4.25 Stars. Well, here's another great one from Kallmaker. This time it is a bit of a Devil Wears Prada but the Miranda Priestly character is actually bad. It also brings up issues with how many products sold for women advertise themselves and how it balances capitalistic urges with actual female empowerment a la GOOP. These themes are handled well, and it has a really good romance at the core of it. While I think it probably went on alittle too long and has some problems with forcing characters in to some archetypes that they may not belong in, it still is a great read.

First off, I love Pepper Addington. She's the idealistic intern/ assistant character who idolizes her boss, the charismatic Helene Jolie. I believe she subverts the naïve assistant character because she mostly realizes what 'Simply the Best' is selling but does believe in the overall good she thinks the company does. Of course that gets stripped away, along with her idolization of Jolie as we see the mask slowly get stripped away. When it finally happens, Pepper isn't forced to get swallowed up in the miasma of bad that we can see is brewing, but is allowed to break out of it on her own terms. She also mostly is able to see through things on her own without her love interest, Alice Cabot, telling her about it. Alice, unfortunately kind of gets crammed into the heavy drinking, broody butch archetype that I don't quite she her being. She's disillusioned with her career, in a way that Pepper could have been if she was given time to stew in the crap that is 'Simply the Best', but I feel like it was taken to an extreme.

I do have to point out that, holy crap does it do a great job on how people react to powerful, female predators. Helene Jolie is charismatic, powerful, and beautiful and she knows it. She plays with her assistants then discards them. When Alice notices how Helene treats Pepper, she makes a note to say she'd know what was happening if Helene was a man, but it was harder to tell. Even Pepper, as uncomfortable she is when Helene, say puts her hand on the small of her back and turns up the charm, doesn't really know what to make of it. This smoothly points out, not the hypocrisy of how we treat female predators, but how we are culturally trained to look at men and women and judge the same behavior - on its face- differently, especially if it is a woman who is predating on other women. Super well done.

I do believe it drags in places, but does make up for that with some really good takes on industries selling female empowerment and how does people handle female serial sexual harassers with power. I do wish that Alice was as complex as Pepper was, or at the very least, forced into an archetype that I thought she doesn't quite fit. Still, Kallmaker does an darned good job overall, and I will more than likely have this one in my re-read pile.

*I received this ARC in exchange form my honest review.

𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀.

Kallmaker has been around the lesfic scene for a long time and has written a ton of books, but so far I've only read one other book of hers. I can't say that I'm familiar with her works, but if this book is any indication of her writing style, I don't think it suits me very well.

Kallmaker doesn't write poorly. She writes well actually. But she uses so many words that I found it hard to connect with the story, especially since the parts that were descriptive weren't the romance bits. In Simply The Best, Kallmaker explores many topics like gender equality in the workplace and empowerment of women, etc. Many of these are topics that would interest me into a discussion on a normal day, but it didn't hold my interest here and I found myself skimming the pages to reach the end.

There's a romance that develops between Alice, an opinionated and jaded journalist tasked to write a flattering piece on a successful company that sells women's products, and Pepper, the brand new personal assistant to its CEO, but their story ended up being not too engaging too.

Over the years I have read most of Ms. Kallmaker’s books, so I was very excited when she had a new one published. In this book we will see the typical attraction between the two main characters. However, Ms. Kallmaker has included an individual who readers will consider to be the evil character. It is through this character that the author is presenting readers with some age-old employment issues such as employee exploitation or fair remuneration for interns. Many readers may have also experienced these problems during their employment history.

As usual, Ms. Kallmaker has done a good job in character development. Alice Cabot and Pepper Addington are the two main characters, one being femme and the other butch. Although their attraction is immediate, they cannot act on it because of their jobs. In addition to work-related issues in their relationship, Alice and Pepper are also dealing with an age gap.

The problem I had with the book is that the pace of the story was very slow. It just seemed to drag on and on. Simply the Best is a long book that could have been condensed in a few areas which would have allowed for a faster pace.

