Super cute, beachy type coming of age tale set in the 80s and 90s, I really enjoyed the thought that went into the novel. I see it as a cross between Mary Kay Andrews and Sarah Dessen - an exciting combination but the author definitely stands on her own.

I honestly could tell by the writing of the first 2 chapters that it wouldn't be a good fit for our box and had to put it down. I may read it again in the future!

This book made me laugh out loud, both because it's funny, and because it's completely true. Leah DeCesare has created a wonderful concept in dividing potential love interests according to the cutlery they most resemble (in terms of personality) and her entire book was witty, engaging, and completely human.

What a fun read and what a fun premise. I've said this before, but premise is so important to me and this premise nails it. "There are three kinds of guys: forks, knives, and spoons." Instantly, I needed to know what that was all about, and I found myself categorizing past boyfriends, male friends, and maybe even my husband by the Utensil Classification System. As one author said, ​ the novel is ​"like having your best girlfriend take you by the hand and tell you a story." I'll second that sentiment.

Forks, Knives, and Spoons is the story of two young women as they navigate college (and beyond), dating, and learning to trust oneself. The story unfurls slowly over the course of many years, with a whole host of characters and a ton of nostalgic references to the 80s. One of the two main characters, Amy, sets the whole story in motion when she describes the advice her dad gave her before she left to college - separating men into three basic groups: forks, knives, and spoons. As the novel progresses, this classifications system gets hilarious new additions and more definition: soup spoons, butter knives, even chopsticks. But maybe dad's advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and as the girls have to figure out, it's possible that people have the capacity to surprise, even after many years.

When searching for a new romance - you wouldn't think to pick up this book. That is when you need a tremendous author to pieque your interest and keep your attention. DeCesare did just that . Thank you NetGalley for putting this book in my sights.

I had first requested the novel on NetGalley but wasn’t quick enough to download the file that was archived shortly after. Anyway, I was really keen on reading it because I was curious about the whole kitchen utensil classification of men. So, months later, I finally took the time to buy a copy online and read it.

Overall, I thought the novel was endearing and entertaining. It was fun to read about the American college experience. The fraternity and sorority societies are culturally foreign to me, but I enjoyed reading about them. Somehow, the action unfolding in Syracuse University made me think of the US show Felicity also set at a time when people didn’t have smartphones or Internet and still used letters and audio tapes. There’s a real sense of nostalgia for this decade.

It’s a well-paced novel with a deep message for girls. It’s moving to watch the main characters navigate college life, love life and friendships. Even though there were some lengthy moments when I slightly disconnected from the intrigue, I had a very good time seeing Amy, Veronica and Jenny grow into mature women, laughing with them during their attempts to categorize men and find their right match, their steak knife! 😊

I like that the story starts at the end of the eighties and then covers a vast period of time. It gives enough time to watch the protagonists evolve in a credible way. The relationships between Andrew and Amy, but also Amy and Matt are a major highlight of the book. But I must say that I have a soft spot for Joey and Veronica who are an unusual but heart-melting pair.

All in all, if you’re looking for a heartwarming, fun and witty novel, I really recommend Forks, Knives and Spoons.

My score: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (=I loved it)

Cute and fun chick lit novel tracing two friends, Amy and Veronica, from the start of college in 1988 through the first few years of their lives after college, as they evaluate guys using Amy's "Utensil Classification System" to determine if they are a fork, knife, or spoon, and search for their perfect steak knife of a guy. 3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book, it was refreshing to read a story without sex on every other page!

I loved that we followed Amy & Veronica as they grew & found their way in the world. A fun light hearted read

There is a part of me that thinks Leah DeCesare's FORKS, KNIVES, AND SPOONS is the perfect mashup of the New Adult and Chick Lit genres. It's a good thing, I think. It just didn't... connect very well to me. But I finished it and it was good enough.

The girls the novel focuses on, Amy and Veronica, are starting college at Syracuse when the story begins in 1988. Fair enough. Relatable enough. All that sort of thing. Amy and Veronica jump directly into the cliches of college life; underage drinking, dating as much as possible, flirting, immediate sorority searches followed by committed sorority life.

