Maura Carmody's off on the trip of a lifetime. A talented chef, she's travelling around Ireland for a month to promote Australian food and wine. Maura's expecting a straightforward business trip. But what she gets is a whirlwind of mishaps, misunderstandings, rivals and revelations ? and Dominic Hanrahan, who's giving her plenty of food for thought. Set in Ireland and Australia, A Taste For It is a warm, funny novel about following your heart and pursuing your dreams.

Set aside for the 3k bookbag.

Pulled out of the 3kg Aus Bookbag! Thanks! I almost left this book in the bag, but opened for a quick read of the first two pages and saw that it's partly set in South Australia (my home state) so I'm going to hang onto it for the love of seeing recognisable places in print. I'm hoping it won't turn out to have the writing style that I think it might, but am willing to at least give it a shot.

Maura is a chef at a South Australian winery owned by her brother in the Clare Valley, though most of the book is set in Ireland, where Maura is on tour promoting their Lorikeet Hill wines as well as running cooking classes showcasing Australian flavours.

The story begins with an absolutely farcical, and all too transparent, series of events in the Lorikeet Hill restaurant in the Clare Valley, South Australia. It was obvious that this event was going to have a major impact on the rest of the story. A case of mistaken identity and an unbelievably unprofessional response in retaliation to a previous upset... what could possibly go wrong? You can pretty much see how the entire book will play out, right from the first chapter, and sadly it is written in a style that makes me cringe. I managed to push through to the end, but it was not an enjoyable experience, and there wasn't even the South Australian references I wanted as pretty much the whole thing was set in Ireland. Oh well, can't win em all!