Don’t be a baby. That was three centimetres away from you. If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.”
There was a God after all, and He loved him. Chase could not believe a hot blonde in leather had finally said that to him in real life. […]
“Are you left-handed?”
She gave him the barest of smiles, shifting her right hand just enough to let the light flicker off that giant blade. “No.”
Oh, wow. “Will you marry me?”
He means it, too. But he has a job to do, and part of the job is getting Violette out of that kitchen. The banter between Chase and Violette in this scene and beyond is gorgeous. Chase does eventually provide his cover story, and checks the kitchen under Violette’s supervision, after which they wind up at her place, for what Violette assumes is a one night stand, but is clearly a little more than that to Chase, despite his ulterior motive. The sex is, incidentally, incredibly hot, even though Violette just can’t stop herself from correcting Chase’s French at a crucial moment (which made me so very happy, because I’m enough of a French nerd to have winced when he said that, too).
And then Chase leaves before dawn, and Violette arrives at work the next day to discover that her career may be over, and that Chase was, at the very least, complicit in making this happen. And that’s the end of Act 1….
What I found compelling about this story was the way the relationship is negotiated. Ms Florand is very good at writing characters who behave like grown-ups and can have useful conversations. Having said that, when Violette is angry (and she is very angry, and with good reason), she likes to express herself by throwing things. You realise that she likes Chase when she starts throwing soft things at him, rather than, well, knives. Or pots. Or fists. (Chase just thinks it’s cute and a little bit hot when Violette throws stuff at him. It’s not an abusive relationship, in any sense.)
A big source of tension in this book is that while Violette’s job is something she has worked incredibly hard at and is also extremely important to her, Chase’s job is life or death, which kind of trumps everything else. If it’s a choice between the survival of Vi’s restaurant or the survival of a whole bunch of civilians, there’s really only one way to choose. One thing I liked about this was that though the stakes are so much higher in his job, Chase does get how much work Violette has put in to get where she is, and how important her reputation is. Florand walks a fine line here, but she manages manages to show that Violette’s job is important without lessening the fact that actually, this is a life and death situation, and Chase’s job is life and death.
I like the fact that Violette can be absolutely furious with Chase for not telling her things that affect her restaurant – and can stay furious with how he handled it – but that their relationship can cope with the fact that she is angry with him, as well as with the fact that he would do exactly the same thing again if he had to, and they both know it.
I also like the way Chase adores how strong Violette is, and the way he basically takes one look at her at the very start of the novel and goes, yep, this is the woman for me, and really doesn’t waver from that at any point (even if he makes some unbelievably stupid mistakes on the way through).
And I loved the fact that when Chase, in their very first meeting, jokes about having children and Violette says, yeah, what I really need as a 28-year old woman who is just reaching the top of my field is a career break for kids. He immediately backs off and says, right, yes, good point, I’d better call off my grandmother then. The fact that he really does get it, and understands how important her career is, even that early in their acquaintance made me really happy.
And then there’s this:
He found a three-minute video of the kitchen in full swing and watched it with some fascination. The reflexes and precision, the way those knives moved across a cutting board or sliced through a fish, the constant intense physical action. Interesting the careers people chose. A lot of these guys would probably have made good soldiers, maybe even elite ones like him if they tried, but they’d focused on feeding people instead.
That worked, he guessed. They were both important jobs for keeping people alive.
I enjoyed the secondary characters in the book, too, especially Violette’s friends. And I like the way Violette’s team comes together to handle the various crises, in particular the climactic one in the book, during which everyone remains totally in character.
The other thing I really liked about this was the end of the book. So much of the story is Chase and Violette dealing with each other and what Chase has done to her career in the wider context of Chase’s mission – which naturally, he can’t tell Violette about. And then, well, I don’t want to spoil this completely, but something fairly big happens and it sort of shocks everything into place.
But that isn’t where the book stops, and to me, that was the most important thing, because it is only in the aftermath of all the plot that has been flung at these characters that one truly gets a sense of how they can build a relationship and a life together. Prior to this point, there has been hot sex (and did I mention that the sex really is *very* hot?), and banter, and misunderstandings, and lots of things being thrown at Chase, and yes, moments of both friendship and tenderness, but really, Chase is the only one who has seen it as a relationship. Violette still thinks that Chase is joking with all the marriage proposals. And so in some ways, the relationship has to start over at this point, with different base assumptions. I think the epilogue is the most necessary epilogue I’ve ever encountered in a novel – it really cements the relationship, casting a different light on the past but also showing how things will go on in the future, and how Violette and Chase will recover from the scarier things that have happened and build a life together.
This review is kind of relentlessly positive, but even after reading the novel twice in the space of 48 hours, it’s hard to find much to criticise. Chase had some moments of incredible stupidity early on that I didn’t think he could come back from, but he managed it. I also looked down at the percentage marker on my Kobo at one point in the book and wondered how Ms. Florand was going to finish the book in the space left, because it felt like the plot was only just getting started. But, to my delight, the pacing really worked.
