In my years of reading romance, I've gotten pretty good at telling what I do and don't like from the genre. A big "don't" for me is anything that relies too heavily on the "com" part of rom-com, generally because I find myself eye-rolling more than I do laughing. I don't like when a book starts out with hijinks or excessively silliness because I find it grating. Sadly, this was my experience of Love on the Menu. I feel confident this book has an audience ready and waiting for it, I'm just not in that group.

This one started well, but then it just didn’t do it for me! I started to struggle with the story and the characters, unfortunately this one wasn’t for me

3.5/5 stars! This opposites-attract contemporary romance hit all the right marks. It was like "The Lake House" brought to life in a takeout food adventure. I enjoyed this book. I did struggle with the pacing and thought the book could have benefited from cutting 50 pages. But overall it was an enjoyable and sweet read.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

I think the best what I can describe the experience of reading this book is to say I developed a love-hate relationship with it.

I was instantly drawn in by the cover and the description and I was so excited to dive into this.
I figured it would be more of a slower pace so I had to prepare myself as slow burn is usually not my style. However, the pace didn’t end up being the negative point for me.
I found the story a bit hard to follow - I originally thought the MMC, Ben, was the delivery driver. So finding out he wasn’t had me second guessing everything I had just read and also wondering who the character I had read about even was.
The supporting characters also got confusing, as there are just so many, I sometimes found myself forgetting who was who.
As for the dual POV, I typically love it, but this dual POV didn’t flow for me. The jumps back and forth each chapter sometimes became too much and I wasn’t feeling fully invested in the story.

I did love the way the author wrote and the idea behind the story. I loved that the FMC, Gia, felt real and relatable. I appreciated that these two main characters were created to be imperfect, rather than having a seemingly perfect life.

There were definitely parts I enjoyed, but unfortunately more that I just could not get into. Overall I would give this 2.5 stars.


Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really try not to DNF arcs, but I just couldn’t finish this one. It felt like a video game with too many side quests that I lost interest in the main story. I loved the premise, I just wish it would have executed it more like I assumed it would have.

Thank you NetGalley!

This is such a well done story that has beautiful writing and an intriguing story that tugs at your heart strings.
Everyone has their own regrets, problems, issues and pasts. And this book dealt with that perfectly.
It was so much more than I expected, I expected a fluffy light romance which was not it.
It had angsty parts, sweet parts, emotional parts, beautiful writing, relatable situations and it was put together in this great novel.
I highly recommend it.

I loved the description of this book, and the cover is playingful and fun. I just didnt find that in this book. I couldn't really connect to the characters, and there were a few too many side stories that I was having a hard time keeping track of. I would like to see more from this author though.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The characters are realistic and believable, and you can certainly feel yourself sharing in their emotions throughout. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DNF at 50%.

Five years ago, Gia left her hometown in India and went to London to pursue her dreams. But a combination of alcohol and a giant faux pas during her company’s Christmas party leaves her dreams hanging by a thread. After ordering takeout, her list of new year’s resolutions mistakenly gets stuck to the bottom of the food delivery bag and ends up in the hands of Ben, who works in the takeout. Ben replies to the list of new year’s resolutions and encloses it with Gia’s next order, marking the beginning of their correspondence via food delivery.

I was very attracted by the story’s premise, which I felt had very good potential. I thought it was such an interesting way for two people to become friends through notes delivered with food takeout. However, the execution of the story was not quite there. I found the pacing of the story to be slow, and the events that occurred throughout the first half of the book to be not particularly engaging.

At the halfway mark, rather than a romance, this story reads more like a fiction book about 2 people struggling to get their lives together. The characters are not superbly likable and I didn’t feel very invested in their story.

There were also too many side characters and it took some effort to keep track of who’s who - on Gia’s side, we have her coworkers, her boss and her mother; on Ben’s side, we have his large family of 4 siblings, his coworker and boss, as well as the football kids he coaches.