I started college in 2000 but I was not a girl like Amy and Veronica so I think I found it hard to relate to them very much. That's not a complaint about the book, it's a theory on why I didn't... get the story.

Most of the time, I wanted to grab Amy and Veronica by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. Tell them that the UCS was misguided (don't take advice on college love from middle aged single dads), that the boys they attach themselves are terrible (seriously, girls, date three before you get impatient for a ring!), and don't settle (they truly deserve better... except that they treat the "better" in their lives awfully bad).

They are lucky girls, getting sweet jobs in New York City immediately after graduation (and maybe that was more likely in the early 1990s than now or maybe it was a product of their privileged upbringings) and, eventually, finding the men who make them happy.

It was a cute book. Nice, if occasionally frustrating, fluff. It just wasn't relatable to me.

But give it a try if a New Adult/Chick Lit mashup is your thing.

(I received a copy of FORKS, KNIVES, AND SPOONS through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)

Just before Amy York left for college, her father, on a whim, came up with the Utensil Classification System. Meant to help Amy make educated decisions about the kind of guys she'd encounter, the UCS featured forks, knives, and spoons and provided Amy and her friends with a quick and easy way to categorize their dates. Her father's off the cuff comment quickly snowballed in Amy's overactive imagination, and soon she had her whole dorm discussing the benefits and pitfalls of sneak knives, shrimp forks, and serving spoons.

While I enjoyed the premise of the story, it had a very predictable and stereotypical plot. Aside from the quirky UCS and the late 1980s-early 1990s setting, there was little to differentiate this book from the hundreds of others that came before it. Given just a few minutes, I could probably rattle off at least ten books I've read in the past year or so that have followed the same plot.

I'm not sure if Amy was meant to be stupid or if the author doesn't do subtle foreshadowing, but I saw the drama with Amy's main love interest coming from a mile (or maybe at least a hundred pages) away. It was so absolutely, painfully obvious, even from their first encounters, that they were not meant to be together. Amy's obsession with finding her knife blinded her, but it was so clear that this guy was a fork that I could not understand how Amy didn't see it. (Don't even get me started on the third side of that love triangle.)

The book's saving grace is the novelty of the UCS. While I don't think it's realistic that every man in the world fits into one of Amy's three categories, I did find myself thinking about how I might classify my boyfriend, my boss, and my friends. (Okay, and all of the random men I encountered while I was reading this book.) Forks, Knives, and Spoons had a lot of potential, and I think that it's a solid effort for DeCesare's debut New Adult novel. With time, experience, and ideas like these, I have no doubt that she'll be an author to watch.

This book just wrapped me up into a big ball of 90s nostalgia and rolled me in first love memories! I didn't want to put it down. It tugged at all my heart strings and made me fondly remember why I'm so glad to be an adult hahaha.

Raised alone by her father, after her mother died when she was an infant, he told Amy that all men were like forks, knives, or spoons. Amy takes this to heart and creates a class system that all men can somehow fall into. To her and her friends, ideal man is a shiny steak knife. This story follows Amy and her closest friends as they navigate college, friendship, and love.

There were no real surprises in this book, you saw the writing on the wall....AND THAT WAS TOTALLY OK! The author, Leah DeCesare wove a tale, that not only drew me in from the get go, but was so utterly relateable. A book that is worthy of picking up, it will fill your heart right up.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1864603856

SparkPress and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Forks, Knives, and Spoons. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Amy York's Dad gave her some advice about guys as she embarked on her college career: guys can be forks, knives, or spoons. Forks are the cocky ones, the guys from which to steer clear. Spoons are the nerds, wimpy and dull. Knives are the middle of the road and, although they are less confident than forks, they have the most potential to be good guys. As she searches for the perfect knife, Amy is overwhelmed by all of the choices. With her quest for the perfect match in full swing, will Amy miss what is right in front of her?

Forks, Knives, and Spoons is a conglomeration of every stereotype with regards to college life. The book could have been charming and cute, but the author instead set the stage with infidelity and lies. I really felt no connection to the characters and spent most of the book looking for the nostalgia references to the late 80's and early 90's, which is when I went to college. Forks, Knives, and Spoons was clearly not the book for me, as it represented a missed opportunity by the author to entertain and amuse the reader.

