3.5 This book was absolutely INSANE! I am not even sure what exactly to say about this. My mind is still all over the place. This was a very interesting look at the human psyche and just how far we and our minds go under stress. I will come back to edit this once I gather my thoughts.

Thank you for the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In this story we follow Piglet, a cookbook editor and avid culinary enthusiast on the days leading up to her wedding. Despite her best efforts to control every aspect of her life & follow her carefully constructed plan (or recipe for happiness if you will), a bombshell is dropped on her 13 days before her wedding and she has to decide what’s more important, being truly happy or keeping up appearances. Piglet is left reeling and we watch as the threads of her life begin to unravel.

I absolutely adored this book! What an amazing debut by Hazel. Those of you with anxiety or OCD will feel seen by this book. I could very much relate to Piglet’s extremely high standards for her life and her perfectionistic tendencies which only set her up for disappointment. The story explores themes of family dynamics, class, control, self actualization, & authenticity. I felt so many things reading this including anger, sadness, pity, guilt, and satisfaction. Naturally, there are so many mouthwatering descriptions of food included and I learned a lot about cooking, although I did have to stop and look things up frequently (such as croquembouche and Tarte Tatin)😅. Overall, I highly recommend!

Read if you like:
Amazing descriptions of food, stories about family dynamics and class struggles,

THIS BOOK WAS DELICIOUS. I loved every moment of this book. I loved how Piglet's binge eating was representative of what was going on in her life and how eating food was used as an escape to her problems and what she was going through. The food descriptions were truly CHEF'S KISS 👩🏼‍🍳💋 and made me soooo hungry. The little tidbits at the end of each chapter provided insight to fill in gaps but also were just beautifully written thoughts. On top of the eating metaphor, I loved the juxtaposition between Piglet's lower/middle class family and her fiancé Kit's wealthy upperclass family. It added to the complicated dilemma that Piglet faced in several ways. This will easily be a book that I buy for my shelf and one that I will tell all my litfic girlies about.

I loved it! I have a feeling you will be seeing this book everywhere this spring. It's Hazell's debut novel and I was so impressed with the writing (it's so good!) and her take on women's desire and the ways they so often deny themselves.

Hazell explores Piglet and Kit's relationships and histories with their friends and families. They are so well-drawn as characters that it is easy to understand their motivations and sympathize with them.

Each chapter has an interlude of Piglet's thoughts or a foreshadowing of what will happen. Those tidbits kept me intrigued to know how everything would pan out.

I love a novel about food, and this one will firmly be entered into my list of favorites. The food scenes had my mouth watering (there are some delightful dinner party scenes) in some and my stomach churning with anxiety in others (a scene where Piglet is determined to make a croquembouche the morning of her wedding). Hazell flirts with the horror genre in some of her descriptions of food, which is a testament to how well she takes you on Piglet's emotional journey.

I had to wait to do my review to let my emotions regarding this book settle a bit. I spent a lot of time during the beginning and middle of the book waiting to find out more about Kit's betrayal. Since others have stated this, I will too: we don't find out. Don't waste your time wondering because while you are obsessing over that, you will miss the meat of the story (sorry.....food pun!) like I almost did. This event is just the tipping point as Piglet comes to terms with her own history, the world she thought she wanted for herself, and what she actually wants. What he did doesn't matter! It is merely the catalyst for Piglet's self-reflection. The story is laid out through the meals she makes and the food she stress eats in the weeks leading up to her nuptials. Along those lines, I do not like the multi-layered hamburger cover as it suggests wanton gluttony. Sure, Piglet seriously packs away some food, but I never saw her as shoveling it into her mouth, more just a continual steady stuffing. The donut cover is a bit more to my liking, but I envision a photo focused on a croquembouche with a disaster in the background. This would make a wonderful book club pick! I ended the book wanting desperately to talk to someone about it.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on February 27, 2024.

Aside from the nickname she was given as a child, Piglet loves her life. She is a cookbook editor at a London publishing house. She has wonderful friends, a fiancé, and a new house. Her life is everything she dreamed it would be until, two weeks before her wedding, her fiancé, Kit, confesses a betrayal. Piglet decides to forgive him and move forward with the wedding, but as the wedding grows closer, Piglet finds the life she so carefully planned spiraling out of control.

This is Lottie Hazell’s debut novel, and I think she has a bright future. Her writing style is different, but it’s also refreshing. Instead of spelling everything out, she leaves a lot up to the interpretation of the reader.

I really liked this book, although I went back and forth on the rating. At times I thought it could be a five star read and other times I thought it might only be three. I settled on four because it was compulsively readable and hard to put down, even when I didn’t love it. This book covers a lot of difficult themes, so please look up content warnings.

I found this to be really underwhelming... I read A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers and I think that became my standard for writing about food and it felt it didn't really live up to my hopes. I found the story too to be meandering and slow. There was a lot of build up as to what was so bad that Piglet's husband did, and then do find out it was only cheating had me really disappointed (not because cheating isn't horrible, but because it's predictable in this novel, and especially that it was prolonged cheating, because to me that takes the question of staying out of the question). I found the actions of her friends and family as well to be surprising in a negative way, so really I just couldn't find a character to root for since Piglet didn't seem to me to have any core beliefs or root values herself. I wish this was better but overall I wasn't a fan. I think it did display a complicated relationship with food in an understandable and sympathetic way, however, and would have liked the story to be almost a little more about that than her considering whether to stay with a clearly garbage man.

