Delicious (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: dowager duchess, symphonic concerts, Fairleigh Park, Madame Durant, Miss Bessler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Cinderella story with a compelling culinary twist, Thomas's scrumptious Victorian confection (after Private Arrangements) proves impossible to resist. Madame Verity Durant works for Bertram Bertie Somerset at his estate, Fairleigh Park—after serving as the mistress he failed to marry (due to a questionable background that includes an illegitimate child). When Bertie dies unexpectedly at 38, Verity worries as Bertie's bastard-born brother, Stuart—now London's foremost barrister —takes over the estate. Verity had shared a secret, mouthwatering affair with Stuart 10 years earlier, and she doesn't expect him to keep her on, especially since he's affianced to the very proper Miss Lizzy Bessler. What ensues, however, is happiness on a plate, as Thomas shows that hunger for passion, and madeleines, never dies. (Aug.)
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Review

"Sherry Thomas is the most powerfully original historical romance author writing today. She is a rebel, a rule-breaker, and above all, a romantic. Searing, tender and filled with passion, her writing is nothing short of a revelation."–Lisa Kleypas, New York Times bestselling author

“Scrumptious Victorian confection…. A Cinderella story with a compelling culinary twist.”—Publishers Weekly


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440244323
• ISBN-13: 978-0440244325
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #216,522 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Descriptions of food are Delicious, September 2, 2008

By	Pam Cabrera (Plymouth, MA USA) - See all my reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed Private Arrangements, her first book, and was eager to read this one. It starts out wonderfully, with mouthwatering descriptions of food and an interesting situation. It's paced quickly, I read the book easily in an afternoon, but about half-way through I started feeling frustrated and by the book's end, felt that the book had so much potential, but should have been better than it was. My main complaint was the plot was just ridiculous, mostly the fact that it took so long for Stuart to recognize Verity...ridiculous that he wouldn't see her, one instance I could buy, but repeatedly was too over the top. Also wasn't interested in Lizzy and Will's romance, and ended up skipping those pages to get to the main story.

I do like the author's writing, and will likely buy her next book, I just hope she makes the next plot a little more believable.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wish it had been better, August 8, 2008

By	Matthew Rivas (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The review by HeyJudy is spot on and normally I wouldn't write an additional review but for her rating and I wanted to mention a few specific points. I liked her previous book "Private Arrangements" very much (easily one of the best this year) and looked forward to this work but was sadly disappointed. If this was the first book I had read by the author, I would give it a single star but wrestled my way up to two because of the prose and the benefit of the doubt about her "intentions". The plot was awful and the reader does not grow to care enough about any of the characters to make up for this lack. [spoilers ahead] The silly ways the author uses in preventing Stuart from catching a glimpse of Verity's face (wash cloth, darkness, fog, back light, etc.) was irritating and contrived. The forced resolution on the question mistress or wife and the unbelievable dowager duchess character just added to the disappointment. [spoilers end]

The prose is excellent and her ability to place the reader in the historical time is very good. Before this, I would have bought a new book by the author without hesitation. Now, I'll have to read the reviews to decide. A fine point perhaps, but I wish I would have done so before I bought "Delicious".

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good--but not as good as it should be, August 4, 2008

By	HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

DELICIOUS "should" be a five-star book, but "should" is a pointless word: In the end, it is what it is.

That author Sherry Thomas is one of the best talents writing today is indisputable. Her prose practically sings.

Her research, without question, is thorough and definitive. And she evokes the era of the late Victorian period in England as successfully as anyone could do, blending sociology, politics and manners.

Obviously, however, there is a problem with DELICIOUS. And that problem is the plot; in a novel, however, plot is all-important. Yet the story that Thomas has chosen to tell is implausible, impossible, preposterous.

According to DELICIOUS, roughly one-third of the British peerage has been born on the "wrong side of the blanket," as the expression goes. Certainly, it defies belief that every other character here is illegitimate, or the parent of an illegitimate child.

Second, the young women of that era had to follow a firmly set code of morality. Did some of them stray? Definitely. Yet both the author's primary and secondary heroines are women who would have beeen construed at that time as being of easy virtue, "no better than she should be," as they used to like to say. Again, this seems to be unreasonable, even statistically unlikely.

Additionally, Thomas bestows powers and knowledge on some of the era's Grande Dames that not only are evil and unimaginable but also seem to cross the invisible line to magical in their impact. It's hard to believe in society hostesses, even the most important of the ladies, being as omnipotent and controlling as Thomas needs them to be for her story to move forward to its conclusion.

Finally, in an important plot point, it is difficult to imagine a servant using the private bath tub of the employers in their absence.

The political background clearly is interesting. More significantly, the descriptions of food, involving a character who is a cook, are magnificent, authoritative, detailed -- actually mouthwatering.

There is quite a bit of the real-life Rosa Lewis, the famous "Duchess of Duke Street" written into this character. Rosa's "Cavendish Hotel," with its renowned kitchen, was the favorite of the aristocracy and the true gourmets of that period. Rosa was reputed to have had affairs with several of her regulars including, possibly, even the Prince of Wales. (Later, Edward VII.)

Thomas hammers the fairytale theme, but there is no fairytale quality to the book, no sweetness, and the happy endings--all romances end happily--seem so strained that these are stupid.

Nonetheless, it bears repeating: Sherry Thomas writes exquisite prose ... she does wonderful research ... and she re-creates upper class late Victorian England as well as I've ever seen it done. And these are the reasons to read DELICIOUS.