Hidden Impact by Piper J Drake is everything I live for in romantic suspense. It’s popcorn-required-action-movie suspense. Lots of things will blow up, the bad guys will be really bad, the threats are global, the hero runs around shirtless and sweaty, but you know everyone will be okay in the end. I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers and sometimes I just get really sick of the possibility that the heroine (or hero, or supporting cast) will be raped and dismembered and buried in a basement somewhere. Hidden Impact is the kind of romantic suspense where you can just relax and let your brain go to its happy place because the adventure is fun and you know that no one will really get hurt.

That said, the book isn’t perfect. It’s the first book in the Safeguard series, and it suffers a little from first book syndrome. It starts off with a bang, but lags a little in the middle, before picking up again. Also there’s a fair amount of exposition and introduction of the supporting cast that make up the world. All of this is balanced out by the fact that the book is fun and the heroine is a chef and OMG will this book make you hungry.

When Maylin Cheng approaches mercenary and veteran Gabriel Diaz to help her find her missing sister, he turns her down. Anmei Cheng disappeared while at a conference in China, and Gabe knows she’s most likely dead already. Plus his team of ex-military action heroes, Centurion Corporation, is better at blowing shit up than finding missing people. Moments later Maylin is almost killed in an assassination attempt disguised as a an accident, and Gabe realizes there’s more to her case than meets the eye.

Anmei is a geneticist, and Gabe and his team begin to suspect that her disappearance is linked to her work. Then Gabe finds out that his ex-flame, also the woman who tried to kill him, is somehow involved too. Adding additional tension is the fact that Maylin and Gabe have some serious pants feelings for each other, which is kind of inconvenient when shit is blowing up all around them.

One thing I loved about this book is that we get a serious helping of competence porn. Maylin is a chef/caterer. When things get tense, she immediately starts stress cooking. When Gabe takes her back to Centurion Corporation’s HQ for safekeeping, she brings her cooking tools along with her because they bring her comfort. I can’t cook to save my life (ask my husband about my gritty pancakes or the time I basically made mustard gas in the kitchen), but I sure do love to eat. Maylin cooks a lot traditional Chinese cuisine that made my mouth water.

Here she is baffling Gabe by her preparation of ho fun soup:

…Maylin went about dropping her uncooked rice in a blender complete with the water she’d used to soak it overnight. While it was blending, she took out a deep Dutch oven from the back of the cabinet and put a bunch of large spoons in the bottom. Gabe couldn’t figure out how the hell she’d be cooking with that setup. Next she took out a cake pan and greased it lightly with vegetable oil. Then he was really confused.

She set the Dutch oven on the stove over fire set to the highest setting and poured some water in it. As she turned away, he craned his neck to see inside. The water didn’t quite cover the rounded backs of the spoons on the bottom.

What the hell?

Next, the cake pan was set on top of the spoons with what looked like a thin layer of the rice batter she’d made. Then she covered the whole thing.

No idea what was going on there. But Maylin turned to other ingredients, browning ground pork and fresh minced garlic in a medium pot and filling the kitchen with savory scents to make his mouth water.

Gabe jerked when she turned around to look at him with a raised eyebrow, and gave her a guilty grin. Caught staring. But hell, the magic she worked in the kitchen was beyond him.

“Do you mostly cook Asian foods?” Was that a safe question? Might not be.

But Maylin didn’t seem to mind. “I cook dishes from a lot of different cultures. I love Italian and Greek. But when I’m worried or anxious, I tend to fall back on the dishes I learned to make growing up. Less likely to mess those up when my mind is working through other things.”

Their conversations continues for a few pages about Gabe’s love of Brazilian food, and his offer to teach Maylin a few simple dishes, to the story of why he had to learn to cook for himself growing up. The most important and revealing emotional moments of this story tie into food and the kitchen, and I love that. Also I’ve never had ho fun soup but I need it like right now.

Maylin does a lot of cooking for the members of Centurion Corporation and they all value her skill. These are people who, like Liam Neeson, have unusual and dangerous skill sets, but they look at Maylin’s talent as equal to theirs. And the fact that she’s providing them with hot, nourishing food versus takeout or protein shakes is looked upon as something important and contributing to their overall health and well-being.

There were times when this book dragged a little in the middle. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that the sexual and romantic tension were resolved fairly early on. There’s always the question of what will happen to Maylin and Gabe once Anmei is rescued, but about a third of the way into the book they are pretty much a couple.

Also I found Gabe’s nemesis and ex-lover, another mercenary named Jewel, to be a little clichéd – almost farcically so. Her involvement in Anmei’s kidnapping makes the mission personal for Gabe, but sometimes she talks like a rip-off Bond villain.

Those were minor complaints through. I genuinely loved the fact that this book was a perfect, stress relieving read. Things blow up. Jet-setting action-adventure will be had. Muscles will ripple. But everything will be okay, both for the characters, and the reader.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to the next book in the series (due out in May) and scouring the internet for where I can get some ho fun soup around here.