I really enjoyed this! I have never read anything like it before. The representation was amazing and the story in general was so cute. I read this in one day because I just couldn't put it down. Will definitely be reading more from Anita in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the ARC!

I did not enjoy this book. The pacing was too slow. Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Happy Pub Day to all the amazing books out today!!!
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I was gifted a digital copy of Love & Other Disasters from @readforeverpub and @netgalley by author @anitakellywrites
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A cooking show provides the backdrop for the story of Dahlia and London. Recently divorced but full of life and optimism is Dahlia. Dahlia has always known she’s bisexual but had only ever been with her husband.
London identifies as non-binary, uses the pronouns they/them, and goes on the cooking show as the first in the show’s history. London is more reserved, but a strong, quiet individual.
I have not read a lot of books with non-binary characters. I am excited for all of the individuals who will read this book and see themselves on the pages.
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Dahlia and London meet on the show and you’ll need to find out for yourself how it all plays out. It’s out today so you don’t have to wait any longer!

Dahlia is bankrupt and just got divorced from her first love and the only thing that saved her was cooking.
London fell in love with food and cooking while bonding with his nanny at a very young age. Both are contestants on a popular reality cooking show called Chef’s Special. London announced that they’re non-binary, and they’re the first openly non-binary character in the cooking show. But from the moment London told their beloved dad that they’re non-binary, he refused their gender identity and his rejection still hurts.
London and Dahlia immediately forms a friendship As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. But as the final draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat. Do they both have it all figured out for a happily ever after?

Love & Other Disasters was a touching, sexy, gently paced, tender and refreshing story. It’s about following your dreams and accepting yourself even if others may deem it differently. I loved watching their love story unfold yet left a lot of mystery of their future. I loved that each character loved each other for exactly who they are despite the insecurities they have within. My heart ached for London when making the hard decision to confront his father and demand that he start using theor correct pronouns and stop misgendering them.

Thank you so much @readforeverpub for this #gifted copy.

I think this was the first book I’ve read with a non-binary romance interest, and it was wonderful. I’ve watched Top Chef since its very beginnings, and the minute I heard about the set up of this book, I was like YES! Because the fact that we’ve only seen one on-screen weird romantic thing during Top Chef’s many seasons is suspicious. So I was excited to read about a tryst, even if it’s fictional. I related A LOT to Dahlia, and the grumpy sunshine trope is always a winner for me. But the thing I loved most is how obsessed Dahlia and London are with each other. There’s so much holding back at the beginning of relationships, and I love it when people just let go, consequences be damned.

Okay can I just start by saying how unbelievably needed this book was. Non bianary representation is still lacking so to have a romance book with a nonbinary character just fills my heart with so much unbelievable joy.

I have already been recommending this book to as many people as I can because I truly loved it. The characters were amazing and all that they went through just felt so raw and realistic to me. Also I know that a lot of people will be obsessed with the cooking show angle and that was definitely a favorite plot point for me as well.

I can’t wait to see what else this author comes out with and I also hope to see more non bianary rep in the future!

Love the Non-binary representation. Love the cooking competition trope. Not crazy over third act breakups, but sometimes they are the necessary kick in the pants the characters need, and it was needed in this case. Both London and Dahlia are dealing with personal issues with family, Dahlia also has self-esteem issues that tend to fluctuate at the drop of a hat. Their first kiss was just heart-poundingly romantic. This is a spicy book, the way I like it, and they love food so if course, well you can guess.

What an absolute delight of a book! It was everything I wanted it to be - sweet, meaningful, silly, unabashedly queer, and emotionally satisfying. I loved the setting of a cooking competition show (having often binged this exact type of program), and I immediately fell in love with our main characters Dahlia and London. Their romance felt so natural and tender as they both navigated transitions in their lives: Dahlia going from stagnantly married to uneasily divorced; and London entering the competition as the first openly nonbinary participant on the show, disrupting the comfortable status quo for both viewers and family members alike. I really appreciated that both the main characters had emotional baggage outside of their own relationships; romance novels often get trapped in the past relationship problems, which can feel overdone. In this book everything was rooted in identity, which made the conflicts relatable and the successes empowering.

The flow of the dialogue was so easy, the characters’ problems and thought processes so believable, that I didn’t mind so much if the plot points felt a bit predictable, or if all the other characters ended up pretty one-dimensional. I was happy to be carried along with the story, and I had such a huge smile on my face while reading. Highly recommend if you need a pick-me-up romance novel!

