A must read for fans of Master Chef and romance novels!

Dahlia turned to cooking in an effort to reclaim herself after divorcing her high school sweetheart and somehow found herself competing with other home cooks on the set of Chefs Special. Feeling lost but with a burning desire to do something big Dahlia is determined to prove that she’s not a disappointment to her family, that is until she runs into (literally) London Parker who changes the stakes completely.

London is well aware of what being on Chefs Special means for them and for other non-binary viewers. They have big dreams for the one hundred thousand dollar prize too, to open a camp fro LGBTQ+ children to come to to escape the pressures of society. They are comfortable being themselves on TV especially when they’re behind their station. They are not as comfortable with themselves off camera. London hasn’t dated since coming out as non-binary three years ago, hasn’t even considered it, until a mass of unruly hair comes crashing into their world.

I adored watching Dahlia and London fall I love. The added bonus of being during a chefs competition was the icing on the proverbial cake. A beautiful story that will have you laughing along with Dahlias antics and sighing over the romantic moments.

5/5 stars

Content Warning: non-binary phobia

If you love queer and nonbinary chefs falling in love on set, then Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly is for you!

Recently divorced Dahlia Woodson attempted to reinvent herself by joining the cast of the infamous reality competition show Chef’s Special. However, the first thing flying is her dish when she trips on the first episode. Nevertheless, Dahlia is determined to win until she meets someone who makes her question if there is more to life.

Meanwhile, London Parker has more important things to worry about than a clumsy opponent like how they just announced their pronouns on national television. Or how a fellow contestant and their father refuses to accept their identity. Falling in love was never a part of the plan, but sometimes you can’t help who you fall for.

This was my first book I read of Kelly’s, and it will not be my last. I found myself in tears watching how London redefined their boundaries and crafted dreams of helping more LGBTQIA+ kids and teens if they won. I also related a bit to Dahlia’s guilt of the aftermath of her marriage and her mother’s disappointment regarding her divorce. My heart warmed reading the messages from London’s fans and the important yet vulnerable moments between Dahlia and London (can we talk about that intimacy scene?!).

I truly can’t find any fault in this novel. It was excellently written, and the message was endearing. This is one of my favorite reads of the year. I am so excited for everyone to get their hands on this masterpiece.

Thank you NetGallery and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an advance copy in return for a honest review.

Aside from the <spoiler> toe licking </spoiler> I really enjoyed this. Also that cover is absolutely perfect. When I got to Dahlia wearing that shirt, I was like !!!! Yes.

Love & Other disasters is warm fuzzy romance set under the bright lights of a cooking competition. This starts as a classic enemies to lovers trope but Anita Kelly quickly evolves the story into something much more meaningful.

Underlying the narrative Kelly weaves in a myriad of emotions with the characters each struggling with confidence, being recognized for who they are, imposter syndrome and a longing to prove themselves. And if that isn’t enough a very sweet romance in the midst of all of cooking hoopla. Kelly does a fantastic job building out the emotional depth of the characters emphasizing the difficulties non-cisgender people face when interacting with society and their reactions to them.

This is a really well written / paced novel and keeps you interested and rooting for the main characters. The side characters provide plenty of humor and its filled with the requisite angst with a HEA at the end. As a debut this is a fantastic read - Kudos Anita Kelly - looking forward to more.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This ain't your average cooking show.

Dahlia Woodson and London Parker are two contestants on Chef’s Special, a reality TV competition featuring amateur chefs and a $100,000 prize. Dahlia — queer, recently divorced, and almost bankrupt — is competing because she hopes to find a new direction for her life to take. London — the first openly nonbinary contestant in Chef’s Special history — wants to prove the trolls, including their own father, wrong and win so they can help trans and nonbinary youth.

After Dahlia trips and falls on the first day of filming, she becomes determined to make the other contestants and the show’s producers take her seriously. London writes her off as just another klutzy competitor, but they can’t deny the heat the two of them seem to cook up both on and off the camera. As real life takes a backseat and the two become closer, the competition gets fiercer as more and more of their showmates are sent home. But when real life rears its ugly head, both Dahlia and London have to decide if what they have is something worth fighting for.

I adored this book. I was constantly hungry while reading it, and it made me laugh and cry — sometimes at the same time! As I’m approaching my late twenties and spending time evaluating where I want my life to go from here, I could really appreciate the places both Dahlia and London found themselves, as well as the decisions they made and the struggles they had to overcome.

