Talented pastry chef Miles Costa is bored. Working at the celebrated Napa Valley restaurant Terroir is supposed to be the cherry on top to a promising career, but instead it’s a creative desert. So when he gets an offer to turn his online video series into a career, he leaves his three best friends in Napa and swaps Terroir for Los Angeles.With the resources now at his fingertips, turning his … turning his pastry series into a hit should be easy. Then Miles meets his producer, Evan Patterson, and realizes he’s screwed. And not even in the good way.
It’s not a meet-cute . . .
Evan lives to work and loves every minute detail Miles loathes. Not only that, he seems hell bent on micromanaging every aspect of Miles’ show despite the fact he knows nothing about the culinary arts. Evan doesn’t even like sweets—until Miles seduces him with a rainbow of delectable confections he can’t resist.
. . . it’s a collision.
With every confrontation, the intensity between them flares even hotter until they’re not sure if it’s hatred they feel . . .or something else. Is it possible for two people with nothing in common to discover common ground and romance?
Bite Me is a 80,000 word standalone m/m romance featuring enemies to lovers. Don’t read hungry!
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Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
This is, as far as I can see, the first I’ve read of Bolden’s work, I sure hope it isn’t the last! She has a way of not giving you the full picture about something and you aren’t quite sure if you missed that bit, or it wasn’t mentioned yet, or what?? And I really LOVED that!
Evan and Miles butt heads, right from the start, but equally, they have attraction, powerful attraction. And I loved watching them both ( because we hear from both guys) fight that attraction. Right til they both realize that their jobs are on the line, and they could lose each other too. THEN??? All bets are off and these guys give in to the inevitable.
It’s amazing watching Evan come out of himself, watching Miles peel back the layers of Evan’s outer casing, to the man inside.
It’s not a complicated plot line, nor is it a difficult read. It’s very well written and flows beautifully from the butting heads to the but…well….you get the picture. It’s not very explicit though, and I really REALLY liked that it wasn’t. There is no break up/make up. It’s just a really great read!
Back to that not getting the full picture thing. It’s about a certain thing that Miles does when he is drunk. Which I found hilarious, but when we get the full story of what was contained within?? You understand why the hints are there, you put the pieces together. Can’t say anything else, cos of spoilers, but I really did enjoy not having the full picture thrown at me all at once!
Oh! You’ll probably put on about ten pounds just reading this, cos, food porn or what! Miles is, after all, a pastry chef! But, love that the recipes in the book are give as links at the end. Might have to make myself some alcoholic macaroons!
This is billed as book one in the Kitchen Gods series. But some characters pop up who already had their stories written. I’d like to both go back, and forward, with these guys. I love the way Bolden spins her yarns.
so, a perfect Sunday morning read, that kept me fully engaged and I read it in one sitting.
5 stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Almost Enemies to lovers
It’s not a secret great chefs the world over are driven and difficult. It’s lucky Evan isn’t a chef, but he’s still a bit prickly. They don’t quite hate each other, but at times it felt like they’d always not quite hate each other It takes a long weekend away together for the magic to happen, then there’s no stopping them.
This was an enjoyable story about two stubborn, strong willed men trying to work together and ultimately being able to give up enough control to realize that the other is just what they each needed.
Miles is a pastry chef at the top restaurant in Napa. Evan is an assistant, hoping to be a producer, who after watching videos Miles has made to relieve his boredom, convinces his boss to recruit him to do a show. Reed convinces Miles and makes Evan the producer of the show. To say things don’t go well from the start is an understatement.
As they finally get on the road to a relationship each man learns what he has to compromise on to make this work.
There are points where the story moves a little slowly and I had trouble staying engaged. But after moving through those, and especially in the later half of the book, the story pulls you in an you root for these two guys to get their act together and salvage their show and careers. The cooking and baking elements are interesting and it’s a definite bonus that links to recipes are included at the end of the book. I read book two before this one not realizing it was part of a series and thoroughly enjoyed that one. So this book, and the series, are a definite recommend.