I rate this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is book number whatever, just another in the library, better known as Dropbox or Kindle. I say that like it’s a bad thing but it’s not. What this book does is join the other Kallmaker books I’ve read over the years. Every book was time well spent reading, because I’ve yet to run into a book I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.
Pepper Addington was working hard trying to land herself a job at ‘Simply the Best’, a business aimed at bringing women everything they could possibly want, Helene Jolie owned and operated the company and like many other companies they first recruited people for their company by offering them an internship. Which means you work trying to show the company you would be the best for a job. Pepper had some close friends and parents who were there when she needed help keeping a roof and food on her table. It also helped that your roommate/best friend was willing to give more than half rent along with other expenses.
Alice Cabot comes to her career by following not only her father in his love and work in science and her mother who has made a name for herself as a reporter. So that’s what Alice did, reported on the happenings in the field of science. But she finds herself moved to another department when she does what every reporter knows not to do. She calls the person she’s interviewing a ‘douchebag’. Now she’s expected to do an article covering the return of ‘Simply the Best’ to New York..
Really liked reading the story of the older woman and the seemingly naive innocent young woman taking on more than she’s prepared to do. Both characters are likeable and the supporting cast is in some ways just as interesting. Very enjoyable read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bella Books.

“Simply the Best” by Karin Kallmaker is tagged as a romance but honestly, while I did enjoy the romance that’s here, it mostly felt like women’s fiction. There’s a lot going on that isn’t connected to the romance and those things take up a lot of pages. I wanted to throw that out there in case anyone is skimming these reviews for a romance. Saying that, I liked this book, quite a bit actually. It’s not perfect in that it’s overly long and I found myself skimming certain parts. But I’ll get into that more later.

Alice Cabot is in trouble with her editor for getting caught on camera calling a congressman a douchebag. She’s a science journalist and as punishment is assigned a style series on Simply the Best, a Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop-like conglomerate. She’s 40 and because of Covid, she’s become somewhat depressed and bitter with the world. Alice is a New Yorker through and through and isn’t looking forward to spending time in Los Angeles, especially for this piece.

Pepper Addington is 27 and recently been promoted personal assistant to Helene Jolie, the brains behind Simply the Best. Helene doesn’t like journalists and Pepper’s job is to help Alice and get her in and out of Helene’s hair as quickly and painlessly as possible. Pepper is a mostly happy and optimistic person. I want to say she see’s the world through rose colored glasses but I’m not sure if that’s right or not. She definitely wants to see and believe the best in those around her.

Alice and Pepper have an attraction to one another but this is a slow burn and it takes a while for things to happen. They don’t actually meet until after 20% so there’s a lot of getting to know them before that happens. I liked their spark and how their personalities complemented one another. However, I would’ve liked more scenes of them together and more depth to their emotional connection. It felt like we got to know them mostly when they were on their own or with their friends/family and not so much as them together.

As I said above, there’s a lot going on in this. There’s a lot of talk about social issues, the pandemic, workplace politics. Some of it is just gets lightly hit upon and some of it Kallmaker goes into a lot more depth. I didn’t mind this for the most part. But it did take away from the romance and became the center piece.

Kallmaker writes a lot of details in her books and this is full of them. I usually love details but there was a lot of details about the surroundings and buildings that I didn’t really need. This led me to skim parts of chapters, so not important parts, just descriptive bits that I, as a reader, don’t need. As an example, Simply the Best headquarters is described in detail from both Pepper and Alice. STB stores are also detailed several times so it gets long and repetitive. People that value a lot of details will really enjoy this one a lot.

Overall, I enjoyed “Simply the Best” and it left me feeling hopeful for Alice and Pepper’s future.

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

Karin Kallmaker has been writing romance novels for thirty years or so and she knows how to bend the rules just enough to keep things exciting. I didn’t read the blurb, because it’s Kallmaker and I knew the story would interest me. I wasn’t sure for a long time which characters would get romantically involved. Suspense isn’t often an ingredient in romance and I enjoyed it.

Alice Cabot is a very driven science journalist on the verge of burnout, which leads to her not always keeping her big mouth shut when she should. An incident with a congressman results in her editor moving her to the Style section for a report on Simply The Best, an extremely successful company selling women everything they can dream of, from clothes to yoni eggs. The CEO is the gorgeous and guarded Helene Jolie, and Alice can’t help but wonder what’s beneath the glamourous veneer. Helene’s new assistant Pepper Addington is tasked with providing Alice with all the information she needs while protecting the brand and Helene. All sorts of sparks fly when the New Yorker arrives in Beverly Hills and starts asking questions.

Karin Kallmaker is one of the first authors I read when I first found sapphic fiction 25 years ago and the only one from that period I still read. Her books are consistently good and her writing has grown without losing any of its energy.

