Hot Dish by Connie Brockway

Connie Brockway's first contemporary romance has a promising start. Jennifer Hallesby desperately wants to win the title of Buttercup Queen so she can get out of small town Fawn Creek, Minnesota and back to her home state of North Carolina to go to college. Unfortunately, a technicality brought to light by one of her high school rivals gets her disqualified. Still she must have her likeness sculpted in butter by Steve Jaax, an up and coming artist currently hiding from the law. The law catches up with Steve just as he hides the key to his best work (hidden in a mausoleum to escape the clutches of his soon-to-be ex-wife) in the butter sculpture of Jennifer. Steve goes to prison, gets out, and becomes a famous artist. Jennifer becomes even more determined to get out of Fawn Creek. Twenty years later, all of her dreams are coming true. She is set to become the next Martha Stewert when she is forced to return to Fawn Creek’s sesquicentennial celebration where she once again runs into Steve Jaax. Steve wants to retrieve the key from the butterhead which he thought had been destroyed 20 years ago. Jennifer just wants to get in and out of Fawn Creek with all of her secrets in tact. The story becomes a Keystone Cops plot of people trying to take possession of the butterhead anyway they can.

As with all Connie Brockway novels, I was immediately drawn into the story. However, with all of the back story, my interest waned as I read. Other than her writing style, I love the sensuous romance in Brockway’s novels. I found that sensuousness missing in this novel. I didn’t feel any connection or sexual tension with Jennifer and Steve. Their romance seemed incidental to the story. I also had some problems with the plot. At the end of the story, Jennifer is playing Texas Hold ‘Em in a poker tournament. We are aware that there are five kings in play, yet we don’t know who is cheating—Jennifer or her opponent. I assumed it was her opponent, but I don’t know for sure. Jennifer knows there are five kings in play, but we don’t get any indication from her that this is even an anomaly. Of course, everyone lives happily ever after, but I really didn’t care. I finished the book, but will stick with Connie Brockway’s historical romances from here on out. I hope she keeps writing them. I hate it when my favorite historical romance writers abandon historical romance for contemporary mainstream! Two out of four bookworms.