"Love on the Back Burner" introduces us to Alexandria D’Agostino, a successful marketer with a passion for cooking, especially delicious Italian cuisine, learned from years tugging at the apron of her Nonna. As successful as she is, Alex doesn’t have a great track record in her personal life. Using her artful cooking skills to reel the men in she decides—with a little prodding from her friends—to expand her repertoire to find out what HE likes. From there Alex learns to cook everything from Indian Vindaloo to barbecued ribs and everything in between. After failure after failure Alex begins to wonder if she even knows the recipe for love and happily ever after.

The mark of a good storyteller is the ability to make you root for an unlikeable character and Barbara Oliverio does that with aplomb in "Love on the Back Burner". We all know someone like Alex, so desperate to be in love that she makes mistake after mistake in her search. While reading the story you will cringe at her longing to please her would-be suitors with her world class cooking. And you’ll gasp in astonishment as she ignores her obvious attraction to IT hottie, Cam, in the rudest way possible. But despite Alex’s flaws you want her to find the happiness in her personal life that she finds in the kitchen. But like me, you’ll wish she would just slow down and let a guy take her out for dinner once in a while! Though at times it is overly descriptive, Oliverio does a great job of telling Alex’s story. You’ll read it like watching a romantic comedy, yelling at her, urging her to make different choices and sighing with relief when she finally summons up the courage to go after what she wants.

"Love on the Back Burner" is a lighthearted look at Alex, who is a successful and talented marketing professional, who cannot seem to get her relationships right. In her private life, her philosophy is that everything can be conquered or resolved with a good meal. It is the way that she shows she cares. Her skills in the kitchen are like second nature to her. Sadly, the liaisons in her life have nothing short of been mundane, until John happens along proclaiming his interest in her. In the meantime, at work, her business demeanor changes when an arrogant serviceman by the name of Cam shows up to work on the computer system. She immediately dislikes and distrusts him. Cam persists in marching into her personal as well as business activities wherever she is, always uninvited. Alex begins to think he must be stalking her. He even challenges her culinary skills, which throws her ‘over the top’. Her antics and thought processes are hilarious, as the story unfolds, and you can only appreciate the rollicking interactions by reading about them yourself.

I found myself laughing out loud many times, as I visualized Alex’s responses to everyone in her life. The story blends her work environment and personal as well as social blunders uniquely, as she desperately searches for her true niche. There are some awesome recipes too. Barbara Oliverio shares pasta, sandwich and sides recipes that sound tantalizingly delicious.