much ado about it all. enjoyed this story and author. i will find more of her books to read and keep going. Liked all about to this book.

An enemies to lovers contemporary romance take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, with a side order of family issues and responsibilities, dueling barbeque restaurants, and a grudge that goes way, way back. This one was a less than an easy read for me: The drama between the two main characters (Emma & Ben) seemed to simultaneously be too big to overcome (like they literally hated each other for unknown reasons at the beginning and middle of the story) and so ... secreted that, as a reader, it was hard to understand what the hate was about.

Because of course, they both seem like otherwise reasonable, kind, and responsible humans, (for the most part) but mere mentions of the other one and the hackles are up, defensiveness assumed, arguments with everybody else & themselves are imminent. They can't, as grown ups, hate each other this much because he pulled the chair out from underneath her in kindergarten, and they spent the entirety of their school careers pranking each other, surely? And they don't, in the end, but I felt like the reveal for "why" they don't like each other was left too long, and there was too much time for me, as a reader, to be annoyed & exasperated with them for acting the way they were.

What Kilpatrick did really well was creating the setting for their battle royale: The small, southern town, the two competing family restaurants, both peopled with interesting, vibrant secondary characters, that frankly, I would rather have read about - Jeremiah's story seemed a lot more compelling than these childishly stubborn main characters, up until the last five chapters or so, honestly. I'd still go back to Ellery for his story, even though I don't quite care all that much about revisiting Emma & Ben, checking in on them. Also, the descriptions of the food are startlingly appetizing: I don't even like barbeque, but I wanted some when I was reading this.  The dialogue is snappy and smart, there's humor woven through the storyline (I think I would've DNF-ed otherwise), but I just couldn't get past what seemed like an irrational behavior pattern for grow-ass adults.

I couldn't make it past the 10% mark, but it was probably a me thing and not the fault of the book itself. There was nothing compelling about the characters or the story up to that point that made me want to read on. I left it for a few days before realising I never had any urge to go back to it and finish the story, a clear sign that it simply wasn't meant to be.

I received this ARC for an honest review.


This book opens with Emma returning home to the small town which she grew up in, and going back to working with her mother at their barbeque restaurant. She feels like a failure for having to return home but also having to deal with Ben Cates, who since kindergarten have been at each other each thing done to the other one may have started out as simple as pulling a chair out from when she was going to sit down, but by the end of high school it was way worse. Even before that. The story goes through all of that, doing so with a local barbecue competition that also happens to be filmed by some students from the college. There is also a chief from a cooking show just to add to the story.
The main story is not just about barbecue and the old way of all-night cooking with a pit versus the new gas grills. It is also about Emma coming to terms with the death of her father, why Ben always hated her, or that is how she felt and the two of them need to grow up as well. With a wonderful cast of characters from Jeremiah the pitmaster and trying to help Emma with words of wisdom that she does not get right away, to Shero Ben’s sister who is the voice in Ben’s ear that he is not living just doing barbecue and nothing else not willing to take a chance. A wonderful story and very much worth the read.

Sally Kilpatrick's latest novel, Much Ado About Barbecue should come with a warning label that you're going to crave some good barbecue. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing -- unless you don't have access to good barbecue, that is.

Emma Sutton and Ben Cates have been rivals all their lives. It started in kindergarten when Ben pulled the chair out from under Emma and continued throughout their educational history, including Emma's underpants winding up on the school flag pole. So, when Emma returns to town after a series of disappointments in her life, she quickly finds the rivalry resuming thanks to Ellery's barbecue competition. Both families own barbecue joints in town, each praised and respected for differing ways of cooking the meat. Ben has reluctantly embraced using a smoker, while Emma's family still does whole-hog pit barbecue.

There is a bit more to the rivalry between Ben and Emma than the competition for who has the best barbecue and juvenile pranks. Emma has repressed large portions of junior high school due and she holds a deep secret about possibly raining on Ben's dream of playing baseball at the next level. Needless to say, these two are probably the last two people you'd imagine ending up together.