The first book in the Kitchen Gods series features a talented pastry chef, Miles, who is stuck working at a prestigious, yet creatively boring, restaurant. The only outlet Miles has to express his creative side with pastries and desserts, is on his online video series. What starts off as a creative outlet soon grabs the attention of a professional production studio, and before Miles knows it, he has been offered the chance of a lifetime – to star in his own professionally produced cooking show. The only catch: he has to share creative control with Evan Patterson, the biggest control-freak Miles has ever met. Miles and Evan clash both on the professional level and the personal level while they try to figure out how to work with each other while also simultaneous falling in love with each other.
This book contained a lot of personal conflict between Miles and Evan, but it also contained some really wonderful tender and romantic moments between the men as well as some hot sex scenes. I adored all the pastry and cooking scenes, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed pastry dough being used as a tool for flirting.
Overall, this was a decent and entertaining book. The writing wasn’t as smooth as I would like with a few awkward sentences, but nothing that was too noticeable. The pacing of the plot was a little slow a times, but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
sophomoric
This was unexpected, however the characters were like able and well defined.
This was an enjoyable read. I liked that some parts had me laughing out loud. Also, I like that fact that not every person or every situation was perfect. Life is not perfect, and while I do love HEA, I always appreciate that the characters have to struggle some to get there. It makes the story more realistic and enjoyable to me. I can’t wait to read the others in the series.
A fresh original story.
This is my first Beth Bolden book, and while it did take me a while to get into it, I did end up enjoying the story. I enjoy a good enemies-to-lovers story, but when you mix it with desserts and pastries what could go wrong? Seemingly plenty when it’s Miles and Evan who have to work together. There’s plenty of animosity between the two from the moment they meet, and it only goes downhill before the project can really get going. It does take them a while to let their guards down and begin to accept each other from both the personal and professional standpoints. The characters are well-developed, but I still had a difficult time connecting with either of them.
They say there’s only a thin line between love and hate and that was never truer for two people than Miles and Evan. What brought them together is very likely the thing that will drive them apart but for the sake of their careers they’ve got to learn to compromise without giving up what makes them unique. Finding that balance will spell either success or failure and neither are willing to fail.
I liked Miles the most. He was childish, unprofessional, charismatic, funny, focused, talented, ashamed, prideful, humble, strong, passionate, determined…he’s so multi-faceted and interesting despite his glaring imperfections. He’s so flustered by his attraction to Evan, thrown off by Evan’s presence, and has his hackles up because of both his pride as well as his fear of not keeping creative control. Fear and pride are his motivators in the beginning of his new endeavor but those are quickly bolstered by his attraction to what he sees as the source of his problems. His evolution is the most interesting to watch, he’s captivating as a character because of his flaws, his strength, his insecurity, his talent.
Evan was a good counter to all that was Miles. Well, he would be if he could get his head out of his own ass most of the time. With such an unyielding need to control everyone and everything he pushes Miles to the point that I kind of lose respect for him. When Evan is introduced it’s clear that he encouraged the acquisition of Miles’ talent and charisma for the studio based on that talent and charm but as soon as Miles enters the office his inner thoughts are manipulative and only bent on using Miles as a pawn for his own success. As if Miles himself didn’t matter, only what he could do for Evan.
The animosity set up for the passionate conflict between the men but it made me dislike Evan. I get his traumatic past setting him up for a need for control but the extent of his treatment of Miles was pretty deplorable throughout most of their interactions. Their end, however was absolutely sweet and honest. Having Evan realize that compromise doesn’t mean manipulating and shaming Miles into giving in was great. They both really needed the wake-up call so they could see what they needed to give up to truly succeed. And when they both relented and relaxed? Magic.
I’m glad that metaphorical smack to the head came from Reed. I loved seeing Reed here and having him be the guiding and correcting hand for them was just the right role for him as well as what Evan and Miles needed. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the Kitchen Gods. Wyatt, Kian, and then Xander, they all deserve their own hard-won happiness and I’m definitely eager for their journeys.