This book is so sweet it will give you cavities. A cute twist on what seems like a plethora of reality cooking show romance books lately, I adored Benny and Reese.

Benny and Reese are interns at Friends of Flavor, a reality cooking show. When two of the normal stars are out of commission, Reese and Benny agree to temporarily stand in for one episode. When their chemistry flies off the screen, their bosses pitch a web series of cooking competitions between them with the winner securing a culinary position. Reese quickly finds out it isn’t being a woman in the internet and struggles to handle the attention that comes in the form of comments and trolls.

I half listened to the audio/half read the e-book. The narration by Bailey Carr is great. She’s a believable 18 year old from Kentucky without overdoing the southern accent.

Content warnings include Reese processing her purity culture upbringing; cyber bullying is also a major theme throughout the story.

Thanks to Random House Children’s and PRHA for the early copy. All opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 rounded up to 4 ⭐️ for Goodreads and NetGalley!

Reese Camden and Benny Beneventi are interning for the summer at the wildly popular cooking channel, Friends of Flavor. When they’re thrown into making a cooking video with each other, they become an overnight sensation and the whole world is begging for more. Before long they’re going head to head in competition for the fall job. Benny is relentlessly charming and Reese is finding him harder to resist. As the competition heats up, can love stay on the back burner?

This was a cute and easy read! Benny was such a sweetheart and very much a unicorn because of how in tune he was with Reese and her feelings. And the food puns! So good 😂 But I have to be honest and say I wasn’t a huge Reese fan at times. I love a strong female character who’s got their own opinions but I felt like Reese tended to force hers on other people. On the bright side, I did come to like her the more I got to know her! She really grew as a character and overcame a difficult past. The banter between her and Benny during their showdowns on Friends of Flavor was so funny and always kept me laughing! Thank you to @delacortepress and @netgalley for my E-ARC!

This was such an adorable and fun read! I am a sucker for the enemies to lover trope and I love books that focus on food or cooking. Bonus that the book was set in Seattle, near where I'm from. I really liked the way the two were forced together to make the cooking videos, I adored the nicknames and puns sprinkled through the story, and I thought the book was a good mix between funny and adorable. Overall I really enjoyed this one.

OMG this was so cute. A perfect YA with a little bit of everything that makes a great YA romance. It actually reminded me of a YA version of Lessons in Chemistry. Really good and I will be recommending this to all YA romance readers!

Rating: 3

Thank you so much @theexp for buddy reading this one with me! Thank ‘goodness’ you did because I probably wouldn’t have made it on my own. I had a blast discussing it with you!

I want to start by saying I absolutely love the cover. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to read it. After seeing the cover and reading the synopsis I was expecting a super cute and fun romcom. Sadly, this book wasn’t for me. The first few chapters were okay. I was enjoying the banter between the two main characters and certain jokes were making me smile. But then everything I was enjoying started to become so repetitive and overdone. I don’t need to hear the same joke or phrase every few paragraphs. The writing also wasn’t for me. It felt too basic, wordy, and gave way too much information when it wasn’t needed.

I also had no idea before reading this that the main characters were so young, only 18. Since I’m a fan of YA this doesn’t typically bother me but when I was expecting an adult romance I was disappointed I didn’t get that. They should definitely change how they are marketing and at least give readers an idea that it’s YA. This book felt very YA and even a little immature at times. I couldn’t connect with either of the characters and Reese kept making decisions I couldn’t understand. One thing I really hate in romance books is the miscommunication trope and this one had a little bit of that. Instead of feeling invested in the characters I was left feeling so annoyed and I couldn’t care less if they ended up together.

Overall, this book was cute but ultimately it was just okay. I don’t think I would recommend it but I do think some people will really enjoy this one. It definitely depends on the reader and what they find annoys them in books.

Thank you so much @randomhousechildrens for the #gifted copy on #netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Delacorte Press for providing me with an e-ARC of Love from Scratch in exchange for an honest review!

Forever a lover of romance foodie novels.

Love from Scratch is a YA romance that takes place in a reality cooking show environment & it's everything I needed and more. This is the perfect combination of romance, coming-of-age & feminism and I definitely recommend checking it out.

Benny was the feminist we all need. This man is respectful and attentive, I literally LOVE him.

The book was a good palette cleanser for me from dark books.

I'm still squealing lol.

Cannot write coherently right now LMAO.

Really cute!!! I love baking/cooking themed romance reads! You can never go wrong with enemies to lovers romance books, plus a book with a lot of puns! Even if some of them were a bit too much for me.

cw: lots of discussion of food

where do i even start? this was one of my favourite reads this year so far! i could talk about this book for days but i'll try and condense some of my thoughts into a post...

if you love ya romance books with...
• rivals to lovers
• puns (A LOT OF THEM)
• feminism
then this is the book for you!

things i loved about this book:

- the constant back and forth jokes between benny and reese, or should i say eggs benedict and reese's pieces...

- the friendship between reese, natalie & clara! it really reminded me of my friends and me :)

- reese & benny's nicknames for eachother!!

- reese. she really reminds me of me and it was so incredible to see her grow as a person as i progressed through the book :)

my favourite quotes -

"now, if only my rational head could get my racing heart on the same page."

"i wonder if there's some kind of witness protection programme when the perpetrator is you and the crime is aggressive oversharing."

"it feels like i've stumbled upon a gosh darn unicorn."

"you've been feeling feelings and they've been leaking out your eyeballs and you're gonna tell us all about it."

