London

Olive Stone is a food journalist for The London Times. For some years now, she has been estranged from her father after he and her mother divorced. Now, the man has died and Olive learns that he has left his beloved Italian restaurant, Nicky’s, to her. As a child she spent many days at the restaurant where both her father and mother shared duties. Her father had been in the middle of writing a cookbook and has requested that along with the restaurant’s long-time head chef, Leo Ricci, they finish it. Every summer, the family would spend four weeks in Italy eating delicious food and discovering new recipes to use in the restaurant. It seems that the trip for Olive and Leo has been planned and paid for. Now here’s the problem. Olive feels the restaurant may not be doing as well as it should and she wants to sell it. Leo is appalled and begs her to just take the trip and finish the cookbook and, hopefully, she will change her mind and keep the restaurant. So, she agrees.

As Leo and Olive spend time in different areas of Italy, they taste lots of dishes and come up with three different recipes for each of the three areas they visit. They meet up with an old friend of Olive’s father; Leo’s aunt; and

Spending time together and sharing food and wine brings the two of them together as they get to know one another. This soon leads to an attraction that cannot be denied. As Olive becomes more involved with recipes, she wonders if she can really sell her father’s restaurant.

This book was enjoyable especially in the descriptions of the food. I found Olive’s girlfriends and confidents to be clever and fun. I really liked Leo but did not care for Olive at all. She always seems to have to be the boss and have the last word. But an enjoyable story.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the E-Arc. I am not stranger to books by Lizzy Dent so it is no surprise that her books are very much about the FMC finding her way and her strength at least that is how I interpret it and this one was no different. Olive embarks on this journey to finish her fathers cookbook with her fathers protege Leo. The places they went the food ahhh it was like you were there. This book had it all the feels laughs with the Olive and her besties, the chemistry with Leo, but most importantly Olive finding herself in the world of her father and coming to terms with her grief. Once again Lizzy Dent did not disappoint.

3.75 ⭐️

Just One Taste is a fast-paced cute read that follows Olive and Leo as they travel through Italy in order to complete a cookbook. This is not just your average cute romance, both of the characters in this story are also dealing with grief as they mourn someone very important to them. My only "complaint" is that this book made me ridiculously hungry! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed "The Seven Year Slip", minus the magical realism I feel that the writing style, grief, and love of food is very similar.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the chance to read the ARC of Just One Taste.

(Review posted to My Goodreads Account)

I read this in one day because I couldn't put it down. I absolutely loved this book. I like Lizzy Dents writing and her banter between characters is amazing. I loved this story line. On top of the family drama the food she talks about is mouth watering. I loved it!

This was a whimsical summer read with a backdrop of Italy and some mouth watering food. I love an enemy to lovers type vibe, it just took me a little bit to actually get into this book

This one has a great Italian setting and lots of Italian food references, but the story just didn’t do much for me. I wasn’t really into the romance between Olive and Leo e or the little unexpected twist in this one.

Pick it up for a foodie romance.

There was something off, uncomfortable and awkward about this book. I’m not sure if it was Olive’s attitude or acting like a petulant child or if it was the strange Italy plot. It just didn’t work for me for some reason. The author spends a lot of time on build up with no peak.

Just when I thought I couldn't possibly want to visit Italy anymore than I already do, here comes Lizzy Dent with Just One Taste, which is basically a romantic romp throughout the country.

Olive Stone has been estranged from her father, Nicky, an Italian chef and restaurateur for fourteen years. So no one is more surprised than she is when her father dies and leaves her his London restaurant. He also wants her to finish writing his cookbook about Italian food, with the help of his sous-chef and surrogate son, Leo. This means Olive and Leo will have to travel to Italy together and somehow agree not only on recipes, but also on whether or not Olive should sell the restaurant. She intends to sell, and Leo intends to change her mind. Under the Tuscan sun, just how persuasive can Leo be?

