A review by _basicbookworm
Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander

3.0

In one of the most entertaining meet-cutes of all time, Luna has just been fired when she’s approached by a Frenchman offering $1000 for her to pretend to be his girlfriend for a 15 minute FaceTime call. She agrees, but that 15 minute call turns into so much more when she is somehow roped in to participating in Jean-Pierre’s family’s cooking challenge so he can inherit an obscene amount of money. Of course neither of them knows how to cook, and there are so many more twists and turns that make this fake relationship even more complicated as it goes on.

I first have to applaud the representation in this book - I haven’t read many books with a trans main character, but this book was a beautiful perspective of trans identity in multiple forms with multiple characters. Between the T4T romance and Lina’s friend group there was a variety of trans characters and perspectives. We need more books like this!

I loved the cooking competition twist - as someone who is a terrible cook, I loved how Luna and Jean-Pierre managed to pull off learning such complex meals AND how they also stayed true to their own tastes. I enjoyed Luna and Jean-Pierre together and especially how they learned from each other and their different experiences and opinions.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.