After her father’s death, Nikki is committed to making her parent’s dream of a successful Filipino food truck come true. Singularly focused, Nikki has no room for distractions outside of her mother and their business and is ready to defend their parking location when a British food truck swoops in on their hard won customer base. This hate to love foodie story is filled with delicious eats and steamy romance. I love that the author brought her own Filipina American background to this fun and flirty read and I couldn’t help but speed through it!

I think every romance/romcom book has a point to where if it continues as it is going, it will be corny, or if it turns, it will be very good. This was for sure the latter. I mean who doesn't love rom coms AND food? Enemies to lovers trope is always a good one to me.

Simmer Down by Sarah Smith is the story of Nikki DiMarco, who has given up her previous life to help her mom run a Filipino food truck on the beach in Maui. It's not her dream job, but she's making it work until Callum James, a British food truck owner, shows up in her spot and starts stealing customers. They agree to let whomever wins at the Maui Food Festival be the winner of the prized spot.

I love a good rom-com that incorporates food as well as a bit of a rivalry and this book did not disappoint! Callum and Nikki have the type of chemistry that is intense both in the bedroom and in public. I loved their banter and their competitive spirits. I also liked that Callum was not your typical asshole hero that can't have a decent conversation with the heroine.

I'm giving this a 4 out of 5 because I felt like this book did focus more on the food trucks and Nikki's personal life more than any budding romance. However, I did appreciate that this wasn't as slow of a burn as other books I've read in this same theme. I think foodie romance fans will love this book. But be warned, don't read this on an empty stomach!

So. Much. Fun. Simmer Down is definitely a fun, mouth-watering (ahem), read-in-one-sitting novel based around food, culture, and beautiful people. Nikki, a young chef leaves her life behind in Oregon to move to Maui to take care of her parents during her father's illness. Now faced with a recently widowed mother, and doing the best she can to make the food truck dreams of her parents reality, it's not the time for Nikki to lose focus when a rivalry with a new truck encroaches on her hard-won spot. Everything heats up as British Callum refuses to back down and challenges Nikki at every turn. This is a book that made me smile, laugh (and sure, swoon) and was perfect for a summer day read. #SimmerDown #NetGalley

I started and finished this book in 2 days! It was filled with romcom cliche after cliche (hate to love, grand gestures, public fights at inopportune times, get stuck in small spaces together and dumb misunderstandings) but they all worked in this story. I loved the different setting and the food truck aspect - it added a fun element I haven't seen in a book.

I read and finished @authorsarahs ‘s SIMMER DOWN this weekend and LOVED. Following the owners of warring food trucks in Maui who may or may not love to hate each other, this was one of those books where the setting becomes its own character. YAY for the beach, yummy food, and enemies to lovers romance with shared cat custody! Intrigued? It’s out Oct 13th from @berkleyromance and you should be THE MOST excited. HAPPY READING! 💕🤩🌺.

If I see a book involving chefs, I know I have to read it. This was the perfect rom com!
Nikki and her mother have a food truck in Maui and when a competitor parks a little too close to her, she kindly lets them know the rules. Callum has come from Chicago, left his job in finance, to help out his brother Finn with his struggling food truck. Callum believes in Finn and will do anything to ensure he succeeds, so when Nikki tells him they can't park there, sparks fly.
The tension between the two is palpable, you can tell it is going to get worse before it gets better. They come up with ways to try to sabotage the other's truck and some of it is quite funny. They are both entering a food contest to win 10,000 and there is so much at stake for each of them.
You can tell quite quickly that these two are going to give one another a run for their money, but it becomes clear that Callum is falling for Nikki pretty early on. They agree to only be friends with benefits because Callum is leaving and Nikki doesn't have time for anything else. These two fall hard for each other though, and that is a recipe for disaster.
I would have liked to see a little bit more of a slow burn with this one, which is something I rarely say. I did enjoy the banter between the two, but I wish it would have lasted a little longer. I really loved Callum. He was so sweet and I could feel all the love he had for Nikki. Nikki was understandably overprotective of people in her life, but it got to the point it did annoy me a bit. It was nice to see Callum get her to open up. I enjoyed this book and it was a light cute read.

This was a great read. If you love LOVE and food, this is a book for you. I love that it weaved together two characters from two backgrounds - Philippine and British. I immediately fell in love with Nikki and Callum and think you will too. You could feel their chemistry through the pages. Looking forward to more from Sarah Smith!

Simmer Down was such a lighthearted easy read which is much different than my usual Thriller reads. I enjoyed this book much more than I expected myself to. I could see myself relating to Nikki much more than I anticipated. If you’re looking for a slightly steamy book that makes you feel good at the end, THIS IS IT! 4-4.5 stars ☺️

This sizzling romance between Nikki and Callum captured my heart from day one.

Nikki DiMarco lives in Maui running a food truck with her mom when one day she discovers a new food truck at her usual spot. The new trucks is run by Callum James and his brother Finn but Nikki doesn’t realize that his hot as hell body and face has an equally hot temper.

