🧁 ARC REVIEW 🧁

“She was happiness personified, and London could barely look at her.”

In Love & Other Disasters, Anita Kelly brings to life Dahlia and London in a cooking competition where sparks fly between the contestants as well as in the kitchen. This was my first time reading a non-binary main character and I know I learned more about being an ally as I got to know London. The grumpy / sunshine dynamic between London and Dahlia also brought warmth to my heart as that is a favorite trope of mine.

The characters were well developed, experienced growth throughout the story as they came into themselves and owned their identities. Kelly also showed her characters learning to set boundaries with family which takes courage and made me proud of London and Dahlia as they did so.

Highly recommend this love story if you’re looking to fall in love with delightful characters (and a killer support character cast) and feel all the feels along with them.

Check this one you if you are looking for:

🧁 Non-binary main character
🧁 LQBTQ Romance
🧁 Grumpy / Sunshine dynamic
🧁 Characters who will warm your heart as they find themselves
🧁 A main character who is “ready to give her a resounding high five and begin smashing the patriarchy of the food world together.”

Thanks to @netgalley and @readforeverpub and @grandcentralpub for this ARC! Love & Other Disasters hits shelves January 18, 2022.

A queer romance with a non-binary MC, set in a cooking competition reality show. I had high expectations for this book and they were definitely met. I appreciated that Dahlia and London felt like two very distinct characters, who then worked so well together. Their relationship was so easy to root for. And then food!! (And, um, some pretty steamy romance scenes.) So much to love about this book. Highly recommend.

This is the first romance I've read with a nonbinary MC and I just would die for London. Seriously, they are truly amazing - the love they have, the vulnerability, the relationship with their sister, the love they slowly built for Dahlia. If not for London, this might have been fewer stars because I struggled with Dahlia a bit - she felt a little all over the place, a little too unrealistic. But London grounded this book so well. I rooted for them. I wanted them to win in life and in the show. I love that Kelly is highlighting a piece of nonbinary experience, filled with love and romance but also sprinkled with some trauma - it felt important to not just be traumatic but also loving.

I have so many quotes that will share after pub day but read this book if you:
- want to broaden your romance horizons
- want to practice using they/them pronouns when talking about a character
- love Masterchef, British Bake Off, or any other food related reality show
- love love, and love food

I hope you read and enjoy this beautiful book.

This book was too cringy for my taste. The dialogue didn't sound normal, nor did it flow right, and Delilah talked too much about onions.

I received an early copy of this book from Netgalley and Forever! All opinions are my own!

Oh my GOODness...where do I start with my love of this book?? As an almost exclusively fantasy reader, I wasn't too sure when I pulled this title out of my TBR jar. But let me tell you that I fell in love so so quickly.

I think the first thing that grabbed me was just how full of life Dahlia is. She makes everything so interesting and fun, and it's so easy to see why London is so immediately drawn to her. And then there's how amazingly she and London fit together. The spark that they have between them is so immediate and bright that it was impossible to look away from!

I loved their silly antics and the way that they both really found themselves through their journey with each other on the show. It was so refreshing to watch two people fall in love not just with each other but also with themselves and who they wanted to be. Their stories weren't just about the romance but about finding themselves and really falling in love with life!

This was the first book I have ever read with a nonbinary main character, and I adored the representation and the things that I was able to learn from it. Watching London's struggles with their family was really eye-opening for me and will definitely make me more conscious of pronouns. But also watching the way they really became who they wanted to be and found their home in Dahlia was such a delight!

If you're a fan of romcoms, you will not want to miss this one!

This book was like the equivalent of a big hug, or a slice of warm chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I was hooked within the first few chapters, and I found myself looking forward to my work commute so that I could keep reading it.

As many queer books as there are now, we still don’t have enough adult, queer romances. I loved the premise of both main characters being contestants on a reality baking show. If you’ve watched and rewatched the Great British Baking Show and are looking for something light and sweet, I’d definitely recommend picking this up- it will be released on January 18, 2022.

