Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander is a queer romance. I liked it, but the pacing of this book was wonky. It had me putting the book down and picking it up again.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great contemporary LGBTQ+ fake dating romcom! Would recommend for fans of Alexis Hall.

Book 2 in a series but works as a standalone.
T4T m/f romance
Includes a few spicier scenes

Love that this book gives a voice to trans characters. Happy pride month!! 💕

While it took me awhile to pick this book up, holy crap am I so glad that I did! I loved so many aspects of this book. This is a contemporary romance between two Trans characters and I would give anything to read it again for the first time.

1. The prose - the quality of writing is a huge improvement (in my opinion) from the authors' debut. I think this combined with the fact that I genuinely enjoyed these characters.

2. Stemming from my last comment. I absolutely loved these characters. Both were on different journey's through life, and they had their own reasons for engaging in the fake dating scheme. However, I loved them both as individual characters as much as I loved them together.

3. The sense of community. One of my main takeaways from this book was how important community is in shaping who we are; especially for folks who are in a community where harm is rampant (harm can mean many things). I adored Luna's friends and the community they group of friends created.

4. Last, but not least, this was book about Trans joy in the face of hatred and bigotry. I cried reading this - it was a stunningly beautiful display of what joy looks like and should be celebrated.

Seriously, if the premise sounds at all interesting to you, pick this up!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy! I cannot wait to dive into the other TJ Alexander books I have on my e-reader.

Difficult to explain, but Luna and Jean-Pierre are great characters who deserve a better book. First instinct was two stars, but I'm glad that there's a trope-heavy T4T romance in the world and that deserves an extra star.

Thank you for sharing this book with me.
I appreciate the opportunity to read Chef's Choice and share it with my followers.

A super cute fake-dating romance with trans representation front and center. This book is hella tropey and sappy and I am all for it. Other reviewers have mentioned the thin plot, but sometimes you just need a suspended-belief queer Hallmarky story.

I especially like how, combined with the previous novel Chef's Kiss, the author introduces a variety of different trans experiences and perspectives. Luna, Jean-Pierre, Ray, and Luna's girlfriends all have distinctive relationships with gender. It feels a bit preachy and Trans Life 101, but it works.

This story works as a standalone, but Ray and Simone from Chef's Kiss also play an important role!

This is such a great queer romance duology. I was really excited to read Luna's love story after the first book, and I'm glad this didn't disappoint. And much like Chef's Kiss, I loved the way this all resolved.

TJ Alexander writes such wonderful queer romances—they are never predictable and always filled with clever dialogue and memorable, empathetic characters. I think they fill such an important role in the romance community and our store will continue to stock their books!

Funny, charming, refreshing.

Some suspension of disbelief required for the occasional romcom-y dramatics and unrealistically speedy language acquisition that bugged me more than it should have because I am a curmudgeon, but that's okay. It didn't really take away from the heart of this completely adorable romance. The evolution of Jean-Pierre's understanding of community and relationship to his own transness was so fantastic, and Luna's POV was an object lesson in letting your contemporary romance protagonist be emotionally intelligent and self-aware/reflective without Therapy Talking me to death so, uh, some people should probably be taking notes.

Romance celebrating trans love set in the same world as Chef’s Kiss. Stresses the importance of finding your people and found families.

This was cute, but I think I am getting tired of heterosexual romance books. I think I am just not the right audience for it. I think others would love this book, but it was not for me. I still think it was cute though.

Loved this book so much. A heartwarming romance about two trans characters who are fighting in their own way to be accepted.

Title: Chef's Choice
Author: T.J. Alexander
Series: Chef's Kiss #2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: May 30, 2023

I received a complimentary eARC from Emily Bestler Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Comical • Tender • Delicious

📖 S Y N O P S I S

When Luna O’Shea is unceremoniously fired from her frustrating office job, she tries to count her blessings: she’s a proud trans woman who has plenty of friends, a wonderful roommate, and a good life in New York City. But blessings don’t pay the bills.

Enter Jean-Pierre, a laissez-faire trans man and the heir to a huge culinary empire—which he’ll only inherit if he can jump through all the hoops his celebrity chef grandfather has placed in his path. First hoop: he needs a girlfriend, a role that Luna is happy to play…for the right price. She’s got rent to pay, after all! Second hoop: they both need to learn how to cook a series of elaborate, world-renowned family recipes to prove that Jean-Pierre is a worthy heir. Admittedly, Luna doesn’t even know how to crack an egg, but she’s not going to let that—or any pesky feelings for Jean-Pierre—stop her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I adored the plot of book one, Chef's Kiss in this series, so I was eager to receive an ARC of Chef's Choice. I was definitely expecting the same foodie vibes and queer representation. In fact, this is the first trans/trans romance I've read that has been traditionally published.

T.J. Alexander has delivered complex main characters yet again. Luna and Jean-Pierre are complete opposites, and I appreciate getting two different takes on the trans experience. In my opinion, a dual POV structure would have served this story better. Getting JP's inner dialogue would have given this story another layer and there were so many times I was curious to get into his head.

