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A review by jfictitional
The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett
3.0
Once you get past the hook of queer chefs, this dutifully checks all the boxes a romance novel should. The leads are perpetually horny for each other; the sex they have is unabashedly steamy; the words that come out of their mouths are deeply corny (and occasionally outright terrible); and the actual story is largely irrelevant.
In fact, that might be its only real flaw: the aspects that could give it a unique flavor - the culinary angle, the coming-out subplot - feel so superficially handled that they make little impression. Obviously, it's not a requirement for the story to try and be that kind of representation, but it can't help feeling safe when it could have been bold, as the characters frequently encourage each other to be. Still, the subject matter alone guarantees it an audience, who will have little else to complain about.
Content warning: the author was actually kind enough to do this for us - the book opens with a male character being fired for sexually harassing his coworkers; emotionally-abusive parents; some brief discussion of homophobia.
In fact, that might be its only real flaw: the aspects that could give it a unique flavor - the culinary angle, the coming-out subplot - feel so superficially handled that they make little impression. Obviously, it's not a requirement for the story to try and be that kind of representation, but it can't help feeling safe when it could have been bold, as the characters frequently encourage each other to be. Still, the subject matter alone guarantees it an audience, who will have little else to complain about.
Content warning: the author was actually kind enough to do this for us - the book opens with a male character being fired for sexually harassing his coworkers; emotionally-abusive parents; some brief discussion of homophobia.