For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa, is an enemies to lovers story between two television hosts with years of annoying banter, and a fake dating situation in order to save their careers. Nina Lyon and Leo O’Donnell are co-hosts of a reality-TV competition show, The Next Cooking Champ; appearing friendly before the cameras, but off-camera they hate each other with a passion; becoming sworn enemies. After a difficult season finale, where their dislike is apparent, one of their publicists suggests they pretend they’re dating, in order to save their businesses and improve their reputations. Fake dating for the fans and paparazzi is not going to be easy for them. They are always bickering and throwing awful words at each other still. From Nina standing up to the s*xism in the culinary industry and the protective walls she’s built around herself, to Leo’s anxiety, self doubt, and constantly trying to prove himself, they are finally able find a balance; heading toward love instead of dislike. I highly recommend For Butter or Worse to other readers

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Nina is a Chief that works on The Next Cooking Champ! unfortunately she has to deal with Leo her co-host who is fantastic at getting under her skin. When he finally pushes her over the edge she decides to quit and go back to working on what she loves as a Chef in her restaurant which kind of fell on the way side putting her focus on the show. Then in come Leo trying to get her back on the show then a misunderstanding and now they are pretending to be a couple for publicity. They never expected to fall for eachother.

I am a fan of the book The Hating Games and enjoy a good cooking show or two and I love that enemies to lovers trope and this book was the perfect mix of that. I loved how different the characters were and getting to know and understand where they were coming from at different stances. Then theres the whole Nina trying to run her restaurant and Leo kinda being pushed into his families restaurant trying to keep it and his family float after the passing of his father. There was so much to love about this book. I loved seeing them warm up to eachother and eventually fall for one another. But you know that all things can never stay perfect especially since all of this romance is supposed to be a publicity stunt and it was just fun watching how everything went on. Highly Recommend!

Nina Lyons might have shot herself in the foot when she quit her job as co-host of a popular reality television cooking show. She already had earned a reputation for herself, but so did the other show’s host, Leo O’Donnell. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the pair end up creating a showmance for the sake of the paparazzi. Dating for the sake of appearances just might be what is needed in order to keep their careers going. For Nina, her career as a chef is on the line. For Leo, his restaurant businesses are already beginning to suffer because of the loss of this job.

So ultimately it is a PR stunt. Will it work? Will the two be able to pull off a fake relationship? What about when real feelings begin to enter into the picture, especially considering the fact that they have always been like oil and water. What is the change that brings these two together in the realist sense possible?

What a truly enjoyable enemies to lovers story. If they could just last one month, their careers will remain on track. Not only is there a slow understanding of their developing feelings, but the tension truly reduces as each date passes. Sidelined by their interfering but well meaning family and friends, Nina and Leo soon realize that they just might not be faking it.

I really enjoyed the progression of the story, especially as it took on more and more of an emotional edge. It was much like an evolution, an evolution of feelings that was done very well. From a fun title, to a fun couple, to a fun story with a wonderful happy ending. How could you go wrong with this book?

Many thanks to HQN and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/JbXPjpsoNIA

If you enjoy cooking shows or all things food-related, For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa is definitely the book you’ve been looking for. When I first saw this cover I immediately wanted to know what this book was about and the synopsis sounded very promising, and let me say that the story delivered.

Nina Lyon, professional chef and restaurant owner, has been hosting a cooking show with Leo O’Donnell for three seasons in hopes of getting her own cooking show and showing the world her love for food. However, their relationship hasn't been great from the very beginning and Nina seems to be fed up with the situation, deciding to quit the show. Next thing you know, the world thinks that Nina and Leo are in a relationship after seeing a picture of the two of them together. Forced to fake their way into love, Nina and Leo have to pretend to be together in order to save their businesses.

Let me say that I started the book having my doubts about Leo, but he managed to rain me in quite fast, the same as he did with Nina. I loved their development so much because they start clearly as two people that cannot stand each other, but after spending more and more time together they start sharing little things with each other and experiencing moments that will wake up the feelings for one another.

