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A review by leighstvdiner
Love's Recipe by Mila Nicks
3.0
A pleasant romance novel
3.5 stars
This is a nice book. It’s an easy, pleasant chick lit novel with a well-developed plot and clearly thought-out characters. Rosalie returns to her small town after several of being away and starting a family elsewhere. Nick is the owner of a struggling restaurant inherited from his late mother. The circumstances of their meeting and building a relationship made sense and wasn’t far-fetched. Rosalie begins working at Nick’s restaurant and their relationship grows from their. The plot is also well-developed. Rosalie and Nick come together with the intention of pulling the restaurant out of the dumps and returning it to its former glory. I like that the author kept the plot simple and relatable. The characterizations also were mostly consistent throughout the book. Rosalie and Nick have several things they’re able to bond over such as being single parents, they share a mutual goal to restore the restaurant and they bond over food. I like how they were able to bond over cooking and how Rosalie eventually came to love after initially hating cooking and it being a source of contention with her mom. Rosalie has a strained relationship with her mother that stems from her mother’s instability in her romantic relationships. I could see Rosalie and her mother’s relationship being relatable for readers and the progression towards reconciliation was nice to see. However, I think that in several instances Rosalie went to easy on her mother and never fully held her mother accountable for all of the hurtful things she said. I wish that would have been addressed in more depth but this a pretty light novel so I get it. There were times when I just felt Rosalie was not saying the things she really needed to say. She was always biting her tongue or too shocked for words and I just wanted to be like, “girl, spit it out! Unleash all of that frustration!” But she never really did that so I’ll have to accept it. The two people she had adversity with-her mother and her child’s father- we ultimately “resolved” even if I wish they were handled differently but I accept it.
Rosalie and Nick has nice chemistry. You could understand the bond between them. I will say if you’re looking for really steamy moments in this book then prepare for them to be mild. But the characters did have chemistry.
One thing I didn’t like was that at the height of the plot the author used the miscommunication trope which I hate. Frankly, I think it’s insulting to readers. Rosalie was being willfully obtuse to the issue that Nick was trying to explain. Neither of them were fully and completely explaining their thoughts and feelings. If they had a complete conversation about their feelings then they wouldn’t have had a falling out in the first place. I would like to petition for authors to STOP using the miscommunication trope. It’s annoying and insulting and not a clever writing tool. Also another thing I wasn’t a fan of was the handling of gender expression. The writing made seem like Nick’s daughter was “not like other girls” because she’s a “tomboy” and likes things that aren’t typically associated with being “girly”. Rather than creating this dichotomy of “tomboy” and “girly-girl” I wish it was written in a that normalized that you do girls have diverse interests and they don’t have to be associated with a certain gender. The author was probably trying to be progressive and I respect that but it came across as “I’m unique because I’m not like other girls”.
On the whole, this is a nice romance novel. It’s a book to read when you’re looking for a pleasant, blissful read. I liked how Rosalie and Nick bonded over cooking and in those moments you could see their relationship blossom. The writing is also nice; it’s straight to the point and the story is well-developed and the pacing is balanced. The reason I give it three stars is because I didn’t have any overwhelming feelings in either direction. It was just a cute, pleasant read!
3.5 stars
This is a nice book. It’s an easy, pleasant chick lit novel with a well-developed plot and clearly thought-out characters. Rosalie returns to her small town after several of being away and starting a family elsewhere. Nick is the owner of a struggling restaurant inherited from his late mother. The circumstances of their meeting and building a relationship made sense and wasn’t far-fetched. Rosalie begins working at Nick’s restaurant and their relationship grows from their. The plot is also well-developed. Rosalie and Nick come together with the intention of pulling the restaurant out of the dumps and returning it to its former glory. I like that the author kept the plot simple and relatable. The characterizations also were mostly consistent throughout the book. Rosalie and Nick have several things they’re able to bond over such as being single parents, they share a mutual goal to restore the restaurant and they bond over food. I like how they were able to bond over cooking and how Rosalie eventually came to love after initially hating cooking and it being a source of contention with her mom. Rosalie has a strained relationship with her mother that stems from her mother’s instability in her romantic relationships. I could see Rosalie and her mother’s relationship being relatable for readers and the progression towards reconciliation was nice to see. However, I think that in several instances Rosalie went to easy on her mother and never fully held her mother accountable for all of the hurtful things she said. I wish that would have been addressed in more depth but this a pretty light novel so I get it. There were times when I just felt Rosalie was not saying the things she really needed to say. She was always biting her tongue or too shocked for words and I just wanted to be like, “girl, spit it out! Unleash all of that frustration!” But she never really did that so I’ll have to accept it. The two people she had adversity with-her mother and her child’s father- we ultimately “resolved” even if I wish they were handled differently but I accept it.
Rosalie and Nick has nice chemistry. You could understand the bond between them. I will say if you’re looking for really steamy moments in this book then prepare for them to be mild. But the characters did have chemistry.
One thing I didn’t like was that at the height of the plot the author used the miscommunication trope which I hate. Frankly, I think it’s insulting to readers. Rosalie was being willfully obtuse to the issue that Nick was trying to explain. Neither of them were fully and completely explaining their thoughts and feelings. If they had a complete conversation about their feelings then they wouldn’t have had a falling out in the first place. I would like to petition for authors to STOP using the miscommunication trope. It’s annoying and insulting and not a clever writing tool. Also another thing I wasn’t a fan of was the handling of gender expression. The writing made seem like Nick’s daughter was “not like other girls” because she’s a “tomboy” and likes things that aren’t typically associated with being “girly”. Rather than creating this dichotomy of “tomboy” and “girly-girl” I wish it was written in a that normalized that you do girls have diverse interests and they don’t have to be associated with a certain gender. The author was probably trying to be progressive and I respect that but it came across as “I’m unique because I’m not like other girls”.
On the whole, this is a nice romance novel. It’s a book to read when you’re looking for a pleasant, blissful read. I liked how Rosalie and Nick bonded over cooking and in those moments you could see their relationship blossom. The writing is also nice; it’s straight to the point and the story is well-developed and the pacing is balanced. The reason I give it three stars is because I didn’t have any overwhelming feelings in either direction. It was just a cute, pleasant read!