The flow of the story did not feel very smooth and the scenes jumped from chapter to chapter and I had to re-orientate myself sometimes.

I appreciated the dual POV that gave us insights from both Gia and Ben, but unfortunately, this story was not quite for me. 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story and what it offered, it is more that just a romcom offering insight into cultures and unconscious bias at the same time

This has a very cute rom-com premise -- a women's new year's resolutions get stuck to her food delivery person's mags and leads to her starting a series of notes with a worker at a local restaurant. I wish I could say I liked it more. But too many side stories that didn't really add to the story or the character development (especially on Gia's side of the story; Ben's side stories were better done), slowed down the book and kept it from being as engrossing or fun as it could have been.

NOTE: Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copt in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This was a nice feel good read, with a good storyline and good characters. I enjoyed it.

This was a DNF for me. I found there were too many minor characters who didn’t really add anything to the story and just devolve into a confusion of names, and the main characters are unlikeable to the point I genuinely didn’t care what happened to them. Overall I didn’t like any of the characters, and felt there were too many characters which made it hard to keep track of

I presumed this would be a sweet ‘meet cute’ type story but was disappointed. I found it hard to get into, there seemed to be so many characters introduced so quickly that I found it hard to keep up. I have up about quarter of the way though, many apologies, just not for me x

I really was drawn to this book by the blurb, with a very clever book of a "meet cute" in happenstance circumstances, two people both struggling with various challenges and realities that are drawn together. The story did deliver this but I never truly felt like I was reading a romcom, and I did struggle to often follow what was happening with the duel perspective shifts as well as quite a large cast of characters which I just got lost amongst at times. Some parts did really seem to be written in a way that I had to go back a few pages to try and follow what had happened again, which felt jarring. Having said that, it was a warm and comforting story of two young people whose lives came together and ultimately there was a resolution for both.

Not an average romantic meet cute by any means but a book packed full of wonderful characters (the crazy mimosa drinking Ma, the bitchy one minute and sweet the next work gaggle) not least the leads who are quirky, misunderstood and desperate to plough their own way in the world.
Gia is a colour explosion on a page and Ben is the very essence of he misunderstood man and together the story woven around them and dotted with curry stain and naan bread crumbs is beautiful!
A great read with more depth then you might expect from the pretty pink cover!

An extremely compelling five-star read. This isn’t the light and fluffy romcom I was expecting, but it had such a good story that I didn’t mind, but if you are just after a romance then this isn’t for you. This has a great reflection of self-element to it, it dipped into how we see ourselves through others eyes and that’s not something that you see often, so I adored that aspect. I really liked how not everyone was jolly and they had pasts, it gave them real depth, and really allowed you to care for each and every one of the characters and allows you to really open your eyes and understand the challenges that they faced. My emotional reaction to Ben was like an ocean wave, up and down and never settling until it arrived on the sand. Gia however I couldn’t get enough of, even when she annoyed, there was something about her. Gia’s determination and sheer will could light a fire under many, if only she could give herself the confidence her outer self-portrays, they she would be one of the most confident people amongst us. If you are looking for some women’s fiction with a touch of romance then this is the story for you.

Big thanks to NetGalley & Avon for providing an ARC for free, in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, the e-book itself had some formatting issues that surely will be fixed prior to publication.

I was intrigued from the first moment I saw the cover and the title, they both seemed interesting and when I saw that the author's style is compared to Beth O'Leary, Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood then I really got excited as those three ladies are on my top-5 authors list when it comes to contemporary romance.