Piglet is happy in her life, except for the childhood nickname she can’t shake. Until her finance admits to a betrayal two weeks before their wedding. As she prepares for the wedding, she becomes enamored by food and becomes unsettled.

The food descriptions in this book are the best I’ve ever read. I’d love a cookbook version of the fiction story. I kept with the story, interested in figuring out exactly what was going on, but I never really did. There was a lot left out that I felt I missed to fully enjoy the story, plot wise. Emotionally, it was all there. That may not make sense, but if you read it it may.

“How much of this life could be true, when it had been built around a lie.”

Piglet comes out 2/27.

Piglet is a cerebral, detached but emotionally charged novel. Leaving you questions everything and anything about how you want to live in life. Do you do what is expected of you? Or do you want to live the way you want?

This was a reminder of how sometimes - family, friendships, and love varies from person to person and always resulting in taking a different road than expected.

An original idea executed very well! Hazell does such an effective job of building tension in several scenes, I had to double check that this is a debut novel. And the food descriptions are first rate. Some readers may struggle with a plot where not much happens, but the quality of the writing kept me turning pages. I will definitely tune in for Hazell's sophomore effort.

This was an addictive read that left me hungry for cheeseburgers.I loved the writing style and food descriptions were delicious. I found the characters compelling and was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what Piglet would do. I do wish the eating disorders had been unpacked a little more, especially since it seemed both Piglet and her sister had differing ones. Overall, I would recommend to others with trigger warnings. I will post my review on bookstagram on February 27th. Thank you!

It’s a quite normal book. It feels very 2020s with the way the story with Piglet and her fiancé and family is told. It feels like an airport read. Something you’d pick up once and never again. It’s completely fine for what it is but nothing extraordinary.

I wanted to love this book. As a girl who has struggled with overeating and simultaneously experienced that feeling of emptiness, I had hoped to see a lot of myself in the character of Piglet. However, I ultimately just found her decision making, and the writing of her interiority, to be unclear and frustrating. I wanted so much more from her and from the plot of the novel, which felt undercooked to say the least. I’ll be curious to read more from this author as she develops her voice, but this one was sadly a bit of a miss for me. Thank you for access to the arc, though!

After a betrayal by her fiancé, Piglet (an unfortunate childhood nickname she hasn’t outgrown) finds herself consumed by insatiable hunger.

I struggled to get into this one. I liked the idea, but the writing didn’t draw me in.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Hold Co. for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Piglet was a DELICIOUS!

WARNING: Best to read on a full stomach! The foo descriptions will make your mouth water and your belly hungry. The evening I started reading the ARC, I kept telling my family, "I just want to be left alone with Piglet." She felt like a friend. In fact, she reminded me of a friend who enjoys cooking/overeats and was obsessed with planning the wedding of her dreams. The author is very descriptive. I appreciated how she described table settings and meals, as well as just the right amount of brad name usage, such as Le Crueset, Mark & Spenser, etc.

I appreciated the witty lines, including:

"...their conversations rising as their wineglasses emptied."

"It had reached the point in the evening when the plates were empty and the atmosphere was souring like Piglet's tongue, dry from the wine."

"....and she would feel his words like shard a shard of bone between her ribs."

The book explores relationships of being a daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend/fiance, wife and in-law. Piglet's dad has some very powerful statements. I appreciate the themes and messages of this book.

Piglet is one of the most original novels I have read in a long time. It focuses on the titular character’s relationships - with food, but also with family, friends, her fiancé, and family-to-be. Piglet is in a time of transition, in her thirties and about to be married, where all of her relationships are in flux and she is trying to build herself a perfect life. But just days before her wedding her fiancé reveals a secret, and suddenly the life she has constructed isn’t looking so stable after all.

The language and writing style are so immersive. The first chapter is almost guaranteed to hook you. As others have noted, the food descriptions are fantastic. But I really loved the way emotion was conveyed through the cooking scenes, and how her relationship with food really echoed how she was feeling about the rest of her life as the narrative unfolded. The book also highlights other aspects about people’s relationships with food: how it connects with our identities, with our class, and how it can connect us with others or divide us. There is so much in between the lines here.

I recommend Piglet to anyone who likes character and relationship focused stories. It’s a fast and propulsive read - I finished it in a couple of sittings.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review!*

This book is an exquisite mess, as is its protagonist. It is highly dramatic and made me audibly cringe and gasp at many points. I loved the incredible food descriptions, the understanding of two eating disorders present in two sisters, the social class clash between the two families, and the incredible challenge that it is to stand up for yourself and listen to your gut when it’s telling you something is wrong. Thank goodness for good friends like Margot.

I really enjoyed Piglet but could not get past how disappointed I was by the ending. I think this will be a polarizing title, however, and a great book to use for a book club!

Piglet is seemingly settled in her life. She has a fiancée (Kit), a new house, a group of friends to have over for dinner parties, and a job that she enjoys editing cookbooks. However, Kit reveals a betrayal two weeks before the wedding and suddenly Piglet feels an emptiness inside of her that must be filled by food. Suddenly all of her relationships, with her family, her friends, her coworkers, and her fiancée, are all in turmoil and she cannot stop eating. This was an absolutely fascinating read. The writing was incredible and I just wanted to see where the story was going. The descriptions of food were absolutely amazing, so don't read this book if you're hungry. I would recommend it to fans of Sweetbitter, anyone who is big into food, and anyone who likes books about complicated relationships.

I really liked a lot of elements of this novel. I really liked Piglet and Kit. I found their character development to be believable. I found myself starting to skim when food descriptions came up. I just didn't care and I felt like they really started to drag. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the plot and characters.