Did you know September 10-16 is Chef Appreciation Week this year? How exciting is that?!
I know, I know, it’s back-to-school season, but I’ve already written a back-to-school post. Yeah, I’ve already written a food post too, but this time I thought it would be fun to talk about those who fulfill our fictional food fantasies, CHEF characters!
Romance is FULL of chef heroes and heroines. There’s just something about being in the kitchen surrounded by food that creates the perfect setting for love… or loathing. Chef heroes and heroines add a whole lot of extra flavor to typical romance tropes (pun totally intended). So in honor of Chef Appreciation Week, let’s explore how those tropes are so much tastier with chefs at the helm as we show our appreciation for those who heat up the kitchen.
One of my favorite tropes is loathe-to-love (aka hate-to-love and/or enemies-to-lovers), and when it takes place in the kitchen? Count. Me. In. 
What a place for cooks to clash! Egos flare, attraction sparks, passions ignite, and love fans into a flame. A perfect example of this is Jenny Proctor’s third Hawthorne brother book, How to Kiss Your Enemy All that friction between chefs Lennox and Tatum is so fun. Our very own Jan Thompson also has chef rivals in her Savannah Sweethearts series, Call You Home. Bonus, Jan’s title features a deaf heroine! (I love seeing diverse representation in Christian fiction. Isn’t it beautiful to explore God’s wide world through the eyes of others whose experience vary from our own?) Let’s give a shout out to Piper and Isaac! And one of my all-time favorite rival chef romances is Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish from rom-com queen Bethany Turner with chefs Hadley and Max battling it out for reality television glory.
If grumpy/sunshine romances are more your thing, what’s more fun than a broody, crabby chef? Valerie Comer’s chef Levi Esteban from Better Than a Crown is a prime example of hard-headed and brooding hero (and I adored him).
Billionaire, widower, and single dad romances are market staples, and you can find all three in Jan Thompson’s His Morning Kiss, where we meet a personal chef Skye.
See what I mean about putting chefs into all sorts of romance tropes? What a *perfect* way to add a little forced proximity, caregivers, or any number of other sub-tropes we love.
And I’ve got a few more personal chef books for you! Lavished with Lavender from Valerie Comer features both a nurse and a personal chef, which is doubly fab in my book (cheers for Chef Tony!). And I can’t forget my dear friend Teresa Tysinger’s personal chef Leah Spencer in Say It’s For Good, which also combines the tropes of second chances and a fake relationship with Teresa’s signature Southern flavor and gorgeous backdrops.
Speaking of forced proximity (and workplace romance!), Sarah Monzon’s Freedom’s Kiss is full of sparks between food truck owner Adam and chef-hopeful Olivia. Lindi Peterson’s Chef Grant reconnects with his childhood sweetheart and friend in Sweet Love of Mine, and you’ll have fun with Paige’s unique and tasty offerings in Elizabeth Maddrey’s opposites attract tale, A Splash of Substance while learning about sustainable food!
We’ve covered a lot of tropes already, but I can’t leave without appreciating the chef of at least one marriage of convenience book. Dwight Williams, chef of the legendary Maple Pit in Toni Shiloh’s Buying Love, is just the sort of hero worth appreciating. (Come on, maple barbecue and all the other maple goodness? Stop. I’m drooling.)
While it’s still fairly early in the back-to-school season, a lot of us are looking forward to Christmas books!! If that’s your favorite, Carolyn Miller’s upcoming holiday release will feature TWO chefs, Alphonse and Camille. Plus it’s a collection of short romances, so you know I’m down for that. (This tall girl LOVES her short books LOL!) You can pre-order Muskoka Holiday Morsels for auto-download on 11/2/23.
I also happen to have a holiday romance featuring a chef heroine. CJ Sinclair is visiting her sister this Christmas as she sorts out her life after breaking free of a traumatic relationship. There, CJ reconnects with her former best friend and first love, ex-military musician Tobin, in Now and Forever Christmas, a friends-to-more second chance tale with a wacky, lovable family lightening the serious moments. There are plenty of those, since CJ walked away from God for a while and yearns for redemption and forgiveness with her fresh start.
Whew! We covered a lot of ground today! LOL! I hope our chef characters feel appreciated. 😉 Wouldn’t you agree the passion, artistry, and dedication of chefs make the most overdone of tropes more palatable?
Since all of our chefs here are fictional, I’d like to offer my own personal appreciation gift to one lucky reader! To enter the random drawing for an eBook edition of Now and Forever Christmas, be sure to comment with your favorite fictional chef, the title of the book they’re in, and/or which of YOUR favorite tropes I missed! Remember, until tomorrow 9/12, your comments are ALSO your entries into the 2023 Back-to-School Bash!
Until next time, happy reading!
Things have been weird in JayceeLand the past several months. I’m still trying to find my groove again, and what mojo I do find comes in small snippets that disappear soon after. So rather than force myself to write, I’m taking the summer off to focus on my family, my home, side projects I’ve set aside too long, and OF COURSE, reading. How better to beat the heat? (Or cold, if you’re in the southern hemisphere!)
What’s your favorite trope within CCR? I see this question asked a lot, and I have to admit I am one of those people who can’t choose a favorite ANYTHING to save her life. I mean, in all the breadth of the whole world, why would I limit myself? I do find myself drawn to some more than others, however, and one of my top ten favorites is childhood sweethearts.
The cover is unarguably the single biggest draw to a reader in deciding whether or not to choose a book. A close second, though, is often the title. Just the other day, I read a comment online from a woman who couldn’t bring herself to read a friend’s book simply because the single-word title was off-putting. (Of course, my brain immediately pondered the likelihood of a novel titled Moist.)
Things changed when I was invited to contribute a novella for the Something Borrowed: Christmas Weddings Collection, releasing later this month. (See below for more details about this fun collection!) My initial excitement of being included in this amazing group of authors was quickly overshadowed by a little anxiety when the group decided to link the stories by making our heroines old friends. GULP. My story, while mine alone, suddenly felt much more like a group project. What if I didn’t agree with some of the details the others decided on? What if their stories somehow messed up the plans I had for mine? And [insert nail biting], what if they didn’t like my writing?
To celebrate the release of Suddenly Forever I’m hosting a giveaway for a bundle of my fall favorites. I’d like to invite you to join in the fun! Enter HERE (
Here in the US, it seems like the last wisps of smoke from the fireworks have barely begun to fade from the July sky when all the craft and hobby stores begin rolling out the fall and Christmas stuff. It never fails, immediately people begin lamenting it coming “earlier every year” and grousing about seeing Christmas trees before the kids have even gone back to school. Annoyed that poor Tom Turkey’s day gets overlooked, sandwiched invisibly between the pumpkins and candy canes.
Jaycee Weaver, each of the books in the 
Ah, fairy tales. Like so much classic literature, fairy tales form the basis for many contemporary stories. In recent years, retellings have even become so popular they’ve become their own subgenre in fiction. And it makes sense. The originals are clean and usually end happily. Good triumphs over evil. The impossible becomes possible. Romance. Magic. Wonder. They’re inspirational and usually teach a lesson.