right off the bat, i want to say that while i enjoyed my time reading this book, i do not think it will be for everyone. our main character, julie, is quick-tempered in the way that sometimes she speaks before she thinks, and i can see where people wouldn’t enjoy that about her. for me, yes she was chaotic and messy, but she did try to do right by people and when she took the time to sit with her actions, she was able to recognize her missteps. just from the setup and the situational humor in the story, i could 100% see this as a movie, my jaw was hitting the floor at some of the silly things that happen. the banter and natural comfortable vibe between julie and bennett in the initial stages of their acquaintance/friendship situation made me want to root for them. bennett was a sweet cinnamon roll man, so i loved learning more about him throughout the story. also the descriptions of food had my mouth watering. overall i thought this was solid and cute! i'm not sure if it’ll be super memorable down the line, but i enjoyed it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you, thank you, thank you to @amandapanitch @berittalksbooks and @berkleypub for my complimentary e-copy and the opportunity to buddy read this gem!

Pro tip: DO NOT READ THIS WHILE HUNGRY!!

Happy belated Mardi Gras, and happy belated pub day to BEST SERVED HOT by @amandapanitch !! I wanted to combine my love for Mardi Gras and New Orleans with my love of this gem of a foodie romcom, and I hope this reel does both justice! I also meant to post this yesterday, but I ended up subbing for a fourth grade class instead 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was a huge fan of Amanda’s debut novel, Sadie On A Plate, so when I learned of her second foodie romcom, I was immediately onboard, and I was not disappointed!

In this enemies-to-lovers romance, we follow Julie Zimmerman. By day, she is an executive assistant to a wealthy businessman, but at night and on the weekends, she’s @JulieZeeEatsNYC , an up-and-coming restaurant and food reviewer with over fifty thousand followers on Instagram. While she loves the freedom and independence of her side hustle, Julie yearns for the stability (and expense account) of a critic at a major publication, like The New York Times or the New York Scroll. Unfortunately, despite Julie’s stellar application, that job went to uppity Bennett Richard Macalester Wright, another wealthy white male critic who claims he doesn’t really believe in social media.

When Julie and Bennett bump into each other at the Central Park Food Festival, chaos and hijinks ensue, leading to a very public yelling match and a subsequent video that happens to launch both Julie's and The Scroll's follower counts. Clearly, teaming up for a few reviews could be mutually beneficial, but will these two be able to handle the heat (both from the spicy food and otherwise?)

Friends, it's hard to say what I loved most about this book. The detailed food descriptions had my mouth watering and sent me down multiple Google rabbit holes as I searched for more information about the delectable dishes Julie and Bennett sampled; the strong support system of Alice, Kelsey, Marcus, and Jada that always had Julie's back was heartwarming and also helped provide some great banter; the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers evolution of Julie and Bennett was sweet; and boy, did Emerson Leigh absolutely steal the show! She cracked me up multiple times, and in the end, her character growth impressed me the most.

My only critique? The romance between Julie and Bennett never really sold me, and at times, I felt like the pacing was a little slow/stilted. Don't get me wrong; Bennett definitely grew on me as the book progressed, and I did like both Julie and Bennett as characters, but for me, it went from Julie being jealous of him for a long time to almost insta-love. That did not detract from me loving this book, though! The secondary characters made up for anything I felt was lacking between Julie and Bennett, I adored that Julie was an influencer doing reviews on her own time and dime (like so many of us Bookstagrammers!), and again, those food descriptions!

If you liked Sadie On A Plate, I will say this is different from that book, but in a wonderful and fun way! Grab this one ASAP!

Dueling food critics heat things up in this fun NYC enemies to lovers story. Cute premise and adorably awkward main character.

Unfortunately, I did not care for this book. Being a foodie, I appreciated the tastey descriptions of the food, however, the story was lacking. I was bored the whole time and kept waiting for things to get interesting.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the digital ARC.

This book was an easy one to breeze through. That said, I found the writing too clichéd at times and the descriptions of the interactions could be painfully uncomfortable, Once the romance between the main characters picked, up the book fell flat.

