Thank you NetGalley for this arc
Easy one of my favorites, I’m pretty sure I’ll reread before it comes out. I love the enemies to lovers trope. And this book did not disappoint! So much chemistry!!!

This book did grumpy sunshine romance so well. I especially love when the leading lady is the grumpy one and our hero is the sunshine. Leo was an absolute cinnamon roll of a guy, while her and Nina did have conflict this was totally due to miscommunication. They each made assumptions about the other then never bothered to get to know each other and just held onto those opinions and treated each other unkindly. Obviously as the story goes on and we follow them on their fake dating journey they open up to each other and question all their assumptions. Miscommunication is a major trope in this book, every conflict and bump in the road between Nina and Leo both before the events of the book as during is due to miscommunication. It was frustrating at times because we have dual POV, so as the reader we KNOW and it’s hard when they don’t talk. However, that being said the humor and fluff really sell this book.

I love the representation of a male lead with mental health issues. I also suffer from anxiety and we hardly see male characters in books with this issues, so I loved that. Leo was charming, caring and a hopeless romantic, but he was also a little obtuse. He didn’t realize when he was making a mistake or going too far until after he did. I appreciated that he owned up to and apologized, he had major growth there. I’m glad he became an ally. I just really wanted more from his character in the end, I felt like his arc wasn’t tied up as neatly as Nina’s. What happened to his chain? Did he ever get the prestige he was after? Did he have to close down more stores? Did he ever go back to work after his break, what was his career move? I just had more questions about his personal journey. Nina, she is a darling. Tragic backstory and loss that caused her to be a more reserved person. Unfortunately when a woman is reserved and also honest, she is labeled as a unapproachable bitch. I loved being in her head and seeing how big of a heart she has and her own struggles she goes through. I loved Nina’s story as she is trying to save her failing buisness. Her overall character arc was fantastic, she grew into a more attentive sister, a better friend, and better chef and woman throughout.

Fake dating and grump sunshine and food related rom com is a recipe for a hit. I loved their romance; there was so much humor, just enough fluff, jealousy, and steaminess. Leo and Nina have always found each other attractive but their assumptions about the others personality stopped them from ever giving each other a chance at even a friendship. Watching them get to know each other and being put into these ridiculous situations by their PR team setting up dates for them was absolutely hilarious. My only critique here is that the presence of Nina’s ex-boyfriend was a lot. He kept coming back up, while I get why he was important for Nina’s growth, it did get frustrating to keep having him show up. He was reason Leo flipped on Nina, again because they don’t communicate. Then Nina comparing Leo to her ex after certain of his actions, it just wasn’t my favorite thing to have included so much of the ex and I wish we could have used different plot devises to further the story. They both have my heart. Leo has some grand romantic gestures throughout the book and he made me fall in love with him too. There was no way Nina could have resisted. Leo did make some mistakes, but in the end he did what he could to win her back and apologize.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for let me in read and ARC copy “For Butter or Worse. What can I say. While Fake Dating is not my preferred troupe it really has started growing on me lately. It also is enemy/rivals to lovers. Leo owns a chain of restaurants and is a co-host on a TV show with Nina the owner and Chef of Lyon’s. On the finale of the third season Nina quits. She is done with the comments and nicknames that have come from the show when all she wanted was for her career to blossom even more. She went in hoping that this would help her career and restaurants.
Leo has a passion for his family restaurant that he has turned into a chain his father started the first restaurant and all he wants it to do is succeed.. other people rely on him for their livelyhood. He wants to be taken seriously by the food community and was hoping that this TV show would help his business and connections grow.
On the last episode, which is live, Nina quits at the end. She will not be coming back. Enter the fake dating troupe when Leo shows up at her restaurant.
This was a fast pace read and I really enjoyed the growth of Leo overall. I definitely will be purchasing a physical copy of this to add to my library. 4.5 STARS.

A very charming, loving and a witty read that has the capability to get one hooked from the beginning and made my entire reading time enjoyable and super fun. I really loved and enjoyed it!

