Today we welcome debut author Miranda Neville. If you’re into romance and good food – check out her new release Never Resist Temptation. Buffie really enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars. Miranda will pick the best comment to win a signed copy of Never Resist Temptation and something sweet to go with it.
The heroine of my debut novel, Never Resist Temptation, is a cook, an unusual occupation for a well-born young lady in Regency England. Of course Jacobin wasn’t intended for the profession, but when her uncle loses her virtue in a card game she runs away. The skills she learned from her uncle’s pastry chef earn her a job at the Brighton Pavilion, the Prince Regent’s seaside palace. Then her uncle, one of the Prince’s cronies, is poisoned by a dessert Jacobin made. She’s on the run again and ends up working for Anthony, the Earl of Storrington, who just happens to be the man who won her in the card game (and a major hunk).
Pastry and desserts play an integral role in the plot of Never Resist Temptation. Jacobin has to prove her skills to stay safe from the law and Anthony has his own motives for using her. Naturally love conquers all, but not before we see a few twists and turns and some delicious baked goods.
The dishes Jacobin creates are taken from the cookbooks of Antonin Carême, a Frenchman who was history’s first celebrity chef. He cooked for Napoleon, the Tsar of Russia and the Prince Regent of England. His cookbooks were bestsellers of the day. French patisserie hasn’t changed much in two hundred years, but tastes have. For example, people of that time had a weakness for desserts flavored with flowers, such as roses and violets. Chocolate (sigh!) just wasn’t that big a deal, except as a drink. And then there was whipped cream, which plays a part in the book I shall leave to your imagination.
Writing about cooking two hundred years ago presents some challenges. The recipes tend to be a bit light on specifics when they come to measurements. The utensils were different: a friend who studied historical cooking explained to me that they didn’t have wire whisks because the technology didn’t exist to work metal that way (and for God’s sake don’t expect me to explain science). You couldn’t just pre-heat to 350 degrees; a cook judged the heat by putting an arm in the oven. Cooks had to use foods that were in season and the book is set in winter – no berries flown in from California or Mexico. Some out-of-season produce was grown in aristocratic hothouses, but I just realized I have Anthony and Jacobin eat asparagus. I plead guilty. I can’t think how that was available in England in November!
Food is sexy stuff. There are some great eating/seduction scenes in romances. A couple that comes to mind are Cyan and Chastity in Jo Beverley’s My Lady Notorious. You’ll never look at apple pie again the same way. More recently, in Delicious, Sherry Thomas’s heroine uses her food to seduce even when she isn’t in the room. The hero just can’t resist it.
There’s the nurturing side of food. Men like women who can cook and we adore men who do so, perhaps because relatively few do. The heroine of my next book begins to fall for the hero when he brings her dinner after a long day (he’s a marquis so he doesn’t actually cook himself, but he has the nurturing thing down). I was charmed by Anne Mallory’s Three Nights of Sin when it was revealed that the hero himself prepared the soups and stews the heroine enjoyed. Jennifer Cruise’s Bet Me is all about food. Cal uses Krispy Kreme donuts and Chicken Marsala to show he cares (and those donuts are pretty sexy too).
Do you have favorite eating scenes in books? Do you think it’s sexier when the man or the woman provides the food? What foods would you like to see in a romance?
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Donna
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 12:52 am:
I would lie to see clams and the sexuallity of it sounds silly but sometime seafood does it…..
donna
Marisa
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 6:29 am:
Hi Miranda~
Welcome and congratulations on your debut release Never Resist Temptation. I have to say in a very non PC way, that I do think it is sexier when the man provides the food. Give me a man who can cook and he has won my heart. I don’t care if it is scrambled eggs. If he can cook food near an open flame – great. If he can clean up after himself – I would give him the world.
As for foods I would like to see in romance? Well, I just don’t think there are enough scenes with junk food – you know really good junk food, like ring dings and doritos…
Andrea
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 6:32 am:
Hello and welcome to RNTV, Miranda! Huge congrats on your debut release! Buffie and I have very similar taste in books, so if she liked it, then I know I will, too. Can’t wait to pick it up!
As for eating/food scenes…. The first one that always comes to my mind first is the raspberry scene in Lisa Kleypas’s SUDDENLY YOU. Love everything about that book! Another one I can think of is from Laura Lee Guhrke’s AND THEN HE KISSED HER involving peaches. Love that one, too.
I’ll try to think of more….
Andrea
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 6:39 am:
Sorry, I was so wrapped up in thinking about Jack Devlin that I didn’t answer any of the other questions. I think it’s sexier if the man provides the food, definitely. Something out of the norm like that always melts my heart.
