This is such an interesting read!

This story is about a woman that is "losing it", Sometimes that storyline can be repetitive. In the early stages of the book, we find that her fiance has done something to betray her. Probably cheating i am certain. Even though we know that she knows she doesnt want to be with him i feel that she is hurt by the betrayal.

I feel that the whole book is about her trying to avoid the betrayal and not wanting things to change. I feel that the character of piglet should have stopped the wedding because this would have added to her character. Just my Opinion.

I enjoyed the story and the plot line.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the opportunity to receive an ARC for this book.

We follow Piglet as she is about to marry her fiancé Kit in 98 days. Everything on the surface seems good with her relationship with Kit, her friends, her in-laws, and her coworkers 14 days before the wedding, Kit reveals a confession to Piglet that causes her to become unhinged in her work and relationships with those around her. Does she end up going through with the wedding?

The title and cover initially drew me in and the story was just as good. Piglet was such a complex character and I enjoyed reading her journey from the beginning to the end trying to keep everything afloat. The food descriptions were mouth watering. The ending was complete chaos and felt like it was leading up to its conclusion the whole time, like an overflowing pot of water. It is an interesting take on what people deserve, from others and ourselves. My mouth would be open at some of the scenes because I’m not sure what I was expecting but not what actually did. Reading how Piglet feels about her body was something that I can relate to because I am currently working on healing my relationship with food and my body image so seeing that in a book was cool.

This book comes out on March 5, 2024 and I think you should keep an eye out for this because it is a unique story. I would recommend this to those who like literary fiction that is thought provoking. If reading about food or body image is triggering for you, maybe skip this one until you are in a place to do so, I think. It is not a light read so know that going in.

I was immediately pulled into the food descriptions of this book and the life of Piglet, who is counting down the days to her wedding. This book is about her slow unraveling, and alongside the delicious foods that she cooks and eats is a deep melancholy. Hazell's writing brims with lavish description.

enjoyed this book, appreciated the commentary on femininity + food + family. felt frustrated at times and overall didn't care for many of the characters, but couldn't look away. i think this one will be a huge hit

thank you netgalley for the read!

🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Piglet” is an odd little book, in a very enjoyable way. The titular character—a nickname bestowed by her parents—is preparing to marry her fiancé, Kit, while also eyeing a possible promotion on the horizon. Objectively, her life is living up to all of the expectations she’s been expected to meet. Everything *should* be perfect.

The book’s chapters are organized as a countdown to Piglet’s wedding day, with tiny insights included at the each of them that hint at the night that will disrupt the course of their relationship. The narrative is a bit of a before and after, and once the night occurs it’s impossible to go back. As the story progresses, you can feel the confines of Piglet’s existence begin to close in around her; it’s as if she’s being consumed by the life she is moving towards. Fitting, for a book that uses Piglet’s appetite & appreciation for food as a vehicle for her journey.

This is the type of story you’ll want to read so that you can feel cool when recommending it to friends. It’s set to be published on March 5, 2024, so keep an eye out—this is one I’d definitely suggest you add to your TBR list!

(and, as always, thanks to the publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!)

Piglet is a book about women’s appetites in every sense of the word. Piglet and Kit are set to be married and everything is seemingly perfect until he makes a confession a few weeks before the wedding. The book explores control and desire through the lens of food and femininity. I found the book to be quirky, emotional and highly relatable. Fans of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn are likely to enjoy this book as well.

Childhood nicknames are often given to you in a moment best forgotten. They can overshadow childhood and in this case plague your adult life. Pippa , the title character, has molded a life as picturesque as it is full. Piglet , a family nickname, is a title that has followed Pippa and in the the weeks leading up to her wedding foreshadowed a wedding scene that screams for the big screen. Kit and Piglet are deep in preparations of a wedding that promised fairytale pictures and two families far apart in lifestyle. Kit , promising future in tact, has confessed to Piglet two weeks before the wedding a truth so awful anyone who it’s revealed to cringes with disbelief. Resigned to going forward Piglet’s behavior pushes to the surface with an angry steadiness that has the readers temperature on the boil. That said it is the reverence that Piglet gives to the dishes she makes and the plans for meals to come that captures a joy that only finds release in the kitchen. The description of making the dreaded wedding Croquembouche , and its traditional smashing that finally allows Piglet to set her own course. I am a newfound fan of Ms Hazell. I urge you to read this glorious journey of a woman who has learned the hard way to embrace what she wants.

A razor-sharp commentary on social class and status in the UK, PIGLET was delightful, sad, and a page-turner. Piglet is our heroine, who hasn't escaped the unfortunate nickname she was given as a child. She is set to marry Kit in 98 days, and as we inch ever closer to the fateful day, secrets are revealed and Piglet starts to give into desires that she has repressed for many years. It's a quick but somewhat depressing read with an incredible cover. Fair warning: the entire book will make you hungry

I was surprised by how much this story drew me in. I finished it quickly and found it an interesting study of an imploding relationship. But don't be fooled by the mouth-watering cover: this is a depressing read. I've never personally related to that old expression about not being able to look away from a car crash. Even though I love to watch violent and gory horror movies, when it comes to real-life suffering I am the first to look away, and look away quickly. I'm not a galker. So it was odd that this book held my attention, as the main character Piglet, (her loved ones call her Piglet, for crying out loud), suffers one indignity after another. Several reviews say that she is not likable but I disagree. In fact, I found her very sympathetic. Sometimes I read these books and find myself relating to the characters in one small way or another, then I read the reviews and people are like, “Omg what an awful person!” It’s a tad worrisome for me personally.

