Review: Afternoon Delight by Ann Calhoun

“Anne Calhoun’s romances define the erotic”* and now the national bestselling author of Uncommon Passion serves up a delicious new novella of savory food and hungry men—and one woman’s challenge to get creative with each…

Sarah McCall, food truck co-owner and recent Manhattan transplant, savors each moment of her new job—whether it’s refining the truck's menu, learning the city, or spending afternoons in bed with the hot paramedic who's fast becoming her favorite customer.

Goodreads | Source: Purchased

Review:
Yikes! I don’t know what happened here. This book should have been a slam dunk for me. A food truck chef, a paramedic hero against the backdrop of Manhattan. These are my favorite things to read about but instead Afternoon Delight fell completely flat for me.

Tim is a paramedic that rushes through life and rushes through his meal until he meets a breath of fresh air, Sarah, a chef at a local food truck. She helps teach him to slow down and appreciate food and life. Sarah is trying to get back out there and live life fully, like she used to, before caring for her terminally ill aunt.

This should have worked for me. Tim and Sarah are mature, passionate with each other and their romance is a nice balance of give and take but I was so bored with them. I guess they’re so mature and balanced, despite having a few issues, I just didn’t feel the passion brewing between them.

Their encounters are just so matter of fact and felt choreographed. Let’s go have sex. OK. We’re going to do it this way. OK. They go back to work. *shrugs* I dunno – it was written well – I just can’t say that I cared about them or their afternoon quickies.

I thought the food would at least spark something but nope. Sarah keeps going on and on about finding the right sauce for her food bowls. Did she ever find one? I don’t even remember.

I’m a super fast reader. I can read one book per day easily but it took me two days to read this 8 chapter novella. I wish I could say why.

I’m going to recommend this one even though it didn’t work for me. The story is well paced, the characters are strong and independent and they have sexy encounters that don’t spiral into “just sex”. It had all the right ingredients for a perfect read but I just didn’t connect to it.