Simmer Down is fun and certainly has its fair share of steamy moments. Unfortunately, the sun soaked setting and delicious food truck talk could not save this book. Nikki and Callum’s connection to each other felt tenuous at best most of the time and the book was much longer than it needed to be. I likely will not be recommending this one to patrons.

“Oh my gosh, it’s like those enemies-to-lovers romances! Those are my absolute favorite!” But like actually, spot on! I love that the author flat-out referenced this in the book🤩

Nikki DiMarco works with her mom running a Filipino food truck on Maui, when a a rival truck encroaches on their turf. But the man running this rival food truck is HOT AF and the competition between the two gets, well, heated🔥

I really enjoyed this one! I found Nikki to be super relatable as a main character. I genuinely connected with her when she talked about how she gave up her career and moved to Maui when her dad was sick, and staying to support her mom after he passed. Her feelings of obligation to her family deeply resonated with me. It was a welcome change of setting, a fun plot with relatable storylines, and filled with yummy food! 🍴🍳🧂🍽🧀

Read if you like
🌶Enemies-to-lovers trope
🌶Hawaiin vibes!
🌶COOKING!
🌶Rivalry/competition
🌶SPICY love interest

Another great book by Sarah Smith! In “Simmer Down” you get a foodie’s dream with amazing cooking, adorable cats and a gorgeous Englishman as as the rival turned love interest. Plus, the dream of beautiful weather. I can’t wait to read her next book!

This book as a lot of good reviews on Goodreads…so take my ‘just not for me thoughts’ with a grain of salt…but I struggled with this one.

This book has good bones. Food truck rivals Nikki and Callum go head to head in beautiful Maui but they can’t help falling for each other. It should work. But for me this one just didn’t.

It might just be a writing style mismatch. It’s a first person POV which isn’t my favorite but thats no fault of the author. But also…there is lot of telling verses showing happening in this book and that made it hard for me to invest emotionally and lose myself. I didn’t completely buy into the conflicts at play here either. It all just needed more development for me.

I LOVE this cover though and the food descriptions in SD are very drool inspiring. And I did enjoy this author’s debut, Faker, so I will definitely pick up her next release and see how that one goes. But, as always, read it for yourself and see what you think. Again, per Goodreads, lots of people really enjoyed this book.

Nikki DiMarco moves from Oregon to Maui to open up a food truck with her mom, Tiva. When competition moves in right beside them, a massive rivalry begins between Nikki and Callum. When Nikki and Callum fall for each other, it will put their careers and their hearts at risk.

I liked the concept of this book, but felt it fell a bit flat. I found that the rivalry was very over the top. Callum never really gives a reason for his initial hatred of Nikki and it’s just short of brushed aside. Also, their transition from rivals to lovers was very sudden.

The food truck background was fun, but I just wasn’t super invested in the characters or the romance.

A trip via book to Maui? Yes, please! Add in food and one hot Brit - you have me sold! Callum is a sizzling man for fighting (we later learn for his brother) over their food truck, the airplane ride (swoon), London, and just about everything after. Niki moved to help her mom after her father's death, to help run the food truck. Niki is a great daughter and is so worried about now losing anyone - she won't let others in.

I enjoyed this enemies-to-lovers story- even if we move to the secret lovers part soonish! Callum is all swoon-y and super hot (naked swimming!!!) and Niki is super head strong will do anything for her mom. Loved them both along with the brother and mom!


Overall, 4 stars and 3.5 steam

I needed this book! Simmer Down is an enemies to lovers story that is light and fun but with enough depth that you feel so emotionally involved. I loved the tension and the banter and I loved how sweet Callum was. I loved the food truck scene and all of the details in what they cooked and fed people. The family relationships for both main characters were heartwarming and kept me turning pages.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Before I jump into the review- a huge thank you to Berkley Pub for my advanced copy of this book.

Three stars is not a bad rating for me. This book was just ok. I enjoyed many aspects of it.

The Good-

✨ The Cover- super cute. I’m a sucker for an adorable cartoon cover and it’s what initially drew me in.

✨ The Location- Hawaii. It definitely put me in a vacation state of mind while reading.

✨ The Food- I wanted to eat all of the foods. I really enjoyed the food truck aspect and the feuding between the two main characters. It was entertaining.

