(Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Country Press for providing an ARC for review consideration! All opinions are my own.) Since the book isn’t out yet, I’m going to avoid spoilers for eager readers. But this novel was an absolute delight! Kwan creates characters that shine individually and pair excellently as foils. The tension between Eden and Alexander heats up deliciously. But as pressure builds from secrets haunting them both, they have to figure out if they’re a recipe for disaster… or if they can salvage something worthwhile. I really enjoyed the variety of conflict that Kwan brings into the story, creating both internal and external challenges for Eden and Alexander to hurdle. This second-chance-at-romance is sure to inspire (blue) butterflies for fans of dyadnamic power couples. If you like “The Bear,” “Sadie on a Plate,” or “Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors,” make sure to add to your TBR!

I propose a petition to change the name of this book to ‘Knives, seasoning and a dash of spicy’.
The chemistry between Alexander and Eden! OMG!!
I read that this is Kathina Kwan’s debut romance novel, and i must say that’s a strong debut.
The characters have a very hard and challenging past, and it is interesting to see how they relate to each other, not ignoring who they are, but integrating their being into the relationship. The secondary characters are no exception, some more interesting than others, and give the story the right kick. Also very interesting we gave villains! Having villains isn't common in romance novels, and it was fun to see them included, even though I hated them deeply.
The only ‘bad thing’ (if we can define it that way) is that the story was too long, i would cut some scene (like the test results one).
in conclusion, that’s definitely a good grumpy x sunshine story. Also, can someone buy me a set of knives?

Thanks to Lake country press & review, and netgalley for this Arc. Thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

A novel that captured me instantly and I wanted it to have a few more pages so as not to say goodbye to the characters I became so fond of.

In this book we found a dedication that really moved me and I knew that it was destiny that made it reach me, that it is a succession of decisions that one makes that led me to choose this book and to be allowed to read it.

It is a very cute, super dynamic story that has everything from humor, romance, super tense moments, spicy and very good personal development. I admit that I would have liked certain character themes of the protagonists to be developed a little more.

If you're looking for something to keep you awake at night because you can't put it down...this is a great option.

Thank you Lake Country Press & Review for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Lake County Press and NetGalley, for the advanced copy of Knives, Seasoning, and A Dash of Love.

Yummy! Spicy! Delectable! How is this a debut? Katrina Kwan, you stole my heart. This most definitely had me feeling the Reylo vibes, and reading the acknowledgments at the end made me giggle. You hit the nail on the head with this one. Loved it! If you don't know who Reylo is, then the best comparison I can give you is Olive and Adam from Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis. Pick this one up. Thank me later.

Eden Monroe needs this job. So what if she told a few little white lies on her resume to land her the job of Adam Chen's sous chef? With three Michelin stars under his belt, you can believe he runs his kitchen with an iron fist. He's short-tempered, a perfectionist, and super hot. While Eden hopes he doesn't remember her from the short stint at culinary school, she is the one who stands up to him and isn't afraid to question his decisions. When things start to heat up, secrets start to get spilled. It's up to the two of them to take on the past head-on and prove that nothing can come between them.

Knives, Spice, and a Hint of Affection is an entertaining, energetic, and sentimentally reminiscent read. Just like the regulars at La Rouge savoring their gourmet dishes, I devoured this novel. Kwan's delightful reimaginings of the reylo universe were scrumptious, and even as someone less versed in fanfiction compared to some of the fervent enthusiasts, it presented a lucid and innovative retelling.

From the mutual pressures of managing a restaurant to their individual threads of past trauma, Eden and Alexander unite in a passionate whirlwind of a love story. I adored Eden's ability to effortlessly win over even the most cautious adversaries, and Alexander's initially prickly demeanor that eventually revealed itself as tender as a molten chocolate lava cake.

Despite the two outstanding protagonists, the supporting cast flirted with the idea of stealing the spotlight in the most delightful manner. From the restaurant staff to Alexander's family, the entire ensemble struck the perfect balance between uproarious hilarity and heartwarming relationships.

The seasoning in the narrative was abundant and enjoyable, and I eagerly anticipate whatever else Kwan may choose to grace us with in the future.