LOL, Marisa! Ring dings and doritos? I’m trying to picture those….
Marisa
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 6:42 am:
Andrea – totally with you on the raspberry scene from Suddenly You. And as for ring dings and doritos – well, they speak for themselves, don’t they.
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 7:34 am:
Good morning ladies. Thank you for inviting me and special thanks to Buffie for her lovely review.
I am totally with you on raspberries and peaches. Clams and Doritos? Hmm. Maybe it’s lucky we don’t all go for the same thing… Writing Regency I haven’t spent a lot of time considering the junk food angle but there was a time when Big Macs for two and a bottle of champagne made for a lovely evening in.
And, Marisa, I am so with you on the clean up!
Kati
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:43 am:
Good Morning Miranda! Congratulations on your new release!
The food eating scene that jumps IMMEDIATELY to mind for me is Rhage and Mary and the ice cream. He’s a vamp who has received some burns from the sun, and she ends up putting the ice cream on his burns to help heal them. It’s this incredibly sensual scene between the two of them.
Another food scene that always sticks out to me is when Blair makes the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding for Wyatt’s police squad after they’ve helped her in TO DIE FOR by Linda Howard. Not so much because it’s erotic or anything, but because the recipe just sounded SO yummy and unbelievably sweet to me.
Laura
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:48 am:
Hi Miranda,
I have never looked at Krispy Kreme donuts the same after reading “Bet me”. Your book souds great. I just have one, well actually two ?’s. 1.) How did they whip creme if there were no wire wisks. I have a hard enough time waithing for my Kitchen Aide to do the job. 2.) Where can you find that cook book? I bet your research was fun. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE desserts. I make something sweet everynight after dinner. That’s probably why my husband has gained 30 pounds since we got married.
Lisa Freeman
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 10:05 am:
Just recently read the cucumber scene from Lacey Alexander’s The Bikini Diaries. I’ve remember reading about the KK pudding and thought how decadent it sounded. Lots of books have the strawberries, champagne, and whip creme foods. I think it doesn’t matter what the food item is just how the scene is written.
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 10:15 am:
Hi Kati – ice cream on sunburn sounds hot (well cold but hot)
Laura: To whip the cream they used a bunch of wicker, like a mini witch broom. I agree with you on the Kitchen Aide (and the Cuisinart). My website has an account of my attempt at making choux pastry which is kind of a running thread in NRT. I quickly gave up on period authenticity and ran for my electrical appliances.
To find Careme’s cookbooks I went to the British Library in London – I am a Brit though I’ve lived in the US for 20 odd years, and my family is still there so I visit often. I always have a great time filling in any little research gaps during my trips.
I have to admit I didn’t make all the recipes in the book because I’m not that good at baking. Also, I was dieting while I wrote it (probably just as well or I would have gained 30 pounds)
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 10:23 am:
Cucumber? That sounds wicked.
Gannon
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 10:32 am:
Hi, Miranda! Congratulations on your new release.
I love the raspberry scene in SUDDENLY YOU, also. And that ice cream scene with Rhage and Mary is a hot one as well. Ice cream is used in a very sexy scene from A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR where Dougless and Nicholas “accidentally” drop the ice cream on each other and lick it off. Whew!
Any chocolate is a winner with me!
azteclady
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 10:50 am:
Welcome, Ms Neville!
Personally, I find it sexier when the man cooks–but that’s probably due to my lack of culinary skills (and curiosity in that field).
Kidding aside, there is something particularly tender about a man who has that nurturing streak, isn’t there? Perhaps because as a rule men are not brought up to be nurturing, so when a man *is* we tend to translate that into a deeper level of commitment/caring/love from him towards the object of his care, i.e., the heroine.
I can’t think of food scenes in books right now, so I’ll quit while I’m still ahead
Best of luck with the novel!
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 11:47 am:
Gannon – I’d forgotten that scene in A Knight in Shining Armor. Love that book, makes me want to tackle Time Travel. I may have to go home and read it again.
I’ve been sitting at my day job thinking about sex and food (just what I’m supposed to be doing) and realized I don’t find it appealing when things are seriously STICKY. I guess I’m not to going to write a scene involving honey or jam.
Buffie
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 11:50 am:
Welcome to RNTV, Miranda!!! So wonderful that you are visiting with us today. I loved NEVER RESIST TEMPTATION and am really looking forward to more of your work.
I absolutely love it when an author includes food in their novels. Of course it is always a sensual touch to add to love scenes, but I also like to see when one character enjoys cooking and relays his/her love to another by making a special meal or dessert.