✨ Nikki- I loved Nikki as a main character. She was hard working and family oriented. Someone I could relate to and root for throughout this book!

Now to my least favorite part. Where this book fell short.

What didn’t work for me-

✨ The Love Interest- Callum was a little meh. He didn’t make me feel anything. At all.

✨ The Romance- I didn’t care. There were times when Nikki and Callum were having fun and I was like look at them. That’s great. But are they meant to be? I didn’t really see a connection beyond the physical. Not buying it.

✨ I skimmed the last part of this book. As the story went on I was less and less engaged. I was not invested.

Overall- I’m glad that I read this book. I’d still recommend it to other readers. I have Sarah Smith’s previous book Faker on my book cart and will eventually give it a try.

I absolutely love the premise of the story and the characters have great chemistry. Not only is this a cute, fun and easy read - but you can't help loving the food trucks and all the drama and shenanigans that comes along with it! I will say, it would be great to get dual POVs. I would of loved to get into Callum's head!

This ARC was provided for review, but in no way affects the following impartial and unbiased review:
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2*
Pros: Centred around the food truck industry in a modern Romeo-and-Juliet-esque twist. PoC lead, with a great focus on Philippine cuisine. Important notes on loss, grief and dealing with the aftermath. Set in Maui, which is at the top of my must-visit list. Enemies to lovers trope.
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Cons: Nearly got an aneurysm from rolling my eyes so hard. Honest to God tears from laughing so hard at how ridiculous, far-fetched and cliche this book was. Annoyingly inconsistent lead. Generic hot guy material. Clunky and cringe-worthy dialogues and scenes. Damsel in distress trope.

Food trucks, and romance, and Maui, oh my!
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Simmer Down is a sweet enemies-to-lovers romance focused on the Maui food truck scene. Nikki’s business is flowing steadily, but one day Callum and his brother park their new truck at her spot, and chaos breaks loose! I absolutely loved the focus on food, and everything Nikki and Callum cooked sounded delicious. Vegetarian lumpia? Sign me up!
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Nikki and Callum are a totally cheesy couple, but I am here for it. This romance is also entirely from Nikki’s perspective. I loved that because when we stayed with Nikki, we got to see parts of her great and very real relationship with her mother. I also loved following her arc while she experiences a ton of late-20s personal growth. I wish there were a few more supporting characters to round out the cast, but I loved the small bits of interaction we got with Nikki’s friends, too!
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The scenery and the food are the shining stars of this novel. Maui is so beautiful, and I loved reading about the gorgeous-sounding locales and the competitive food truck scene. I have no idea if the Maui food truck scene is this competitive in real life, but this novel definitely makes me want to check it out!
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This is a pro-cat, pro-food, pro-steam romance novel that will make you mouthwateringly hungry. It’s four out of five stars from me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Simmer Down was released on October 13th and is available now! Thank you to @berkleypub for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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CW: loss of a parent, grief

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, & Penguin Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

DNF @ 49%

There was nothing particularly wrong with this one, but I found myself skimming at around 30% and just couldn't get myself back into it. I loved the descriptions of the food (man oh man, I need some lumpia in my life and NOW) and the descriptions of family and obligation and grief and love were also done really well. The characters chemistry was hit or miss, and I definitely struggled with the gruff/grump to suddenly irresistible nature of the main male character. I've seen a lot of great reviews for this one, so don't let mine be the only review you read!

I love, love, loved this book!

Nikki move to Maui to help her mother with their family food truck business. Her father has recently passed and this was his last wish for her. Nikki loves to cook and help her mother. A rivalry between her and Callum (the chef of another food truck) ignites. They will be competing in a competition against each other. Through all of their fighting it does not take long for them to fall for each other. They secretly start a relationship, and it is so sweet to see how their love blossoms. If you love the enemies to lovers trope this is the book for you. I really love the family element in this story as well.

Nikki moved to Hawaii to help her mom when her dad became ill and eventually passed. She is helping their retirement dream of owning and running a food truck - Tiva's Fillipina Kusina. Things are good but tight, but Nikki has an end goal of winning a food competition and the prize money that comes along with it.

But all of that goes haywire when another truck - Hungry Chaps - is butted up to her area. Callum and Nikki are instantly attracted to each other and just as instantaneously butt heads. All their arguments lead to uploaded videos, which brings them more attention. Now they have a wager, whoever wins the food competition, the loser has to leave the area.