I liked that Dahlia and London were both fully-developed characters with their own baggage and personalities. The story alternates between both of their POVs, so we get to see things from both of their perspectives. Dahlia was quirky without verging into being a stereotype. She knows that she wants to do something big and meaningful with her life, but doesn’t have a strong sense of what that is. London has a much more defined path for their life and knows how they’d use the prize money if they won (opening a nonprofit for LGBTQ+ kids). I liked that their different personalities seemed to complement one another, and that it wasn’t the job of one character to fix the other, or simply serve as a vehicle for the other character’s growth.

London does have to deal with their un-supportive father and Dahlia is coming out of a marriage to a man, but it didn’t feel like a coming out story, which I appreciated. Their identities are part of the story, but not the entire story.

I felt like the pacing was good - from their awkward first meeting progressing into a friendship into an eventual romance.

So yeah, count me in for whatever Anita Kelly writes next!

I really wanted to love this book. In the end, it was just okay for me.

What I liked: The world and the characters were well-developed and I liked them. I totally bought the mutual attraction, longing and the relationship development. I appreciated how London's journey was portrayed.

Didn't work for me, might work for you: This is a slow burn/slow pace story for more than the first half. If you like angsty longing and a lot of character introspection, this is the book for you. I guess if you are into the idea of mixing food and sex you'd also appreciate this book - which I think takes the food theme a bit far.

What I didn't like as much: I recently read Alexis Hall's Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and this book may have suffered in comparison for me. I found the pacing way too slow. Most disappointing for me was what felt like an incomplete story arc for Dahlia - who is pansexual but only now having her first experiences outside of compulsory heterosexuality. See spoiler below for more on this. Also, this book could use some content warnings for alcohol use, misgendering and transphobia.

Spoiler:
The first time the characters have sex, Dahlia's nervousness about knowing what to do was handled so well but then it's like the whole idea disappears because every other time they are together there is no reciprocation? It feels like a huge miss.

Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Dahlia Woodson and London Parker are two contestants on the new season of Chef's Special, a mix between the love-ability of GBBO and competition of Top Chef. Dahlia is trying to find her next step in life as she sets out newly divorced. She started cooking during her separation so cooking is a newer hobby for her. London is non-binary and entered the competition show on a dare from their twin but wants to use the show as a platform to for trans awareness. Sparks fly immediately between Dahlia and London and heat up even more as the competition intensifies.

I loved this queer romance so much! I thought it had great representation and I loved not only Dahlia and London but also so many of the secondary characters. This novel made me hungry with all the talk about food so beware of reading on an empty stomach.

An element that I really enjoyed about this novel was seeing London and Dahlia evolve throughout the novel in an organic way that felt very natural and realistic. Although this novel is focused on a food competition show, Anita Kelly doesn't let the competition of the show influence the drama of the relationship between Dahlia and London and I appreciated that. I can't wait until this book comes out in January 2022 and more readers can fall in love with Dahlia and London.

Okay, this book is officially one of my favorite contemporary romances. 5 stars, easy.

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly is a dual POV (bless) romance novel set during (get this) a reality cooking competition show. It's like Anita wrote this book for ME specifically.

Our two main characters are Dahlia, a recently divorced self-taught home cook, and London, a nonbinary audio engineer who has been cooking basically since they were born. The two become quick friends and then...maybe... more??? (This is a romance novel, that is NOT a spoiler)

The pacing in this book? Fantastic. The banter? Amazing. The romance? Immaculate. I could honestly read six more novels about Dahlia and London (please, Anita, I beg you. I need more of these two ASAP).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Anita Kelly and Forever Publishing for an ARC of this book!

This book will be published on January 18, 2022.

This book starts off right away at the beginning for a food competition called "Chef's Special" where amateur cooks compete against one another for $100k. Dahlia is at a crossroads in her life. She is newly divorced from the only relationship she has ever had, she just quit her job and just doesn't know what she wants. We also meet London, who is from Nashville, and the competition's first non-binary contestant. Instantly they are both drawn to each other. What I love about their relationship is that it didn't start with instant kissing or dating, but that they built a friendship during their time on the show and then after hours. Naturally you would think an item that would be discussed is what would happen when one of them gets kicked off the show? Is the relationship going to continue? Is this just a fling? Neither are prepared when this does eventually happen.

This is my first book where a main character is a non-binary so that made me super excited and actually drew me into reading it more. I also love the idea of two individuals falling in love on a food competition show. I thought this was a fresh take on a "meet cute".

