A classic fairy tale gets a sexy, edgy twist.Jackson “The Beast” Boudreaux is rich, gorgeous, and unbelievably rude to the staff at Chef Bianca Hardwick’s New Orleans restaurant. Bianca would sooner douse herself in hot sauce than cook for Jackson again, but when he asks her to cater his fund-raiser, Bianca can’t refuse, knowing the cash will help pay her mother’s medical bills. Then Jackson … Then Jackson makes another outrageous request: Marry me. The unconventional offer includes an enormous sum—money Bianca desperately needs, even if it does come with a contract—and a stunning ring.
The heir to a family bourbon dynasty, Jackson knows the rumors swirling around him. The truth is even darker. Still, he needs a wife to secure his inheritance, and free-spirited, sassy Bianca would play the part beautifully. Soon, though, their simple business deal evolves into an emotional intimacy he’s built walls to avoid.
As the passion heats up between them, Bianca and Jackson struggle to define which feelings are real and which are for show. Is falling for your fake fiancé the best happy ending…or a recipe for disaster?
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I laughed a lot as I was reading this story! I loved how the women characters talked to each other in this story. Their use of words was simply hilarious for me! Very entertaining for me and I will definitely read more of this author’s stories!
I enjoyed reading this book. Jackson and Bianca came to life completely for me on each page. Lol, I felt like I knew them or at least wanted to meet them. Their story is sweet and passionate. Big emotions fully expressed. It was such a good read! Oh and don’t forget the drool worthy recipes.
A new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Poor chef meets loaded Beast and the sparks fly. This is my third book in the span of a week by this author and I have no plans of stopping.
This is the first book from this author I’ve got a chance to come across, and certainly it will not be the last! I absolutely enjoyed reading this book, fell in love with both Bianca and Jackson. It made me laugh, then made me cry for both their happiness and sadness. I am personally related to Bianca and mama Davina for their battle with cancer through rounds of chemo. It reminded me of the tough time I sat by my mother’s side at the hospital waiting for those chemo drugs to drip into her vein and watched her health declined rapidly following the process. We were luckier than Bianca and Davina since my mother won the battle a few years ago. Reading this story just once again makes me realize how fortunate I am to still have my beloved mother around. I would have been devastated just as much as Bianca was. And then there was Jackson! Underneath those beastly roughness and scowls hid a tender heart, which was crushed over and over since his childhood. Unfortunate life events had turned him into an insecure and withdrawn man, and it would take a big heart like Bianca’s to peel off layers of walls surrounding his heart. I have not read such a good book that would make me so happy lately. Of course those mansion and castle and sizzling hot sex contributed to the overall charm of this book. All characters were very well-developed, even the minor ones. I love the author’s style of writing with nice flow and impressive imagination. I’m now on the 2nd book of the series (Melt for You) and loving it so far. It looks like I’ll be re-reading this series over and over again in the future 🙂 Thank you J.T. for such beautiful and heart-warming stories.
This was my first read by this author and I loved it! Great characters and story. Definitely a slow burn and I couldn’t read it fast enough! I will be reading the rest of the books in this series and looking into her other works.
Dangerous desires is book two in the dangerous beauty trilogy. I was on the edge of my seat for all of this book. I love Nazi and Eva’s story and was shocked by the cliff hanger. Eva issue h a strong woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to tell Nazi that he will not control her and that she has her own voice and will not be controlled by another man. I cannot wait for book 3 to finish Eva and Naz’s story
This was just so much fun to read. Jackson and Bianca’s verbal sparring ,often times, had me laughing out loud at some of their outrageous lines. What’s not to love about Bianca? She sassy, spunky, talented a woman not to be crossed. Jackson is rich, gorgeous, private and a man, who underneath his beastly temperment and exterior, hides a lifetime of pain. Their feelings for each were seen by everyone but them.
Nice
You get a bunch of chuckles. A couple of sad stories. But a great big happy ending. I truly loved the book.
A wonderfully written book! The loved how the main characters’ relationship evolved. I also enjoyed the peripheral characters’ personalities and how they interacted with the main characters. Very nice story.
