Wow, where do I start. This is the most perfect romance I've read all year. Where do I get my hands on more just like it??

thank you Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

as a cooking show and rom-com enthusiast, i knew immediately that this book would be right up my alley, and i was absolutely right. between the amazing banter, adorable romance, and wonderful non-binary and queer representation, this book felt like a warm hug. while this book does also cover more serious topics, i had the biggest smile on my face with the overwhelming about of cuteness (and lots of spice)!

I absolutely loved both london and dahlia as characters and how beautifully messy they were. London and dahlia’s relationship with each other warmed my heart so much as they complimented each other perfectly and had off-the-charts chemistry. The plot was very well-paced and didn’t feel lacking in any parts. I know that these two will definitely be staying on my mind for a while.

I absolutely recommend this to lovers of LGBTQ+ rep and rom-coms when it is published in 2022!

Dahlia started cooking only a few years ago, when her marriage was in shambles and she needed a distraction. Now, she has turned her life completely upside down and quit her job to be a contestant on Chef's Special, a TV cooking show with a $100,000 reward. That's where she meets London, the first openly non-binary contestant on the show. They are supposed to be rivals but how can they, when the most unexpected ingredient - love - is there to change their plans?

Love & Other Disasters is one of the best queer romances I've ever read. It's sweet and spicy, and delightfully charming. As someone whose comfort TV is 90% cooking shows, I adored the TV show setting, although I do wish we got even more scenes during the challenges. I loved how, while being cute and funny, this book managed to touch on so many important themes, like divorce, finding oneself, transphobia, and family relationships. I was especially impressed by how Kelly handled the two latter ones - transphobia is crucial to the plot of this story, but not once is London misgendered in the text itself. London stole my heart, but Dahlia was adorable, too, and it was truly refreshing to read a romance story between two such well-rounded and interesting characters. Their behavior during their fallout (because we all know it's never just sunshine and rainbows all the time) was realistic and it was great to see them having to grow individually, outside the relationship.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to anyone hungry for some delectable queer romance!

Love & Other Disasters follows Dahlia, who got recently divorced, and London, who is nonbinary, competing on a reality TV cooking show and falling in love. I really enjoyed this book. I loved how both of the characters were struggling with outside issues. Dahlia feels like a disappointment after getting divorced, and London is dealing with their relationship with their dad who doesn't except them. I liked how the author dealt with coming out and the conversations around that. London is nonbinary and pansexual, and Dahlia is queer. I also enjoyed the setting of the cooking show with all of the foods. I felt that the romance was a little rushed, but I still liked their chemistry. It was an important and heartwarming read overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the eARC of this title!

So, I confess, for some reason I stalled on this title in the first few pages. I do not have a proper reason why, something about the first chapter gave me pause, and I sat on it almost until my time was up with ARC, but then I randomly opened it back up the other day and could barely put it down, I just devoured it! So, we'll just not consider that stall as a comment on the book, maybe I just needed to get some spec-fics into me before I read a romance again.

This was such a sweet and wonderful story! Dahlia and London were wonderful, multilayered characters, and their chemistry together was incredible! I could happily plenty of stories of their HEA. I liked how they were flawed, at times very damaged characters. I also like that they weren't stereotypical love story tropes...they both had their sweet sides and their dark sides, and they challenged one another. It was a fantastic dynamic!

They supporting cast, when we got to know them, was often wonderful, with the obvious exception to Lizzie, the closest we come to an external antagonist (but she's mostly background noise, really the main antagonist was principal characters own internal anxieties). The supporting characters we get to know the best were Barbara, the wonderful grandmother-like contestant, and Julie, London's twin sister. Many of the others were a little more vague...a name and an attribute...Cath, the cool lesbian; Jeffrey, the Gordon Ramsay wannabe, the judges...and then there were the contestants that were literally just a name. This is not a book that focuses much on other characters, it's very much about London and Dahlia only.

Anything else I would talk about would very much be a spoiler, I think, so I'm going to cut this off here by just saying it's a wonderful little romance about food, identity, and being true to yourself. 4.5 stars rounded up.

read this if you like: sexy romcoms, cooking shows, and queer characters with amazing personalities.

Dahlia is a recent divorcée who kinda feels like a disappointment. London is non-binary and announced their pronouns a few years ago to their family only to feel rejected by their dad.

Dahlia and London both get chosen to compete on a cooking show. During the filming of the show, they discover each other and learn lots about themselves.

