Love is Canceled This Year
Last year, food critic Simone Clarke went viral
with her cynical article "Love is Canceled This Year."
This year, she's about to eat those words.
Last year, food critic Simone Clarke went viral with her cynical article "Love is Canceled This Year." This year, she's about to eat those words.
When Simone is assigned to review VÉRITÉ for Chicago Taste Magazine's Valentine's Day feature, she expects the usual overpriced performance art masquerading as cuisine. What she doesn't expect is Julian Moretti. The arrogant, infuriating, devastatingly talented chef whose food tastes like a love letter and whose eyes see straight through her carefully constructed armor.
Julian has one week to prove his Michelin-starred restaurant deserves the recognition it's fighting for. He doesn't have time for distractions. Especially not a sharp-tongued critic who treats his passion like a punchline and makes him want things he swore he'd never risk again.
But somewhere between the tasting menu and the storage closet, professional boundaries blur. And when Simone's integrity collides with a desire she can't ignore, she faces an impossible choice: write the truth and potentially destroy her career or protect her reputation and lose the one man who makes her believe love isn't canceled after all.
This short story is a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance set in the high-stakes world of fine dining, where the food is hot, the chef is hotter, and falling in love has never been more dangerous.
Why stop here?
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Vivienne
They say whatever you’re doing at midnight sets the tone for your whole year. Vivienne really hopes that’s not true… unless it is.
Her New Year’s Eve is already circling the drain. A viral scandal has torpedoed her reputation, her father is breathing down her neck, and a museum full of judgmental donors is the last place she wants to be.
Cue Brooks Hayes.
The museum's Head of Security. Tall. Serious. Handsome in a broody, yet adorable way. Maddeningly unimpressed by her. The most attractive man she’s ever wanted to strangle.
Their first interaction is a disaster. Their second is worse, ending with the doors to an off-limits exhibit sealing shut and locking them inside.
Worst New Year’s Eve ever? Or the best mistake she’ll ever make?
Brooks
Brooks Hayes believes in rules. Order. And keeping his head down and his emotions locked up tight.
Then Vivienne Armitage walks into his museum.
She’s glittering trouble and defiance. Recently disgraced. Wildly unapologetic. And absolutely determined to test every ounce of his self-control. She’s the last person he should want … and the only one he can’t seem to keep his eyes off.
When fate traps them alone, overnight, with no way out until morning, the sexual tension crackling between them is at risk of snapping.
Even though Brooks knows better than to cross the line, midnight is coming.
