Culi­nary stu­dent Lexi Berman, 24, has one goal: to make her late moth­er proud by becom­ing an exec­u­tive chef in a Miche­lin-star restau­rant. And she isn’t going to let any­thing – or any­one – get in the way. But when she meets Jake Tay­lor, a dive bar musi­cian who charms her with show tunes, she makes a rare excep­tion to her no-dat­ing rule. After a steamy week­end togeth­er, Jake leaves for L.A. to record his demo, and Lexi nev­er expects to see him again. And she def­i­nite­ly doesn’t expect him to become an overnight celebri­ty, with a break­out sin­gle that’s almost cer­tain­ly about her famous blue­ber­ry pan­cake recipe.

As Jake’s star ris­es and the world spec­u­lates about the sub­ject of his song, Lexi keeps the affair to her­self. After all, she’s final­ly found her foot­ing at her new restau­rant job, and even has a prospec­tive romance with her cowork­er. But when a dis­traught Jake turns up on her doorstep late one night, her care­ful­ly-laid plans are thrown for a loop. Though she and Jake try to be friends, things between them soon reheat faster than a bowl of Lex­i’s matzah ball soup. But a rela­tion­ship with Jake means risk­ing her face in tabloids, with­stand­ing cru­el inter­net com­ments, and worst of all, jeop­ar­diz­ing her career. As Jake’s upcom­ing tour approach­es, and rumors swirl about him and anoth­er pop star, Lexi has to decide if hold­ing onto her metic­u­lous­ly-planned future is worth walk­ing away from what could be the per­fect recipe for love.

Set both in the chaos of fame and the high stakes world of New York City restau­rants, this nov­el sprin­kles in a sec­ond chance at love and a dol­lop of celebri­ty dra­ma to cre­ate a roman­tic romp that will make even the most jad­ed read­er smile.