The constant detailed descriptions of cooking and delicious food throughout this book were almost pornographic. Food is Piglet’s love language, but it’s also her means of self-destruction. She is a skilled chef, and the way she handles ingredients feels like art. She cooks for the people she loves, and she edits cookbooks as a career. But when she feels the need to punish herself for whatever reason or to self-soothe, she also turns to food.

I liked the general themes in this novel of growing apart from your friends, growing apart from your parents as you get older and get engaged and become different people, etc. That was all well done. Piglet and her best friend Margot are dealing with different life events while still trying to hold their friendship together. At the same time, there was the conflict of things like Piglet being embarrassed by her lower class family one moment but full of nostalgia and love for them the next. Though there were also a few cliches in the story, (awful in-laws being the biggest one.)

The best thing about this book was how complicated the relationship dynamics were between the characters. Not just Piglet and her fiancé but Piglet and her friends, her family and even her coworkers. When you have secrets that are tearing you up inside, how are the different people in your life going to respond when you share it with them? Will they be supportive or will they treat you differently? Sometimes the results are shocking. The wedding dress scene near the end of the story was one of the most uncomfortable and sad things I’ve ever read.

The little summaries at the end of each chapter didn’t add anything for me and some of them didn’t even feel related to what I had just read. I also didn’t understand some of the British slang, but there wasn't a ton of it so that didn't pose much of a problem. I'm giving the book a 4 out of 5 because I only really give 5's now if I absolutely love a book and want to read it again. But I could easily see this becoming popular, and even being made into a movie. It would make a great dark indie drama. Not quite on the level of a Darren Aronofsky, as the tone tends to veer towards dark comedy a little bit, but the binge eating scenes and the fat shaming moments with the family members (again, the wedding dress part) are very upsetting and would make for uncomfortable drama on the big screen.

TW: Eating disorder, body shaming

I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, the writing is fantastic. I particularly enjoyed all the food descriptions.
As for the plot, I found it a bit confusing. I wished there was a more depth in terms of the characters as well, not that they necessarily have to be likable but there were too dimensional except the narrator. The ending was okay.
While I’ve come to appreciate the themes that were touched in the novel but I thought it just lacked something I can’t place a word on.

4.5 stars. Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC!

First things first - I love reading about food. I love slurping up long, descriptive passages in books about what the characters are eating, what the food tastes like, what it looks like, etc and this book had it all in spades. At many points uncomfortable (even painful) to read, I found this nevertheless engrossing, like a car wreck I couldn’t look away from. Piglet’s repeated self-sabotage and self-destructive tendencies were so frustrating as a reader, but the author kept me hooked throughout and I found myself really enjoying the book. I’m looking forward to reading more from the author!

This book made me incredibly hungry! Delectable food, drama and more food! Being a foodie mysel,, I understood the importance of food in this story and how food takes part in so many areas of our life.

Piglet, who a cook book editor, has the perfect life and the story begins 98 days before her wedding. Drama ensues, and the reader is taken in a roller coaster ride of emotions.

This book was intriguing and I loved the different dynamics of her relationships with family and friends. But there was a detail in this book that was enormously frustrating for me and I wanted to throw my book at the wall, but since I was reading on my iPad, I could not. I enjoyed this story and could not put it down because I needed to know that certain detail I was speaking about.

Fantastic writing by the author and so much in this book to talk about. It would be a fantastic book for book club.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for the Advanced Reader Copy. #NetGalley #Piglet

This debut novel is an absolutely engrossing delicious tale of a strong female protagonist, her spiraling out of control crazy life and her love of food. It is beautifully disastrous in a darkly satirical way. The author, Lottie Hazell using food through descriptive detail allows the reader to taste the raw, unfiltered emotion in this book. I was there for every morsel. I loved it. The book has an expected release date of March 5, 2024. It is a delectable novel you'll want to taste. Yum.

Thank you to the author Lottie Hazell, Henry Holt and Co., and NetGalley for this ARC.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I absolutely love this novel. Piglet is a wonderful woman with a dreadful nickname. She learns that feeding herself and getting her needs met gets her called greedy or a piglet and allows herself to starve both literally and figuratively. When her heart is broken, she feeds herself to rebuild it. In the process, she remakes her life.

Piglet was a nickname given to her as a child and that’s what people still called her. She lived for food. She was a cookbook editor, and when she was happy or sad, she was always in the mood to cook or eat.