I had gotten into food competition shows myself when I met my now husband. I never had watched the Food Network until I met him. Now we are a fan of several of the shows on the various networks. So I kept thinking back to those shows and contestants and think hmmmmmmmm.

I also love the HEA and how we see how each Dahlia and London find themselves by the end of the book. We all have times where we are just trying to figure out what we want in life and who we want to be. And only sometimes we actually go after that. I am also happy that this book stresses the importance of using the correct pronouns. Even for myself, I try to be as considerate and make a conscious effort to use the correct ones when needed.

Congrats to Anita on publishing their first book!

4.5

This is an early contender for a Best Read of 2022.

London and Dahlia are contestants on the cooking show, Chef’s Special, and their dishes aren’t the only things heating up on screen.

Cheesy opener to this review aside, Anita Kelly has created a fulfilling, earnest romance between Dahlia, a cisgender queer divorcée, and London, a recently out pan sexual non-binary person.

There’s not much I can really say about this book that won’t provide spoilers or do it justice, but here’s my overarching opinion:

This book is an insightful and emotional answer to the questions, “What if we let ourselves love ourselves as we do others? What if we decided to live and love as bravely as we could and demand the respect and love we deserve, no matter how scary?”

I loved this book and I think you will too.

A queer rom-com within a reality tv cooking competition?

SIGN ME UP!

This book was so good. It had me smiling, laughing, and hungry!

Dahlia is divorced, broke, and has no idea what she wants next in life. So, she decides to compete in a reality cooking show. I mean, why not?
It’s on the show where she meets London, the first non-binary contestant, who is determined to live their truth, pro-nouns and all, on live TV.

Dahlia the quirky/over sharer, wants to win to pay off her debt and maybe figure out her life.
While the straight-laced London, wants to win and use the funds to start a non-profit organization to help LGBTQ+ kids.

Along the way, they fall for each other little by little, for the whole cast and audience to see and cheer about. It’s an opposites attract scenario that will have you cringing, laughing, and cheering for them with all the other characters.

There are also tacos, duck, hummus, galettes, and soups to make your mouth water.

There was something about this book that was just so COZY, it literally felt like a hug, I loved it!
Now I’m off to watch Master Chef and recommend this to all my friends!

Check it out, when it hits shelves (physical & digital), 1/18/22!
A big thanks to the Publisher & NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m just disappointed with this book and how it turned out. There’s no diversity in this; all the characters are white, which makes no sense. This is about a cooking show, why only focus on American food when other cultures and their food could have been talked about?

The dialogue is cringey and at times unbearable, felt very 2014 buzzfeed. The cooking show aspect of the story didn’t seem to fit well. I didn’t enjoy reading anything about the food they were cooking. Instead, I felt uncomfortable by how food was described and wanted it to end.

The only time that I was enjoying this book was when Dahlia and London were talking about their lives. I wanted to hear more about that, instead, the story focused on their insta-love.
Their chemistry felt very forced and had tropes that are usually used in slow burns but shoved into an insta-love. And the pacing didn’t help at all. I will say that the spice scenes are done well, and unlike many books there is consent.

This isn’t a good romance book and by the end I was starting the hate one of my favorite genres.

I love this so much.

A super sweet story about Dahlia, who's in her late 20s and kind of adrift in her life, and London, who's nonbinary and instantly taken with Dahlia, as they compete on a cooking show and fall in (er, well, that might be a spoiler)

They had such good banter, much spicier scenes than I expected, really good cooking content, anda fun mix of of background characters.

The book also goes into the family lives of both Dahlia and London and I thought that both of those stories brought alot of depth to the characters and also felt so genuine.

I'm in love with this book. There's like, one other book I know of with a nb main character and it's a thing we need more of. I hope it gets sequels!!

I received this arc from NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for review.

This is a romance between two people who meet during a cooking competition for bakers on a reality TV program, Chef's Special. Like other programs, contestants compete to stay in the competition. One person is eliminated at the end of each night unless 'saved' to compete again.

Dahlia is in the process of getting a divorce and is suffering from low self-esteem. Landon is a nonbinary person who announces their new status on the program, and requests to be referred to as they or them. The two of them have good chemistry together and I enjoyed the slow advance of their relationship. As could be expected, the contest backers pull a few shenanigans to heighten the tension.