Love & Other Disasters is such a heartwarming story and I am so happy I got to read it and I need more books in this series ASAP.

Love & Other Disasters meshes together some of my favorite things: queer romance + reality cooking shows.

Dahlia meets London on their first day of shooting when she walks into London and then word vomits to cover up her nervousness about the show. Their first meeting leaves London unsure of how to handle the massive ball of color and energy that is Dahlia, who instantly thinks London doesn’t like her.

The two eventually hit it off and start an easy friendship, but the chemistry between these two is 😘👌🏻 The budding romance between the two of them seriously made me swoon. I’m seriously obsessed with this book, I loved it so much.

Love & Other Disasters follows Dahlia, who is recently divorced and unsure of her next steps in life, and London, who is nonbinary, as they meet and fall in love on a competitive cooking show called "Chef's Special." This was so dang cute! I loved it so much and couldn't stop reading once I picked it up. The writing style was simple, yet that adds to the addictive nature of the book. I loved both Dahlia and London and their chemistry was fantastic. I also enjoyed the setting as I love these types of shows and it was fun to see what they may look like behind the scenes. I have never read a book centering on a nonbinary character, but the writing was seamless and the representation was great. I didn't want their story to end! I will definitely be keeping my eye on Anita Kelly and anything they write in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot remember the last time I smiled so much throughout a book. This book just had so much going for it, and it served on all accounts. It was a beautiful story with a beautiful romance, and it tackled so many topics wonderfully. I was scared for the way the representation might be handled, but it was just so well done. I was so happy to read a romance with nonbinary rep and even happier when it was so well written. This book was a struggle to put down! I cannot wait to see more from this author.

Love & Other Disasters is, to me, home in every sense of the word. It's like this book was written for me personally. Silly, sexy, sweet and sincere, this book checks every single box when it comes to a great romance. I was completely sucked into Dahlia and London's romance and swept into the delightful world that Anita Kelly created. As a queer and non-binary reader, seeing messy and wonderful characters that represented my own identities and life experiences work through their trauma and get their happily ever after was invaluable, validating, and exhilarating. Love & Other Disasters is one for the ages, and one I will hold dear to my heart for the rest of my life.

Love & Other Disasters was such a fun and sizzling romcom that touched on prevalent issues in our society today about representation. London and Dahlia were fun and quirky. Abita Kelly did an amazing job highlighting their romance while also remaining sensitive to the issues of non-binary representation and coming out.

I loved how compatible Dahlia and London were. The cooking show element was also super fun and kept me smiling from ear to ear. I also loved how emotional this story was and how each character had their own personal issues they had to work through. This story was not only funny and swoony, but thought provoking and compelling. This was a solid read! 4 stars! ~Ratula 

I would like to thank Netgalley and Forever for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

*4.5 Stars*

Did you say a non-binary/woman romance set at a cooking show??? I am HERE for it.

London is the first non-binary contestant in all 8 seasons of Chef's Special but they're very confident in their cooking skills and they're just here to cook.
Dahlia is a nervous wreck, she missed the meet and greet before the first day of shooting and she can barely keep it together. So when she smashes into London, nothing but mumbles and oversharing comes out. And London looks very annoyed and grumpy and they reply with nothing more than grunts with stresses out Dahlia even more. Things don't improve for Dahlia when the judging arrives and she falls with her meal flying everywhere. Why did she want to do this again?

I'm really sorry for the poor summary over there. But anyway, this was great, I really loved the characters. They were both complex and so very interesting. I loved that we had both points of views and how the relationships evolved. I also loved the cooking show setting and the representation. The side characters were also pretty great and that was just a great time from start to finish. The only reason I didn't rate this 5 stars is that I felt like they fell in love a bit too quickly but that might be just because it takes me months and months.
Anyway, I also loved that the characters were 26 and 28, and that 28 yo Dahlia was trying to find her way. I will be turning 28 on this book's release date and I very much am trying to find out what I want. So that was A+ for me.
Honestly, just a great book all around. I can't wait to read more by Anita Kelly.

This book was VERY cute! I love the modernness of the plot and the ties is has to real life situations (and I love that we’re normalizing pronouns and showing love for our non-binary friends. ❤️) I truly can’t say enough about how lovely this rom com was!

I just wasn’t having a good time with this book.

For one, I never ended up connecting to the characters. I can’t say a specific reason, but I didn’t come to care for them and their story. This made enjoying the book fairly difficult, as it was mostly just a slog to finish it.

