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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This is an early contender for a Best Read of 2022.
London and Dahlia are contestants on the cooking show, Chef’s Special, and their dishes aren’t the only things heating up on screen.
Cheesy opener to this review aside, Anita Kelly has created a fulfilling, earnest romance between Dahlia, a cisgender queer divorcée, and London, a recently out pan sexual non-binary person.
There’s not much I can really say about this book that won’t provide spoilers or do it justice, but here’s my overarching opinion:
This book is an insightful and emotional answer to the questions, “What if we let ourselves love ourselves as we do others? What if we decided to live and love as bravely as we could and demand the respect and love we deserve, no matter how scary?”
I loved this book and I think you will too.
London and Dahlia are contestants on the cooking show, Chef’s Special, and their dishes aren’t the only things heating up on screen.
Cheesy opener to this review aside, Anita Kelly has created a fulfilling, earnest romance between Dahlia, a cisgender queer divorcée, and London, a recently out pan sexual non-binary person.
There’s not much I can really say about this book that won’t provide spoilers or do it justice, but here’s my overarching opinion:
This book is an insightful and emotional answer to the questions, “What if we let ourselves love ourselves as we do others? What if we decided to live and love as bravely as we could and demand the respect and love we deserve, no matter how scary?”
I loved this book and I think you will too.
A queer romance with non-binary rep? Sign me up!!! 💌
"Messy and Vulnerable" is the line that I highlighted in LOVE & OTHER DISASTERS by Anita Kelly that is very fitting for this book. Dahlia and London must be vulnerable to be part of Chef's Special airing on national television. Additionally, they have to be vulnerable to open up and feel comfortable with themselves and each other for there to be any room for a relationship.
Life is also messy, and this book perfectly portrays navigating life and stumbling along the way. If you cook like me, that is also messy. Luckily, Dahlia and London are both excellent chefs and the added food layer to this book made it ever more enjoyable.
It was refreshingly, original and highly recommend. It would be 4.5 stars, if I could provide half stars on Goodreads.
Life is also messy, and this book perfectly portrays navigating life and stumbling along the way. If you cook like me, that is also messy. Luckily, Dahlia and London are both excellent chefs and the added food layer to this book made it ever more enjoyable.
It was refreshingly, original and highly recommend. It would be 4.5 stars, if I could provide half stars on Goodreads.
Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
3/5 stars
Let me preface this review by saying that contemporary romance is not a genre I typically enjoy, and I knew that going into this book, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I decided to give this one a shot because I am a nonbinary lesbian, and I am always looking for more stories featuring nonbinary characters in romantic relationships.
The main characters of Love and Other Disasters are two competitors on an acclaimed cooking show, which is a very interesting premise for a romance, and the location/circumstance felt very necessary to the story itself and the grounds on which the romance blossomed; I don’t think this relationship would have unfolded under different circumstances, at least not in quite the same way. The one issue with this was that, at times, I found myself caring more about the fictional cooking show than I did about the romance. We hear very little about any of the other competitors, and the rules/features of the competition are never outright explained (they’re not difficult to grasp, especially if you’ve seen any cooking show before, but regardless, I wanted the world to be a little more fleshed out).
When reading or watching romances, I have to care about the characters as individuals before I can care about them as a couple, and in this case, I don’t think I did. Despite the fact that we read from both Dahlia and London’s perspectives at different points in the novel, they didn’t feel like fully fleshed out people to me, which made it harder for me to care about them. Despite this, I have to admit that they are a very cute couple (maybe even too cute at times), and that the romance itself was very well done. The progression of said relationship was odd at times (the “meet-cute” made me cringe and the moment where they inexplicably hate each other for no reason other than tension was very forced and I thought could have been handled better) but there was much more good than bad. There was a lot of sweetness as well as a lot of vulnerability (not to mention quite a few good sex scenes).
Ultimately, Love and Other Disasters was cute and sweet and heartwarming, which was exactly what I was expecting (and honestly, what I needed at the time). I may not be a fan of contemporary romance, but I did enjoy this one to a certain extent; I know there are a lot of other people out there who will like this book, and I hope they read it.
3/5 stars
Let me preface this review by saying that contemporary romance is not a genre I typically enjoy, and I knew that going into this book, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I decided to give this one a shot because I am a nonbinary lesbian, and I am always looking for more stories featuring nonbinary characters in romantic relationships.
The main characters of Love and Other Disasters are two competitors on an acclaimed cooking show, which is a very interesting premise for a romance, and the location/circumstance felt very necessary to the story itself and the grounds on which the romance blossomed; I don’t think this relationship would have unfolded under different circumstances, at least not in quite the same way. The one issue with this was that, at times, I found myself caring more about the fictional cooking show than I did about the romance. We hear very little about any of the other competitors, and the rules/features of the competition are never outright explained (they’re not difficult to grasp, especially if you’ve seen any cooking show before, but regardless, I wanted the world to be a little more fleshed out).
When reading or watching romances, I have to care about the characters as individuals before I can care about them as a couple, and in this case, I don’t think I did. Despite the fact that we read from both Dahlia and London’s perspectives at different points in the novel, they didn’t feel like fully fleshed out people to me, which made it harder for me to care about them. Despite this, I have to admit that they are a very cute couple (maybe even too cute at times), and that the romance itself was very well done. The progression of said relationship was odd at times (the “meet-cute” made me cringe and the moment where they inexplicably hate each other for no reason other than tension was very forced and I thought could have been handled better) but there was much more good than bad. There was a lot of sweetness as well as a lot of vulnerability (not to mention quite a few good sex scenes).
Ultimately, Love and Other Disasters was cute and sweet and heartwarming, which was exactly what I was expecting (and honestly, what I needed at the time). I may not be a fan of contemporary romance, but I did enjoy this one to a certain extent; I know there are a lot of other people out there who will like this book, and I hope they read it.
Adorable! Well written (comparatively) and the story was too cute. First time reading a book with a clearly non-binary lead and it was just amazing and very well done.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
I'd give it 4.75/5 stars overall. I did like the book overall, it touched on a lot of troubles that nonbinary people can potentially face in life. It was a beautifully written book!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Casey McQuiston lured me into a false sense of security re: romance books — I forgot not all of them are well-written.