Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ASC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was somehow amazing escapism and painfully realistic at the same time. The rivals-to-lovers was hilarious and very well done. The author also did a great job talking about heavy topics such as grooming in relationships and systemic misogyny and online hate. The characters were well fleshed out and enjoyable. In conclusion, this was a stunning and fun read that I couldn't help but enjoy. 5/5 stars from me!

Love from Scratch is a romantic comedy that is rivals to lovers. There is cyber bulling in the issues talked about. I thought the main characters were enjoyable and I liked how the author was about to talk about heavy themes in an enjoyable way.
*Thank you so much to the publishers for gifting me an early release copy to give an honest review. My opinions are my own*

KAITLYN HILL!

The rom-com world is not ready for this author. Oh my gosh! I LOVED Love From Scratch from start to finish. It is a book filled with food, feminism, wit, romance, and what it means to STAY in workplace situations dominated by men who can be less than understanding. What it means to exist as a woman in a world where women aren't always respected. Hill expertly crafted Reese so realistically. We've all been in her shoes at one point, nervous about our future and burdened by our past. I loved seeing Reese grow over time! Also, she and Benny are so cute!!! Five stars! :)

"Love from Scratch" follows 18-year-old Reese Camden as she navigates the not-so-typical marketing intern life at her favorite cooking channel, Friends of Flavor. This summer, her only goal is to do a fabulous job as an intern so she can secure the fall position. Here's the thing: the other intern Benny, who is charming and attractive, is also vying for the job. When the two are thrown together for a segment on the channel and go viral, they have to work together in order to survive the summer. As the two grow closer - inside and outside of work - Reese's plan goes awry, but she finds something she wasn't looking for in the process.

The chemistry between Reese and Benny sizzles off the pages. The setting and antics within are so entertaining. I also think this novel is very self-aware for YA, which I appreciate. Hill addresses sexism and gender discrimination in the workplace and overall misogyny, which I don't think is touched upon enough. Hill does so intricately. Overall, I would highly recommend.

*An e-ARC was provided by TBR and Beyond Tours Team, Kaitlyn Hill and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 STARS

As someone starting their internship soon, I’m so thrilled to be able to read this book.

I appreciate that as much as this book is a rivals-to-lovers rom-com, it focuses on feminism, women supporting women and misogyny in a workplace environment. I love the moments of banter and vulnerability and yet, sometimes I am filled with rage because of the situation they’re put in because of the suits.

Love from Scratch is definitely a quick read that I enjoyed every day for 4 days straight. There’s never a dull moment with Reese and her time in Friends of Flavor (which I always imagined as the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen). However, things aren’t great for Reese at FoF as she meets with misogyny in the upper management and cyber-bullies, all while competing with Benny for the fall culinary internship.

While her relationship with Benny is adorable, my favourite part is definitely the many settings in the book. I won’t give spoilers, but imagine what happens when a video shoot from an already famous platform of personalities goes viral. It definitely brought more to the storyline, and as someone who grew up watching a whole bunch of YouTube personalities, this feels so close to home.

I especially loved it when Reese called Benny (his nickname) as many “Ben” names as possible, Benjamin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benzoyl peroxide, Bento box, Ben... I would’ve started a riot at the missed opportunity. Overall, it’s an enjoyable, quick read but might not recommend it for those who have a past with cyber bullying.

I'm not even sure I'll have the words to properly express how much I loved this book. It was sweet, relatable, and a strong feminist ally. Plus, I might have to dedicate a few paragraphs to Benny because he was just about the best book boyfriend I've ever read about.

I'll start with the fun plot. We have Reese and Benny working for a food network as interns who film a cooking segment and become a fan favorite. I loved getting to read through their cooking videos because they worked so well together and just oozed chemistry. I found myself wanting to watch their videos even though I'm not interested in any food networks.

Then there was the feminist theme that was so spot on and relatable that I just wanted to rage with Reese and Benny at the falls and cheer with them at the highs. Reese goes through a lot of anti-feminist experiences throughout the book and thinks back on stuff that she's already experienced. Many of the things are things that I've experienced as well on some level. And honestly, I think many women will be able to relate to at least one of her experiences, unfortunately. However, Hill handled the situations well. Allowing Reese to grow as a character while still allowing the reader to feel some justice and pride at the end of the book.