As a person that loves the fake-dating trope, let me tell you that the author really knew what she was doing in pairing these two together and giving them this plot. Also, Leo’s anxiety got to me and it made me understand so many of his thoughts and actions, which will make sense to you once you read the book.

Another big part of the book that I enjoyed was seeing all the emails, Google searches, texts, tweets and Instagram comments. I, for one, like to see social media playing this part in the book.

TWs: mention of panic attacks related to anxiety, loss of a parent, and bullying.

*ARC kindly provided by Harlequin Trade Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nina Lyon and Leo O’Donnell are co-hosts on the competitive cooking show The Next Cooking Champ! Nina is a chef and owner of a fine restaurant, while Leo is a businessman, running his father’s chain restaurants. And the two do not get along - at all!

When Leo slips and calls Nina “Nasty Nina” on air, she’s had enough and quits the show. But when the paparazzi catch Leo and Nina in an awkward position later - looking like they were kissing - social media blows up. Nina’s PR guy says it might be good for business if Nina actually dates Leo for a while.


This one was definitely binge-worthy:

🧁 Foodie Heaven - Food show, L.A. food scene, cooking, food sampling, food everywhere!
🧁 Enemies-to-lovers, and let me tell you, Nina and Leo were pretty nasty to one another to begin with.
🧁 Fake Dating - all done for the sake of “business.”
🧁 Strong female friendship - Nina, her best friend, and her sister were women who spoke their minds but also had a lot of fun too!
🧁 Mental Health Awareness - Leo comes off like quite a jerk, but he slowly lets on that he struggles with anxiety.
🧁 Steamy - I’m going to leave that right there.


Thank you @harpercollins and @hqnbooks for this gifted ebook and a spot on tour.

As soon as I saw the comparison to The Great British Bake Off I wanted to pick up this book. I have a fondness fo books that include food elements, so that right there had me hooked.

That being said, I actually enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. Nina and Leo are both complex characters with a very complicated relationship. Because they are enemies they have a lot to work through and this book has a ton of different tropes at play from enemies to lovers to miscommunication, fake dating and more. I also appreciated the supporting characters such as Leo's family, they brought an additional human element to the story.

Also, this story isn't just a romance - there are a lot of real world issues that are tackled and presented not only in Leo and Nina's relationship, but throughout the story itself. All in all it was a great read and I would definitely pick up more from the author.

I need water to quench this hawtness! But first, let's talk about it!

Nina is a chef and does her best to get to the top as best as possible. She's also a co-host of a cooking show with Leo, who just enjoys teasing her, and will use any opportunity to get her upset — for no reason. Even though he knows she makes his insides twirl.

After the last show, Nina has had enough and quit. But Leo, as strong-headed as he is (but soft inside), follows her to her restaurant to apologize. One thing leads to another, and the press believes something more is going on between the two.

During the apology process, they somehow kiss, or Leo bumps into her nose — lol. Now everyone thinks they're dating; even those who didn't like her on the show are now shipping their supposed relationship. Leo and Nina know they need each to attain a level of success, but are they willing to let their differences come in the way or just pretend to like each other?

As I said earlier, this book was HAWT... The chemistry was definitely off the chart. You have the perfect enemies to lovers (work romance), fake dating with plenty of food to go around. When I mean this was it, it was! Make sure to have food around while reading.

I am such a lover of foodie romances, and with a fake dating trope??? Even better!

This cover caught my eye right from the beginning, and the story had all the hot and spicy with all the feelings that I want in a fake dating trope, along with all the food! Yum!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the earc in return for an honest review.

This was an enemies to lovers romance, emphasis on the enemies! Unfortunately, this one just didn't quite work for me - the banter was a little too critical and some of the feelings expressed in the dual perspectives were such to an extreme that it made it hard for me to accept them ever getting together. romantically I do think others will resonate more with this book, and the writing was well done! Overall just not for me, but I will try another of her books in the future.