I loved reading about these two characters who are both members of the LGBTQ+ community, and I especially loved reading London’s perspective! I’ve read books starring trans characters before, but London was my first nonbinary MC (they/theirs) and they will not be my last. This book did touch on some heavy topics, including transphobia, but they’re handled sensitively and with great respect.

The steamy scenes were steamy, the tender scenes were touching, and the heartbreaking scenes shattered me. I can’t wait for this book to be released so I can add a physical copy to my queer romance collection. Read if you like LGBTQIA romance and/or Chopped marathons (but pack snacks. You’ll need them.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the eARC.

Tw: transphobia, misgendering

Very cute and easy to read. If you’re thinking about picking this one up I suggest giving it a shot!

A super voice-y and cute debut romance with a very relatable mc. Anita Kelly may be my new favorite romance author!

Beautiful, breathtaking, never been done before. I loved this book so much, they got together fairly fast but I loved it. The relationship between London and Dahlia was done so well, having both povs was excellent.

i received an arc from netgalley.

Review of Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
I’m just going to start by saying that this is probably my favorite book that I’ve read in 2021 so far. It’s funny and emotional and the romance is so wonderful.

Short Review
Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly is told in the points of view of Dhalia, a queer recently divorced woman who enters the cooking show Chef’s Special in the hopes of finding a new direction for her life, and London, a pansexual nonbinary person who enters Chef’s Special with the hope of winning and using the prize money to start a nonprofit to help queer kids in Nashville, Tennessee. Our protagonists have a bit of a meet-ugly, but once they actually start talking to each other, they hit it off and spend a lot of the competition cooking, ignoring their blossoming feelings for each other, and flirting. This romance novel is ideal for readers who enjoy humorous stories about characters who fall deeply in love with each other and have that sweet, sweet happy ending that is a guarantee in this genre.

5 out of 5 stars.

Additional Thoughts:
I don’t usually like point of view transitions that happen in the middle of chapters, but I think that Anita Kelly weaves the transitions together gracefully in this book, so I didn’t mind it for once.

London and Dhalia have siblings and readers don’t get to read about them much, but when London interacts with their twin sister and when Dhalia interacts with her brother, there is so much love there. It was so wonderful to read about.

This book has realistic conflicts between our two protagonists, and I appreciated the ways they get resolved.

I adore the way the romantic relationship in the story builds. The friendship they build as they get closer, and their feelings get stronger is so cute!

Trigger Warnings:
Kelly delves into transphobia that London experiences as a nonbinary person. Some of the people being transphobic include one of London’s family members and some of their competitors on the cooking show.

This book made my little queer heart sing (a Celine Dion song, obvi). Poignant and adorable at the same time, finishing this book gave me that warm, contented feeling you often experience after a happy cry. I’ll return to it on myriad cozy rainy days in the future.

I decided to check out Love & Other Disasters because it sounded like a heartwarming, fun read. Also: the main romance is f/nb, which is awesome because I think we can all agree there are not nearly enough books with non-binary main characters. Doubly also: the story takes place during a cooking competition (like Chopped or Sugar Rush), and I’ve never read another book with that kind of setting before. Needless to say, going in, I was very excited to see if Love & Other Disasters would live up to my high expectations.

And good news! It did! The baking scenes are fun and the romance is adorable. What I love about the romance especially is that Dahlia and Logan’s relationship is built on kindness and mutual respect—there’s none of the pressure or dubious consent that turns me off of romances so often.

I also love that the author, Anita Kelly, wrote so clearly and wonderfully about the struggles of being queer and mostly-but-not-entirely-out. I highlighted a lot of passages that made me want to point at the book and say, “Yes, that’s it! That’s exactly what it’s like!”

As I was reading, I had only a few frustrations and qualms. One of these qualms is that up until about the 50% mark, I struggled to connect with one of the main characters, Dahlia. She feels in some ways like a typical YA/NA protagonist: clumsy, bubbly, always referencing pop culture and never thinking before she speaks. She’s 26, but she’s not very emotionally mature and also pretty oblivious, so she reads more like 19 or 20 to me. But around the halfway point, she started to feel a lot more like a real person, and I hugely enjoyed her journey through the rest of the book.

And don’t get me wrong—I still had a great time reading the book’s first half. Logan, the other main character (and Dahlia’s love interest), felt immediately real to me. They’re a tad grumpier and more introverted than Dahlia, but a big softy underneath; and their more serious personality complements Dahlia’s bubbliness well. (I may be a bit biased here because I am also one of the most introverted introverts to walk the earth.) Again, once I hit that 50% mark, I was completely rooting for them and Dahlia to work out.