As usual, Karin Kallmaker writes excellent characters. First impressions turn out to be mostly wrong and the characters’ true personalities are unveiled as the story unfolds. When we first meet Alice, she sounds burnt out, permanently grumpy and depressed, and the pandemic didn’t help. Neither does the alcohol she relies on to get through the day. She’s a New Yorker through and through and can’t believe anything good can come out of the land of pretence and bling. She’s also an excellent journalist, determined to get to the bottom of things, even when it means fighting her own bias. Helene has charisma in spades, her employees love her and so do her clients. Simply The Best seems to have found a miraculous formula to please women of various generations and backgrounds. Yet there are reasons why Helene is so wary of “serious” journalists. Then there’s Pepper. Not just a surfer girl, definitely not an airhead, Pepper is highly capable yet often underestimated. She’s kind, she’s smart, she’s enthusiastic and while probably not perfect, she’s profoundly good. And she’s one of those rare people with whom what you see is actually what you get, provided you’re willing to really look.

I don’t usually think of an imaginary cast for characters, since I don’t picture characters, despite the sometimes very detailed descriptions authors provide. I hear them though, and I had Jean Smart in my head every time Alice interacted with her mother. I’m not sure which woman I’d have her play, however. I also had Danielle Brooks at other times for Alice. Then I thought Cate Blanchett would be great as Helene, even if her hair and eye colour is all wrong and her company as seen through Alice’s eyes sounds like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop. Her energy is right though. As for Pepper, Brie Larson came to mind.

Chemistry in this book goes three ways, not all heartwarming and sexy. Sparks fly at first sight and do their best to hold on despite characters being deliciously obtuse and fighting the inevitable. Verbal sparring and powerplay between uneasy enemies bring a different kind of chemistry in the arena, with awe and admiration completing the triangle.

Pepper’s friends, Helene’s trusted PA, Alice’s mother are all interesting secondary characters. There’s also an unexpected cameo by a well-known bear. Or the idea of the bear. Anyhow, it made me laugh more than once.

One of the things I love in Karin Kallmaker’s books is the way she sets the scene. Her characters have real jobs, not just titles mentioned here and there. It’s part of who they are, part of the story, almost akin to world-building in sci-fi or fantasy. That said, Karin Kallmaker has earned the right to write all the words she wants and I’ll happily read them, but to be honest, this novel could have been quite a bit shorter and the ins and outs of Simply The Best may be where those extra words could have been found.

Neither fluffy nor too heavy, Simply The Best hits the right balance, incorporating current news and societal themes in what remains, fundamentally, a romance novel.

ARC provided to Rainbow Literary Society for an honest review.

What an interesting read. Yes, it was a story about family. Yes, it was a story about success. Yes, it was a story about finding self. Yes, it was a story about truth. Yes, it was a story about love. Mostly, it was a reflection of recent events in the world. As I read, I was thinking about all the introspection provided through Pepper Addington, personal assistant to Helene Jolie and Alice Cabot, journalist, as well as Alice's mother, Barbara. This is not so much a love story but a testament to what is going on in our world today. The author uses Pepper and Alice (especially Alice) to detail the social, economic, environmental, and political issues impacting the world today. It is a perspective that I was not expecting. Although from some of the reviews I read, I knew something was going to be different, and this is my take on the different.

This story really had me confused. I was gripped - adored the main characters, even the ones I really shouldn't have liked had me imagining things. It tells so many stories, of battling our inner monsters, of dealing with workplace politics that have unfortunately encapsulated patriarchal means beyond their "male" influences, of finding an escape, of dealing with a truly horrendous part of history, of being happy and true.

Simply The Best scream Devil Wears Prada to me in many beautiful ways. It adds a complexity of questioning the norm and challenging power that I really admired, demonstrating how changing pathways can lead to reaping unexpected benefits and finding happiness in the midst of drama. Letting go is therapy and it's okay to say no.

The lesbian romance to this story becomes a bit of a backdrop to the drama of workplace politics and how the book demonstrates the importance of upholding our values and believing in ourselves, whatever the world is hurling our way. But in those moments that romance does shine through like the brightest ray? WOW. It makes it so much more powerful than a continuous fluff ride (and trust me, I love the fluff).

I was hesitant at the early mentions of pandemic life - I've used reading as an escape from the apocalyptic time we've had. But, actually, combined with the thoughtful portrayal of living with a few unwelcome internal monologues, spectating on a miserable reality for so many people, and battling constant unworthiness, it made me appreciate just how much the past few years has hit me and just how important it is to keep loving.

Simply the Best was my first read from Karin Kallmaker even though she's been writing lesfic for years (whoops!). Obviously I'm way behind the eight ball.