This book can clearly be separated into two halves- the first, I enjoyed, the second was a mess. I saw a review that said this book was written for TikTok, and I couldn’t agree more. There were so many buzzwords and controversial topics wrapped into this story, and none of them got the treatment they deserved.

In the first half, learning about Nina’s personality and her struggles in the celebrity chef world, as well as how deeply she was connected with her cooking, really endeared me to her. I thought she was a good example of a strong, but flawed, main character who wasn’t just the quirky girl. However, Leo’s POV, in my opinion, had no real place in this story. It served the sole purpose of forcing information about him down our throats instead of revealing slowly that he also had struggles. I think this was to try to make us love him, too, even though he started as the actual worst. Also, while Leo’s struggles with panic attacks and anxiety were an interesting take on men’s mental health, I feel like the author tried to use it to excuse some of his off behavior.

I did like the development of their relationship for a while, because it did feel like an ACTUAL hate to love (at least on Nina’s part), and the fake dating was SO good (publicist Tom was my favorite), but as soon as they agreed to get physical, everything went so wrong. I have never in my LIFE read a book as frustrating as this when it comes to the miscommunication trope.

They literally would just suddenly refuse to talk to each other, and even when they’d been at therapy and were supposed to have made progress, it felt like they didn’t ACTUALLY talk about anything. The grand gestures and apology styles and resolutions also just went to show how little they knew about each other and how they never actually stopped being selfish.

Overall, a good start but a disappointing read. The characters stopped growing and everything tied up perfectly for two people who I don’t think showed they would put in the work.

🧈eARC Book Review🧈

“Empowering other women was where she wanted to be, because she’d never seen a woman with the career she now had when she was coming up in the industry.”

For Butter or Worse by Erin De La Rosa
Pub Date: July 26th, 2022 - Out Now!
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 💫(3.5/5)
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶 (3/5)

Review:
Nina is an award winning chef who is about to finish her third season as a celebrity judge on a cooking show. She and her co-host Joe just don’t get along. He may be very attractive but his witty banter that is actually painful is too much for Nina and she quites the show on the live finale. This story has many twists and turns including exes resurfacing and the sacrifices one makes for their family and themselves.

I enjoyed this story. It felt a little long but that could be due to me reading it while moving. It’s interesting to see a woman written as the grump. The will they won’t they was hard in this story. Like I wanted to smack both leads and tell them to grow up at points. The ending is unexpected and interesting.

If you like:
- Split Perspectives
- Fake Dating
- Food details
- Close friends


Thank you to Net Galley and Harlequin Publishing for proving me with an eARC of this novel.


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I loved the idea more than its execution. For the first few scenes I was actually surprised Leo was meant to be the love interest; he came across as the biggest asshole, mean for the sake of being mean. I totally get that this is a food-centered romance, but every. single. sex scene incorporated food descriptions -- drizzled icing (dripping icing?) was just one that stood out.

Any miscommunication that could have happened did, without them the book would be half the length. & sure, it's a romance, there needs to be tension, but it got to the point where literally EVERYTHING that could go wrong went spectacularly wrong and my patience wore thin by the end. JUST TALK TO EACHOTHER.

I'll be honest, I almost entirely skimmed over the best friend's drama and sideplot.

Cooking show romance! This is such a rare find where the cute-ness overload is present!!! The sweet cinammon man LOVE THISSSS
Mental health representation is prominent and I love that representation!!!

Ooo this was such a great read. So this book is about Nina and Leo hosting a cooking reality show only for him to make a joke where she decides to quit but somehow end up creating a fake relationship for the show! This was such an amazing romcom book that La Rosa perfectly delivered. Everything was perfect from the writing, pacing, setting, storyline and characters. There is so much humor and bantering in this book that I absolutely loved. I was never bored from this book and finished it quite quickly. This book is similar to The Hating Game but quite steamier.