They continuously argue and have spats at the food truck which is witnessed by their customers and soon their fights become a source of revenue, more customers more money.

It’s not until one day when pushed to fly to London to visit her aunt and uncle that Nikki discovers Callum is her airplane seat buddy. What turns into a fun family visit to London turns into a friends with benefits arrangement with Callum

I rated Simmer Down five stars for the way it proceeded to make me feel all these types of emotions while reading it. I didn’t once feel like stopping to pause but continued reading this word for word. This book has managed to capture my attention very well.

Nikki and Callum has a friends with benefits relationship and communicated with each other and enjoyed each other deeply and they didn’t hide anything from each other. They were both equally understanding and I loved when Callum knew what to say and when to say it.

Like all friends with benefits relationship, it mis come to an end so when they ended things roughly Callum especially wasn’t afraid to speak him mind and I loved that about him. He is very tough and mean looking but in reality he is caring and kind and has a full heart.

Both Nikki and Callum’s character development throughout the book was amazing and I loved watching them grow and connect with each other as well as on their own.

And I loved the way family played a huge role for both Nikki and Callum. While they had a great relationship with each other they maintained a good relationship with their family even if sometimes Nikki had a hard time coming to terms with a few familial complications.

This was an absolutely fun read and I had no complaints throughout reading this. I enjoyed every second of it and could not put this down.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet and sizzling romance.

Simmer down is a read filled with sass, funny moments and a very adorable love story. Nikki is doing everything she can to turn the food truck she runs with her mom a success. When another truck pulls up to her location and starts stealing her customers a rivalry quickly escalates. Soon Nikki finds herself going head to head with Collum and a bet has been made that the food truck who loses the Maui Food Festival will need to move on to another location. Nikki is more determined than ever to win the festival but things get complicated as she tries to deny her growing attraction to the sexy food truck owner.

This was a cute read that made me smile, laugh and just want more of Collum and Nikki. Nikki has a lot of character growth and as you learn more about Collum you can’t help but love his character. I really enjoyed this enemies to lovers rom-com and made me want to visit Hawaii. I would love to read more about Nikki’s friends. I’m really hoping this is turned into a series.

Oh no! Nooooooo!!!! Why something starts extremely adorable, hot, tempting and then suddenly with a quick snap of fingers, turning into something repetitively angsty, extremely melodramatic because of foolishness and immaturity of the characters. I want to grab both of their heads and hit each other.

This book started as five starred reading for me with enemies to lovers theme, delicious food recipes, emotional family back stories, incredible chemistry of hot blooded heroine and charming British hero. I honestly thought this book is much better than Faker which was also lovely enemies to lovers novel of the author.

There are so many potentials with growing, intense romance, steamy sex scenes and seeing sweet, caring parts of hero but.... last third part of the book turned into never ending drama: at least three times, but protagonists misunderstood each other or they couldn’t come clean about their feelings. I wanted to scream at their faces to grow the hell up and make a proper conversation.

Especially Nikki, loyal, fiery, smart, straightforward heroine acted like true extremely stubborn drama queen. Sweet pie Callum turned into the hottest doormat of the recent romance novels history.

So the last third part earned two stars from me. And as an average: I’m giving three stars.

I still love the writing style of the author. She can build likable, hot blooded characters and moving, riveting, heart churning, hot, sexy romance stories. She perfectly builds enemies to lovers theme with sizzling, undeniable chemistry between the protagonists. So I still want to read more of her works.

But this book’s last third didn’t fit my expectations. I still enjoyed the first half!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing this promising ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Rating: Five stars! ⁣⁣⁣
Steam: 2.5/5⁣⁣⁣
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OMG *swoon* I LOVED every second of this book! One of my favorites of the year!
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I loved Sarah's debut last year, Faker was a really delightful hate-to-love and I adored that the heroine was Filipino. As someone who is 1/4th Filipino, I always love to find Filipino characters in romance and I so appreciate that Berkley is publishing authors like Sarah and more #ownvoices romances!⁣⁣
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Oh my gosh, I think I spent this entire book grinning like an idiot (and crying at some points because I was so attached to the characters). I should have seen the crying coming, honestly I've cried at some point during each of Sarah's books. Something about her writing just gives me all the feels! Simmer Down is Sarah at her best, I LOVED everything about this story! But beware, it will make you crave Filipino food like crazy. I read it last month and I still have a lumpia craving. ⁣⁣⁣
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The beginning of this story is completely delightful, Nikki and Callum REALLY hate each other. It's been a long time since I've read a hate-to-love where the characters disliked each other in a way that made me so happy as I read. That seems weird, but there's a fine line for me with characters just being mean to each other and this was the perfect balance for me. Callum comes off so grumpy in the beginning and how they interacted was total catnip. Having them work at competing food trucks in Maui was such a fresh twist, especially once they went viral on social media. I adored the plot so much! ⁣⁣⁣
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There are some pretty heavy discussions of grief, Nikki and her mom are both still learning to cope following her fathers death from cancer. I really appreciated how Nikki and her mom interacted with each other, the way Sarah writes Filipino families is one of my favorite aspects of her writing! ⁣⁣⁣
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I will say at one point this story made me squeal with happiness, it takes a forced proximity turn and it was EVERYTHING! Just the perfect addition to this story. The pacing was great, the side characters were great, seriously I can't stop gushing about how much I loved every single aspect of this book.⁣⁣⁣
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I highly recommend putting Simmer Down on your TBR and preordering it! Simmer Down was a five star read for me and one of my favorite romances of the year so far.