I hate to admit it, but I found this book a tad hard to read. I found the pace really slow and the length of the book didn't help with feeling as though it took too long for the story to actually start. I really liked the different take on the ice-queen boss and the employee, but I think the story development and romance missed the mark for me.

Pepper seemed really smart but also very young, whereas Alice felt a lot older and definitely jaded. It was hard for me to put the two of them together as romantic leads. The romance that 'built' between them seemed very weak, and I truly had to stretch belief that these two would end up in a HEA. Helene, on the other hand, was ice-cold but with no redeeming qualities. I think the characters could've also played to why I didn't enjoy this novel.

All in all, a difficult novel for me to relate to or enjoy. I think this book just didn't work for me but I'm hopeful that another Karin Kallmaker novel tickles my fancy in future.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bella Books for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Its always great to read book written by Karin Kallmaker, and Simply the Best is one of them.

The build up to Alice and Pepper is slow paced but enjoyable, they are thrown together and the romance begins. Add to that the third character of Helen Jolie to mix up the story and watch how they both learn to grow together

Am I the only one who would love to read a story about Helen????

Would I recommend: Yes for that slow burn romance

Karin Kallmaker is truly a legend in the world of LGBTQ+ romance authors. She has been writing lesbian fiction since the late 1980’s, and has won many prestigious awards for her work. I’m in awe of her career as an author, and I’ve enjoyed every book that I’ve read of hers including Simply the Best.

This is a good solid romance novel. I liked the idea of two very different characters slowly connecting and falling in love almost in spite of themselves, and these two are very different. Pepper Addington is a young woman raised in California who is starting her life with this naïve outlook about her career and specifically the company (and boss) she works for. You can almost see Pepper putting the metaphorical blinders on as she leaves for work every day so she only sees the rosy outlook in front of her and not the harsh reality all around. Alice Cabot is almost her opposite. Alice is older (over a decade) and very world weary in her views, probably due in part to her work as a Science journalist with a New York newspaper. Putting these two together too quickly would have been a disaster, but the author let the connection build incrementally, which was the best way to handle two such disparate people.

I did have a few problems with the novel. The book had a slow start for me. It took me a while to get into the tale. While I would have liked seeing more of Alice and Pepper together in the story, the book would have benefited being a little shorter overall.

Other than these, few things, I really did enjoy this novel and recommend it to those who love WLW romance.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bella Books for an honest review.

Karin Kallmaker is one of my favorite authors. I own and I've read practically all her books. Having said this, I must say the book started off a little slow. It took me loner than usual to read. It was quite witty at times. Regardless, I enjoyed it and would recommend 4 Stars.


I received an ARC copy from the Publisher Bella Books via NetGalley for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review "Simply The Best".
First of all I have a stack of Karin's books, all read several times over. I love her writing style and it never ceases to amaze me that such a prolific writer can write so prolifically and drop her well-defined characters into new backdrops. Secondly, I am still reading this book, and will edit this review on completion. But I noted the archive date is upon us and there are a few days left before publication, so thought it best to write at least an initial review now.

I am really struggling to get into this book and have reread the opening chapters several times. I don't know what has gone wrong here but these opening chapters are very rambling and long-winded with superfluous detailing. I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up in the editing process. The Kallmaker magic is there though, and the characters are as well-defined as always. There is enough in the opening chapters to hint at what is to come and already evidence of a layered approach to what could possibly be a more complicated storyline. I'll read on!

First read of the author’s. It was witty, hilarious at times and the author took the time to introduce each character before they met. For a ballsy and cynical Alice, she met her match in the younger but intelligent Pepper. The book was a bit long for me but otherwise a fun read.


I just reviewed Simply The Best by Karin Kallmaker. Thank you NetGalley and Bella Books for the ARC.

This book is long is what first pops into my mind. I don’t mind longer books, it usually gives you more time to enjoy the journey, but for this book it was like a plane that just couldn’t lift off.
It took me a good 1/3 of the book to get into it. There is so much of setting the scene, getting the who is who, but it’s all a bit too leisurely in my opinion, too long winded. There are so many tiny details that take up pages that I actually just could have done without, they add next to nothing to the story. At least this is the way for me in the first third of the book.

Maybe it just helps set the scene all the better for Pepper and Alice, but I’m not entirely sure that is the case. Honestly I grew a little frustrated with both characters in the beginning of the book. Pepper kept me in my corner of frustration for a good long while actually. In the end I did like both characters, or at least I could appreciate them, but somehow they don’t work as a couple for me.