I adored these characters. I loved watching them go from hate to simmering heat to a blazing inferno. So what happens when the contest is over? You'll have to one-click to find out.

DNF

The character motivations are immediately a bit strange, and this is hitting right for me. The cover is A+ though. I'm just not sure if Smith's prose is a good fit for me.

When a book's premise is a hate-to-love romance between two rival food truck owners, you know for sure I'm picking it up. I enjoyed Smith's debut, so it didn't take much convincing to read the book. There were elements that I very much enjoyed in Simmer Down, but there were also parts that I didn't particularly care for.

Nikki's bond with her mother was Simmer Down's strongest suit. The love and care these two women had for each other were soft and very heartwarming. Sarah Smith showed every facet of their relationship, positive and negative, very nicely throughout the book. Their shared love for Filipino cuisine was another highlight of Simmer Down. All the food descriptions made me unbearably hungry but also a little sad that I don't have access to tons of Filipino restaurants. *sad face* The romance was what I had mixed feelings towards. I enjoyed the back-and-forth banter and prank wars between Callum and Nikki a whole lot and thought they had fantastic chemistry together. However, I did feel that their rivalry didn't last as long as I would have expected or wanted. My interest in them as a couple simmered down (pun intended) when they got together and I certainly wasn't a fan of all the drama and miscommunication that caused major interferences in their relationship.

In the end, while not every element of Simmer Down clicked with me, I did find the book to be entertaining. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Smith's writing is very breezy to get through. If you do like foodie romances, I would definitely give Simmer Down a try.

I am very thankful to both NetGalley and Berkely Romance for gifting me this ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for Enemies to Lovers and the relationship between Nikki and Callum is definitely an enemies to lovers with some forbiddance romance thrown in there.

See it all started when Callum parked his food truck next to Nikki's and after she "kindly" tells him to move, which of course he doesn't, the beginning a war between the two.

So much so that their rivalry catches the attention of the Maui Food Festive and now both Nikki and Callum have more at stack than just the location of their food trucks.

Be a chance trip aboard finds them falling for each other even when they know they should stay apart.

The food they are cooking isn't the only thing heating up, so is their feelings for each other.

Thank you for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review :

I liked that this book incorporated other cultures, foods, and relationships.
What I didn't like? It was exactly like that hallmark movie and Smith's books tend to have the theme of having an immature issue that is resolved quickly.

Simmer Down will delight foodies and romance readers alike! I am definitely NOT a foodie, but I enjoyed seeing the passion Nikki had for her food (and Callum too)!

I loved the enemies to lovers/rivals type trope in Simmer Down. These two are so competitive, but in a good way. Also, Callum is GREAT. Admittedly, he did not make me love him right away, but he really is a sweet guy. I think romance needs more "sweet guys" and less toxic masculinity! But, that is a soapbox for another day.

Nikki has a positive relationship with her family and I loved that inclusion as well. Through her, I learned a lot about Filipino food and it was really interesting. Smith included a little bit of Filipino food talk in her previous book, but it takes center stage here. My only issue with the plot was the use of the miscommunication trope. I really dislike that because it always feels unnecessary and makes the characters seem immature. But, that distraction aside, Simmer Down is a great indulgence into food and romance!

*Will be posted on my blog, goodreads and instagram today*
I was so excited to read this book, romance and food? A winning combination. Simmer Down was one of those books that was very easy for me to start reading and I quickly found myself liking Nikki. I really wanted to see her succeed and get everything she wanted for her and her mother. However, maybe its just me and my ever changing feelings on the enemy turned lovers trope, but I really did not Callum and the way he treated Nikki in the beginning at all. Sometimes there's a misunderstanding but in this case he was just a complete and total dick for absolutely no reason. I did really like that Nikki didn't back down, or let her attraction to him get in the way of standing up for herself.

I gotta admit that it wasn't until the airplane scene did I finally relent and allow myself to see Callum in a more positive light, from then on the book really picked up and got a lot more interesting for me. I also really liked Nikki and her mother's interactions. Their relationship seemed very realistic and I really loved their moments together. A big of advice though if you read this book, have a snack with you because when they describe the food you will get hungry.

Overall, a very fun romance that any Enemy to lover fans will enjoy