Since I've already talked about Reese a bit, let me dive a little deeper into her character because she was a great one. Reese is serious and committed to her future. She wants to work for this food network, Friends of Flavor, for basically the rest of her life because she loves it so much. She has every intention of staying completely focused on this goal and not letting in any distractions but then sweet and amazing Benny comes into her life. Seeing her grow throughout the book as she navigates her rocky past, has to deal with the perceptions and opinions of others, and must decide what she's willing to do to be happy is incredible. She's already dealt with a lot of crap at the ripe old age of eighteen and has to deal with so much more throughout the book. Truly, her character growth is amazing. She's not 100% by the end of the book, but that's what makes it more real. And relatable.

Now, onto the most amazing man to ever walk this planet, Benny! He is just so...and then he...and he also...you know? He is sweet, understanding, honest, KNOWS HOW TO COMMUNICATE, and so much more. Seriously, if there is a guy anywhere close to his level in this world, send him my way. I'll marry him on sight. Benny is honest about his feelings about Reese from the beginning and is willing to let her take things at any pace that she needs. As well, he communicates when he doesn't understand what Reese is going through or what she's feeling. He really wants to know how to help and support her. And then, when he gets mad at people for not supporting women and being really horrible, it's just the best. And his little scene at the end...*chefs kiss* I fell deep. I wish I could fully explain my love for him, but you'll just have to read the book to figure it out for yourself.

The romance. Oh my stars. I'm usually not a huge fan of non-slow burns, but this book is the ultimate exception. Every interaction and little look shared between Reese and Benny was pure fire. I thought my insides were just going to burn me up. They were the epitome of love and communication and pure, adoration. Again, you'll have to read the book to feel all the feels and know what I'm talking about.

Also, the country phrases she says is just so spot on. I'm from Texas, but have lived in the city for so long that I forgot about so many of these things that my family in the country definitely still says. I loved it so much!

Overall, I have zeroooooooooo complaints. This book was practically perfect in every way and has already been preordered!

I wanted to love this book, I really did.

Reece Camden is landed her dream summer marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a popular cooking channel. Her main competition for the fall job is Benny Beneventi, the charming culinary intern. When Reece and Benny get thrown together for a video shoot for Friends of Flavor that goes viral, Reece’s plan to keep Benny at a length begins to fail as audiences clamor for more content from the pair.

I really loved Benny - he’s a character that can best be described as “sunshine personified” and he was incredibly emotionally intelligent (especially for someone who is 18). His dates with Reece tended to be super sweet.

I really enjoyed all the other Friends at Friends of Flavor and wished that we got to see more of them. I also appreciated that this book didn’t shy away from topics such as sexism in the workplace (especially in male-dominated fields) and online harassment.

However, I ended up being really taken out of the story by Reece’s habit of self-sabotage. Even early on Benny offers to be an ally for her in the workplace - not even friends, just an ally - and Reece spurns his offer. By this time, we have already seen examples of higher-ups who behave inappropriately, and any sort of diversity and inclusion initiative will tell you that you want allies, especially if they are more privileged than you are, since they will often be heard more when they push back (and we see Benny push back as a good ally a few times).

Other times, Reece and Benny would be on a cute date and moments of vulnerability from Benny are immediately twisted in Reece’s mind on how it would work against her (these were the times her “mental scoreboard” got particularly annoying - she was making up things that she perceived to be in favor of Benny, then using it as both an excuse to pull back from the relationship and adding it to her mental “woe is me” story that she built up in her head, almost like a shield to protect herself in the case she wouldn’t get the fall internship). Actual moments of Reece facing adversity become immediately blown out of proportion in that Reece mentally starts accusing everyone from other Friends to even her manager of conspiring against her when there is literally zero evidence to support those thoughts. Even in her climactic argument with Benny, she immediately assumes the worst out of everyone including her coworkers, and even when the truth comes out that she made completely incorrect assumptions, she still blames Benny for not understanding her, even though she had never told him what she wanted from him. Sorry he’s not a mind reader. This took me out of the cute moments and made it hard for me to root for Reece and Benny’s relationship.

