When food critic Ava Marsh walks into Ardere to review it, she expects the best meal of her career. She doesn't expect to find herself reading the chef's autobiography in every course. Luca Ferrante built his restaurant from the ruins of a scathing review Ava wrote nine years ago - and now she sits at his table, tasting everything that distance cost him. Two professionals bound by the ethics of their crafts, two people burning with something neither can name yet. A slow-burn romance about passion, honesty, and the kind of hunger that has nothing to do with food.