While I really sunk into their developing friendship, the budding romance felt too predictable, and not necessarily all that believable. There were also too many competing storylines. Because of these two factors I didn't feel a full fledged investment in their story. As this book tackles many plotlines, it got bogged down at times. A bigger focus on the actually cooking challenge would have allowed for a smoother reading experience.

Although Chef's Choice is technically part of a series, it could easily be read as a stand-alone. Overall, the story was just okay, yet what I really appreciated was the representation and the open door sex scenes. I will continue to add T.J. Alexander's work to my TBR in the future.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fake dating enthusiasts
• readers looking for a queer love story

⚠️ CW: sexual content, transphobia, dysphoria, sexual harassment, medical content, panic attacks/disorders, cursing, alcohol, classism

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"That is black-and-white thinking, and I live in a world full of color."

I had read the other book in this series but I am not sure which is my favorite of the series. It was a good read and I would continue if this is an ongoing series.

I’m going to start with the weaknesses of this book, which all relate to the plot. Readers MUST go into this knowing the plot is ridiculous. Turn your brain off in order to enjoy levels of ridiculous. On top of the fake-relationship-turned-real trope, there is a convenient access to extravagant amount of money and resources and the idea that two people without the most basic cooking skills can learn to make passable haute cuisine in a short amount of time. Oh, and one of the two MCs also learns French within that same time frame. I know that’s a lot. You have to go in ready to ignore all of that to read this book.

However, the book works as a romance because Luna and Ray, the two MCs, both go through good character and relationship building. They offer two different perspectives towards life in general, but especially trans life, and they both learn and grow as a result of interacting with each other. The journey along with them is thus satisfying. The way in which the book ended was also unexpected, but fitting with the characters and their viewpoints, which tied off the narrative nicely.

I wish the plot matched this book’s good relationship, but for what it is, I thought it was well done.

REVIEW: Chef’s Choice ⭐⭐⭐⭐

“That is black-and-white thinking, and I live in a world full of color.”― T.J. Alexander

After reading The Chef’s Kiss, I wanted to go onto the sequel to see how it was. The sequel features a formly side character, Luna, as the main character while Simone from the first book has become a side character. It was great to learn more about a side character while still having some familiarity with a character from the previous book. Although this book could definitely still be read and enjoyed without reading the first one.

Both the main characters, Luna and Jean-Pierre, are trans. I have read some romance books with trans characters, but not a couple of trans individuals. This book didn’t shy away from any issues both Luna and Jean-Pierre have faced. It was even a very open door physically. I love it when a book just lays it out there. I really loved the chemistry between Luna and Jean-Pierre. They balanced each other out as characters and had so much fun and charm in their interactions.

While this book was still a cooking/chef romance, it had a different angle to it. Instead of being professional chefs, they were both very new to cooking but had to learn quickly in order to earn the title of heir of Jean-Pierre’s grandfather.

I had a few minor issues with some of the plot, such as becoming fluent in French in weeks from Duolingo, but none of it deterred from the enjoyment of the story. Most things were easily looked over.

Overall I enjoyed Chef’s Choice despite some minor plot flaws. I actually liked the sequels more than the first one which is pretty rare to me. I love the representation of different types of relationships shown in books so that people can see themselves in the stories while also learning more about others. Another fun and enjoyable romance from T.J. Alexander!

I love a good fake dating story and this one was amazing. It’s part of a series, but 100% fine as a standalone. I went back and read the other, Chef’s Kiss, because I enjoyed this so much. Excellent characters and an interesting plot

It was definitely cute but quite predictable and lacked some originality. 4 stars for this because it was well written

Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

I heard a lot about this book from a lot of my booktok mutuals and was so excited to read it. So happy to be able to read some T4T representation and TJ wrote this beautifully. I was laughing, giggling, and smiling for hours. It gave me a really warm and fuzzy feeling and I'm so happy that I was able to read this. 3.5/5!

2.75 ⭑

This has been my second queer romance of the week, and I am loving reading about different relationships and love outside what I experience IRL and typically read. I found this T4T romance to be incredibly interesting, especially since Luna and JP have very different ideals they hold important as a trans person. That dichotomy was very interesting!

While I loved the relationship dynamic and reading another queer romance, I felt as if there was very little romance in this book. Luna and JP did more arguing than they did falling in love. There was not much of the tension you often see in fake dating and forced proximity romances, so I felt like the relationship was HEAVILY taking the back burner in comparison to the competition (JP’s inheritance) and the reiterations that this was a paid fake dating gig.

There were some moments (especially the spice) where I was like, “we’re finally getting somewhere! they’re going to actually date,” but that didn’t happen until the very end of this book. I felt like the pacing was off, and the end was very rushed while the middle drug on.

The primary plot was interesting, but I feel as if it overshadowed the progression of JP and Luna’s relationship. That disappointed me!