Joy, who is the host of a TV show called Dining with Joy, can not cook. I mean she can not cook, she can not make toast, boil water, nothing.
She has her staff sworn to not say anything - well as you can image this book is about how everyone finds out and the consquences of that.
I enjoyed this book, there was a little dragging right after the middle but I got sucked back in and enjoyed it.
Joy, is living with her mom, raising her 2 nieces (while her brother and his wife figure out life (a rushed happily ever after at the end of the book)and being the star of the TV show.
The show is sold and the new producer sees things differently including bringing in a very cute sexy hot male co star.
This is Joy's story, the story of her mom and the neighbor (not really sure why that is there - unnecessary to me), the story of Luke, the story of the nieces - so as you can see it is the story of many. Too many? Maybe ( )

I picked this book because a cooking show host that couldn't cook really appealed to me. This book started out slow to me. It took me a little more than 100 pages before I was drawn into the story. The story is focused around Joy Ballard. She is a celebrity host of a well know cooking show. Joy took over hosting after her father died suddenly. Joy has mixed emotions over her masquerade as a cook. So many people depend on her for their livelihood that I could sympathize with her character. This book also had several themes such as, forgiveness, redemption, trust and finding out who you really are, woven into the storyline. I liked Joy's character but at times she frustrated me. Her banter with Luke, a cook who's looking for a second chance, was great. I thought they had good chemistry together. My favorite character is Joy's mom, Rosie. She has an ongoing lawn rivalry with their next door neighbor. It is hilarious! Rosie and Joy also have the responsibility of raising her teenage nieces. The Ballards lead complicated lives full of hard lessons to learn. Overall this was an okay read for me. I did have trouble getting into the story but by the end I liked it. ( )

I received this book in a giveaway from bookclubcookbook.com.

I LOVED this book. Not only is it a great and realistic story line, the messages in this book are outstanding. This is a Christian book, appropriate for anyone to read.

Joy Ballard is a cooking show host that secretly cannot cook. Her show is sold to Wild Woman productions which is the start of her downward spiral professionally. On the other hand, it is the start of something wonderful personally as she and the new cohost of the show are forming a relationship. The secret of not being able to cook comes to the surface when she is embarrassingly challenged to a cookoff by a rival cooking show host. She fails miserably and loses her job and her reputation. But the one person who stands beside her, Luke, is the one who helps her realize her dreams. There are other story lines present in this book that are important in the book as well: Her relationship with her deceased father, being a full-time aunt to her brother's abandoned two girls, her friendships and her mother's support.

This book was a pleasure to read and I am looking forward to reading other books by Rachel Hauck. ( )

An enjoyable read. ( )

I feel this author gets better with each book she writes. This was my favorite in her "A Lowcountry Romance" series! It was witty, charming, and a "joy" to read.
Joy Ballard is the host of an up and coming cooking show that has been picked up by a major network. A slight problem though, Joy can't cook! Anything! (This was some of the fun of the story, but also hard to believe part of the story). She has had a great team behind her helping her "cover up" her unability to cook. Enter Luke Redmond, a creative, cute and jobless chef who has lost his Manhattan restaurant to bankruptcy. He joins Joy's team and Joy sees her way out of cooking, by handing the cooking part over to Luke, while she does the "stand up comic" part of cooking. Their relationship seems to simmer on the air and off, but when Joy's cooking secret (she can't cook) is revealed her reputation is ruined, she fears she is losing Luke and things at home aren't going so well either. Can Joy figure out what God's will for her life is?
I really enjoyed the interaction and "sizzle" between Luke and Joy. I also got a kick out of Joy's Mom and appreciated the way Joy related to her neices. Although this book can be easily read as a stand alone, if you read the other two in the series first, you will understand some of the other characters mentioned in the book better. But if you only read one book in this series, I recommend you choose this one; it is my favorite! ( )