One of my favorite authors. I love every book in this series. My favorite was Melt for you. Definitely recommend this series
I’m just dipping my toes into audiobooks, and this was one of my first. Narrated by Sebastian York and Diana Luke, this story had me laughing out loud in the street, in the grocery store, at the gym–got a lot of funny looks, but who cares? Ms. Geissinger’s Southern idioms are a hoot, as are her secondary characters, both those working in the heroine’s New Orleans restaurant, as well as the hero’s–major domo? More than a butler or valet, he’s a father figure to Jackson Boudreaux, heir to a bourbon dynasty and all-around sexy Mr. Crankypants. Chef Bianca Hardwick, Beauty to his Beast, desperately needs money for her mother’s medical expenses–otherwise, she’d never take the catering job for his charity function, must less agree to his harebrained scheme of a temporary marriage. Of course, Jackson and Biana alternate between comical grumbling and steamy fumbling. What adds depth and spice to this tropey story is the hero’s hidden layers of tragedy and goodness, deftly revealed at just the right moment to make us root for him again. Bianca’s mixture of sass, vulnerability, and kindness provides the perfect tool to unearth the bright jewel hidden beneath his hunky, snarling exterior. Just a lovely, sexy, funny-as-hell tale.
We get both of the main character’s points of view in alternating chapters. I liked that. It was also funnier than I expected. Some of the conversations with just Bianca’s restaurant staff was hilarious! And I wasn’t very far into the book before I laughed out loud more than once. Way more. In fact, this just might be one of the funniest books that I have read in a while. The way that Bianca thinks and talks. The sarcasm was great! She had sarcasm for other yes, but also herself. I found myself smiling so many other times too.
I like the way this author puts the story together. Just the colorful descriptions of the people and their ways was worth it all.
Don’t think that it’s all going to be all laughter though. The emotions are there because of some of the serious issues in the book. It even wrung a tear or two out of me too! Especially towards the end when more and more of the truth of Jackson’s previous life begins to unfold. Also Bianca’s mother brings some pretty serious and emotional things too.
There are recipes dispersed through out the book in between Chapters. Just in case you are interested in that as well. With names like, “Bianca’s Old Cuban” or “Ginger-Orange Cheesecake”, or “Bloody Dixie”. Last one the “Slap, Slap, Kiss Cocktail.” That’s not all of them but there are so many recipes that I am unfamiliar with.
I borrowed this book for free with my Prime Reading membership. And I loved it so much.
This was my first book by J.T. Geissinger, and I loved every minute of it. The story was full of humor, awkwardly funny interactions between the characters, and a vast array of emotions as the story unfolded. I not only laughed through this book, I even teared up. I began the second book in the Slow Burn Series the same day I finished Burn for You. A must read!
Oh this was a very sweet love/hate romance that I thoroughly enjoyed. Bianca is a feisty woman who had no problems speaking her mind and putting Jackson in his place, especially when he was rude to her. I loved their banter and the fact that as their attraction for one another grew so did their verbal fights. It was cute and fun. Jackson is not at all what Bianca thought him to be and there is far more to his cold exterior than meets the eye. I loved the slow way they fell in love and how Bianca was what Jackson deserved and Jackson was everything Bianca could have hoped for. Burn for You is a sweet romance that I devoured. I love this author and her amazing writing. Damn if this book didn’t make me hungry for some New Orleans food.
My first from this author, I listened to audio! Very much enjoyed this well written story and characters. Really loved Jax VOICE!! Liked all the recipes!! On to next book in the series!!
Bianca Hardwick is a chef and owner of a restaurant in New Orleans. When she creates her menu around Boudreaux Bourbon her restaurant gains some notoriety and draws the eye of Jackson “the Beast” Boudreaux, a local resident. When Jax comes into her restaurant one night and can’t get seated immediately he lets the “Beast” out and is rude to her staff. Initially pleased and nervous he was in her restaurant, Bianca gets her back up over his demeaning her staff and her menu. Jax is intrigued by this beautiful chef who doesn’t back down and when he needs a chef for a charity event, he pays her a huge sum of money. Needing that money for personal reasons, Bianca puts together a menu that helps him raise tons of money and has them working directly together where more sparks fly.
