Name: Just One Taste
Author: Lizzy Dent

Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent is a fun, escapist Italian food romance adventure with a generous helping of sizzle and spice. Read my full review.

Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent, Book Review

Publication: HarperCollins Australia, July 2024.

Genre: Romance, Drama

Just One Taste Publisher Synopsis

Olive Stone is about to spend four weeks in Italy with the most beautiful man she’s ever hated.

When Olive Stone and her Italian pseudo-celebrity chef father fell out fourteen years ago, annoyingly handsome Leo Ricci slipped right in as his surrogate son and sous-chef. No one is more surprised than Olive when her father wills her his beloved (and now failing) restaurant. Or that his dying wish was for Olive and Leo to complete his cookbook … together.

She’s determined to sell the restaurant. Leo is determined to convince her not to. As they embark on four weeks in Italy, traveling from Sicily to Tuscany to Liguria, they’ll test each other as often as they test recipes. But the more time Olive and Leo spend together the more undeniable their attraction grows. Olive finds herself wondering whether selling the restaurant might be running away, and what it might be like to try just one taste of Leo Ricci. Because he isn’t who she expected, and this trip might reveal more about who Olive is than she’s ready for.

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My Review

There’s something inescapably enticing about romance novels revolving around food and/or a failing business, right? So with Just One Taste, Lizzy Dent has gone all-in on that trope. For good measure, she has also thrown family drama and resentment, a ‘forced’ trip to numerous picturesque Italian settings, mouth-watering descriptions of Italian cuisine and the enemies-to-lovers trope. The end result is delicious escapism with a big helping of sizzle and spice.

Protagonist Olive becomes overwhelmed by the sizzle and her own hot-and-heavy thoughts very early on. You know the derogatory quip about men being ruled by something other than their brain? Almost the equivalent occurred, I think, inauthentically quickly for our purportedly strong-willed and hard-hitting restaurant critic.

“He left me the restaurant,” I confirm, still in shock myself.

“Do you get that hot chef with it?” Ginny asks, pointing at Leo, who at that very moment looks up in our direction. He can’t possibly see us with the evening sun so low and bright in his eyes, so I indulge myself, staring as he runs his hands up through his dark hair, biceps popping as he rests them on his head for a moment before breathing out, eyes to the sky, and then returning to his paperwork.

“All of it, yes,” I say, a strange sort of prickly feeling up my spine before I pull my eyes from Leo.

That was at the end of page 3. So, that mismatch in characterisation nagged at me. For an enemies-to-lovers story, I just think she fell a little too quickly.

But, Lizzy Dent sets scenes evocatively and writes entertaining dialogue. A real highlight were the three-way text and phone conversations between Olive and her dear friends Ginny and Kate.

“Our holidays began here in Catania, this loud, bustling city pulsing with memories. I know these scenes, like a movie once adored and now almost forgotten. I know the large square lava-stone pavers that line the footpaths. I can smell salty, fishy air coming from the fish market I think is just down the far end of the square. I remember this intense heat, the sea breeze flowing like water between the buildings, down the alleyways, never quite cooling enough.”

Story pacing aside, the sizzle and banter between Olive and Leo, eventual open-door steaminess and redemptive story arc made Just One Taste enjoyable weekend reading.