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mamawantsbooks's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Rating varied from 3-3.5 stars so I settled on 3.25 for StoryGraph. The FMC caused me way too much secondhand embarrassment from her lack of critical thinking where I had to put the book down to take time away or I was risking DNF-ing. The food descriptions were phenomenal and the ending was the best outcome for everyone.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Bullying
There’s minor revenge porn mention and one non-binary character talks about their pronouns being ignored.blackveilbeccy's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This was okay, I liked the main character and the love interest but a lot of the ensemble cast weren’t my thing. There was too much political talk for what I thought was a lighthearted chef romance. My favourite part was the Jewish representation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual content and Transphobia
allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
It turns out that the niche subgenre I love most is "romcoms on the set of a reality cooking show" because it's fun for me every time. In this one, Sadie flees a bad work situation involving her boss and revenge pornography when the perfectly timed opportunity to compete on Chef Supreme comes knocking. She wants to seize the dream of having her own restaurant, and this may be the last avenue available to her for reaching it. Things go a bit sideways when she connects with a fellow chef on the flight to New York, only to have him materialize as a judge on the competition.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed in this book. Sadie is an imperfect and likable protagonist, unsure of herself but passionate about food. She has a humorous inner dialogue and amusingly personifies her anxiety in the form of her Jewish grandmother. There's great conversation about Establishment food and how marginalized cuisines like Jewish foods and Appalachian foods are unfairly viewed as not worthy of a fine dining experience. There's also a strong queer cast. Sadie is "not straight" but it comes up only in passing and doesn't have a material impact on the plot. There's a non-binary character and sapphic relationship among side characters, however. The story touches on how women are underrepresented and harassed in professional kitchens and the importance of using someone's correct pronouns. My favorite relationship is Sadie's realization that she has unnecessarily cast another woman as a frenemy in her head and coming to terms with the jealousy that planted the idea.
While billed as a romance, Sadie and Luke's love story is background at best. It's instalove followed by a forbidden love so forbidden that they mostly have nothing to do with each other throughout the book. It's pining central. A downside of single POV is that Luke is a bit one-note, his brief interactions with Sadie largely revolving around some daddy issues that are reasonable but not overly nuanced. Finally, one of the highlights of the story is Sadie's passion for Jewish diaspora foods and the detailed descriptions of her cooking adventures on the show (the attention to detail wow *literal chef's kiss*). Unfortunately, this strayed into a couple casual mentions of Israeli cuisine with no unpacking of colonialism and food appropriation that I think is necessary there. The repackaging of Palestinian and broader Levantine food traditions as Israeli is wildly problematic, and that sat with me throughout the whole book despite the briefness of the mentions on page.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed in this book. Sadie is an imperfect and likable protagonist, unsure of herself but passionate about food. She has a humorous inner dialogue and amusingly personifies her anxiety in the form of her Jewish grandmother. There's great conversation about Establishment food and how marginalized cuisines like Jewish foods and Appalachian foods are unfairly viewed as not worthy of a fine dining experience. There's also a strong queer cast. Sadie is "not straight" but it comes up only in passing and doesn't have a material impact on the plot. There's a non-binary character and sapphic relationship among side characters, however. The story touches on how women are underrepresented and harassed in professional kitchens and the importance of using someone's correct pronouns. My favorite relationship is Sadie's realization that she has unnecessarily cast another woman as a frenemy in her head and coming to terms with the jealousy that planted the idea.
While billed as a romance, Sadie and Luke's love story is background at best. It's instalove followed by a forbidden love so forbidden that they mostly have nothing to do with each other throughout the book. It's pining central. A downside of single POV is that Luke is a bit one-note, his brief interactions with Sadie largely revolving around some daddy issues that are reasonable but not overly nuanced. Finally, one of the highlights of the story is Sadie's passion for Jewish diaspora foods and the detailed descriptions of her cooking adventures on the show (the attention to detail wow *literal chef's kiss*). Unfortunately, this strayed into a couple casual mentions of Israeli cuisine with no unpacking of colonialism and food appropriation that I think is necessary there. The repackaging of Palestinian and broader Levantine food traditions as Israeli is wildly problematic, and that sat with me throughout the whole book despite the briefness of the mentions on page.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Sexual content
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