Unfortunately, I did not love "Best Served Hot" like I did Amanda Elliot's "Sadie on a Plate" It was not as engaging and I didn't feel the Jewish representation as much. I appreciated Sadie's cameo because she's my baby—secretly wishing she was in it more. Despite all that, I think the food descriptions were well written, making me very hungry a lot of the time. The story is still cute overall, but it lacked something I can't put my finger on.

I found this very enjoyable! it wasn't as memorable as I wanted it to be, but it kept me reading and I had a fun time doing so.

I previously read Sadie On A Plate and my immediate thoughts were "man I love the plot of the cooking aspect for this book, but I wish there was more story to the romance". Now with Best Served Hot I felt the complete opposite. Amanda definitely heated up the romance aspect with this book. Sadie is mentioned in this book, but I don't feel it's a true companion novel, just happens to be in the same world.

In Best Served Hot, I do think sometimes the food descriptions took away from the plot of Julie being a food reviewer/writer. I loved the behind-the-scenes aspects of how her job worked and I would have loved even more of it. I think her little friend group was great as well and could definitely lead to more stories featuring them. Julie and Bennett being food critics/reviewers in different ways was a fun twist to their meet cute/forced interactions. I enjoyed their relationship a lot, even though I wish we could have gotten to know Bennett just a little bit more throughout the book. this book was also a little bit steamier than her previous work.

I love everything food related. I have had a food blog for many years now. So reading a book about food reviews was a lot of fun. They are rivals, one at a newspaper, which is a dying industry and one an influencer that is up and coming. The chemistry was good and I really liked the characters. I really don't like miscommunication breakups. One where one won't talk to the other to see what the real deal is...That's my reason for 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, a really fun read!

I love a book that talks about food and this did it in all the best ways. It left me wanting to try new dishes and fully experience the food. I loved Julie and Bennetts banter and how they started off. While I did not like how their “problem” was resolved it was a cute romance. I also loved how Julie was able to grow and learn through the experience not only personally but professionally.

This book will make you hungry, not joking! I don't read many "foodie" romances for this reason, but overall, it was an enjoyable, slow burn and I loved this title!

This was an adorable and fast-paced rom-com about two feuding food critics had me wanting to learn how to cook.

I enjoyed Julie and Bennet as they move from her instant dislike to him and her belief that he's looking down at her to their happily ever after. Their shared love of food is a strong basis for their attraction but their approach to reviewing, he traditional paper and her blogging, put them a bit at odds.

A lot of time was spent describing their meals which was interesting but made me realize how NOT adventurous I am as an eater. I also didn't find the characters or the story gripping in a "can't put it down way".

While I'm not raving about the book, it was an entertaining way to spend a few hours.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Before staring this book make sure to grab some snacks and cozy up! Trust me, you will need them.

I thought this was a really fun easy read and I rate it 3.5 /5. Julie is a foodie who enjoys reviewing different restaurants on her social media. She struggles to balance her current full time job & her passion for critiquing food. I feel like I saw a lot of myself in Julie and this helped me connect with her character. There were times were I found her character to be annoying but overall I enjoyed it. The author did an amazing job at describing all the different dishes featured on this book. I was seriously hungry the whole time! Hence the suggestion of keeping snacks close by! The book also has some rivals to friend to lovers action going on which I always love. However,
this is a rom-com but to me it felt like the romance portion of the book was lacking. Full disclosure… I am a hopeless romantic and love drama. So, if you don’t enjoy when there is a lot of drama in a book (sometimes people refer to is as “unnecessary”) then this might me the perfect book for you! Overall, I did find myself laughing out loud and had an easy time reading it.

