What is the title of your latest release?
What’s the elevator pitch for your new book?
A restaurant owner hires a former TV reality star to save her struggling restaurant only to discover that the talented but sad woman seems determined to undermine her authority at every turn. When fire spreads from the kitchen to the bedroom they’re forced to confront their growing attraction before they lose everything.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The Romance Recipe takes place in the same universe as my debut, Hot Copy, so I was able to inherit the setting: a new restaurant in the city of Boston. I loved being able to return to that world.
Would you hang out with your heroines in real life?
Definitely! Amy is tough but secretly soft and Sophie is an excellent cook (dinner dates!) and Canadian (just like me!)
What are three words to describe The Romance Recipe?
Steamy. Foodies. Love.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The Romance Recipe was my second book, and I was so scared that the first book was a fluke, but it wasn’t! It was an amazing feeling to type THE END on The Romance Recipe. I proved to myself I could do it!
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I’m done. If I start tinkering with words before the book is finished, I feel like I’ll never finish.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Always and forever, I will love cheeseburgers.
Describe your writing space/office?
I share my writing space with our family room. We are a family of three in 1000 square foot condo, so we’re limited for space. But my desk faces a floor to ceiling window and gets lots of sun and light and I’ve gotten very used to getting work done in the middle of family chaos.
Who is an author you admire?
I can only pick one? Talia Hibbert is a fave of mine. She is prolific, talented, and an incredible advocate for the romance genre.
Is there a book that changed your life?
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater remains my most favorite book ever. I read almost every year. It’s atmospheric and tender and I learn something new about character, setting, pacing, and plot every time I read it.
Tell us about when you got the call.
I honestly don’t remember getting the call for The Romance Recipe! One of the things I’ve experienced a lot during my entire publishing career is something that I guess I’d call disassociation. When big moments happen, like getting the agent offer or a book deal, they are such huge moments. They’re dream come true moments. And I think in the past my brain has tried to protect me in case it wasn’t real. I’ve gotten better now though about being more intentional about those moments now though; of staying in the moment and recognizing that not only my dreams are coming true but they’re real!
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Romance! I love reading and writing romance. If I do read outside the genre, I am always most invested in the romantic sub-plots. A book without a hint of romance in it? I don’t know her.
What is your favorite movie?
Pride & Prejudice 2005. Matthew Macfadyen is my Darcy always and forever.
What is your favorite season?
Fall. I love the colors, the smell in the air, I love that we’re approaching the holidays. I love that it’s not too hot and the chill in the air.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I am a BIG birthday person. I have been begging my husband to throw me a surprise party for years, but he says it’s hard to throw a surprise party for a person who’s asking for one (and ok, he may have a point).
What’s a recent TV show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
TV Show:
Movie: We recently watched Fire Island, a queer P&P retelling written by and starring Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, and Margaret Cho. It’s so funny, sweet, sexy. An INCREDIBLE adaptation, probably one of my favorites ever.
Book: I recently finished Fire Season by fellow Carina author KD Casey. Fire Season is the second book in their queer baseball romance series (the first book is Unwritten Rules). KDs books have become comfort reads for me, they are so tender and vulnerable. Fire Season comes out July 19, 2022.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Despite having written a foodie romance, this question is so hard for me to answer! I just LOVE FOOD so much! But if I absolutely have to choose, I’d probably put Indian food high up there on the list.
What do you do when you have free time?
I always make time for the gym. I got five times a week and it’s one of the reasons why I made Sophie a weightlifter in The Romance Recipe.
What can readers expect from you next?
More contemporary romance, including queer contemporary romances, some erotic short stories, and I have some other romance sub-genre ideas – mostly in the SFF space – that readers can look forward to hopefully soon.
THE ROMANCE RECIPE by Ruby Barrett
A fiery restaurant owner falls for her enigmatic head chef in this charming, emotional romance
Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.
Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane…
Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.
Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean…
Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.
Romance Comedy | LGBTQ Romance [Carina Adores, On Sale: June 28, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781335506917 / eISBN: 9780369720153]
Buy THE ROMANCE RECIPE: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Love’s Sweet Arrow | Walmart.com | Book Depository | Target.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Ruby Barrett
Ruby Barrett’s romances center women who demand to be loved as they are and the good-natured, vulnerable men who earn their hearts.
When she’s not writing about love in its many forms, she’s reading. And when she’s not doing either of those things you can find her chasing her tiny queen (read: daughter), doing (digital) marketing, drinking tea (never coffee), wearing pants (that aren’t jeans), (re) watching The Office, or exploring museums (in other cities).
She lives in Ottawa, Canada with her aforementioned tiny queen, and her husband (who she kisses a lot).
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