Reviewed by Nikyta
Title: Indulge Me
Author: Beth Bolden
Series: Kitchen Gods
Heroes: Bastian & Kian
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 363 pages
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: April 8, 2019
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Throughout the restaurant industry, Chef Bastian Aquino is a notorious control freak. For two very long years, Kian Reynolds has worked for Bastian as his special assistant, doing whatever he and his restaurant needs. The toughest part isn’t even all the impossible tasks he expects Kian to complete flawlessly—it’s the hopeless, endless love he feels for his older boss.
Falling for someone so far above him might be agonizing, but at least his feelings aren’t unrequited. Bastian fell in love right alongside him, but at the very beginning, they made the choice to abstain for logical, smart, professional reasons.
But love isn’t logical, it isn’t smart, and it definitely isn’t professional. It defies containment, even by Bastian. While he watches Bastian struggle with their attraction, Kian finally comes to the conclusion that he’s done.
He’s done standing off the side, done not getting any of the credit, done letting Bastian define the boundaries of their relationship. Most of all, he’s done waiting.
Indulge Me is an 85,000 word contemporary romance, featuring an enormous amount of pining, a boss/employee relationship, an age gap and very delicious risotto. It is the fourth and final book in the Kitchen Gods series, and to receive a fuller, more enjoyable reading experience, I would recommend reading at least one other book in the series first.
Review:
When I started this series, I fell in love with it right away. I’ve read each book as they’ve come out and loved each couple but these two? I loved Kian from the beginning of the series and was super intrigued with Bastian since then too. I was really looking forward to their story for so long and I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed seeing them together and how things started between them. I didn’t think that Bastian knew of Kian’s feelings but that’s clear pretty quickly that Bastian is well aware and not only aware but has the same feelings. The fact that they both lasted two years was simply amazing but the little sweet moments between them just melted my heart.
I will say that I didn’t really expect where this story would go. After the way things ended with Xander’s book, I kind of thought things would start from there. It didn’t, we see how Kian and Bastian start and how their feelings have just gotten deeper and deeper as the time has passed. I feel like I’m babbling here but Bastian really snuck into my heart. He acts like he’s a hardass and doesn’t care but he actually cares more than anyone. He doesn’t let anyone see that side of him except for Kian, who understands him more than anyone possibly could, and his mom. But I really enjoyed seeing how Kian was able to soothe Bastian (as much as he could). I really loved them together, I couldn’t get enough of them!
While I really loved this book, I was a little saddened that while the first 30% was about the first few years that Kian was at Terrior, we didn’t get his POV from some of the things that happened in previous books. I mean, at first, I wasn’t too thrilled about starting from the beginning but then I really got into it and expected to see some things happen that Kian was involved with Wyatt, Miles and Xander but that didn’t really happen and I was saddened by that because in previous books I was always curious of Kian’s responses and how he handled that when he spent 90% of his time with Bastian. Add to that, there was just a little too much smut for me.
Overall, this was an amazing conclusion to the series. I won’t lie, I hate that the series is now ended but Bastian and Kian’s story was so intriguing, I couldn’t put the book down. I loved them in previous books but seeing them as deeper characters was amazing and I loved their journey to where they ended. I know this concludes the series but I really hope we’ll get a novella or even see them in a spin-off? I just can’t let them go! But if you’ve read the series so far, definitely give this one a go. However, if you want to read this one, you definitely need to read the previous books in the series or some things might just go right over your head.
Overall Impression: I loved it!
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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