When I saw the book is over 400 pages I was worried, because it often means that the pacing is too slow and / or there are unnecessarily long descriptions of surroundings or there's prolonged contemplating.
Now, even though the pacing was okay (but got slower after the first few chapters), I'm afraid this book is just not for me therefore I had to put it down as a do-not-finish read. Here's broken down into bullet points why:

- The book starts with minor characters around our FMC who I think all have terrible personalities. Even the supporting characters aren't that supportive but hurting and raw with Gia, the FMC.
Jay, who is the appointed funny character with a stand-up comedy background, has absolutely no humor in my opinion and Gia and even Gia's mother are both funnier than Jay (not to mention how terribly rude the way he's speaking to Gia in almost all of their interactions.)
Gia's mother is trying to be the "Samantha of Sex And The City", but it is too overwrought and also she is more hurtful in her tone and in her saying toward Gia than supportive
there are the girls whose names I don't recall right now but Gia is referring to them as The Bitches so t should say all, I think,
Juliet who is Gia's boss is also too uptight and strange,
etc the other minor characters... and this is only from Gia's side, I did not mention our MMC, Ben's side. By the way Ben has 4 siblings so... why the heck do we have SO MANY minor characters??? There's absolutely no need for that. Creative writing 1-on-1, compress the supportive role into as few minor characters as possible, otherwise it will be confusing to follow the story, not to mention how unnecessary the characters will become.

- The introduction of the MMC is confusing. I thought for more than 100 pages that Ben is the delivery guy... It honestly never happened before that it wasn't clear who they are or what role they have.

- Because of this very reason, the whole delivery of the story feels disorganized and rambling.

- The male character is too similar to the female character in the way of thinking and speaking and behaving, this might sound strange but you can actually feel on the MMC alone that a woman wrote this book. Basically the MMC feels and thinks and acts like a lady.

- There were many inconsistencies that also bothered me. Just to mention one example, Gia said she is not an alcoholist but 5 sentences later she claims she couldn't take even 5 days without alcohol and then she asks Ben whether being sober is fun or not. I mean, what the heck? So you can imagine when the book is full of things like these.

- And so more and more I'm progressing in the book, more and more I feel like both main characters are acting like teenagers / adolescents instead of adults. After 60 pages in the book I still didn't feel a connection to either of the characters and just over page 120 I completely lost my interest in them as well. As I felt no character development whatsoever and the letters started to become more cringe-worthy than amusing, I sadly decided to put the story down as a do-not-finish read around page 200 which is 50% of the whole book.

But there were some cute ideas behind the main concept, that I generally liked:
+ The basic concept behind the story, too bad the execution is just not my cup of tea as it feels rushed and rambling
+ Loved the unusual approach of connecting the two main characters (accidental note change)
+ I liked that the FMC is not a typical "perfect and beautiful" character, but more realistic with realistic job and life background

I review this book for 2-star only as it's veeery unusual of me to not finish a book. There's a lot of room for improvement in the writing technique and in the general execution of otherwise great and interesting ideas (see the details above).

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC. I thought the premise was really cute. Old school notes brings me back. And I really related to storytelling and getting to know someone over notes. Less of the instant gratification we’re so used to with technology and social media now.

The formatting on kindle was kind of wonky, which I assume will be changed prior to release.

DNF at 40% - I’ve rated this on Netgalley but haven’t put a rating on Goodreads as I don’t think it’s fair to rate it without having finished it.

I decided to stop reading this book before the half way point as I had realised it wasn’t going to be my cup of tea. I’d categorise this book as women’s fiction as opposed to romance, I’m not a big fan of women’s fiction so I didn’t want to slog through and then end up giving it a low rating simply because it’s not my sort of book.

I thought the story definitely had some potential, and I really appreciated the heroine being from an Indian background but without her characterisation relying upon stereotypes. It’s clear that the author has put a lot of love into this book. However the plot (to the 40% mark at least) felt a bit jumpy and I often felt that things I would’ve liked to read happened off the page and were just referenced by characters after the fact. I also wasn’t a big fan of the cast of supporting characters, especially those at Gia (the female MC)’s workplace who are all designed to be unlikeable but sort of ended up blending into one. I also felt that I struggled to connect with Gia and this hindered my enjoyment of the story. My favourite parts of the portion of the book I read were Ben (the male MC)’s chapters, especially when he was coaching a youth football team. I know this element was going to continue throughout the book but unfortunately this wasn’t enough motivation for me to keep reading.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.