Julie is a food influencer who works as executive assistant to a wealthy businessman. She applies to become the restaurant critic for the New York Scroll newspaper but someone called Bennett Richard Macalester Wright scores her dream job. How could she ever compete with a guy like this from a privileged background with connections – he’s even friends with her boss’ daughter.
When Julie spots Bennett at a food festival, she sees red and sends him off on a wild goose chase to find a famous chef and a video of their bitter exchange goes viral. However, the rivals soon realise that partnering up for dual reviews will benefit them both.
I am not a foodie in any sense so was attracted to this title more for the competitive characters and the clash between social and traditional media, rather than the mouth-watering food scenes. However, the author did a fine job in dishing these up and they weren’t over-done at all. If you are looking for a sweet rom-com, this may well satisfy your cravings.

The best part of this book was all the food descriptions, the conversations around social media vs. traditional publishing, and the validity of each form. I really enjoyed those two aspects of this book. Elliot is great at making food jump off the page and I want a fully curated meal delivered for each chapter of this book, thank you.

However, at times the writing was so uncomfortably cheesy (sometimes just acceptably cheesy) and once the "romance" was introduced the scale was tipped into too much for me.

At the halfway mark is where I completely lost the book. This is where the characters are just barely dipping their toes into friendship and we get the line, "the way he squeezed my hand. Reassuringly, as if to say 'this is the way I'd squeeze your nipple.'" I just could not anymore. This was so out of left field and cringey. I am not convinced Elliot's writing talent lies in "sexy" writing and would have been better off writing a clean, no-steam, closed-door romance.

Really sad. I thoroughly enjoyed Sadie on a Plate and the foodie vibe but this did not work at all for me.

This one was a fun read but some parts of it weren't for me. The relationship between Julie and her best friend seemed off at times. We were introduced to characters that didn't feel integral to the story.

I'm not sure why I'm reading these books that make me so hungry but this one did too. The descriptions of food were so detailed I really wanted to try some.

I would recommend this one to people who enjoy a food element to their rom coms and very light on the spice.

Basically- a food influencer and a food critic meet and decide to review the same restaurants to see the differences in review techniques.

Thank you to @letstalkbookspromo and @berkleyromance for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Calling all foodies! This is the perfect romance for any food loving readers!

Julie Zimmerman is an executive assistant by day and an up-and-coming social media foodie influencer by night. When she misses out on a dream job, Julie is crushed. She's even more upset about losing the job to Bennett, who's mom is friends with the editor. Convinced that Bennett got the job not based on merit, Julie gives him a piece of her mind when she runs into him at a food festival. When the video of Julie telling Bennett off goes viral, the two decide to take advantage of the attention and team up to do food reviews together.

While I enjoyed Bennett and Julie together, their romance was a slow burn and not one of my favorites. There was some great humor between the two and the plot of them being rival food editors was fun. However, the romance wasn't very memorable, and Julie's character seemed a bit immature for me. The food though in this book! It's the food depictions that really shone for me and had my mouth watering. Elliot makes you feel that you're at every restaurant with our main characters, and while I came for a romance book, I stayed for the food. Too bad I couldn't eat along with them.

Overall, Best Served Hot is a cute and easy read that is guaranteed to make you hungry. Rom-com wise it's fine. I don't regret reading the book, but it won't be one that sticks with me.


Best Served Hot is out now. Huge thank you to Berkley Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.  If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

I enjoyed this book. The plot was well paced and the characters felt fully developed. I would recommend this book to others and am looking forward to other works by this author.

Unfortunately, Best Served Hot did not appease my appetite for a fun, romantic comedy. It’s me. I’ll admit it. But, it just may be the book for you. I just could not get into the premise of the story. I’m not a foodie and just don’t buy into how one person’s opinion could influence so many people.

Please don’t get me wrong. The book was very well written if not overly descriptive. And, I think that may have been part of my problem with the story. The descriptions of the food were very detailed to the point where I felt the book read like a cookbook instead of a romance. And, that’s a foodie thing but not a romance reader thing. I know, my opinion.

But, Amanda Elliot built her characters so you understood why they were in the Food Reviewing business. You understood their love for all things food and their quirks. The story also flowed … from one restaurant to another … and from the Central Park Food Festival to online praises. The characters were all interesting and the banter between all of them was entertaining.