J. T Geissinger writes tortured men so well, and Jackson Boudreaux is a fascinating character to unwrap. There is obvious tension between these two characters both sexual and mental, but unraveling Jax’s history into why he is “the Beast” intrigues not only Bianca but the reader as well. Bianca is forced into Jax’s company by need for cash, but quickly see’s the pain beneath the rude exterior and even though going through some personal pain as well, wants to soothe the savage beast. Bianca is creole and talks with that Louisiana twang that gives this book great flavor, but it’s the characters around her that give her warmth and make her genuine. I love her relationship with her mother, the sass, grit and love they have for each other is a huge reason why I liked Bianca as much as I did. When Jax meets her mother for the first time, the contrast between her anxiety and his gentlemanly behavior sold me on them as a couple.
Burn For You is a slow burn novel, meaning that they develop their relationship slowly. They start off enemies (at least on her side), develop a friendship, and then become lovers and that journey when done well captures the reader, and that was the case with Burn for You.
Just as good the second time around!!
I read this awhile ago but decided to reread it leading up to book 3. I love Bianca. She’s firey, independent, loving, strong, and just all around amazing. Jackson is …well, a beast. But like the Beast in a certain animated fairytale. I loved the story, their journey, her mama, her staff, his parents, Rayford, his son…it is all wonderful. Despite some sadness, there is still a rainbow.
O. M. G. This book was so good! I’m always a bit wary of beauty and beast based books because I’m not crazy about asshole heroes. But Jackson……omg Jackson! I LOVE HIM.
He was such a great hero. His POV chapters were perfect and showed me that he wasn’t really an asshole. He was a tortured and neglected soul. He’s felt abandoned and unlovable by nearly everyone in his entire life. Bianca was his perfect match!
Let’s talk about what an AMAZING heroine she was! Fierce, loyal, dedicated, confident but also kind, soft hearted and generous. Exactly the kind of woman I hope I am. I loved that she stood her ground against Jackson. I loved that she forced him to communicate with her. I loved everything about the two of them together.
While the trope of a fake relationship is pretty common among romance novels, I felt this one was completely different and set apart from others I’ve read. It was on a level all on it’s own.
There’s three sexy scenes in this book. The first is technically a dream Jackson is having bit it’s still very descriptive. There’s two more towards the end that are practically one right after the other. All very detailed and multiple pages long. There’s a little bit of swearing (f bombs and uses of sh** mostly) but I didn’t think it was excessive.
My only complaint is the cover. I actually really love the cover (the contrast of colored words with the black and white photo is great) but the woman on the front obviously has zero Creole, nor any other black heritage, in her. Bianca is half black and she isn’t described that way until a few chapters in so I was picturing a white woman with dark hair. I never quite got that image out of my mind the whole book, even though I tried. Also the man’s hair is cut way too short. Jackson has thick overgrown hair, not a buzz cut. Sorry for being picky but I just cannot with models who don’t match the description!
This story was a surprise to me, it was the first book that I read from the writer J.T. Geissinger. I hadn’t heard of this writer before, until I came across this book of hers. I was immediately intrigued by the blurb (and the lovely cover) so I decided to read it. For some reason I was expecting a ‘serious’ contemporary romance story, so I wasn’t prepared for the lighthearted, fun story that it turned out to be. Because of that it took me a little bit to get into the story but in the end I liked the story very much.
The story is told from both POV’s. I liked both character very much. Jackson started as this gruff, antisocial man but at the end of the story, I just wanted to hug him and protect his tender heart against the big, bad world. Bianca was such a lovely and warm character. She did have a way with words and she certainly knows how to deal with difficult, big and growly guys.
One of the things that I was glad about was the fact that the story managed to surprise me now and then. Normally, I quickly discover where things are going to or what will happened next but this time, there were a few things that I didn’t expected. And I enjoyed that very much.
Another thing that I liked about this story was the fact that although it’s a light and sweet read, at times it was also very emotional too.
I did wish that the story was a bit longer. I had the feeling at the end that it was a little bit rushed. I would have liked an epilogue but then I have a weakness for them.
I will certainly try more books of this writer.
I loved this series of stand alone romances. Will be looking for more!