Before he was Famine, he was Julian.

Julian Vale has built an empire on taste.

Six restaurants. Three Michelin stars. A television career. A reputation for knowing exactly what every dish needs before anyone else realizes something is wrong.

Then, suddenly, he can’t taste a damn thing.

Four months later, only his doctors and one other person know.

Not his employees. Not his business partners. And definitely not the public whose faith in Julian Vale is worth millions.

He has everything under control.

Until Clara.

Clara works at her grandmother’s neighborhood diner, where the coffee is questionable, the menu is too long, and Julian has opinions about nearly all of it.

She’s unimpressed by his reputation, irritated by his interference, and absolutely unwilling to let him bulldoze his way into her life.

Unfortunately, the building housing Mabel’s Diner is falling apart—and its new landlord seems far more interested in getting rid of the diner than fixing it.

Julian has never been particularly good at leaving broken things alone.

What starts with him interfering where he isn’t wanted becomes coffee runs, texts, terrible escape rooms, and Sundays Julian starts looking forward to far too much.

Clara doesn’t need him to be brilliant.

She doesn’t need him to be famous.

She doesn’t even need him to taste.

And for the first time since losing the thing that defined him, Julian wants something that has nothing to do with food.

He wants her.

And his hunger has nothing to do with an empty stomach.

Four men. Four standalone romances. Four lives lived before they discover they are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.