I also was not a fan of the sex scenes. To be fair, this one is mostly on me. I’ve only ever liked about 5% of the sex scenes I’ve read in the past. But since toe sucking is my anti-kink and the first sex scene featured it, I couldn’t get into the other sex scenes. Every time things were getting sexual, my mind went back to that toe sucking.

But, y’know, no kinkshaming. If feet are your thing, this is the book for you.

I do think the author did a good job walking that fine line between being respectful of a nonbinary person’s assigned gender at birth and referencing body dysmorphia. There’s a scene early on where a transphobic character uses the wrong pronouns for our nonbinary character (London), but the narration changes the sentence to use the correct pronouns, only pointing out that the wrong pronouns were what were actually used when the character said it. I was very impressed by this scene in particular, but I was also impressed in a later scene, where London looks at their fancy clothes in a mirror and focuses in on the parts that are lumpier than they would like. While the second half of this book does explicitly reference their assigned gender at birth as they deal with tension from their family, I really liked how these two scenes in the first half expertly avoided an explicit mention while also pointing out some of the struggles a trans person may face.

I also think that this is a perfectly fine book on its own and that anyone who may be interested in this book will have a great time with it. Personally, I could just never get into it and based my rating to reflect that, but I can also understand the people who absolutely love this book.

This was such an addictive read, it actually distracted me from work and I was physically unable to put it down. Anita Kelly’s stories are like the best hugs. I simply did not want to put this down and I was both satisfied (because it was perfect) and sad (because it was over) when it ended.

This book was lovely and refreshing. A blossoming relationship without the miscommunication trope is always a plus. Love drama but high swooning made this story so wonderful.

This book was ADORABLE. Romance and cooking reality show? I’m in.

It took me a little bit to get into this, I didn’t feel like the opening of the book was very strong? It sort of felt rushed and a little tell not as much show. But around 30-40% in, I was hooked and I LOVED Dahlia and London.

I think the story of them on the cooking show complimented their growing relationship and I liked that the author didn’t obsess over the details of the show. I did think some of the narration got lengthy in some areas.

But I loved Dahlia and London’s relationship. They were seriously so cute. I think I would have loved to get to know more of the other characters that were on the cooking show. It could have been a really fun dynamic I think if the author has fleshed them out a little more and included them more in Dahlia and London’s story.

Overall, I thought this was a fun read. Super cute.

I picked this book up, read the very first line and did not put it back down until I was DONE! It is addictive and witty and sexy and SO much fun. Anita has a way of hooking you in ans convincing you that you cannot take another breath until you know what happens next. I am over the moon about this comfort food comfort read just utterly utterly in love!

Before I review, thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dahlia Woodson and London Parker are contestants on a reality TV cooking show, which is already enough to draw me in to a romance novel, but also, London is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns!

There’s enough about the show to keep things interesting on that front, the characters feel like they have depth beyond their romance and cooking (there is plenty of backstory and plans for what they want to do with the prize money if they win). The queer sex scenes are steamy and feel authentic, and the consent/communication with each other was awesome. I loved that there was a mix of people who were supportive of London’s identity (both on the cast and in their own life) and people who were problematic. As someone who is genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns, this made it feel authentic without the issue that sometimes happens where all queer and trans stories have to either have trauma in their backstories or have a fairy tale.

I had two tiny criticisms, which were that there’s a reference to London getting “dumb girl gifts” every birthday, which seems like an inelegant way to talk about gifts that didn’t match London’s interests considering that we’re talking about thinking beyond the gender binary. Also, when Dahlia wants to go for a snack run and London is described as in pajamas and not wearing a binder and says they can’t go out in their current state, it seems glossed over the issue is much less likely to be looking a mess/being in PJs than wearing a binder, and yet they go out without a discussion of that. Seems like a missed opportunity to affirm that a binder is a critical item for stepping into public for some folks. (I thought that’s where it was going when the binder was mentioned but then it didn’t come back up!) That being said, these small things didn't take away from my overall feelings about the book.

All in all, this was super cute, totally my kind of novel at a glance, and I am delighted that it met my expectations.

This is the first romance novel I have ever read with a non-binary lead, and that feels pretty important. The plot is cute and the book is a quick read, but I do with the backgrounds of the main characters were fleshed out a little better so we could get to know them a bit more. I think it would help me to feel a little more invested in the story. Overall, a very cute romance novel that will likely really resonate with an audience that doesn’t see themselves much in romance novels.