Della Carmichael wears several hats -- she owns a cooking school in Santa Monica, California, she stars in her own cooking show (In the Kitchen with Della), and owns (with a partner) a walk-in and mail-order business, Della's Sweet Dreams. When she's not busy managing her professional life, she spends time with her friends Liddy and Shannon, or with her boyfriend Nicholas.
But Nicholas has just dropped a bombshell on her. Despite having dated her for more than a year, he has just disclosed to her that he has an 18-year-old daughter that he has never seen. She has always lived in Europe with her mother, but she is now coming to visit and get to know her father. Eileen, Della's business partner (and someone to whom Della feels somewhat maternal toward, having helped raise her when Eileen's mother was having health issues), warns her that this daughter could spell the end of the romance.
Della is eager to meet Celeste, who comes to Hollywood with ambitions of meeting all the right people to launch her acting career. She quickly meets a photographer to take some portraits of her for publicity reasons, but when one picture turns into an opportunity for exploitation, Nicholas flies into a rage. A few days later, Nicholas is discovered standing over the photographer's dead body. With few other suspects to go on, the police begin to narrow in on Nicholas, and Della knows she must do what she can to prove that her boyfriend is no murderer.
This was a really fun book to read, especially for someone who loves to cook and watch cooking shows, as I do. The book not only touched on how Della prepared for her shows and thought about her recipes and meals, but was also chock full of recipes - every recipe that was mentioned in the book was included! They mystery itself was satisfying, too. While I had a hunch about who had committed the crime, the motive remained a mystery until it was revealed by the author, although all the clues had been laid out for me throughout the book.
The only thing I didn't like about this was that I found Nicholas to be utterly unlikeable. I also find it odd that Eileen and one of Della's other friends aren't fond of Nicholas, yet Della is still with him. Della seems like the kind of person who would normally take stock in what friends think about her romantic interest. He doesn't seem compelling, he doesn't seem particularly interested in her, and - worst of all - he comes of as whiny and self-absorbed.
Della Carmichael’s sweetie pie Nicholas drops a bomb—he
has a teenage daughter, now living with him. When the
aughter’s friend is found murdered, the protective
Nicholas is a suspect, and Della must find the real killer
before they all get burned.
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