Monday, October 15, 2012

Making You Mine by Elizabeth Reyes



Can I just say that I thought this book was awesome? Well it was. It was fun watching Grace & Sal's story unfold.

Grace Zendejas is attending Culinary Arts School with her friend Joey. She desperately wants to be a Chef, but she keeps being told she is too young and inexperienced to be one.  Even though she is still in cooking school she has had years of experience cooking in Mexico at her grandmother’s restaurant. Her mother thinks she is being too picky and should apply to places as a bartender since she already has a bartender’s license. She lines up an interview as a head chef at the well-known Moreno’s restaurant where the three insanely good-looking Moreno brothers work. She snags an interview with the oldest brother Salvador. Because of her age and to him lack of experience he doesn’t want to hire her for the head chef, but would consider her for a bartender. Grace doesn’t want to be a bartender and is only interested in cooking. When Sal notices a lie on her resume about her age he doesn’t want to hire her. Even though he becomes annoyed with her attitude and her lying on the resume, he cannot stop thinking about her or talking about her to his brother.

Truth was, he’d wasted way too much time already thinking about Ms. Zendejas. He’d actually gone back to read her resume several more times. He’d even considered calling her and asking straight out why she lied. But something told him not to. It was probably better that he just let it go. At twenty-one, she could t have much experience anyway so what difference would it make?
Sal sat back and chewed the end of his pen. With that cute little accent and those hypnotic eyes, she’d be more of a distraction than any help. Nope. He threw her resume in the desk file. He was done thinking about her.    -Elizabeth Reyes, Making You Mine (The Moreno Brothers)

When Grace does not hear back a few days later, she decides to make a visit to the restaurant to follow up with Sal. Instead of speaking with Sal she encounters his brother Alex. He tests out her skills as a bartender and is quickly impressed. He then offers her the bartending job with a promise that he will give her a shot at working in the kitchen.  When Sal finds out he gets upset, but eventually becomes okay with it. But things don’t go very smoothly.  I think it’s safe to say that these two get off to a rocky start. They sort of disliked each other at first which makes for fun interactions between them. It wasn’t instant love with them, which I liked.

Sal is used to being in control and being the serious one; especially when it comes to him helping run the family business. He focuses a lot of his time and energy into work. He wasn’t looking for a relationship and he was definitely not looking to fall in love with the sexy new bartender Grace who speaks her mind, and has a temper to boot.

“You have no idea what you do to me. Then he smiled. Hell, I don t even know how to explain it. The way he looked at her at that moment made her wonder if he could actually be feeling what she was feeling. I can’t explain what I’m feeling either. All I know is…it scares me.”
“Don’t be. I’m not scared.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Okay, maybe a little. But it’s a good kind of scared, like I just boarded the ride of my life.” He kissed her nose and whispered, “Hold on tight.”
  -Elizabeth Reyes, Making You Mine (The Moreno Brothers)

But nothing is perfect and before their relationship has a real chance to bloom and grow Sal ends up making a mistake that could potentially cost him Grace.

This was my first book by Elizabeth Reyes that I have read, and I am glad I was able to discover this story. She is able to write an engaging story with solid characters that you end up falling in love with and rooting for. I loved it.  And if you like Making You Mine or the previous Moreno Brothers books, take a look at Fate  (A Moreno Brothers spin-off series) also by Elizabeth Reyes, which tells the story of Rose (Grace’s little sister) and Vince (Sal’s cousin) who were introduced in Making You Mine.

Rating: 4½  out of 5 





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