Finally, I never understood why Reece wanted the fall culinary internship so badly - she admits several times that she enjoyed her marketing position and long-term wanted to stay behind the scenes in a similar role. Her justification for wanting the fall culinary role was that she wanted to “work her way up” at Friends of Flavor - but that makes no sense for her career to try to use a completely different role, you can’t work your way up a marketing ladder using a culinary role! On top of that, she shows genuine excitement and talent in marketing pretty early on, which then gets completely overshadowed by her jealousy and competitive streak at Benny when Benny is the better cook than she is, which makes sense since Benny was hired for the culinary role and that was what he wanted to do! Between this and Reece’s self-sabotage, I couldn’t even root for her to get that fall internship.

Overall, this book had a lot of cute moments and tackles some pretty serious topics, but I think it just wasn’t for me. I can see a lot of people who would enjoy this book though.

A thank you to Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the ARC.

What an absolutely sweet debut novel! I’ve had Love from Scratch at the top of my TBR for quite a while now, and I’m so pleased that I enjoyed it so much. Love from Scratch is filled with so many of my favorite things that I feel leads to an absolutely delightful and delectable novel — food competitions, a+ flirtatious banter between our protagonist and love interest, witty, sarcastic, and supportive best friends, a plethora of food puns, and lots of heart.

This was such a blast! A cooking show, rivals working together on a show and eventually realizing there may be mooooore between them;), this just had everything! I really enjoyed following Reese and Benny in their summer program--both characters were so darn endearing! Benny was such a sweet love interest and Reese was a strong, independent, determined main character who does everything she can to resist his charms. Their dialogue and banter and nicknames for each other were all so fun to read. I also loved the Seattle setting; we spend most of the time in the studio where Friends of Flavor is, but there is some exploring done which I enjoyed. There's also a lot of discussion about inequality in the workplace and in general, and there are things that happened in Reese's past to make her particularly passionate about this issue, and it was explored really well in this book. The only thing I didn't love was the miscommunication trope--we all know it, many of us hate it, and this wasn't the *worst* one I've read, but you can just see it happen but you can't stop it, ya know? Other than that though, this was so fun! I highly recommend picking it up!

I loved the relationships in this, specifically the best friend trio! Nat and Clara are the best. The humor and puns were also great. Benny was top notch and a huge advocate for women. I love how this book gently spoke about feminism and then started building it up to the end where everyone was on board.

It was very well written, although the chapters were a little long for my new love of small chapters- that’s just a personal preference though. I loved the food aspect, it always put me in a cooking/baking mood!

I know a lot of people liked this book and maybe it's my age because I kept finding myself slightly annoyed at the characters. I loved the enemies to lovers trope however at some point I kept thinking "girl just get with it. You're doing good. Use it as a stepping stone. Be grateful." Reese had a major tendency to be judgmental and it rubbed me the wrong way. It took a lot for me to finish. However I did like the banter and especially Benny.

I adored this romantic read by Kaitlyn Hill. Set in the world of a food network, this is the story of Reese and Benny, two young adults who are working at the "Friends of Flavor" network for the summer before college. Forced to fill in for a streaming program, Benny and Reese discover they work well together and have crazy chemistry. Their show quickly becomes a hit due to their chemistry and banter. Reese is hesitant to trust Benny, based on being burned in the past, but throughout the story she needs to continue to grow and learn as a person. I enjoyed the way that Hill explored the relationship between Benny and Reese, as well as the way in which she handled the role of women. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters and the plot. I especially love how it talked about women’s treatment in the workplace and in entertainment vs. men’s but in an engaging was wrapped into the storyline and made you want to keep reading.

This was sufficiently adorable. I love baking in a romance and the tension and rivals to more between Reese and Benny was really cute. The balance of humor and light-hearted romantic teasing with the double standards of the workplace and feminist issues was well done and both given appropriate page time to not feel rushed or forced in. This was just a cute story designed to put a smile on your face.

This was a really cute read with a great balance between fluffy romance and more serious topics.

Reese and Benny were fun main characters. I liked Reese’s relatability and her character arc. She grew a lot throughout this book and I liked the feminist perspective she brought to the story. Her vulnerability and insecurities made her compelling and made me feel like I could relate to her in many ways. Benny was really funny and I admired his desire to learn from Reese. Their banter together was so much fun and really kept me engaged in the story because I just wanted more of their dynamic. I also liked their more vulnerable scenes together and loved seeing their characters grow off one another.