I received an ebook from the publisher Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via Netgalley. These are my opinions of the book.

If you are as obsessed with Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, Guy's Grocery Games, and other similar tv shows as I am, this is the book for you. Love & Other Disasters is set on a cooking competition show where the two main characters, London and Dahlia are competitors. They quickly form a friendship which then develops into a romantic relationship. Kelly, the author, created characters that were so realistic and I genuinely cared for and loved both of them. This title is a queer love story with nonbinary representation which also touches on some heavier topics such as forgiveness and the importance of following your dreams. If you are looking for a title to start your 2022 reading with, I highly recommend this one!

Middle of the road.

As much as I wanted to like this, it was too slow for me. Nothing was compelling for me to want to keep reading.

Things I did like: the grumpy x sunshine dynamic. It always works. I love it every time. Masc presenting nb rep! The general idea is fun.

However, I didn’t get the attraction between the two. Didn’t feel the stakes of the competition at all. I didn’t feel connected to the characters. This wasn’t for me, but I can see how people would really appreciate this one.

Thank you NetGally for this arc for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Forever for sending me an eARC of this book!

If I were to review this book in 3 words: cute but cringy.

I'll start with the nonbinary rep. There are some really wonderful moments in which London is quite vulnerable with the readers about their experience as a nonbinary individual that honestly made me tear up. I also liked the way that this book handled misgendering, by mentioning that it happened without actually misgendering London in the text. However, I felt like London's entire existence in the book was tied to whether or not people accepted them, and I wish they had been able to exist more outside of other people's opinions of their identity. In fact, the entire stakes in the cooking show were that their biggest competition was a transphobe.

In general, the deeper topics of this book were handled quite brilliantly and should have been a larger chunk of the text. In fact, I almost wish this book had been pushed more as a contemporary with a side of romance instead of entirely within the romance genre.

The spice was SO GOOD! I was SO OBSESSED with the conversations of consent. It is fortunately often that I see consent discussed a lot in romance novels, but I've never seen it done quite so in-depth as it is shown in this book. The characters are comfortable saying "no" and giving feedback and direction and finding compromise throughout their intimate scenes. It showed that consent makes sex no less sexy and is rather a way to strengthen a relationship and bond.

However, there were very few other things I liked about this book. The dialogue was absolutely painful to read at times and the characters' feelings often escalated without feeling earned. The romance was very insta-lovey, but utilized slow burn tropes, which made the pacing and the chemistry feel all over the place. The diversity is very much lacking in terms of POC, with all of the characters of color being shoved to the background. The cooking show aspect was a really wonderful concept and could have been a great tool to strengthen the stakes, but instead felt misused and underwhelming.

And I absolutely despised the end. The full circle element of the onion just brought me back to the initial state of cringe that I experienced at the beginning. I also hated that after Dahlia had spent so much time learning how to be an independent person after her divorce and figuring out what she wants, especially since she had moved to Maryland to follow her ex-husband, she still ends up moving to Nashville to be with London. I would have loved to see them find a new place to live, a place that comes from where Dahlia wants to be, so that she's not just moving to another place for another partner. It felt like it erased some really crucial character development that had been made.

Overall, the spice and the deep conversations would almost make it worth it, but the romance itself was just too cringy and stilted.

Love & Other Disasters is a character driven romance about vulnerabilities, love, and second chances. Dahlia's character, a recently divorced heroine was absolutely fantastic to see. I can't remember the last divorced heroine I've read about in a romance, and I now need more. The way she has to figure out not only her burgeoning queer feelings, but also who she is without her past relationship, was tender and emotional. As someone who got out of a long relationship, it brought back memories of wondering what's your favorite food, and who are you without the lens of someone else.

At the same time, London immediately stole my heart. Their passion for cooking meets their family's transphobia broke my heart, but London put it back together. Both of these characters, their banter, and their chemistry, entranced me. It's clear from the beginning not only about their electric pull to each other, but the ways they're able to perceive each other. How a person can see us in the space of a second. Perceive all the cracks, the too bright smiles, and the hidden hurts.

This book was a breath of fresh air. I loved seeing a non-binary main character, and the love story seemed so organic and I was rooting for London and Dahlia from the start. I loved the cooking bits, and the novelty of seeing a queer couple like London and Dahlia was so refreshing.