The entire book I had a feeling the author would take the book in a certain direction. It was there, not as prominent as it could have been, but it was there and I think this is actually a great thing to have. I won’t say what it because, you know, spoilers. All I can say is I didn’t want it to go that way, but when it did I was hoping for a little more fireworks, it was setup like there could be a whole display.

In my opinion this isn’t a fun and easy light romance, but it isn’t overly dramatic either. It’s a good read with very different main characters on very different journeys that somehow want to fit in each other’s life. If you’re looking for a bit of a longer read that isn’t your standard lesfic this is the book for you. I liked the middle section of the book just ok, but the last third is what really sold me to this being a solid book: 3.5 stars

This book got off to a slow start - the introductory chapters before the two characters met were very long so at first I struggled to get into it. However, once Pepper and Alice met, sparks were flying and I could not put the book down. Both of them were really well-developed, multi-faceted characters. Their chemistry was instant, but felt very natural. However, some of the long inner monologues and the very detailed descriptions of the characters' day-to-day at work could have been left out, making the story tighter and more impactful. I also thought that Alice's alcoholism could have been resolved a little better in the final chapters. Even so, this was a very well-written read with more depth than I had expected.

You can't really go wrong with Karin Kallmaker. I don't think I've ever read a book by her that I didn't like. A solid author of dozens of books, and you can always count on good writing, characters' eloquence, nice dialogues... Always a safe choice to pick a book by this author.

Alice is a journalist she love’s everything about science and writing about it. Her boss is not so please when she speaks her mind and after recovering from it she is move into the style section as a punishment and assigned to write articles about Simply the Best successful company that a woman name Helene founded and made a success which is about “empower” women although some of the products are questionable.

Alice thinks there more to Helene then people see and decides to get to bottom of it in comes Helene assistant Pepper who gets thrust into being Helene assistant after being a lowly paid intern. Pepper is task as the liaison between Alice and Helene.

Alice is a good journalist who is very cynical wants to make sure Helene isn’t about greed and power that she wants to help women. Pepper who Alice thinks is naive because she believes in Helene and what she doing tries to get to her to see boss might not be on the up.

I like Pepper because she proves she isn’t a pushover her and Alice have great chemistry and the romance was good.






I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Simply the best by Karin Kallmaker introduces us to Alice Cabot and Pepper Addington. Alice is journalist recovering from a controversial spat in the politics section within her company. Her punishment is being moved to the style section, placing her in the direct path of Simply the Best. Simply the Best is a successful company owned by the well known, Helen Jolie. Enter Pepper, initially an unpaid intern at Simply the Best who finds herself as Helen's personal assistant and soon to be Alice's guide. Sparks fly but so does Alice's suspicion about Helen.

This is my first book by this author despite her having many to her name and as much as I wanted to enjoy this book it fell short for me.

My first problem would be the writing and content. There was a lot of irrelevant moments and paragraphs that was totally useless to this book. In the end that added to an unnecessarily lengthy and somewhat boring novel. The conflict was strung out and presented an anticlimactic ending.

(Not much of a spoiler but I'll bracket it anyway)
[I expected Alice to release an expose piece about Helen. After all that stuff she talked about helping out and doing the right thing. (hide spoiler)]

I don't know how else to describe my disdain for the writing or contents of this book other than the way it resonated the same feelings that I get when my grandma tries to relate to me. No disrespect to the author but the writing was very try hard. To some extent I love Pop culture references but it was very overdone and as much as I hate to use this word to describe things it was, cringe.

It's very hard for me to imagine grown adults saying stuff like, "Ya basic" or "Bitch, I'm Beyonce."

On the up hand, Alice was a very likable character and she did have chemistry with Pepper, but perhaps if the author spent less time writing random facts about the world and more time building their relationship I would have taken more of a liking to this book.

I'll leave it to you to decide if you want to read this book but I will not be adding this to my recommend list.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for a honest review.

A jaded journalist having to write an article on a subject in which she has no interest and about which she is quite cynical. On the surface it would seem that the subject of the article and her company are helping to empower women. The journalist would like to hope that she will be proved wrong in her cynical assumptions that the end result is not about greed and power. The journalist become enamoured of the young assistant and tries to get her to stop seeing her boss through rose coloured spectacles. The young woman is not without brains and is not as naïve as it appears although she does believe in her boss and what she is selling. This is their story. It is well written and entertaining and thought provoking. It takes place in the current climate of people trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Reference is made to how our journalist feels about the empty desks around her.