La Belle et la Buffet & Tippy Canoe Canoodling

I originally posted the following piece on Fangs Wands and Fairy Dust last April 13.
Well, I am re-posting it with some edits because three exciting things have happened:
1. Julia is coming for lunch this weekend! We've never met in person or talked on the phone so it's pretty exciting!
2.  She reissued Beauty and the FeastWith a new, provocative cover and
3. It made the best sellers list in Amazon Kindle. The post below also talks about another great book drawn from her personal experience. When I wrote this BEAUTY AND THE FEAST was available on Kindle for free. 

PUSHING HER BOUNDARIES 
by Julia Rachel Barrett

Paperback: 154 pages
Publisher: Siren Publishing, Inc. (March 11, 2011)
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 312 KB
Publisher: Siren Publishing (March 22, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Maggie is done with men. Flying to Minneapolis, she's seated beside the type of man she always falls for. A sexy, arrogant alpha jerk. Mace Williams irritates the woman next to him. She's so damn sexy, he doesn't care. When their seatmate suffers a cardiac arrest, Maggie and Mace team up to save his life, but it's too late. In Minneapolis, Maggie heads to a restaurant with her sister, only to find Mace waiting. Worse, she learns he's the brother of her sister's fiance. Stuck in her sister's apartment with Mace, Maggie offers him one night of sex, anything goes. No obligations, no recriminations. Mace agrees...he wants more than Maggie's body, he wants her heart. Thrown into a disastrous canoe trip, they must work together to survive. Maggie must face her demons and trust Mace with her life. Mace is determined to save her, regardless of what the future brings. ** A Siren Erotic Romance 

BEAUTY AND THE FEAST
by Julia Rachel Barrett
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 369 KB
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Re-release 2012
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Eva Raines is an uncomplicated country girl who's all about food. Eva moves to the Napa Valley where her culinary skills come to the attention of the owners of a start-up, All Things to All People, and Eva finds her niche as a personal chef. Now all she needs is a man as perfect as her cooking, but she has serious doubts that such a creature exists.

When wealthy entrepreneur, winery owner, and noted lothario, Gabriel Abbott, makes plans to seduce his flavor of the month, his assistant hires All Things to All People to cater a gourmet dinner. Eva expects to use her way with food to showcase the startup. What she unexpectedly discovers is that her culinary skills showcase far more.

Once Gabriel finds himself seduced by Eva's voice, and the sensual flavors and textures of her food, his previous plans are quickly forgotten. He begins to obsess about meeting his little chef in person. But when Eva and Gabe finally come face to face, the question is, how hot will their fire burn?

BEAUTY AND THE FEAST is about two people drawn together by the second most magical thing the art of food preparation. PUSHING HER BOUNDARIES is a fiction the research on which lies in a nightmare-horror-story canoe trip she and her husband took last year in 2010. If Julia were Stephen King this would have been a very different story involving axes and rabid squirrels. As  soon as we read about the trip all Julia's pals were urging her to write a story based in it but totally fictional! The actual "vacation" is memorialized over several days of posts starting HERE.

So, you may have, in the past,seen me write that what matters most in all art (except singing off-key) is sincerity. I have not read everything Julia has written, heck I barely have time to read my snail mail, but what I have read I have enjoyed because it is well written and sincere, maybe not the absolute perfect story, but good.  DAUGHTERS OF PERSEPHONE has a great story and characters and her continuity is outstanding. In the publishing format she used some things were a bit rushed making them feel less natural than they could have been.  But, with these two books: BEAUTY AND THE FEAST and PUSHING HER BOUNDARIES she has had a breakthrough in her story telling. There is more dialogue and less plain telling. I hope she continues this growth as a writer because it holds so much promise. 

You may note that above I said I wanted to talk about these two books. As noble and honest as I am, those qualities do not extend perfectly into being unbiased about my friends. And, I won't pretend otherwise. I could go through a whole list of why these are good books, but you already know she and I are buddies so that detracts a wee bit from my credibility.  But, I want you to see her work for yourself. These are some really unique subjects and stories and with it she has crossed into a whole new level of writing. I really enjoyed reading them and feel good about recommending them to you.

Did I mention both books are hot and steamy? Only Julia could take the most nightmarish canoe trip in imagination and make it into something erotic. Food has a long history of sexiness, but Julia is taking it to a whole new level.  If that's not fantasy writing I don't know what is.

Both are available at Amazon via my Affiliate link