The book follows a couple of young women who leave home for the first time to attend college. Amy’s dad gives her the “becareful of men” conversation couched as a Utensil Classification System: men are forks, all cocky and spikey and full of themselves, spoons, those are the geeks, and knives, who are the upstanding, confident, perfect men. Amy takes the system to heart and spends her college life classifying the men around her and pushing her system on her roommate Veronica and their friends. Set in the late 80s, Ms. DeCesare spends a lot of time squeezing in as many timely cultural references as possible. At first it was cute but quickly it became distracting. As I would have been 2 years ahead of the characters, I was able to relate to many of their college and post college experiences; however, I was thoroughly dismayed at how dependent on men the women were. Sadly, while this would make a cute young adult book, I can’t see the characters as good role models.

This was a fun read! Loved the characters and found the 80s nostalgia fun and appealing.

The story wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I like Leah DeCesare's style.

Forks, Knives, and Spoons held the potential to be an adorable YA/ New Adult contemporary with its quirky Utensil Classification System. It was an approach I had never read before and was really interested to see how it would play out. Unfortunately the characters were flat cookie cutter impersonations of what they could have been and by that I mean they had no personality. On multiple occasions I found myself having to re-read paragraphs to find out which character was narrating and worse I even got Amy and Veronica mixed up so often I got confused with which one was the main character.

Admittedly I may have misread some things regarding the characters, but the biggest issue I had with the book was the writing, it felt jumpy and was too quickly paced. Too much time was covered in a book that is only 392 pages long. I think the story would have benefited better with a focus on Amy’s years at Syracuse University or her life after university, not both in such a short book. Due to the jumpy quick pace of the writing I didn’t have a real opportunity to get to know the characters before they moved on to a different stage of their lives.

As I said Forks, Knives, and Spoons had such potential to be that cute YA/ New Adult contemporary but just fell a little flat for me. I never like giving such a scathing review for a book, but I hope my comments can help Leah improve her writing and character development as her career advances.

At first I thought this story was going to be dorky. How could all men be classified as silverware? And better yet, why would you want to categorize them that way?
But that’s Amy’s system when she starts her freshman year at Syracuse. Spoons are nerds, forks are basically players and what you strive for is a steak knife.

As the story progresses, relationships intertwine and Amy falls for a fork who she thinks is a knife. Her silverware drawer is jumbled.

This is a different kind of read, actually quite refreshing in the way the story is told. It’s light, romantic, family-oriented and a good way to spend a couple of evenings.

While this book started out really slow it did start to pick up in the middle and there were some things I really liked about this book. For example, I really like how you follow the characters throughout their journey to adulthood and I love how you get to see some characters grow from pains in the butt into decent people. I wasn’t too fond of just how long it took Amy to realize the truth about her so called perfect steak knife. I really do like Amy’s and Veronica’s friendship and how it not only survived but thrived past their college years. All in all though the book was just a little too slow paced for my liking, but otherwise a good story.

I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

Will update with links to where I posted my review online closer to the release date. (Final review might change slightly but will have the same basic message).

When Amy York was preparing to leave home for college, her father warned her that most of the men she would meet over the course of her life would be one of three types: forks, knives, or spoons. During her freshman year at Syracuse University, Amy quickly bonds with her roommate, Veronica, and the two begin a near decade-long journey in search abiding love. Leah DeCesare is a very talented writer; the novel is beautifully written. I really enjoyed the narrative arc of the story. It was nice to see Amy and Veronica in two different stages of their lives. There were moments where the dialogue felt a bit stiff, but that might have been then necessary datedness of the language (it's set in the late 80s and early 90s). There are two things that would have enhanced the text.. I think it would have been great to see more of the friendship between Amy and Veronica. Throughout the book, it seemed that the romantic relationships they had with men overshadowed the bond between the two women. Additionally, the story would have benefitted from greater character development. Neither of the main characters was very robust. Veronica came off as deeply shallow and pretentious while Amy seemed overwhelmingly naïve and willfully ignorant. All in all, the book does show the illogical things we do to attain and hold ont) love, even if the love we yearn for isn't the most nurturing kind.