It’s Pride Month! And what better way to celebrate than to dive into a queer romantic comedy series?

With Penny for Your Heart out in the world, we were able to follow Penny on her journey through reconnecting with her first love and finding out if those feelings were reciprocated or just one-sided. This passionate self-discovery between two friends brings us deep into their world where we meet a whole cast of found family and diverse characters. One of those characters is Ryan Tate.

Can’t Stand the Heat, the second book of the Romance in the City series, releases June 15th and it follows Ryan into the greatest adventure of his life as he lands a spot on a televised cooking competition show. Ryan wants the prize money to save his grandmother’s legacy of a restaurant. Little does he know that an old flame—and professional chef—might stand in his way.

Miguel Moreno is an assistant chef to a world renown celebrity chef and he is tired of living in the shadows of the greats. His lifelong dream of opening his own restaurant can finally be realized if he can get his hands on the prize money. It’s amateur chefs versus professionals, and no one is more surprised to see Ryan Tate than Miguel.

A year ago, these two may have shared a short but passionate affair, but now they’ve got to go through each other to reach the ultimate goal, winning first place on The Heat.

My love for cooking competition television shows totally inspired this story. I have watched everything from Chopped to MasterChef to Guy’s Grocery Games. I find joy in cooking and have learned so much by watching others compete. I have always been intrigued by the relationships between competitors, so throwing love and sex into the mix only felt natural.

Dive into Can’t Stand the Heat and you’ll find yourself immersed in more flavor and heat than you can handle while Ryan and Miguel battle it out in the kitchen while trying to protect their hearts.

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