4.25 stars

Thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

i’m blown away , this was absolutely wonderful. the non-binary representation in this book was chefs kiss (ha ha it’s a book about cooking lmao). the struggles london experienced were extremely relatable and made me cry a few times because of that. i’m still not a big fan of reality tv in books, but luckily it wasn’t a huge part of the book. obviously the main characters (it’s dual pov btw!!) are in a cooking tv show so it’s definitely there, but the show itself doesn’t get a lot of ‘screen time’. it’s very focused on london and dahlia’s relationship, which i loved. i wasn’t a big fan of the conflict and how it got resolved but i can let that slide since the rest of the book was literally amazing. love & other disasters is officially my favourite book with non-binary representation🥰

4.5 stars

This was an excellent example of a book that I would call “fluff with substance.” Is it, at its core, a love story with a guaranteed HEA? Yes. Is it also something more that deals with complex characters, difficult social issues, and current events/circumstances in thoughtful and meaningful ways? Also yes. Dahlia and London are both great characters, and I really enjoyed their story; the book pulled me in right away and kept me interested the whole time. It was what I needed right now. This was my first book from the author, but I already can’t wait to check out more of their work in the future.

I received this book as an ARC from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh, this was so cute and just what I needed! I absolutely adore fresh takes and diverse perspectives in romance novels. While this is predominantly a cute little story about two people falling in love while on the set of a cooking show, it tackles so many important issues in a very tactful and informational way. I just adored these two main characters, and the side characters were equally cute including Dahlia and London's siblings and the other contestants on the show (ugh, Cath & Barbara <3). I flew through this book and honestly read it in about 24 hours, but it will stick with me as one of my favorite romance books that I've read in a while. Can't wait to read more of Anita Kelly's work!

For those that like to be made aware of these things ahead of time, some content/trigger warnings include sexual content, homophobia, and transphobia.

Thanks again to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC! I loved this one!

I absolutely adored this book!

Usually, it takes me a little while to get to know characters before I can work out how I really feel about them. Not so with these two. I was in love with them by the end of the second chapter.

As if being a contestant on America's favorite cooking show wasn't nerve-wracking enough, London Parker is publicly announcing their pronouns—trolls and an un-supportive dad be damned.

Dahlia Woodson is hoping for a fresh start after her divorce, and cooking seems to be the one place she feels confident and in control.

What neither Dahlia or London expected when they applied to the show was to make friends, and fall for one of their fellow competitors. But as the contestant numbers dwindle they find themselves undeniably drawn to each other. But it could never work back in the real world. Could it?

Ok this one was really good y’all! I’m a sucker for foodie fiction and while I’ve read plenty of books that center on food I don’t think I’ve read one featuring a reality cooking show with amateur home cooks. It was also my first romance with a nonbinary lead too and I really appreciated getting some insights into the struggles London faced. Anymore when I read a romance I want the usual spice, humor and depth but what really makes a romance stand out for me is when the characters are authentic, relatable and messy. I may not be a queer reality show contestant but I still found myself relating to Dahlia as I’m a bit of a hot mess myself. Both Dahlia and London’s issues and struggles were really well drawn and I was rooting so hard for them both as a couple and separately. This one brings the humor, the heat and the heart, lots of tender and sweet moments and plenty of sexiness as well. Definitely recommended by me, especially if you like food and adorable couples who make you a little swoony.

I love a good cooking competition romance, and this one is unique in several ways, most notably, featuring an openly non-binary character. London comes out in episode one, and almost immediately develops a crush on hottie Dahlia with the seductive hair, smooth cooking techniques, and adorkable awkwardness. Dahlia has found a refuge in cooking after her breakup and job loss, while London aspires to start a non-profit for LGBTQIA+ youth. Their attraction is mutual, palpable, epic and inconvenient.

The foodie details are mouth watering, and the competition believable - except for the cast having their phones and freedom during filming that might be unrealistic, but also allows for development of the character's secondary relationships with family members, and leaves room for LA to become a character of the novel as well, since part of London and Dahlia's friendship and then romance is exploring the city, Dahlia being a New Englander living outside of DC, and London hailing from Nashville. Unlike other novels riffing on Food TV reality shows that I've read in the last year (Sadie on a Plate, Love from Scratch, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake), in Love and Other Disasters, the narrative is more focused on the relationship than the competition.

In Judy Blume's classic Forever, the protagonist Kat is advised to think about how they relationship will end; London and Dahlia avoid that conversation, and things get awkward when one of them is eliminated before the other.

Chapters alternate point of view. Writing and plotting is solid, and the intimate scenes are more lavishly detailed then the food description. This is a great read with plenty of long overdue queer representation.

I received an advance reader's review copy of #Love&OtherDisasters from #NetGalley

This book, right here, is why I insist on requesting and reading as many LGBTQIA+ romances as I can when I come across them on NetGalley. It’s because of this warm, bubbling, sparkly feeling I have in my stomach after reading something beautiful and golden and true. This book was like champagne butterflies fluttering in my tummy, drunk and fluttering and golden and sweet.

I don’t often (literally) laugh out loud at books. I smile, sure. I may snort. I smirk… a lot. But I’m a big smirker in general. But this book caused me to genuinely let out unexpected giggles and chuckles and a few guffaws a few times, and that was a feeling I’m always going to be thankful to this book for, because I don’t get to laugh very often anymore.

I also shed a few tears: for London and Dahlia (our main characters), for how much I identified with Dahlia, and for all the LGBTQIA+ folx in the world who feel out of place and/or out of step with the world, with themselves, and especially with their loved ones. And I wished again, as I often do, for a world in which everyone could just be who they are and love who they love without anyone caring.