"I LOVE REECE CAMDEN! who wants cake?"

thank you so much to tbr beyond tours for the advanced e-copy of this book!

Recent high school grads, interns at a cooking channel, forced proximity. Sounds interesting right? I thought so too but for some reason this book just kept falling flat. I was not picking it up when I had time. The story was cute but there was so much surrounding story I wasn’t sure.

This one has substance and the best enemies-to-lovers romantic trope featuring food. They can both exist and this one does. Reese and Benny are both interns at the Friends of Flavor company that produces cooking shows. They got Reese through a rough patch in high school and with her interest in marketing, she landed the summer gig away from her Southern roots in Seattle. Benny's Italian family restaurant is in California. He wants to expand his horizons before likely going back to work for the family restaurant and is a food intern. Enter the squish. They are put together on an amateur hour of a show and their banter and chemistry heat things up. The higher-ups are anxious to see where it will go as do they.

I love that Benny is so lovingly sweet and respectful but also has the jokes and the flirt. Reese also has the flirt with a hint of bite but quickly realizes that Benny's moves are something she can enjoy rather than having to fend off. Their dates and trips are entertaining and adorable, especially when they're both trying hard not to, but just can't help it. They're getting their wings as adults, finding out their purpose, learning to forget the past, but also standing up for themselves which is exactly what Reese has to do when the coveted fall internship takes an awkward turn, but one that Reese won't sit out anymore.

All is well that ends well and their dynamic in this romance is second-to-none. I loved the friendship texts and banter that were authentic and fun in addition to the underlying commentary on social media (here to stay). But find your passion (and love interest) and hang on for the ride. My only criticism is the cover! (And please, please, please, wouldn't it be adorable to watch a video version of the livestream that Benny puts on with the Reese's cake?)

There's just something about baking romances that hit a sweet spot. I loved the rivals to lovers trope and how well it transitioned into a romance. This is an incredibly well crafted book and would be an excellent read for the classroom for students to have some fun!

This was a sweet, fun, romance book. I'm happy about the new reality tv trend, and I had to read this one because of how much I love cooking shows! I think this sat on the line between YA and adult, and I would have loved for it to push over into the adult genre and add some more mature themes. Overall a cute book and easy to read.,

This YA romance was SO cute I can't believe it was a debut novel.

Perfect palate cleanser and exactly what I needed to kick start my Spring/Summer reading.

This book was super cute! I loved the internet food show and PNW setting. What was most compelling about this story was how it portrayed Reese dealing with the aftermath of cyber bullying and had the older characters talk about what it’s like to be a woman on the internet. It really enhanced my enjoyment of a cute, standard rom com. Benny was fine, but felt much more bland/standard than the other characters.

This story was sweet and fun and adorable. Definitely falls under YA as both the main characters are 18 and doing an internship the summer before college. Anything with a cooking show/food as the backdrop is extra fun in my book!
I appreciated the feminist stance this book took and I generally liked how it was dealt with in the end. I was just waiting for it to happen sooner in the story line than it did and did feel at times that Reese's repetitiveness and constant thoughts on it were a bit much but I see that that was one of the main points the author was trying to make; that people who are dealing with over-analyzing online comments and social media presence do let it get in their heads 24/7.
Benny was super cute and I loved how he was always supportive of Reese and was very clear about his feelings from the beginning. Trying to play up the competitors to relationship storyline didn't work as well for me because of how earnest and honest Benny was!
Overall, this was fun and cute read filled with all kinds of food puns!

A classically cute & cheesy YA romance that makes me realize I'm probably getting too old for contemporary YA novels. Eeeek. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Reese Camden is offered an experience of a lifetime when she gets a Marketing internship at her favorite show— Friends of Flavor. She is so excited and is vying for the fall internship, but unfortunately so is the other intern, Benny Beneventi. What makes things even worse? The fact that he is charming and Reese is falling for him. When the two are wrangled into doing a segment on Friends of Flavor one afternoon, they are not expecting it to become a regular thing. The two become an internet sensation and fans are shipping them. Reese knows it is dangerous to mix romance and work so she tries to keep Benny at bay.

This was such an adorable story and I love how it dealt with some important issues as well. Reese struggles with social media anxiety after being bullied in high school. She also struggles with anxiety towards relationships, which is in part due to the bullying she received after a relationship went south. There was also some sexual harassment and misogyny that has been interwoven into this story and it is dealt with beautifully.

Benny. Benny is such a sweet soul and I love how understanding he is towards Grace. He does not want to push her into something she is not comfortable with and encourages her to open up to him.

There was definitely some horribly cheesy parts as well which is why this is not rated higher but I would definitely still recommend <3

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Delacorte Press. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Ok, this was really cute. Reese and Benny were great together. The nicknames? The banter? Perfection. I would've liked to read a bit more about Reese cooking and her backstory with that, but overall, this was a well-done YA romance.

Thank you so much for Netgalley and PRH International for the free e-galley!


I loved everything about this debut novel: the chemistry between the main characters, the immaculate humor, the banter, the friendly joking and food puns! I loved the feminist voice, the mentioned issues within a company (and how much men are being picked over women) and the group of friends who stood up against it.

We follow Reese, and her journey of self-discovery, figuring out what she wants from life and her internship at a super cool food media. Then she gets to do Amateur Hour with Ben, the funny, super cinnamon roll character, good looking cooking intern and the rest is history sprinkled with hilarious baking challenges, going viral, and finding love.

Read it for:
- rivals to lovers
- all the cooking and baking
- funny banter
- inspiring young adults
- feminist vibes
- cutest supporting characters