Margo got dumped by her husband, Aja got dumped by her boyfriend and Trista got dumped by her employer. All three make a new start in life based in part on the friendship they develop through a cooking club--a club that starts about the same time as the dumping.

Usually I enjoy books about women re-inventing themselves and reaching out to do the things they want to do. However, for whatever reason I never really connected with any of the main characters in this book. I just found them strange. When Margo is dumped, she realizes she has no real friends--her social life revolved around the wives of her husband's co-workers, and a book club. So, what does she do? She answers an ad for a cookbook club and in doing so, meets the only other two members of the club--Aja and Trista.

Aja goes with her boyfriend to meet his mother--and ends up getting hired as her gardener. Oh, and just after the boyfriend dumps her, she realizes she is pregnant. Trista is running a restaurant and as noted above, has a rat problem. However, despite reading the book, I couldn't tell you anything about any of these women except that they love to cook (at least Margo and Trista do, I'm not sure about Aja).

While the food they cooked sounded awesome, I found the book rather mediocre.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Grade: B-

Reeling from her divorce out of the middle of nowhere, Margo decides to join a cookbook club where she makes new friends, and is given the chance of second love.

I love reading about food, so, when I saw The Cookbook Club and read it was about three women becoming friends, I jumped on it. Female friendship and food? It’s kind of a match made in heaven for me. I was also really curious to see how long Aja could hide her pregnancy. In some ways, this book was what I expected it might be, but, in other ways, it was very different and I’m stuck feeling a little indifferent even though my heart really wants to love this book.

The Plot: More of a Sweet Romance
It’s an ordinary day for housewife Margo, who loves to cook and make YouTube videos of healthy recipes for her parents and their senior citizen community, until her husband walks in and announces he’s moving across the country without her. Stuck with no idea how to support herself, and with her ex-husband’s late grandparents’ dilapidated farm house, she signs up for a new cookbook club, hoping to put her numerous cookbooks to good use. And she had the book.

Trista was a lawyer, but now runs a crumbling bar/restaurant. Desperate to turn things around, she starts a cookbook club to try out new recipes. Only Margo and a young woman called Aja show up, but the three become quick friends. They support each other as Trista’s business struggles, Margo deals with an old crush who is now renovating the dilapidated farm house, and Aja wonders how long she can hide her pregnancy from her wealthy boyfriend and his snobby mother.

I loved the idea of three women forming a cookbook club and trying out new recipes. Female friendship is the one thing I look for in women’s fiction, so I loved that this book involved three very different women somehow coming together and becoming friends. But it also branches out so each woman’s story is told. I liked that the reader gets to know each woman, her history, and what she’s trying to do with her life. It was fun seeing them interact, but, unfortunately, the story kept them apart most of the time.

As much as I wanted to love this story, there were several things that disappointed me. For one, the actually cookbook club was barely seen. There were some meetings, but most them came in the form of snippets at the end of each part. Most of the story was focused on Margo, which makes sense if this goes on to be a series, especially since there are men in Trista’s and Aja’s lives, but only Margo’s love interest gets his own chapters, making the rest of them feel irrelevant. Instead of feeling like women’s fiction, much less a cookbook club, it felt like a romance where the heroine just happens to have a couple of new friends to make the story longer. The story also moved way too fast. The chapters were short, the ending sudden, making me wonder if the whole purpose of the book was to just talk about food, because there’s an awful lot of food in such a fast story.

The Characters: Three Women, Plus a Few Men
As disappointing as the story was, I did really like the characters. Most of them are in their late twenties to early thirties, so it was a little easier for me to identify with them. They were a lot fun and they each had their moments that made them feel human, but there ended up being some thin threads that wound them together that felt a little weak. Each woman was able to stand on her own, perhaps a little too much, because their reliance on each other felt more like token gestures than a genuine need for female support.

I loved all of the women. My favorite, though, was Margo. I identified the most with her, especially since she married in her early twenties just like I did, and sometimes those “what if” thoughts are hard to dispel. I loved her enthusiasm for food and cooking, and can’t help but admire the well-stocked kitchen she has. It’s kind of my dream kitchen. I really liked Aja, too. She’s younger, so came off as more innocent, though she managed to get herself into an interesting pickle as she tried to develop her voice and let her needs and wants be known. I loved that her arc wasn’t so focused on romance, but on a young woman finding her own feet. Then there’s Trista, who was a lot of fun and enthusiastic. She made some rather interesting choices throughout the book, but it made her feel like one of those overly enthusiastic humans who rush headlong into things and hope for the best. And then there’s Lucinda, an older woman Aja comes to know, who was utterly fascinating and had a rich, deep history.