So this book is about both Leo and Nina. Both hate each other but work together to save their businesses. I loved both characters so much. Nina has a backstory to make her look the way she is but she is such an easy character to relate to. Leo deals with anxiety which you often don’t see in male leads and is a sweetheart but a jerk at times for reasons. I enjoyed how both character develop in this book and how perfect they are for each other. There were of course side characters but let’s forget about them and focus on the stars. The romance was superb with enemies to lovers, fake romance, grump/sunshine trope which was quite steamy including a certain scene. ;)

The ending was well done and I was so sad to finish the book because it was so good. La Rosa did such an amazing job writing this book and I can already tell this is going to be a popular romcom this year. I will change nothing to it and recommend it to fans of The Hating Game and It Happened One Summer.

Absolutely loved it! I loved Leo. He’s the sweetest cinnamon and I connected so well with him. Nina is a queen! I loved them and they felt like such real people. Their banter was top tier. The writing was incredible!

I loved this book! One of my favorite tropes is hate to love and this book did it so well!! I also really enjoyed the mental health representation, especially it being depicted in the male main character since that isn’t often done! The way that sexism towards Nina was depicted and addressed was amazing!

For Butter or Worse is an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, workplace rom com with so much important dialogue about mental health and sexism. Nina and Leo hate each other but, after being forced into a fake relationship to save both of their careers, discover that they've gotten each other completely wrong and failed to see them for their true selves. A little Pride and Prejudice vibes, in my opinion. So naturally I loved it!

Nina and Leo were so sweet and funny. Seeing their relationship grow as they worked to better themselves and overcome their prejudices was perfect. A lot of rom coms fall into the insta-love category too easily and, while that has a special place in my heart, it's overdone and often not done well. This, however, showed Nina and Leo become better people and unlearn so many bad things together over a longer period of time. Nina's conversations about her family issues and the resulting lack of trust in people was so refreshing to see. Many authors tend to shy away from having conversations that recognize boundaries regarding personal issues in a healthy way, but I really admire La Rosa for embracing it head on.

What really sucked me in to this book was the dialogue surrounding Leo and his mental health and prejudices. I've experienced so many of the anxiety situations that he talks about and seeing him become more proactive in taking care of and recognizing mental health issues was incredible. Also, Leo takes a deep dive into the sexism and misogyny that he helped spread, taking that opportunity to learn, grow, and help others grow as well. He truly is an incredible character; seeing him paired with Nina (another amazing character) was perfect given how well they compliment each other. I'm probably going to read this again and totally got over my frustration that came up while trying to get this book on my kindle app 😂

This book was a good rom-com easy read, especially if you are a fan of enemies-to-lovers and food books. I liked Nina’s character but would have liked to see more depth into the things she was struggling with (as well as more detail into Leo’s struggles as well). I thought that even though it was written in alternating first POV, it still seem as if we were just getting surface-level insight into Nina and Leo, without seeing the things that made them interesting characters. I did like that this book addressed several issues that are commonplace in the food industry — and many other industries — but they felt incomplete with how little they were focussed on. Overall, this was a very good summer read, but I would have wanted all-around more depth with all aspects of the book.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this title. I still featured it on my blog for promotional purposes but did not leave a review since I didn't want to leave a poor review for a blog tour.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Most contemporary romance books marked as an enemies to lovers book (regardless if that trope really fits or not) are usually either quite misogynistic in nature or the reason for “hatred” is really stupid. But this book… was like a breath of fresh air from that. While there is still that misogyny aspect it is actually touched on and not swept under the rug. This book touches on sexism in the cooking industry and the vilification of women in media. While the MMC does participate he becomes self aware about it and actually apologizes. While I think he could have groveled a bit more (and honestly she could have groveled a bit too) he, for the most part, made up for being a total jackass.

This book has fake dating, food, duel pov, and some really lovable characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an eARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.