Ahh this is definitely going to be on the list of one of top favourite read of the year 2022. I really loved it. It served all of the fav tropes, like enemies to lovers, workplace dating/office romance and more. I really loved both the MCs, especially Leo. The story was interesting and engaging enough that I never felt left out from all the fun and bored haha. In a nutshell, it’s a full 5 stars read for me.

for butter of worse was a great mix of a sweet yet steamy read!

this book had many fan favourite tropes like, enemies to lovers, fake dating and workplace romance! and it’s was written extraordinarily well.

as someone who is not a huge fan of the fake dating trope i thoroughly enjoyed this story.

i liked how for butter or worse talked about sexism and had mental health representation.
nina and leo were treated very differently while they were both in the food industry.
nina was constantly being called names and judged while leo was being admired. i am glad this was added to the story to show how differently people are treated in the work environment and how it needs to change.

furthermore, both leo and nina were dealing with grief in this story, as well as leo dealing with anxiety. i feel like the anxiety representation was spot on and showed how much your anxiety can rule your life.

there were also steamy scenes that i know readers will be excited about ;) as well as a lot of wholesome and sweet scenes that will make you go “aww”.

the only reason i did not love this story is because it did have a number of miscommunication scenes and i am not a fan of the trope.

overall this was a enjoyable story and i’m glad i read it!

thank you NetGalley for an arc of For Butter or Worse in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much. They did enemies to lovers so right and so good! It was hot. It was funny. And so fun! This is a book I would definitely be recommending and rereading myself!

Thank you for the opportunity to read For Butter or Worse. I love the title!

For lovers of the miscommunication trope, this is a win. For me, there were way too many times of miscommunication. Toward the end, with the deleting texts and Nina freezing on stage, I was annoyed. It was too much of the trope. It could definitely be scaled back to create a better flow to the story while still playing into the miscommunication aspect that lots of readers love.

And speaking of tropes, I adored the enemies to lovers and fake dating tropes. Those were both so well-written and felt genuine and sincere. The spice, too, was great!

I very much disliked that Nina and Leo fought while Leo was in the hospital. Nina is a mature, self-assured woman and it felt out of character for her to be arguing with someone while they were literally in the hospital. It would have felt more in character for Nina to have the disagreement started and she coldly leaves Leo with parting words along the lines of “they can talk later” or something to that affect. Much like how she walked off set in the beginning when he hurt her. Just my thoughts!

All in all, this is a 3.5/5 for me. I didn’t love it, but I definitely didn’t hate it!

For butter or worse definitely falls into the category of a very well butter read. ‘Because we’ll, it was a smooth read for me to get into haha. It served fake dating and enemies to lovers, both are my most loved and adored tropes. And, I definitely felt served. Both the characters and the storyline was engaging and entertaining. Overall, it’s a full 5 stars read for me.

t r o p e s: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, fake dating, workplace romance, miscommunication
featuring: witty banter, women in male-dominated professions, and great mental health (anxiety) representation

2.5 stars

Both Leo and Nina are co-hosts/judges on the popular reality TV show based around a cooking competition. I feel like people throw around the category "enemies to lovers" without truly understanding what falling into this category entails, but rest assured: this is TRUE enemies to lovers. Like, the characters strongly dislike each other, and it grows into mutual respect, then love. I had a couple issues with the male love interest's borderline mysogynistic comments at the beginning of the story, but one of the main themes is sexism in this book, so I was willing to overlook it, as it served a purpose for the character growth and plot. In addition, the heroine's nasty behavior toward the love interest towards the end of the book when he had shown character growth was a turn off for me. I also wasn't a fan of the miscommunication trope and the presence of the typical breakup that happens at the 70-80% mark. However, this IS a light rom com, and it's not meant to have serious conflict or depth. Unfortunately, for all the tropes and themes I was looking forward to in this book (the ones I almost always seem to like and appreciate), there was a whole host of other tropes I just do not care for. Nonetheless, I would recommend this for fans of literally any reality TV baking/cooking competition show, or if you enjoyed the dynamic of Hating You/Loving You by Christina Lauren or The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.

As for the formatting, I hate to picky, especially since I am grateful I received a free edition of this book, but I was not digging the PDF edition at all. It was formatted very strangely, there weren't appropriate spaces or indents between paragraphs. And when I wanted to search key words featured previously in the story, I wasn't able to because it wasn't formatted correctly to be searched as a kindle edition would. It definitely took away from the reading experience for me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This. Was. So. Good.

The excessive punctuation was entirely necessary because this was such a good enemies-to-lovers romance AND it was set in a personal favorite environment, culinary world.