This is going to sound strange, but I think I would have enjoyed Just One Taste more if it was a different genre, not a romance. This book is strongest when it delves into Olive's complicated relationship with her father and how she navigates the grieving process when so much between them was left unresolved. And it reads like a love letter to Italian food, with mouth-watering descriptions of Sicilian, Tuscan, and Ligurian dishes. So much of Olive's feelings about her father are tied up in food -- the things he cooked for her, what it was like to grow up in his restaurant, and the way she ultimately believed that he chose the restaurant over her -- and the way all of that unfolds in the narrative is emotionally resonant and poignant.

Because of this, though, the romance feels secondary and not nearly as interesting. It never felt to me like a slow-burn "enemies to lovers" trope, as Olive and Leo were mostly civil to each other from the beginning. There was no real romantic tension, there was never a question as to "will they or won't they" because it was very clear that they would -- and yet I never really felt like they had much chemistry.

Alas, unlike the Italian food described in this book, the romance was quite bland. There was no unexpected ingredient to spice things up, and that affected my overall reading experience. Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons for the early reading opportunity.

3.5*

I’d give this 4*, but it didn’t capture my attention at first and I didn’t agree with Olive’s decision to sell her late father Nicky’s London restaurant or the abrupt way she shared it with Leo, the sous chef who was like a son to Nicky. As I read further, Olive’s thoughts about the restaurant, which she inherited when he died suddenly, began to shift, and I started warming up to the story. Amidst the stunning regions of Italy that Olive and Leo visited as inspiration to finish her father’s cookbook (Catania, Tuscany, and Liguria), the feelings between them began to grow. It was refreshing to read a love story between two kind and caring people that didn’t come with a heaping pile of angst or a mess due to miscommunication. Leo definitely had ideas about how to fix the dated restaurant and tired menu, and when Olive was receptive to hearing them, he shared, but he never put any pressure on her to decide to keep the restaurant if it wasn’t what was best for her. As his aunt said, he takes care of the people he loves and, unlike her father who put the restaurant before his family, Olive began to trust that Leo wouldn’t repeat her father’s mistakes.

In summary, this slow burn romance is a foodie’s dream and a love letter to the sights, tastes and smells of Italy. It might not be a book that keeps you up all night reading, but like a leisurely meal under the Tuscan sun, it’ll leave you feeling satiated and satisfied that all is right in Olive and Leo’s world. Recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Lizzy's books take me on a foodie adventure, and I just love it. This is a heartfelt journey of finding love, enduring loss, and grappling with big life changes while appreciating the beauty and amazing food that Italy has to offer. I seriously need a trip to Italy, stat!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This story had me salivating and wanting to devour plates of pasta! Overall, it was a story about food critic Olive's estranged chef father leaving her his restaurant Nicky's when he unexpectedly passed. The culinary aspect of Olive and her father's sous chef Leo adventures through Italy to complete her father's cookbook really came alive on the page. Their slow burn romance was a tension bubble and once it burst, it kinda fell flat in that department.

If Lizzy Dent writes it, I 👏 will 👏 read 👏 it 👏

LONGER REVIEW TO COME!

What’s in store for you…

👨‍🍳 The Bear vibes & hot chefs
✍️ Writer FMC
🇮🇹 Italy/European vacation
💔 Navigating grief

Big BIG thank you to NetGalley, Putnam, and Lizzy Dent for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review!

Olive Stone is a restaurant critic, but that was not her original plan. She was going to become a chef and take over the family business, Italian restaurant Nicky’s. But then her family fell apart, and she went to university to study journalism instead.

But then she got the news that her dad had suddenly passed away. And even though she hadn’t spoken to him in years, he left her the restaurant as well as the building it’s in, valuable London real estate. But before she can make any decisions about the restaurant, she has to go to Italy for a month. Her father had been working on a cookbook when he died, and he only had 3 chapters left to write. The cookbook took readers through the regions of Italy and using one ingredient, something special to the area, to create 3 recipes. Olive could write the chapter introductions, but she wasn’t a chef. So the chef from Nicky’s, Leo, is going to Italy with her. They will start in Sicily, move on to Tuscany, and end in Liguria.