This was a solidly okay romance novel. The main characters were interesting but not over the top. The plot was good, but not too dramatic. It chugged along and did what it set out to do. Did I fall in love with the protags and cheer for them to get together? Not so much. Did I find it a satisfying read with enough mentions of the beach and Hawai'i that it made me want to appear there immediately? Yep.

Ughhh, I really wanted to love this one. It has all my favorite rom-com elements: food trucks, hot British people, yummy fusion food, HAWAII, trip to London! And I did enjoy it, but it definitely did not meet my expectations. The whole misunderstanding trope went on for far too long. Every time Nikki and Callum started to discuss their relationship it would lead to a dramatic misunderstanding and fall out. It was like emotional ping pong. I still recommend as a light summer read, but be aware...

OMG *swoon* I LOVED every second of this book! One of my favorites of the year for sure.

I really loved Sarah's debut last year, Faker was a really delightful hate-to-love and I adored that the heroine was Filipino. As someone who is 1/4th Filipino, I always love to find Filipino characters in romance and I so appreciate that Berkley is publishing authors like Sarah and more #ownvoices romances! I also really enjoyed Sarah's self-published novella, If You Never Come Back, so I had really high expectations going into Simmer Down.

Oh my gosh, I think I spent this entire book grinning like an idiot (and crying at some points because I was so attached to the characters). I should have seen the crying coming, honestly I've cried at some point during each of Sarah's books. Something about her writing just gives me all the feels! Simmer Down is Sarah at her best, I LOVED everything about this story! But beware, it will make you crave Filipino food like crazy. I read it last month and I still have a lumpia craving.

The beginning of this story is completely delightful, Nikki and Callum really seem to hate each other, and I loved it so much. It's been a long time since I've read a hate-to-love where the characters really disliked each other in a way that made me so happy as I read. That seems weird, but there's a fine line for me with characters just being mean to each other and this was the perfect balance for me. Callum comes off so grumpy in the beginning and how they interacted was total catnip. Having them work at competing food trucks in Maui was such a fresh twist, especially once they went viral on social media. I adored the plot so much!

There are some pretty heavy discussions of grief, Nikki and her mom are both still learning to cope following her fathers death from cancer. I really appreciated how Nikki and her mom interacted with each other, the way Sarah writes Filipino families is one of my favorite aspects of her writing!

I will say at one point this story made me squeal with happiness, it takes a pretty intense forced proximity turn and it was EVERYTHING! Just the perfect addition to this story. I loved how Nikki and Callum expanded their relationship into a romance. The pacing was great, the side characters were great, seriously I can't stop gushing about how much I loved every single aspect of this book.

I highly recommend putting Simmer Down on your TBR and preordering it! Simmer Down was a five star read for me and one of my favorite romances of the year so far.

Simmer Down was my second book by Sarah Smith and it DID NOT disappoint! This enemies to lovers romance was captivating from start to finish. The main characters Nikki and Callum instantly grabbed my attention and I was just waiting for the moment that they would get together! Their chemistry was palpable. This book was fun and flirty and I really enjoyed the writing! It wasn’t all fluff though; this book also dealt with some more serious topics such as death of a loved one, health issues, and trust in relationships. I was rooting for Nikki and Calum all the way through, I hope everyone enjoys this book as much as I did! Thank you so much Netgalley for allowing me this chance to read early!

Culinary romances are my personal catnip and this book met all my expectations and then some. Can't wait to share this with my romance book club in October!

I really enjoyed this couple, from start to finish; the characters were well written and I’m looking forward to future titles.

Enemies-to-lovers mixed with friends with benefits makes for one spicy book! Callum and Nikki are both strong characters and they have a bumpy relationship, but it was great watching them navigate their relationship, as well as, their families and careers. There are some serious moments—reflecting on the loss of a loved one and a health scare—which adds to some of the turbulence they experience. My favorite part of the book was the atmosphere! I loved the location in Maui and the food trucks! If Covoid wasn’t an issue I’d be ready to pack my bags and head to Hawaii! Also, describing Callum as a Zac Efron lookalike makes him an automatic winner in my book! This book brings the heat in the kitchen and the bedroom so just a heads up if that’s not your style. But the scenes are pretty easy to skip over if you’re not a fan of open door bedroom scenes!

Thank you Berkeley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!