And like the main dish of the book's title, the potential romantic entanglement is one that roasts slowly, marinating in its own rub of family secrets, long-held resentments, and misunderstandings. Along the way, we meet a colorful cast of characters from Jeremiah, the long-time pitmaster as Emma's family barbecue joint (and a character I'd love to see get his own novel) to Ben's sister, Shero.

Between family secrets, the slow-simmering enemies-to-lovers story, and a colorful cast of characters (including several familiar faces from previous Ellery novels), Much Ado About Barbecue proves to be another winner from Kilpatrick. Filled with the types of characters you'd expect to me in a quirky small town, Much Ado works much like the barbecue does -- as a satisfying, enjoayble meal that left me fully satisfied and yet somehow wishing I had just a bit more room for another bite or two.

Taking a page from Shakespeare (maybe you've heard of him), Kilpatrick gives us her spin on Much Ado About Nothing in her quirky creation of Ellery. As with her other novels, Much Ado About Barbecue is a delightful gem and most likely destined to end up on my list of favorite books I read this year.

Add this one to your to-be-read pile, folks. Just don't do it on an empty stomach.

Highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received an ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. No bribing of barbecue was done or needed....

This is a cute little rom com loosely based off of the Shakespeare play of a similar name. The name choices are similar to the play and the two MCs have a “kind of merry war betwixt [them]”. Although, I think that the feud is not merry but in fact very destructive, especially the painful memories from junior high and high school that are borderline bullying. However, it works as an enemies to lovers and it is very funny. My mouth watered at the descriptions of BBQ and I had a nonstop craving! I really enjoyed the book until a very strange paranormal moment comes out of nowhere. Not a terrible read, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it or read more. I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

This is just a fun book to read!

Set in TN, lots of bbq info, fun characters, a quirky town and a big competition.

Emma moves back home, after college and a failed career attempt in the big city, and is working at her family's bbq restaurant. Something she promised herself she'd never do -- but with the wisdom of an old pitmaster, she finds it is exactly where she wants to be.

Ben Cates runs his family bbq place, does his bbq a different way than Emma's family, and they have bad history. But the competition brings them together and they sort out their problems.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Fun Southern Enemies To Lovers Romance. The title of this review tells you most everything you need to know here. This book has quite a few moving parts, but overall they work together to create a solid, fun Southern romance - in this case, centered on the titular barbecue and the retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The intricacies of barbecue - and no, you damn Yankees and foreigners from other nations (joking, an allusion to Southern comic Jeff Foxworthy's "Redneck Games"), simply putting something on a grill is not "barbecueing", nor is the grill itself a "barbecue" - are discussed well, but always in context with and service to the overall story and character development. Small town southern life, with all of its greatness and pitfalls, are also shown well - yes, including the one person who claims to be able to speak to ghosts. The pranks are mostly in the past, and it is always quite clear that they were in the past. The reasons for the enmity between the leads are compelling, tragic, and completely "reasonable"-ish for where the characters were at those points, and the slow-burn nature of the romance allows both to see that perhaps there is more to the adult versions of each other than they remember of the kid versions. And that perhaps there was more going on with the kid versions that their own kid versions didn't fully know about. For the clean/ sweet crowd, this has very minor cussing - including a grandma who actively admonishes such words in her presence - and no even fade-to-black sex. (Some heavy kissing though, for those more absolutist against absolutely anything physical.) Oh, and there is a more minor subplot - revealing even its nature would be a spoiler - that is refreshing, accurate... and yet still feels mostly thrown in due to the author's own political leanings. It totally works, and it is nice to see an author defying the normal conventions of the genre to even subtly go there, and yet it also *does* feel a bit forced, as though this was a wrinkle intentionally placed to draw the eye away from the actual main subject to a degree. Still, on the whole a solid, fun romance novel that does a great job of explaining Southern Barbecue, and very much recommended.