I’d like to say I liked the guys in the story, too, but we only really get to know one: Margo’s love interest, Max. He had an interesting story, but so much of his life in the story was taken up with mooning over Margo that it made him feel one dimensional and not as interesting as I would have expected. There are also a couple of guys in Trista’s life. It felt like they were building up to something, and then the book just ended. They seemed nice, but, as a reader, I felt like I was being held at a distance from them.

The Setting: Washington, D.C-ish
Most of The Cookbook Club is set in the Washington, D. C. area, but, by the end of the book, I’d completely forgotten. There was a strong suburban feel to it, a bit of a rural feel since the old farm house was extremely isolated, and no real big city feel to it. I don’t actually recall any landmarks of D. C. making their way into the story. I got the feeling where the story takes place was irrelevant and had enough of a mix to make the story make sense.

Overall: Cute, but Little Substance
The Cookbook Club is cute and has a wonderful idea behind it, but there was almost too much food and not enough substance. I liked that Margo, Trista, and Aja each had their own problems and were occasionally dependent on each other, but everything was just too easily solved for them so there was almost no tension in the story. It all felt almost storybook perfect. There were also some inconsistencies, little details that changed that made the story a little jarring. This story sounded so good and extremely delicious, but it disappointed in how easily everything happened, how rushed the ending was, and how it felt like the first in a series without touting itself as such.


Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Link to post: https://thelilycafe.com/book-review-the-cookbook-club-by-beth-harbison/

The Cookbook Club is pure delight! How could anyone resist a call on Instagram from Boozy Crocker titled Must Eat Butter? That invitation brings Margo, Aja and Trista together and the fun and food begin.

Margo, newly dumped by her inattentive husband, is left with nothing but a mortgage and a rural farmhouse, home to the local wildlife. Aja is realizing that Michael, self-important and wealthy, is not the man for her. Trish is a lawyer who has lost her job and is now the owner of a neighborhood bar. What brings these women together? The Cookbook Club. Meeting every other week to prepare recipes from different cookbooks, they bond over their love for cooking. As the recipes become more complex, so do their lives. No spoilers but I can tell you that you will be very satisfied (and hungry) at the novel’s conclusion.

I loved this happy book. While serious issues (divorce, harassment, emotional abuse) are treated, The Cookbook Club is a pleasure. And the best part…the recipes are at the end. Black Pepper Gruyere Cheese Puffs, Curried Deviled Eggs…oh my! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins Publishers and Beth Harbison for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow Books, and Harper Audio for the complimentary digital and audiobook copies of this book.

I loved everything about The Cookbook Club by Beth Harbison. As a reader my two favorite types of novels are a heavily character driven book and romance. This book combines the best of both worlds into a truly enjoyable book. Add in a lot of delectable food and I was sold. If I had to peg a genre for this one I'd put it under women's literature.

The book tells the story of three women, Margot, Aja, and Trista, who are all at a crossroads in their lives and end up meeting as part of an Instagram group meet up pot luck. The story switches between the three women telling each of their stories. Margot is a newly divorced woman still reeling from her husband's abandonment. Aja is the youngest of the three struggling with a difficult boyfriend and other life difficulties (no spoilers). Trista is a lawyer turned bar owner, who also loves to cook. As the story weaves through the three women's lives you get to learn their hopes, fears and troubles and watch all three work through their relationship issues.

This book is a slow journey as you get to know the women and along the way are exposed to all kinds of lovely food. I particularly like how the author focuses on particular cookbooks and dishes from those cookbooks.

I'd highly recommend this book to people who loved character driven novels with a dash of romance thrown in. If you like faster paced action, this book may not be the best choice. That being said I was hooked from the start as each character leads a very different life with various challenges and life circumstances. Steam wise this was a closed door romance which really revolves more around the three women then the romance.

Overall this is the type of book I love and I give it a big thumbs up.