Nina and Leo are co-hosts on the reality cooking TV “The Next Cooking Champ” and they, well, kinda hate each other. Nina accepted her host role with a mission – to make a name for herself in the culinary world. She’s already a celebrated chef; she just needs some of her own celebrity to make sure her flagship restaurant doesn’t shut down. Leo, on the other hand, the very successful CEO of chain restaurants; he wants the respect of the culinary bigshots and hopes that the being a host on the show would be his in. Nina deciding to leave the show triggers a number of events that ultimately leads this duo into a fake relationship.

This book is steamy. Often you’ll go into an enemies-to-lovers book expecting steam and the author, I’m happy to say, DELIVERED.

In addition to the steamy romance, it’s got some important dialogue about the misogyny of the culinary world as well in celebrity reporting and mental health, especially surrounding anxiety. I love that it’s the male character who deals with anxiety; we rarely see depictions of men with mental health issues that they are working through.

Both Leo and Nina had incredible character growth but Leo finally taking ownership of his unwitting perpetuation of misogyny was heartwarming to read. We also see a reserved Nina begin to flourish as she opens herself up slowly and she’s such a delight.

One thing I do want to say is that I’ve been seeing a lot of comparison of this book to The Great British Bake-Off and as a lover and fervent viewer of the GBBO, I have to respectfully disagree. Other cooking reality shows exist! I think it would have been more apt to compare it to one of those as while funny, it lacks the dry sarcasm that perpetuates British humor.

If you’re fan of fake dating, pre-order this book. If you’re a foodie, pre-order this book. If you love enemies-to-lovers, pre-order this book. If you’re a fan of grump x sunshine and cinnamon roll love interest, pre-order this book. Just pre-order this book!

Special thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

Absolutely adorable! This was such a entertaining read! I really liked the characters and the plot was very cute!

Nina and Leo co-host a cooking show together, and to say they don't get along would be an understatement. When Leo uses a nasty nickname for Nina while filming a live episode, she quits. But both her restaurant and Leo's have been struggling lately, so when Nina's publicist suggests they fake a relationship to gain publicity-- and diners-- they agree. While pretending they don't hate each other, Nina and Leo discover they have more in common than they thought, and develop an actual friendship-- and feelings for each other.

For Butter or Worse is the enemies-to-lovers fake dating book of my dreams.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book!

This book was super cute and enjoyable the whole way through. I loved the FMC, Nina- she was strong, passionate, and always stood up for herself and women in the cooking industry. Leo, although I didn't like him at first, grew on me and redeemed himself. The author did a great job with diversity, especially in race, sexuality, and mental health awareness. The interactions between the MC's were humorous but also showed they had a deeper connection. The plot was strong throughout and didn't feel rushed or too slow to me. I would recommend this to everyone once it comes out- definitely worth a read!

great romance that starts as fake dating but turns into love. Loved the families and friends. I loved that they started hating each other but really loved each other. loved that her favorite holiday was Halloween. loved her friends and his brother.

CUUUUUTE.

I’m probably never not going to like a romance set in the reality cooking realm.

Nina & Leo are judges/hosts of “The Next Cooking Champ”, a Master Chef-esque cooking competition. Too bad they can’t stand each other, and now the world knows it, since they let things slip on a live recording of the show.

Nina, tired of Leo’s, the internet’s, and the industry’s sh!t, walks out. Effectively quitting. This is bad news for Leo since his family’s restaurant chain is struggling. Nina’s on her last restaurant and fighting closure as well.

When Leo tries to beg Nina to come back to the show (since the producers told him if she was out, so was he) he ends up falling on her and accidentally giving the paparazzi a romantic looking shot.

Surprisingly, they are well received as a couple. This leads to them faking a relationship as a last-ditch effort to save their restaurants.

There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like, except maybe there was a bit too much focus on some of the side character’s issues. It pulled too much focus from Nina and Leo’s relationship.
I would’ve liked a little more drama with the show and their potential return.
Also, I would’ve liked to see the spicy scene that was off the page (there are other spicy scenes that are on the page, don’t worry).

I enjoyed the snippets with the internet response of the fans. It was funny, but also showed the difference in how people responded to Nina as opposed to Leo. It pointed out the blatant sexism that Nina (and many others, unfortunately) face in their professions.

I loved Nina’s refusal to alter herself to fit into the expected/accepted ideal of a female chef in the industry. There were no simpering or apologies for who she was. There was also some great anxiety/mental health rep within the story.