You know what you shouldn’t do is be on an empty stomach while reading Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love. Katrina Kwan’s debut romance set in the world of haute cuisine is just as packed with mouthwatering recipes as it is with a cast of characters that are alternately sweet and spicy.

Grumpy and oh-so-serious chef Alexander Chen has his world knocked out from under him when his Michelin-starred French restaurant gets a new sous-chef in the form of Eden Monroe. Eden has a pretty serious secret: she’s lying about…pretty much her entire employment history and formal training. While Alexander tries to adjust to this new, sunshine-personified presence in his kitchen, Eden fights to maintain her secret in order to keep a job she can’t afford to lose.

Alexander takes Eden under his wing, and the two of them grow closer, with the heat in the kitchen eventually turning into heat elsewhere too. But things are never so simple, with Alexander also feeling a lot of intense pressure from the restaurant owner to perform to a certain standard, as well as harboring some secrets of his own.

One of the highlights of the book is easily the setting. A restaurant kitchen is a prime location for hot tempers to run hotter, and for high stress to bring prime angst right to the surface. The cast of characters that round out Alexander and Eden’s story, comprised of their fellow chefs, make for an entertaining chorus-like group rooting for these two kids to put their snark aside and give in to their very obvious feelings.

In her debut effort, Kwan manages to firmly immerse the reader in the world she’s created, combining slice-of-life moments with the larger more Big Plot-centric concerns, which can make some chapters feel more like little self-contained vignettes. That said, Knives, Seasoning & a Dash of Love is still overall a sweet, breezy romance, sprinkled with spice to keep things interesting, and I would definitely be interested to see what Kwan comes up with next.

Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love is out December 19. Special thank you to Netgalley and Lake Country Press for the advance copy for review purposes.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. So thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!

THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE ROMANCE NOVEL!
Of this year AND most probably of all time honestly.
This just was a whole experience. I love the cover, i love the synopsis, and I’m in love with the characters. I’m obsessed with them.
I could read a billion more of them and not get bored of it.
5/5

Knives, Seasoning, & A Dash of Love by Katrina Kwan is utterly delicious--every single ingredient for the perfect love story is here in this wise and witty story.
A charming enemies to lovers romance with up your favorite Grumpy x Sunshine trope.
The tension, the banter, the chemistry and the utterly charming setting all worked to perfection.
A wonderful debut romance that I truly enjoyed.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Lake Country Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Bottom line: charming chef romance that will leave you hungry (for food) - preorder this December release now!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alexander (Shang) Chen if a talented chef. Eden Monroe is his newly hired sous chef. Eden may or may not have some dark spots in her past, but so does Alexander. Sparks fly when they meet and continue throughout the book. It's a sparkling, charming, feel-good story, with plenty of food descriptions to keep you drooling.

Both MCs had personal struggles to overcome, which were satisfying in a realistic way I don't often find in romance novels. I would've liked to see a little more depth given to Eden's parents, and felt the novel resolved a little too prettily/quickly. However, these notes didn't take away from the overall feeling of delight and enjoyment I had throughout the book. If you like food, Chinese-American characters, found family, romance, and food, you'll like this book.

This book was an absolute delight! A fun enemies to lovers romance that had such an exciting premise. I absolutely loved the workplace/rival chef storyline, and Shang and Eden's falling in love story kept me glued to this book. I could relate a lot to Alexander/Shang's story of working his way up the ladder and proving himself. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I think this grumpy/sunshine hidden gem will really knock it out with readers who enjoy similar stories!

As soon as I saw this cover, I knew i just had to request and read it! Love stories entered around food and this rom com was just was I needed right now. I loved both the main characters, and their imperfections and insecurities felt so real. Highly recommend and I can't wait to read more from this author.

The Reylo is strong with this one! This is a super cute rom-com and since I've recently been obsessed with The Bear, this has come at an excellent time. This book had one of my fave tropes (Grumpy x Sunshine) and I really enjoyed Alexander and Eden's dynamic. I also adored the restaurant crew cast as well.

Recommend if you just want a happy, fluffy rom-com with a culinary setting!

*review already posted to Goodreads.