I expected this to be a light romance with a nod to Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing. Emma Sutton returns to her hometown in Tennessee after graduating college still not sure what she wants to do with her degree in communications. The NYC internship wasn't a fit and she jumps back into the family barbecue business. Her life long nemesis Ben Cates never left town. He helps run a competing barbecue business owned by his grandmother.

This is supposed to be a childhood enemies to lovers romance but for me it misses the boat. After working ten years in an elementary school I found the pranks childish and rising to the level of bullying. Parents would never allow their child to have to sit next to their bully in this day and age. I might be over empathizing, but Emma has repressed memories, and blotches of time she can't remember as an adult after time in therapy. I would have liked Emma to come home and maybe use her degree to help the barbecue business. She graduated summa cum laude but never acts like it. Instead she pushes in roughshod entering a barbeque competition with some serious consequences. Everything felt very high schoolish and immature. I don't think the couple has an adult conversation that had me thinking they should even be together. I also don't think they would have liked each other with out being tricked into thinking the other person liked them (which is part of the original Much Ado plotting.) And the paranormal aspect was an odd thing to toss into the mix.

I think others are probably going to enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Emma and Ben have been rivals since they were young children, but even more so now that Emma is back in town and they both enter the town's barbecue competition.
their friends try and get them to see a different side to each other, but will it work out?

A great read, and I like how it is told from both of their points of view.

This is a fun book, where the rivalry between the main characters is told from each of their points of views. The book provides an interesting storyline, with interactions between the characters fun at times, and more emotional at other times. Great read.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by NYLA and #NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Emma and Ben have a sorted past. When Emma returns home this past is revisited and relationships are renewed. Whilst there are small things that are formulaic, it’s worth the time.

Kilpatrick does a wonderful job slowly unfolding this enemies to lovers story. It’s about Emma and Ben, high school enemies that each run their family’s barbecue houses and sign up for a competition where they go head to head to see who’s Restaurant is the best. The story turns out to be so much more than that.

The book is written in 2 POVS of the two main characters. The beginning starts with a lot of amazing character development. We learn individually about Emma and Ben, their family members and the history behind each of their family owned barbecue houses. We also learn about the painful tragedy that ties these families together. Several VERY interesting plot twists occur at that point, and then the book becomes impossible to put down after that.

This was a story about past pain, grief, anger, lose, love and forgiveness. Learning how to let go and trust again. It’s was really well done and kept me flipping the pages til the end. My only complaint is I wish there was more of Ben and Emma together as a couple, but I still enjoyed this book a lot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

I was so excited about the concept of this book – barbeque, enemies-lovers, a bit of Shakespeare inspiration. There were some really good elements – the southern feel, and the detail of the food (I was SO hungry reading this!), but there were some parts that fell flat for me.

Things I liked:
-You could feel the small town/Southern vibes in the writing, which I enjoyed from my couch in Australia!
-The competition component
-The clear effort that went into detailing barbequing
-There were subtle moments to address diversity which I appreciated (e.g questioning why Jeremiah and Jazzy weren’t involved in meetings, Ben’s sister’s relationship)

Things I didn’t like:
-I personally didn’t find the high school pranks/incidents heavy enough to still be long standing well into adulthood – Ben and Emma felt immature to me
-Emma walking back into the business after such a long time and becoming the default spokesperson, editing recipes etc. felt unlikely – perhaps I would have bought it more if she had spent some more time at home first before jumping into the competition
-I found the grammatical tense of this book confusing at times – particularly deciphering between the recent history/past history.
-I’m not sure how I felt about the ghost storyline – this had a fantasy element that felt unexpected in the rest of the context
-I always want more interactions between the romantic pair – I wanted more interactions between Ben and Emma

FYI – I did spot a handful of typos in my kindle version (e.g “Wat” instead of “wait”)

In general: I think there is so much potential here!

Much Ado about Barbecue follows Emma Sutton and Ben Cates and is told in first person dual povs. This is an enemies to lovers after Emma and Ben knew each other as children and there is a secret of why Ben dislikes Emma. The relationship was good and I liked the scene of Barbecue houses and how they work. However, I would have liked some more development regarding the relationship.