This book is a delicious delight of a read! The characters are so real you will feel as if you have made three new BFFs by the time you finish! If you or someone you know who loves to watch cooking shows, subscribes to one or multiple cooking magazines and or loves cookbooks this is the book for them. And I can’t imagine a better. holiday gift to give! These characters are relatable. Their worries and mistakes are our worries and mistakes which as an avid reader I found refreshing. And their love lives are realistic as well. Note - the author is masterful without crossing over into category cloying. I am going to click follow author everywhere I can so as to not miss any future titles she writes. Happy reading!

Three women from different places in life come together to form a cookbook club.

All three are facing different challenges but learn to help each other out while cooking a meal from a different cookbook each month. Little by little they reveal their stories to each other and begin to bond. The descriptions of the food alone are enough to recommend this book but the characters are likable and real. If anything, the book felt a little too rushed, it could have used a little more story.

The book started out slow. But then picked up. The ending was a bit abrupt. Overall though I enjoyed it Made me hungry.

SYNOPSIS

Margo loves her husband, and has re-worked her life to fit his life, even her cooking. Once full of zest and adventure, her cooking is now bland, cholesterol-less, and uninspired, just like how her husband likes it. When her husband tells Margo he wants a divorce, Margo joins a cookbook club and meets Trista, a lawyer-turned-bar-owner, and Aja, a pregnant yoga teacher trying to figure her life out. Together, over delectable meals, these three women walk together and grow together as they figure out their new lives and new identities.

••••••••

Y’all know how much I love reading cookbooks, so when I saw this book on NetGalley, I knew I had to read this book. I’m so glad I did, because I enjoyed it! Margo, Trista, and Aja are three very different women who, because of life’s circumstances, have to re-invent their lives. I found their re-inventions compelling, and at times, hilarious; I found their growing friendships endearing. Also, the growing romantic relationships were both sweet and a page-turner!

Trista was my favorite character to read — as someone who has worked in a restaurant, I loved her sass, the pest issue, her adventure with food. By the end of the book, I wanted her as a friend too!

Overall, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5! This is a lighthearted, feel-good read that will definitely make you smile! The Cookbook Club will be released on October 20, 2020, and I recommend reading it! Preorder your copy today!

Thank you @bethharbisonbooks @harpercollins and @netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this fantastic book!

This book follows three women. Margo’s marriage is over and her settlement with her ex-husband she gets the house and dilapidated farmhouse. Aja is an unmarried pregnant woman who gets a job working for ex-boyfriend’s mother. Trista is a former lawyer and opening a bar. She decides she wants to try different recipes for the bar, hence the cookbook club is formed..
I enjoyed this book though I felt is started out slow getting to know the backstory of the women. Once it was established I got vested in all the characters in the book. I felt the ending was too rushed. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the E-ARC. This is my own opinion.

This was a lighter, food-themed read about 3 women who are all at a turning point in their life. It seemed like some of the plot was unnecessary and then it abruptly ended, which ultimately really made the book fall a bit flat.

I’ve enjoyed each book that I’ve read by this author, and The Cookbook Club is no different. It stars 3 women, from different backgrounds but all in a flux, that make up The Cookbook Club. The club meets every month, making recipes from a pre-selected book.

Aja is pregnant and has recently broken up with her boyfriend, but is working for his mother and becomes close with her. Margo is separated and reconnects with an old school friend who is now famous. Trista is a former lawyer who owns a bar and the creator of the club.

Filled with food and relationships, this was an enjoyable read. Give it a try!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

I think many patrons will enjoy this book. I love the idea of a cookbook club. This was an enjoyable book that just made me feel good. I loved the characters!

I’ve always enjoyed stories built on friendships and the love of comfort food.
This story takes the lives of people who are in need of friendship, and weaves a heartwarming story that’s bound to give you that happiness you are looking for in a book.

I received The Cookbook Club as an e-arc in exchange for a fair and unbiased review
3 women, all at different stages in life, brought together by an ad for a group with the title "Must love butter".

Our group leader is a lawyer who left that stress-filled world for the equally stress-filled world of being a Gastro Pub owner. Next is a woman who realizes that after putting her her own dreams and desires on hold, her husband has tired of her and is leaving. Finally, a young woman, a bit bohemian, learning to fly against the winds.

Through cooking and cookbook discussions, these women become fast friends, leaning on each other for support and giving encouragement and strategy where needed.

Along with a handful of yummy recipes, our ladies tell a beautiful story of strength, empathy, and power.

