Special of the Day
Page 265: Every time she stood near him she heated up like bread in a toaster.
Special of the Day by Elaine Fox is a charming and witty story with an interesting male character named Steve Serrano. Steve is not just a handsome and charismatic bartender, he is also a smart guy who is a regular at the Library of Congress!
The pub where Steve works has been bought over by a lady and he knows where she lives: in the same building as his. With good intention to welcome his new neighbor, he goes to visit her at her apartment with a very good bottle of wine. Here is where things go wrong right at the very start.
Roxanne Rayeaux is a stunning ex-Sports Illustrated model turned restaurant owner and pastry chef. She keeps her former modeling profession a secret when she returns home to Virginia to start her own business.
So both Steve and Roxanne get off to a bad start but they soon learn to play nice, albeit rather unwillingly. I was entertained throughout and it has been a while since I read something that made me smile and laugh. I loved the tension between Roxanne and Steve.
Throw Steve’s good pal, P.B. (Peter Baron a.k.a. Pretty Boy), into the picture and you get added tension. P.B. the cop is determined to woo the exquisite Roxanne, but I disliked him from the start. He is chauvinistic and even bets with Steve to see who “gets” Roxanne first. Steve, of course, does not want to play P.B.’s game.
The plot is enhanced with the possibility that a lost copy of the Declaration of Independence may be hidden in the building that was once the home to Thomas Jefferson’s cousin. Steve is researching heavily on this for his book. Although he tells Roxanne about this, he did not disclose his aspiration to be a published author. Roxanne bought the entire building, so that makes her Steve’s landlord too.
Soon, there are break-ins to her restaurant. Misunderstandings happen between Roxanne and Steve. Guess who the break-in culprit is.
The verdict? I enjoyed it very much. There are some steamy adult scenes but very nicely done. The secondary characters such as Roxanne’s friends and Steve’s co-workers are an interesting lot. I have also read all of Elaine Fox's dog series (Guys and Dogs, Beware of Doug, Hello, Doggy!, and Bedtime for Bonsai), and loved all of them. If you have not read her books, I recommend you give Elaine Fox a try.