Love & Other Disasters is an engaging romance novel that I’d recommend to anyone who wants a comfort read with well-drawn LGBTQ characters.

The romance starts pretty early on and it was kind of refreshing to see! I honestly adored Love & Other Disasters and it was very cute.

3.5- 4 stars.

Okay—I loved this so much. The couple swoony and refreshingly realistic. It also had sunshine x grumpy vibes that I always crave. My only complaint is that a lot of stuff happened off page including the cooking show aspect and character development. All the secondary characters just existed and I wanted more. Overall, it was adorable and we love the non-binary rep. Also, London I’m free on Thursday if you’re free on Thursday to do something on Thursday.

Okay I’m all in on the cute queer adult romances! Keep publishing these queer romances!!

A pansexual nonbinary cooking show contestant falling for another queer contestant brings the hotness, the drama, and all the food!

When I first saw this book, I was immediately drawn in by the cover. After reading the description, I knew I would love it. A book with cooking and romance? Count me in. I have never read a book with a non-binary character in it, and it was really nice to see their POV and inner thoughts. I felt I gained a better understanding of it just by reading this book, which was really cool. There was a great balance between the cooking and romance for me, so I got to feel like I was watching the food channel while ALSO watching a rom com! I would definitely recommend this book to friends.

Ok WOW this book was lovely. I didn’t realize how special it would be to read a book with a main character who uses they/them pronouns but it really hit me. I loved the cooking competition aspect, the queerness, the important conversations about acceptance and ignorance and just really everything about the love story. This book could not have been any better. Definitely need everyone to read this.

3.75/5 stars, read from 9/6/21-9/9/21.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. That being said, this is my unbiased opinion of this book.

Okay, first off, the first line of the book had me HOOKED. I feel like it captured the humor of the book in a nutshell. Also, this is my first time reading a book about cooking… and I really enjoyed it?!

Dahlia and London are two contestants on “Chef’s Special”, a cooking competition TV show. The two of them are such a cute couple, and I LOVED the dynamics of their friendship-turned-relationship. The chemistry between them was fantastic, and the banter was just *chef’s kiss* SO cute!

Honestly, I was hooked by the cover of this book itself… but the storyline and characters made me swoon & love it even more. Although the ending felt a little rushed/too bland for my tastes, I still recommend this read!

Some of my favorite quotes:
“I need you in a way that can’t be temporary.”
“Maybe you got to see her brightness for a fleeting moment, but you couldn’t chase her. She didn’t deserve to be caught.”

How do I even begin to explain how much I loved this book?

Set against the backdrop of a cooking competition show, this romantic comedy follows the shows first openly non-binary contestant, London, and walking chaos machine, Dahlia, as they cook, compete and make emoji heart eyes at each other.

This book delivers everything I could possibly want from a rom-com. I laughed, I teared up a bit and I fell in love with more fictional characters. London and Dahlia are literally *chef’s kiss* (pun intended?) on the page together and I was so invested in their story from start to finish. I’m not a huge fan of cooking competition shows (I much prefer baking shows), but the cooking competition led to some truly delightful moments in this book that I can’t stop thinking about.

I just, sigh, super want to live in this story. It doesn’t help that I highly relate to Dahlia’s particular brand of chaotic.

Pick this up if you’re looking for: a queer romance, open door romance, fun/funny rom-com moments, and/or a love letter to cooking.

This book was so much FUN! I get bored with romances sometimes, but this one drew me in for two reasons: a love interest who happens to identify as non-binary and the setting of a reality TV show! The chemistry between Delilah and London was spiccyyyyy!! I grew up watching reality shows, so I enjoyed the Chef's Special competition they were participating in. I also love Los Angeles, so I appreciated all of the references to the city. *Chef's Kiss!*

Dahlia needs to break out of her rut. She's newly divorced, tired of her job, and sick of her small town. She applies to be on Chef's Special, a Top Chef-like cooking competition show, but she never expects to get chosen. Her first day on set, she literally bumps into fellow contestant London. They do not seem impressed with Dahlia's clumsy charm, but they also keep staring at her during the show. London, meanwhile, is determined to make a good impression on the country and their family as the first nonbinary contestant. They cannot afford to get distracted by the chaotic Dahlia, no matter how warm and beautiful she might be.

This was a very sweet story (no pun intended, but the baking always did sound delicious). The two leads are determined to focus on the show but just can't seem to stay away from each other, and they're cute enough together that their fellow contestants are rooting for them, even before the two acknowledge there's something between them. You'll be cheering for both of them, too.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.