This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Though this book is filled with humor and witty dialogue, I felt that the storyline was a bit rushed. Other than that, it was a fun read and I found myself giggling aloud many times. ( )

*I received a copy of this book as part of the Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review. Brief plot spoilers may follow.*

Summary:
Ashley Harris is a jaded chef who enters a local cooking competition where the winning prize is enough capital for her to achieve her dream of opening her own restaurant. Stuck in a job where she constantly has to ward off a handsy manager, she really needs this risk to pay off. Her real piece of competition comes in the form of hunky Josh Cantor, a baseball player who also has a lot to lose by not winning the competition. His grandmother Angel is battling Alzheimer’s and steadily getting worse, but she is very adamant during her lucid moments that she’d love to have a great-grandchild before the dementia fully sets in. Josh too is jaded, from a mismatched marriage and awful divorce, and has sworn off the idea of falling in love again. But Angel drives a hard bargain: Josh must find love again, and for every photograph she sees of the new couple, she’ll hand over one of the recipes in the cookbook Josh covets so much. Josh agrees to the bargain, but as he begins to fall for Ashley, he realizes he made a mistake. Will Josh's deception cost him both the competition and Ashley's affections?

My thoughts:
Ashley and Josh were just about all of my favorite parts of Third Degree. I was really pleased with the fact that Josh wasn’t the normal alpha male type that I usually see in these books. He wasn’t overly confident, didn’t see himself as being above everyone, and while he gave off the detached, smooth vibe he was actually very observant and not without a conscience. I liked that he immediately bristled about having to potentially trick both his grandmother and Ashley, instead of not thinking about it at all until he’d fallen in love with her. I thought Ashley was a normal girl in all the right ways, not too tough that she needed to be brought down a notch, but not ready to dissolve at the first sign of trouble. She had a reasonable (and understandable) amount of hang-ups and even though we didn’t get to find out details about either of their families (which I wouldn’t have minded), I feel like we were still given a good sense of who both characters were. I felt like I understood their motivations, a good chunk of the reason why they became who they were, and I liked that they both had at least one good person on their sides. I liked the way that the plot unfolded. I didn’t feel like there were too many contrived scenes, save for the ending, but I liked that I could understand how events and situations could come to pass instead of them just popping up out of nowhere. I also liked how the conflict was brought out in the open; I never would have expected it. I was halfway expecting someone to hack into Josh’s phone and a public scandal to erupt so I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t happen. I think this book had probably the most unconventional phone sex scene that I’ve ever read, and at first I thought it was going to end up creepy but it was quite intriguing. Another thing that I liked was that the food got its shine as well. It wasn’t a book about food and romance where food takes the backseat. It had a prominent part in this book and I appreciated that attention to even the details.

As for things that I was not so fond of, even though I thought the ending was creative, it did seem a little rushed. It would have been nice to see how everything played out with both Ashley and Angel; I didn’t feel like there was ever a proper conversation to resolve the conflict. It would have been nice to see how Josh’s plans changed as a result of what he did for Ashley or how he explained his actions to her. There were a few grammatical errors but nothing too large. I kind of wish that there was a bit more attention to the baseball, more so Josh’s attitude towards it. Even though this is touted as a baseball romance, it rather than the food takes a backseat to the rest of the story.

Overall I don’t have too many complaints with the book. I thought everything was well-written, descriptive enough for the reader to understand everything that was going on, and a simple plot/writing style that still had the ability to be thorough. I liked the mix of smaller characters, loved the main two, and I actually enjoyed that there wasn’t a heavy dose of vulgarity in the sex scenes. This from a chick who reads erotica on the daily. LOL Anyway, I really enjoyed Third Degree and I’m looking forward to checking out more books in the series! ( )

The Characters

Ashley Harris and Josh Cantor seem to be a perfect match from when they first meet. I don't have any strong feelings either way about either of them. I liked them well enough but don't have any overwhelming memorable feeling for them. I really like Angel and my heart breaks for her as I know they won't have her around in the same way much longer.

The Story

Ashley and Josh's relationship is flirty, fun and steamy. It also gets a bit complicated but what is life without complications. I like the idea of the TV competition (though I hated the name), but I'm not 100% in love with the execution of it. It seemed like neither of them were working all that hard on it by the last round but there are reasons for that. You'll have to read about them yourself.

Random Thoughts

A decent addition to the series but it can totally be read as a sand alone. We get a glimpse at some past characters but not enough to make you feel your missing any of Ashley and Josh's story (which you aren't, they meet in this book)

Overall, I give this story 3.5 Stars

Read With Me: Third Degree ( )

This is my fourth Diamond Brides-book and the series continues to be very enjoyable. Josh and Ashley were both great characters and you really wished all the happiness for them.

However, the romance feeled a little rushed again and why on earth (minor spoiler!) do all the books in the series have to end in a proposal! It really isn't very believable. ( )

This is the first book I read in the Diamond Bride Series. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was fun and quirky and very light to read. Plus, it helped to imagine Josh as Pepe Toth (Daemon Black, anyone?)

If you are looking for a fast, enjoyable and funny book, Third Degree is definitely for you. ( )