Reviews

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett

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jrholt's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

guybrush's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

4.0

nehaha's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

ugh a waste of time! The restaurant owner is incredibly annoying and such a difficult character to care about. She is incredibly insecure and makes it everyone else’s problems and continuously self victimizes. Her and Amy’s relationship is not believeable - I still don’t understand the attraction and chemistry between them. There are some good sex scenes especially in the beginning of the book, which is the only reason this book got 1 star. But unfortunately the worsen as the book progresses. I’m unsure who the audience of this book is supposed to be but it definitely is not sapphics because they’re sex feels so much like what cis het people think of sapphic sec to be. There is little to no character development especially for the restaurant owner. The chef is likable but we do not much of her character other than that she is bi (was engaged to a man), is a chef and obsessed with the restaurant owner. She does not have much of a personality and character development outside of Amy - most of her decision and thinking are tied to the restaurant owner. Sophie has a lot of plot outside of Amy, esp relating to her family. Her toxic relation with her dad is mentioned and shown a lot however the reason for what that is is never explained nor there is any resolution to that. Overall, terrible book, would not recommend!!!

Oh and also the restaurant owner sucks at making spreadsheets- literally the core of her business.

ansimps2's review

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emotional lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

joanna1905's review against another edition

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3.0

This was cute but I couldn’t for the life of me keep straight which one was Amy and which was Sophie. It was a nice light read but probably ultimately not something that’s gonna stick with me. Sex scenes were well written tho.

lurker_stalker's review against another edition

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3.0

Contemplated quitting a few times but stuck it out and ended up mostly liking it. One of the biggest things that kept pulling me out of the story was the language used during the sex scenes. I don't read a lot of erotica - well, hardly any at all really - but I totally expect to see words like "fuck" and "pussy" and "cunt" in works of erotica. Because in the right context, they can be hot. I get that. In a romance story, I don't expect to be hit with so many "fuck me" uses and definitely no "cunt" uses.

I also understand that there's a power in reclaiming these words. I get that. But in the context of all the sex scenes in a romance, not erotica, book, it didn't work for me.

I did have other issues with book but they didn't pull me out of the story like the language did.