Recipe for Desire

Despite a strong premise and an engaging hero, this foodie contemporary from Hodges (His Sexy Bad Habit) falls slightly short of the mark. Marie Charles is “Charlotte [N.C.]’s chocolate Paris Hilton,” known more for party drama than philanthropy. One DWI charge later, she’s doing community service at My Sister’s Keeper, a local women’s shelter. There she meets Devon Harris, a celebrity chef with his own Food Network show who volunteers because he remembers growing up poor. The two seeming opposites fall hard for each other after an initial period of all-out dislike. While Devon is three-dimensional from the start, Marie never quite evolves into a fully sympathetic heroine. Turgid bedroom scenes (“His erection stood up like a magic wand ready to put her deeper under his spell”) are mostly distracting. A predictable ending caps this serviceable but not terribly compelling work. Agent: Sha-Shana Crichton, Crichton & Associates. (Mar.)