World Chocolate Day lands on July 7, which feels less like a holiday and more like a personal value system finally getting recognized by the calendar.

I am a firm believer that food belongs in romance. Not as a backdrop. As a love language. Some of the best flirting happens over a shared dessert, because nobody is brave enough to say what they mean, so they say it with a spoon instead. (If a man offers me the last bite of anything, I assume we are engaged.)

This is the whole reason my Recipes for Love series exists. Each book is built around a woman figuring out her life one dish at a time, with a man who keeps wandering into her kitchen at exactly the wrong (right) moment. There is yearning. There is butter. There is the kind of slow simmer where you start shouting at the page, just kiss already, the soufflé can wait.

If you want a place to start, A Tablespoon of Temptation is book one, and yes, the food writing is dangerous to read on an empty stomach. Consider yourself warned, and maybe keep a snack nearby.

Now, the other reason chocolate is on my mind this week. My new billionaire romance, Trusting Mr. Sterling, releases July 7, which is World Chocolate Day, which I would like to pretend I planned. (I did not. Sometimes the universe just hands you a theme.) It has the buttoned-up, impossible-to-read hero, the woman who refuses to be charmed by his money, and a slow thaw that I had a very good time writing.

So here is the plan. Buy yourself something chocolate. Open a book set in a kitchen, or one with a man in a very expensive suit. Tell yourself it counts as a balanced day.

You can find A Tablespoon of Temptation here and Trusting Mr. Sterling here.

Go celebrate responsibly. Or don't. I'm not your boss.