Feel the Heat

Meader tugs at the heartstrings in her poignant debut. Voluptuous Lili DeLuca is a talented photographer who put her own life aside to manage the family restaurant after her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Now that her mother is in remission, Lili’s got a new problem: Jack Kilroy, the TV chef who just landed in Chicago for a cook-off against her father. The attraction between Jack and Lili is immediate, but after a video of a steamy kiss surfaces on Twitter and Facebook, comments insulting Lili’s size-14 body spread across the Internet. Lili is a heroine readers of all sizes can relate to; though she’s an expert at parrying rudeness, deep down she feels her body makes her unworthy of love. It’s up to handsome Brit Jack to break through her well-fortified defenses and prove to her that she’s the one for him. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Feb.)