3.5

this was nice, fun, and charming! books set in the culinary world always fascinate me and i'm really impressed when people are able to convey the lushness of food and gastronomy in a creative way. eden was sweet and kind and going through so much over the course of the story that i felt the respite she felt when working with alexander. the romance was sweet but i liked that we were able to explore the internal baggage these characters carry as well.

Katrina Kwan delivers a debut romance that's charming and vivid with characters that do feel to almost jump off the page. alexander's broody surliness is like catnip to me and i think the author did a great job of exploring his mental health issues, along with the challenges of being a person of colour in a notoriously white field.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Country Press for the ARC.

I flew through this grumpy/sunshine romance, I'd call it enemies to lovers but they got past the enemies part really fast. I thought Eden's big secret was a weird one but just went with it (and found the resolution of it to be exactly as expected). I loved the kitchen dynamic. It was like the Hulu show The Bear but as a romance novel. The only thing I didn't like was the end. There were 3 or 4 time jumps and personally, those aren't for me. Maybe one would have been okay, but by the time we got to 5 years later, I was checked out. I will be recommending this to our romance fans. I think they will eat it up.

I fell in love with this heartwarming romance! I am an absolute, die hard, kitchen romance fan and this book was perfect! If I had to pick three words alone to describe this book, it would be cozy, warm, and delicious.
For context, Eden gets a job at a fine dining restaurant as soux chef. He recognizes the head chef, although he seems more cold and goes by a new name. Luckily Alexander doesn't recognize her because she may have fudged her resume to get the job. As things heat up in the kitchen, they also heat up between Eden and Alexander!
You can tell that author, Katrina Kwan, put so much love and research into her story. I could taste the food being prepared on the pages. Even the spicy scenes made me hungry!
This was such a compelling and easy read that I think all RomCom lovers will enjoy it!
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, how I adored this book. There’s something comforting about culinary romances, I simply love them. The behind-the-scenes of a restaurant and the food prep always fascinates me. It’s so sad that chefs in haute cuisine kitchens can be still cruel and fearsome to their staff. It’s great that Eden points out that the work can be more efficient if there’s appreciation and appraisal and there’s no need to be a jerk. I liked the flow of the story. There were several conflicts throughout the story which were addressed in their own time. I liked the extended timeline as well. Most of the characters were likeable, they made a nice friend group. The main characters, Eden and Alexander had off-the-charts chemistry and they weren’t afraid to explore it. But they had scars, too. Both of them had issues from the past which they had to face in order to find their real selves. And when they trusted each other with these, they were there for each other and supported each other all the way. I found the ending really lovely, the whole book was a comfort read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the book.

Thank you netgalley for this arc!!! Honestly, I had a really hard time getting through it. I usually love reylo fanfics turned published romances, but this one just felt really unpolished. The writing was amateurish. There are a lot of places where it felt unedited and had very cringe-y dialogue, which I can usually overlook if the romance is fun enough, but it felt like Alexander and Eden were already together at the 25% mark. The rest of the book was just wrapping up the plot of her missing parents and their time together in the kitchen. It misses the mark in lot of ways by not adequately building up the tension between them.

I can see why other people like it. Overall it’s fun and there’s a lot of good stuff about Alexander’s Asian identity as well as the restaurant environment. But personally, if this was a fanfic rather than an arc review I would have clicked away much sooner

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! Going into it I was skeptical of if I would enjoy a chef romance, given I don't personally relate to that profession, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying this read! At first glance, Alexander and Eden appear to be the perfect embodiment of the grumpy/sunshine trope but the deeper we get into the story the more we see their personalities blossom into something much more. I absolutely loved that this book included both blood related family and found family and the joy and struggles of each. At times I felt that Alexander and Eden's relationship was a bit too fast paced but I still definitely enjoyed their story. This book had a bit too much spice for my personal taste but if that's your cup of tea then this book will deliver a steaming hot cup of it!

What a brilliant debut book from Katrina Kwan. This grumpy /sunshine rom-com is hot, hot, hot! With so many layers to the story to keep you hooked the whole time. Alexander and Eden HEA is a captivating read. Loved it!

The things Chen did for her were just - I don't even know how to describe it! I love him so much. I love how Kwan also represented him as introverted and closed off, as I was able to very much relate to that. Plus, don't get me started on my love for my girl, Eden. They were so adorable. I loved them to pieces!