Book excerpt: This jaunty, fictional story connects mystical imagination with mysterious fantasy as the author merges sensual realism with mature emotions. With a sweep of her hand, Rachel Cook wakes up poignant dreams and questions the unexpected realities of the characters she meets on the blue elevator of her condominium. Set in the residence of the writer, the Ortega Yacht Club Condominiums in Jacksonville, Florida, fanatical actions revolve around "fictional" characters, as a chance meeting on the blue elevator maneuvers the fates of the two main characters. Adele "Dell" Marie Bell (Septuagenarian) is a writer who discovers that everyone has a tale to tell. She has retired and plays with the minds of her friends and acquaintances as she writes romantic fast reads (and would rather eat and enjoy life, than diet and suffer). Robert Andrew "Andy" McIntosh (Thirty), a wandering, unemployed chef, is the grandson of her deceased neighbor Pansy, who owned an ostrich farm in Ocala, Florida. This odd couple unconsciously ignores convention as fate; food, fun, and fantasy pull their unparallel lives together for a short time, introducing "mystery" to shine up rusting pieces of them. Now don't go jumping to conclusions, the first inkling of this unbalanced relationship is not what you are thinking when the heart of an obnoxious neighbor is stolen (with a steak knife)! Dell's aging imagination is rekindled as the mystery of the unbridled "heart thief" unravels, drawing the two main characters into an intriguing story. Adele Marie Bell, the quirky writer of romance novels (pseudonym, Rochelle) accepts the challenge of writing the story as she unwinds a twisted journal given to her by her neighbor (Andy's eccentric grandmother), Pansy Oag McIntosh. The journal's untethered words wets her journalistic appetitive, and she is served an appetizer (a human heart); an entrée (Thanksgiving dinner, broiled ostrich on an ostrich farm in Ocala, Florida); a main course (a three-star dinner in Paris, France, that reveals Andy's curved heritage). And for a delightful dessert, Andy himself dishes up pen and ink answers to delectable questions! Adele Marie Bell writes notes in a journal as she tunnels into the buried past of Andy's dysfunctional family, digging up, and recording the reclusive secrets of his tightly wound grandmother (Pansy). Her talent for romantic expression and intrigue is left challenged, as Pansy's rambling journal reveals a webbing of jangled words that leaves difficult questions unanswered, telling young Andy he is not who he thinks he is! The writer wets the reader's appetite, salivating taste buds, as Andy's gourmet talents cook up surprisingly lip-smacking results, and the two become unlikely cell mates. These two dimensional characters invite word-hungry readers to dine with them in the neighborhood's most popular restaurants as they uncover secrets lurking behind the doors of the condominium and glamorize the art of dining for pleasure, versus eating to fill the gut. Tasty words unravel a yummy mystery that keeps the reader's tummy grumbling for more, and love's definition breaks all rules as it unfolds with astonishing realism, making the reader think "endings are not such a bad thing . . ." Rachel Cook scraps below the surface of her characters, using her mature power of words to enamor her readers with surprises, knowing that every life is a tale to be told.