4.5/5 Stars

I was provided with an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I really loved this one. As a foodie myself, and one who has a deep love of kitchen gadgets and dreams of the perfect kitchen, the running theme of cooking was amazing. The book perfectly tied together the stories of the 3 MCs (technically 4 MCs) and various mouth watering recipes. I finished it in one sitting, and now dream of having a cookbook book club with fellow foodie friends. My one wish was that we had a little bit more of a wrap up. Things sort of fell together rather quickly, and the end felt a bit rushed. Another 50 pages would have been very satisfying. Otherwise, wonderful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this eARC!
I really enjoyed this book. The first 75% was a 5 star for me. This is about 3 women who come together to form a cookbook club. What does that mean? It means they get together every so often and all bring a dish from a certain cookbook and they share a meal. I love stories about women and I love stories about food-- so the premise is right up my alley. We have Margo who is in the middle of a divorce and a farmhouse renovation, Aja who is pregnant by a really crappy guy, and Trista who is attempting to reinvent herself, switching her career from law to bar owner. All of their stories were interesting, but I thought Trista's was a little underdeveloped. There are 2 cases of childhood friends coming back into the women's lives and that is one of my all time favorite tropes so I loved seeing that. There are a few times you have to suspend your disbelief, but that didn't bother me in this book. My biggest complaint with this book was the ending. It just stopped. No real conclusion, no satisfaction with the women's stories, and an epilogue that was virtually worthless. I'm assuming this is setting up to be a series, but even if that is the case ( I really hope it is), there needed to be a less abrupt ending to this.
I would definitely recommend reading this book, but maybe wait until you see if there are more books in the series that will lead to a more satisfying conclusion.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
Margo's husband leaves her with his family farm. It's so run down that its virtually uninhabitable, but Margo has always loved it so she puts out an ad on social media asking for someone who is interested in renovating. Conveniently, a mega movie star named Max sees it and responds. Max and Margo were friends when they were young so he still follows her social media accounts and he is desperate to step away from the limelight for awhile, so he responds and takes on the job. The dilapidated home doesn't scare him, so he moves in to start the renovations. A romance starts between the 2 of them, but ends very abruptly.
Aja finds out she's pregnant and keeps it secret from everyone, including her boyfriend. He finally takes her to meet his mom and she is very rich and snooty and ends up hiring Aja to be her gardener. While doing her job, she finds some jewelry and the mom accuses her of trying to steal it, but then we find out that the boyfriend has a daughter that his mom has visitation with every weekend and the little girl is taking the jewelry outside. Aja never knew about his daughter and so she's surprised, but not really once she finds out the guys true character and she really steps back to look at their relationship. In the end, she has her baby and her and the mom are very close. The mom is going to be in the baby's life even if her son is not.
Trista leaves her job as a lawyer to open a bar. A guy from her past comes and applies for the job of bartender and they have a flirty relationship, but it doesn't really go anywhere YET.

MUST LOVE BUTTER: The Cookbook Club is now open to members. Foodies come join us! No diets! No skipping dessert! When that message went out on social media two women respond. Margo had just been dumped by her husband and was trying to find her footing again, loves food and loves to cook. Aja is in a rocky relationship, has no idea how to cook, but loves to eat and is always hungry these days. They join Trista, who was just fired from her job as an attorney, and is now the proud owner of a bar & grill. She wants guinea pigs to try her recipes that she is considering for her new restaurant. Each month, the women choose a new cookbook and get together for some food and girl time. They are able to help each other through the rocky days ahead and form a lasting friendship.
I loved the idea of women bonding over food at a cookbook club.. It is told in alternating parts between the three women, so you can get fully invested in each of their stories. The women are all likable, and ones you want to get behind. It is a fairly quick read, with lots of mouth-watering recipes at the end to try out. I really enjoyed the book and think you will too.

This book was a little slow at first. But then it got much better from there. And by the end, I was really enjoying it.

The first chapter started a little slow and I didn't know how it was going to relate to the title but from that dramatic start this book was great.

I loved how there were so many unexpected interweaved connections that slowly unraveled as they needed to come out.

The idea of a cookbook club to find new recipes for her bar was a great idea and loved the little snap shots of how each month went.

I would love to read about the group in the future

This book was super good. It was super original and I flew through it. It didn't feel like anything I've read in the past. Can't wait to read more from the author!!