Basically, I loved this book and loved both Chase and Violette. When I said that I read the book twice in 48 hours, well, that’s partly because I was writing a review and partly because the book did make me race through it the first time I read it and so I wanted to take a longer look at some sections, ideally when it wasn’t 2am. But… not many books can stand being read twice in quick succession. I actually loved this one more the second time around. I don’t think I can recommend it much more highly than that.
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I had completely forgotten that Florand had a new book out until last week, and then I figured that I could always get it when I have more time. But your review really makes this seem like a “clear my schedule” book that I need to move to the top of my TBR list immediately. I agree with you whole-heartedly on The Chocolate Touch and how refreshing it is that Dom actually sees a therapist!
I’m so pleased this was well reviewed! I love Florand’s work, but I was hesitant to pick up a novel with a military hero (they’re not normally my bag). I’ll definitely be picking up a copy.
I finished this last night and could not agree more with your review.
I thought the banter was really well done.
I’ve picked up a bunch of Laura Florand books during various sales, but had never been in the right mood for one before, but the excerpt for this book was enough for me to pick it up on release day, and I loved it. The banter and chemistry was awesome. I immediately proceeded to stay up way too late reading the preceding book in this series and now I want to read all the connected ones (luckily I think I already own a bunch of them!) Apparently Laura Florand will be the theme of this week 🙂
Wow, that is some review. I love military protagonists when they have a reason for being military. And I have loved everything I’ve read by Florand so far. Another one for my ever-burgeoning wishlist …
I agree with the reviewer. Had the honor of receiving an ARC of this roughly a month ago. I loved it and Chase easily made it into my top three favorite Florand heroes.
Fabulous review! I felt the same way – it’s Laura Florand, but with a sharper more contemporary edge in this one versus the other series that she writes (on that note, I think Paris Nights is a great series name). And I loved the banter between Chase and Violette, lots of laugh out loud stuff there in between the serious parts of why Chase is really in Paris.
Well, that first excerpt clinched it for me. One clicked. I really need to be monitored.
I have no idea why I’ve never read anything by her, but I’ll be fixing that shortly. Fantastic review!
I loved this review but fortunately, I didn’t one click. While I laughed out loud during the sample chapter, I really did not feel the style. Violette kept on stressing how strong she is – show, don’t tell! She is a successful chef, she rides a motorbike and knows how to throw a knife – that’s impressive and quite enough, thank you. I really do not need to be told again and again how she holds her own in a male-dominated environment. And when did the word woman go out of style? She is always described as “the female”… huh?
And why did Chase feel the need (twice) to go after that one employee that had molested her? She had already resolved the situation (quite masterfully, in my opinion). If Chase really respected her strength and capability to master her work environment, would he do that? Sure, it’s framed as a protective feeling but I found it patronising that he couldn’t back away from that issue.
Also, I felt that the banter was a little abrupt at times – but that might have been an issue with my Kindle. I went back twice to check that I wasn’t missing any sentences…
Wrapping up, I would like to stress that I only read the sample chapter and it just didn’t resonate with me like it did with the reviewer and the other commenters. I am sure other readers will enjoy the book immensely and not stumble over the same issues I did.
I, too, love her books but I didn’t love this one. I thought the seriousness of the situation took me out of the story. Too many things were realistic and portrayed realistically for me to then switch into fantasy mode within a chapter or page or paragraph. After rereading this review, though, maybe I’ll reread it and change my mind. Joss and Celie’s story is my next least-favorite. Maybe I’m just not feeling this series.
LOVED this one–the Chase POV in the first scene reminded me a lot of the many-sheets-to-the-wind Matthieu Rosier in the first scene of Once Upon a Rose. There’s a charming combination of vulnerability and strength that Florand manages really well in her heroes. I did the insta-re-read, too.
Totally agree on the hotness of the sex scenes!
Also, believable motorcycle-riding high-achieving control-freak heroine. Let’s not be too picky, y’all. That’s not an easy mind for most authors to get inside.
Thanks, Catherine, for a great review 🙂
“Incidentally, I love that both hero and heroine know exactly how good they are and are not afraid to say so, nor does the plot punish them for this.” This sentence is enough to make me read it.
I adore Laura Florand too, but I have to say this didn’t feel right somehow, it was very well written and there was a compelling story but both protagonists are too perfect, absolutely no imperfections, which does tend to happen when books are written, but combined with the fact that there story didnt have a great flow, this made it this book a little off for me. Now, the story had excellent potential, and Florand writes so well, it cannot be VERY wrong but it was very abrupt, they meet in her kitchen, and bam! two days later love and the whole shebang! I mean, I didn’t see a story where they connected, it felt just like two very good looking people just getting the hots for each other. And this is unusual for Laura Florand, her stories are so exquisitely and delicately crafted, but still if you’re a Florand fan, read it. Perhaps don’t start with this.