In the countdown to their wedding day, fiancé Kit admits to Piglet that he cheated on her once. No other details were needed. Piglet thought she could move forward and agreed with Kit that the wedding was still on. With each passing day, she can’t seem to shake her anger and rage. She didn’t tell all her friends, just one and her dad. The way that Lottie explains the almost torture that Kit and Piglet go through is so engrossing. I could not put this book down. I felt like I went through all the emotions with them and am still thinking about it. The back and forth that Piglet went through was honest and brutal. One minute feeling positive and the next she was almost paralyzed, not knowing what to do. The expectations both families had was interesting since they both sided with Kit and wanted Piglet to get over it. Nothing like low expectations at the start of a marriage. In the end this life-changing event did not bring her any closer to her family, but food was still there to comfort her. There was a lot of very descriptive cooking that made me want to start making big dinners. This was Lottie Hazell’s debut novel, and it was amazing.

An interesting story about a woman coming undone. A story where the person she wants to be and the person she is come to a head. I thought the premise was intriguing. It was a little repetitive. We are told fairly early into the book that Kit the fiancé has done something to betray Piglet (presumably he cheated on her). But then the rest of the book with the exception of the last like thirty odd pages or so is her trying to reconcile the fact that she knows in her heart that she doesn't want to be with him anymore, while also wanting to be the sort of person who could stay and build the life expected of her anyway. And while I like the book overall I think they either needed to tell us that information later on in the book of the confrontation needed to happen earlier. Also would have liked it more if it was discussed more what she is planning to do afterwards. The whole book is her trying not to acknowledge this betrayal and the hurt she feels because she knows that if she does everything will change. But some admittance on her part beyond the superficial "this is not what I want" and stopping the wedding would have added a lot to her character I felt. She felt rather flat and one dimensional and there wasn't any real growth throughout the story. Which perhaps is realistic but it was still a bit of a let down. However, it is a nice book whose story I enjoyed.

Devoured this in a single, Sunday afternoon. I love the conversations on class divides, rapturous food descriptions, and women being angry. Piglet isn’t trying to be anyone’s hero, she is just hungry. I love not knowing what exactly is going nor why Piglet is doing what she is doing. If you liked “Nightbitch,” this is for you.

The cover is what caught my eye initially, but the story proved to be interesting. The story follows Piglet, or Pig, and the events leading up to her wedding day. Something her fiancé discloses to her prior to the wedding creates a giant riff in their relationship and we follow Piglet wrestling with her future. There is a lot of comments on class in this novel. If you have ever dated someone out of your tax bracket, or from a more educated family, you may be able to relate. Overall though, I did not particularly care for the numerous descriptive food scenes. It felt like Julia Child and scenes from Disney's Ratatouille took over this book. Also, I wanted to know the husbands secret so badly and the author strung me along, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't work for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for this digital ARC.

Ooh Piglet… where to begin with this one!

Okay, let’s start with the positives: Piglet is an engaging read, I found myself wanting to return to this novel, and so curious to find out what the main character’s husband’s betrayal was. The writing style is engaging and I especially loved the food descriptions, which seems to be something that resonated with many other readers as well. I enjoyed the supporting characters- Piglet’s family felt real and fully formed. Her best friend Margot felt maybe a little less so, but she was an angel who fully supported Piglet, even when Piglet didn’t deserve it, so I could overlook that.

Now what didn’t work for me. We learn early on that Piglet’s husband-to-be has betrayed her in some massive, life-altering way. It’s hinted at again and again. And this is a little bit of a spoiler alert…


But no, we never actually learn what he did. Some readers may argue, Does it really matter what he did, since we know he betrayed her trust? A betrayal is a betrayal, does it really hurt the novel that we don’t find out what it was?

And my response to this is yes, it did hurt the novel. It felt almost lazy of the author to leave out the most crucial bit of information, like she couldn’t come up with something shattering enough to include. I’m sure this isn’t the case, and the author knows what this supposed betrayal is- but why can’t the readers be privy to that information as well? I felt like such a huge chunk of missing information did this novel a huge disservice. It’s assumed he cheated on her- but I felt like we really needed to see that conversation in order to understand Piglet’s mindset going forward. Why would her fiancé tell his parents what he did, and why would Piglet tell various family members and her best friend- but we as the readers don’t get to know? I can understand why some readers would say it doesn’t matter, but it did to me. For one, I’m nosy, and for two, I think this would have added so much more to the novel.

I was also a bit confused by the way Piglet’s eating disorder was handled. I wanted more exploration of this subject but it seemed almost secondary to the intrigue about what her fiancé did. Yes, it was clear and understandable that her fiancé’s actions had exacerbated her issues but it seems like Piglet’s issues were hidden from the reader for the majority of the book, only to rear up towards the end in full force; in this way the story felt a little bit unbalanced- like a meal missing a necessary ingredient.

The whole wedding scene was fabulous though- I fully enjoyed the mess of it all, though again I thought the author should have really gone all out and let the reader finally find out what her fiancé had done, during at the wedding. The entire book I felt like we were waiting for some huge shocking revelation- but we just never got it. Overall, I gave this one 3 stars. I felt it had so much potential but never really got to where I wanted it to go.

There is a lot of salacious food talk here so take that as my trigger warning and do not read Piglet on an empty stomach. Piglet’s journey is unique and compelling. There is some dark humor and also some tense moments that keep you turning the pages. I love a good character study and this one was original and clever.