The plot of this book may be a pretty basic recipe, at first glance, but Kelly does so much with it! Food is one of the most versatile metaphors to work with when it comes to love, to home, to who you are, to where you come from, to where you’ve been, to domesticity, to where you want to go someday, and to who you might want to be someday. Kelly takes great advantage of both the food metaphors to be had and also the reality television competition format to weave the romance between Dahlia and London together like a neatly-made basket. The book is a page-turner, too: there are no parts that sag, move too slowly, move too fast, or seem extraneous. There aren’t too many characters, and all the characters are realized to the appropriate amount.

The humor, angst, romance, and steam are all nicely balanced for a romance of this genre and for the target audience.

Books are meant to make you feel. The intention of all art is to make you feel something. This book made me feel a great many things. I went into my genderfluid daughter’s room and flopped down on the bed and said, “I’m all up in my feels!”

She gave me a hug and kissed me on the head. Because she knows how her Mama gets over books sometimes. And then I told her the premise, and she told me that if she were a reader she would’ve gotten all up in her feels too.

Oh, this book was charming! Kelly wrote two distinctly voiced characters who complemented each other perfectly. London is the first openly non-binary contestant on a popular TV cooking competition, hoping to start their own nonprofit organization, and Dahlia is a fellow contestant who is recently divorced, a little directionless and struggling financially. The chemistry between these two is a lot of fun to read, and the family dynamics factoring into the story added a lot of depth. I have no love for cooking shows, but I still found much to love in this sweet story, and much to love about London and Dahlia individually and as a couple. I’m definitely interested in reading more from this author.

Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly was the romcom I needed to start off 2022. This #ownvoices queer romance is funny, sweet, and completely heart warming. Cheers for being my first 5⭐️ read of the year.

I loved the setting of a cooking show competition which added some tension as the romance unfolded. But more so, I loved Dahlia and London together. Dahlia is sunshine, a bit unsure of herself, and can be a bit clumsy. London is a bit grumpy and stressed after introducing themself on national tv with their they/them pronouns. Things heat up on and off set between Anita and London even though they are competing against each other for the grand prize.

I loved their tender moments, the zany shenanigans that London pulled them into, and the steamy moments that will make you rethink fruit. And the fierceness for which Dahlia protected London - swoon!

⚠️ Trigger warning: misgendering off page

Thank you toForever and Netgalley for an arc. All opinions are my own.

Dahlia is just coming out of a divorce and decides to take a chance at finding a life she loves by joining a cooking competition show. When she’s there, she meets London, the show’s first openly nonbinary contestant. As Dahlia and London get to know each other, the form a tight bond and start to fall for each other, but at the end of the day the show is a competition and only one person can win.

Y’all know I’m a sucker for a good baking show romance and this takes the cake for being one of the best! This book was deep, it was steamy, it made me laugh and smile, AND it had amazing food descriptions. It was all the things you could possibly want in a romance and I loved every moment of it.

Thanks for Forever Publishing for my advanced copy!

4.5
Warning: do not read this book hungry

In an unsurprising turn of events, this book is excellent. It's delicious. It's like a perfectly sculpted queer monument shaped out of mashed potatoes.

I spent a lot of the process of reading this book (both times) with tears in my eyes. It just felt so close. So personal. So messy and vulnerable and real and queer. It is silly and awkward and beautiful. It is queer comfort food in book form and it feels like a feast. Please do not misunderstand. This book is not sad, it's just so honest, so caring, so fundamentally queer. There is something profoundly, spiritually queer about the silliness, the absolute awkward, steamy honesty of this book. The whole time I was reading, my nerves felt raw, my heart felt close to the surface.

A magical thing about reading books is that I get to be in other queer peoples’ brains. I will never stop thinking how remarkable it is that I can transport myself into the brains of other queer people with words and stories and random symbols on a page. That queer authors and artists are generous enough to reach into their hearts to find the most perfect words to drill into their brain and share themselves and their characters with us. (This got gross, right?) It's just so cool that I get to take my brain and look inside another person's brain by living in another (fictional) person's brain. (Look, I know that cishet authors do this too, that's what writing is, but queer people's brains are special.) I'll just never get over it.

So I'm grateful for Anita Kelly's brain, and the fact that it lets be live in Dahlia and London's brains and then have them live in my own.

Ugh. I love queer people's brains.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC.

CW: Transphobia, misgendering/deadnaming (not on page), familial rejection, divorce

DNF. I love the concept of this one - finding yourself and finding love on a cooking competition show. Dahlia is reinventing herself post-divorce - quit her job and trying something new that is stretching her. London is very aware they will be a public face by being on the show and sharing they are non-binary and prefer they/them pronouns. I am here for all of this and LOVE the representation of a non-binary main character - more of this please!!!!!! But - all that said - the actual story just isn’t pulling me in. I’m not compelled to see how things are going to unfold. Unfortunately the execution just didn’t work for me. Thank you Forever and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.