Buffie
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 11:51 am:
LOL, Miranda, on the sticky stuff!!! I’m not too sure about it either, but I do believe there could be a pretty hot scene is WASHING the sticky off
Maureen
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 1:26 pm:
Hi Miranda!
Congratulations on your new release. I do like a story that has some good meals in them. I enjoy reading romantic suspense but sometimes the poor characters in those stories never get to eat. I do enjoy it when authors have detail descriptions of the food that the characters are eating, whether it’s good or bad. I can’t think of a particular scene but I know a lot of stories I have read have many interesting things happen at meal time since this is when everyone is forced to come together and interact with each other.
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 1:58 pm:
Oh Buffie, washing! You are good. We could get started on bathtub scenes …
orannia
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 2:53 pm:
HI Miranda *waves*
And then there was whipped cream, which plays a part in the book I shall leave to your imagination.
*goggle eyed* And that reminds me of my favourite food-related scene in a book…well, a novella
It’s from Day Le Claire’s A Man of All Seasonings. The heroine, Maddie, needs to cook a mouth-watering Christmas Eve meal for her soon-to-be fiancé and his family..but she can’t cook…AT ALL! (She orders all her food in.) So, she hires the talents of a (sexy Italian) chef – Joe – to teach her how to cook… In this particular scene Maddie is learning to make mousse but she turns the the beaters on before putting them in the mixture…and the mousse ends up all over her and Joe. Need I say more 
Congrats and all the best with the release of Never Resist Temptation!
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 6:56 pm:
Orannia – I have to look for that. I’m guessing it doesn’t work out with the fiancé.
K. Nelson
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:02 pm:
Hey Miranda!
Wonderful to see you here at RNtv! How can you not put food and sex together? I mean, they are truly two of life’s most delicious indulgences.
I am one of those incredibly lucky gals who snagged a man who not only loves to cook but cooks extremely well. His specialty is this shrimp and crabmeat linguine and he made it for me when we were first dating. They may say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but I’m not so sure that it shouldn’t be the other way around. He has certainly wined and dined me all throughout our relationship. So, I think it is way sexier when the man provides the food.
When I think of food and stories the first image that comes to my mind is a movie rather than a book. Can anyone say “9 and 1/2 weeks”? The scene in front of the fridge…hot beyond belief. They even made milk look sexy which I didn’t know as possible.
However, if I had to choose a book…it would be one by romance author Wendy Wax named “7 Days and 7 Nights” wherein two sexy radio personalities have to live together in a tiny apartment while “on air” and try to resist the sexual desires that they feel for one another. The hero in this book does some seduction with cooking that makes the kitchen hotter than Georgia asphalt!
Foods I’d like to see…there’s nothing hotter than strawberries dipped in chocolate but since I’m a New Orleans kind of gal…I’d love to see something sexy done with all that powdered sugar that they put on beignets! LOL
Lastly, I wanted to share this little quote with you…
“I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.” Mae West
Enjoy the food, ya’ll.
orannia
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:16 pm:
No, it doesn’t work out with the fiancé
It’s actually part of a Christmas anthology. I just love the fact that Joe (the chef) spends the novella seducing Maddie with food 
orannia
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:17 pm:
It = the story!
Miranda Neville
on Mar 5th, 2009
@ 8:29 pm:
Hi K. Great post. You’ve got me thinking of powdered sugar and beignets (but aren’t they really just fancy donuts which brings us back to Krispy Kreme…?). Of course if we want to get started on movies, there’s no better food scene than the classic in Tom Jones. And the pastrami sandwich scene in When Harry met Sally (not exactly a seduction but sooo funny).
Deborah
on Mar 6th, 2009
@ 12:04 am:
Hi Miranda! Congratulations on your new release! I love it when an author describes what her characters are eating—either a casual meal at home or a fancy meal at a restaurant. I also love it when the man does the cooking. There’s just something so sexy about that! Food I’d like to see in a romance….strawberries, whipped cream and anything chocolate!
Miranda Neville
on Mar 6th, 2009
@ 7:59 am:
Hi Deborah, thanks for chiming in late (I’d gone to bed). And I forgot to thank K. for the Mae West quote -priceless.
Thank you for inviting me – I really enjoyed chatting with you all. And I got some great book recommendations.
It’s too hard to make judgments so I’ve done a mini-drawing for the prize which goes to —Gannon!
Gannon, get in touch through my website or via Marisa and I’ll send you a copy of NEVER RESIST TEMPTATION and something to snack on while you eat – oops, I meant read – it.
orannia
on Mar 6th, 2009
@ 11:43 pm:
Thank you Miranda! Congrats Gannon!
Gannon
on Mar 7th, 2009
@ 11:25 am:
Yay! I sent my info to you, Miranda! Thanks so much!