The setting was so fun for this story! I loved the scenes while Reese and Benny were at the Friends of Flavor. Their filming scenes were so cute and was a fun way for them to bond. The rest of the Friends of Flavor team was fun and I loved the guidance many of them provided.

There were some more serious topics explored throughout this book that rounded the book out really nicely. Reese faced a lot of sexism and bullying throughout this story and I feel like it was handled really nicely. These topics showed the beauty of open-mindedness, women supporting women, and relying on a support system. I really felt for Reese when she was dealing with the sexist higher-ups at Friends of Flavor and the cyber bullying as her segment with Benny gained popularity. The author approached these topics with familiarity, empathy, and respect and I really liked it.

I would recommend giving this a read if you’re looking for a cute romance grounded in growth, understanding, and banter. It’s a fast read and is a great book to curl up with!

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an eArc of this. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

I have grown out of these kinds of stories. I really thought that I would enjoy something that has to do with cooking and I did not like this. It was the heroine who had this agenda throughout the entire first 3rd and she was in a one-sided competition with Benny and I could not feel their chemistry at all. Also, I have realized YA romances are more about the journey of two kids rather than the actual romance, and as I am older this kind of teenage story just didn't appeal to me.

This was a very cute, quick read that I enjoyed. The banter between Reese and Benny is adorable, especially the nicknames (and Reese trying to guess Benny's real first name). It wasn't as much of an enemies-to-lovers romance as advertised, but the story worked anyway. The story is filled with (mostly) great, fun characters and a different, yet awesome setting for a YA romance.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Reese was determined to extend her summer internship at Friends of Food into the fall. Her biggest obstacle was Benny, the boy who was worming his way into her heart.

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it in the way I expected. I feel like this was a case of expectations. From the cover and the summary, I expected a sweet and fluffy romance. Those aspects were present, and I adored all those parts, but the feminist agenda sort of hijacked the story at times for me.

I know there are many readers that will love that aspect of the story, it just was a bit much for me at times. There were threads early in the story which I appreciated. There's a lot of women supporting women, as well as more subtle sexist callouts. But it did get somewhat heavy handed at times, and that is off-putting for me.

With the negatives out of the way, I want to talk about the things I loved. I think I was as big a fan of Benny as his legions of on-line lovers. He had personality for days, was a sweetheart, and a rather punny guy. He had this tender side that he was not ashamed to display, and he was well in touch with his emotions. Soft unicorn boy for the win!

Benny+Reese stood out to me too. This was a great pairing. They had a great rapport, and the banter was divine. The chemistry was clear, but there was also something deeper than that between them. I was rooting for them the whole time.

This couple was well featured in their show, The Amateur Hour. Their on-camera exchanges were equally as wonderful as their private moments , plus food. Cooking shows are my jam, and I throughly enjoyed that aspect throughout the book.

Overall: I was a pleasure watching Benny and Reese chase their foodie dreams and find love. Though Reese personal journey was a bit bumpy for me, I still appreciate all she learned and the growth she achieved.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled with this book. The sexism really made the book hard to get through and I had a hard time connecting to the characters.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I seem to be in the minority but this book was not for me AT ALL and I ended up DNF'ing it pretty early on.

The concept sounded cute, two interns battling it out for a future at an online Food Network and falling in love, and I like to use romance novels as a palette cleanser in between other genres.

Unfortunately, in the first chapter alone there were info dumps, "not like other girls" syndrome from the main character (who stayed home watching cooking shows while other teens were out partying), and bits about both racist online comments and patronizing male figures at the Food Network. Keep in mind, the patronizing male figures weren't talking down to the MC (which would've still been dickish but would've been more realistic, as the MC is an intern) but to an older, senior member of the marketing team. So like, someone whose competence was well-established and who it was super weird to be condescending towards.

Basically, the writing for this just felt lazy. I know Hill is a new author and maybe she was just falling back on older ideas to support her debut effort, but I wish she would've not had the same boring "girl fights against establishment that needs fighting against because....reasons!"

I will try out the author's work though, in case these tropes fall away as she gains confidence and experience.