Their relationship worked well, their personalities complimented each other, they understood the pressures of their line of work, and opened up to each other. I know many don’t like the miscommunication trope, but this made so much sense. The set up and the anxiety was very believable, and I don’t think it should be docked for this.

Check it out, when it hits shelves, 7/26/22!
A big thanks to the Publisher & NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Erin La Rosa's for Butter or Worse was a sweet contemporary romance. If you like determined women, men who adore them, and colorful supporting characters, then I think you'll like this book. I did enjoy it--the characters are well-written and the author's depiction of anxiety was sensitive and quite true-to-life. The banter and quippy dialogue was particularly fun as well!

But. (isn't there always a "but" with me?) But a few things are holding me back from doing more than mildly liking it. I suspect I will be a minority on being bothered by these things, but I can't NOT mention them, in good faith reviewing. First, for a novel about a chef...she didn't do a lot of cooking, and the food descriptions were lack-luster. SPOILERS AHEAD! I get part of the plot was the MC being burned out from cooking...but for a novel so firmly entrenched in the food industry, I expected my mouth to be watering. Also, the third act breakup was the most frustrating, drawn-out, immature affair of miscommunication. I don't mind the third act breakup as a plot device, but I expect a better take on it, especially in 2022. Finally, my sense of place was always similarly lackluster. The author tried, but I never felt as though I was living in the characters' lives...just observing it.

Thanks to Goodreads and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the free ebook ARC. All opinions are mine alone.

I ended up not enjoying this book, and I do not post reviews on my social media unless they are glowing. I did however include it as my "current read" in my newsletter. Thank you!

For Butter or Worse was such a well-written romance! It had all of my favorite tropes - workplace romance, fake dating, and the classic enemies-to-lovers. If you're a romance lover like me, you'll really appreciate how the author executed all of these tropes in one book and created a masterpiece! Ohhh, and let's not forget! The book is foodie-themed, so make sure you have a snack by your side while reading this book. (Trust me, you'll thank me later) 

The enemies-to-lovers romances that I have been reading don't have that "I hate you' feeling between the main characters, and they always leave me with the feeling that the hate-to-love theme was for show only. But, boy oh boy, for Butter or Worse DELIVERED the BEST enemies-to-lovers vibes. Nina and Leo are co-hosts of a reality food competition show, and they really couldn't stand each other. This made reading about the changes in their relationship so much better for me. I could clearly see when the dynamic between them shifted.

Nina and Leo started fake-dating for their fans because it would boost their public image and in turn bring in more profits for their respective restaurants. The banter between them was "chef's kiss", and it was so fun to see them bickering all the time 😂😂😂 I wish I could come up with comebacks like them omg. Seeing Nina and Leo open up to each other made me feel a lot more better though. I loved seeing little fragments of their blooming friendship. They realized that they could be vulnerable with each other without any sort of judgment involved - WE LOVE TO SEE THAT.

One of the main themes of For Butter or Worse is sexism. I really admired how the author wrote about the differences between how the public treated Leo and Nina. Nina faced a lot of criticism because of her outspoken nature (Patriarchy and Misogyny 101), while Leo was adored by everyone because of his comedic side, even though he made some very questionable comments. CUE Leo's character development. Everyone makes mistakes, so it's important to learn from our mistakes, and to (physically) show that you've changed. That's exactly what I got to see from Leo's character. I won't spoil the plot for you, but seeing Leo understand how tough the food world was for Nina as a woman was my favorite thing ever.

FBOW also has an amazing mental health representation! Grief is one of the main things that connected Leo and Nina. Anxiety was one of the driving forces behind the last few chapters of the book  and the representation was accurate. The author didn't sugar-coat how difficult living with anxiety is, and made Leo a better character because of it. ALSO OMG, the female friendships!! LOVE LOVE LOVE. Nina's relationship with her best friend, Jasmine, and her sister, Sophie gave me life. Literally. The way they cheered Nina up and supported her melted my heart!!! I also adored Leo's brother and mom. The supporting cast in this book >>>> Everything. The book is dual POV too (YUSSS) and has a lot of text and Twitter interactions  that made reading the book so joyful!

I honestly can't stop talking about my love for For Butter or Worse, and I am going to keep screaming about in the months to come! Please go and make me the happiest person ever by pre-ordering the book!

Adorable! I loved the story as well as the emphasis on the importance of mental health and the long term effects of grief. Definitely recommend!