Olive hadn’t been back to Italy since the falling-out with her father. As a child, she had loved being in the restaurant, and she and her parents had traveled to Italy every summer, especially Sicily, where her father’s mentor lived. Rocco owns the Italian restaurant where Nicky had showed up, wanting to learn how to be a chef, and Rocco had taken Nicky under his wing and taught him everything he knew. Years later, Nicky would move to London and open his own place. He even had a television show, briefly, back in the restaurant’s heyday. But when the restaurant started going downhill, Nicky chose the business over his family and made an unforgiveable mistake. Olive saw how broken that had left her mother, and she sided with her. She was no longer interested in the restaurant.

Now she’s forced back into her old life, a restaurant owner and a cookbook author, but with a broken heart and a soul weary with grief and regrets. And she has to spend a month in Italy with the chef her father thought of as a son. And worse yet, Chef Leo is devastatingly handsome. At first they fight, as they’re coming from different backgrounds and contrary ideas of what the cookbook should be. But as the beauty of Italy softens their respective pain, they find themselves slowly making steps toward each other, first coming to a mutual understanding about the cookbook, and then enjoying the food and drinks that Italy has to offer them.

As Olive finds her anger towards her father start to ebb, she starts to open up to the possibility of keeping the restaurant open. Can she figure out how to make it successful without making her father’s mistakes? Or will she be better off selling the property and starting a new life with the proceeds, letting her heart heal away from the restaurant that broke her family apart?

Lizzy Dent’s Just One Taste is a delicious romance through Italy, with decadent descriptions of pasta dishes, seafood, stews, cakes, gelatos, and just about any other kind of Italian dish you can imagine. There is a little comedy in with the romance, but the story line of grief keeps it from getting too light. Olive and Leo have both lost someone close to them in this story, and they’re dealing with their pain as best they can, making this a compelling story but not one I could categorize as a rom com.

I am a big fan of Lizzy Dent, so I had high hopes for Just One Taste. I was sad, because it’s a sad story, but I was not disappointed. I thought it was a lovely journey through grief to acceptance, through anger to love, through sadness to restoration. I am not in a position to take a trip to Italy right now myself, so the descriptions of the towns and the food and the people made me feel like I got to take a quick trip, and I loved all of that. There are a lot of strong emotions in this story, but there is also a lot of hope and healing, and I am so glad I took this trip.

Egalleys for Just One Taste were provided by GP Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I love Lizzy Dent! I was super excited to be approved for this digital ARC! I always find her novels to be quirky and cute with likable characters and delightful banter. This one was no exception.

Olive Stone—-food critic and daughter of recently deceased pseudo-celebrity chef Nicky Stone, has to finish her late father’s cookbook with his surrogate son and sous chef Leo Ricci in order to inherit the family restaurant. In order to sell, and get some closure on her strained relationship with her dad, she agrees. The setting: Italy. The bonus: SO much good food! The catch: Leo Ricci is the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on.

This one had really good emotional background. I found myself heavily invested in Olive’s journey of self discovery and closure. I was crying by the end so you know it’s good!

I highly recommend! It’s a super fun read and will get you in the feels.

I think Just One Taste may still qualify as a top read of the summer. Olive and Leo head to Italy from London, to finish the cookbook her dad started, after he's unfortunately passed away. What ensues is a journey of self discovery, a deep dive into amazing food and wine, and, of course, a budding romance.

I read this book in two days and I could read it all over again already. It's completely swoon-worthy. I'm obsessed.

This book is, at times, fun and lighthearted, and at others, sad and serious. As two people start on a journey through all Italian dishes, they are near-strangers. Then the magic happens and feeling emerge and minds could potentially open up to new, exciting ideas! Enjoyed this romantic trip!

It is a must to eat pasta while reading this book 🍝

Happy pub day to Just One Taste!

Olive Stone is a food journalist for The London Times. She is better known as ‘Stone Cold Olive Stone.’
She never gives out 5⭐️s because there is always room for improvement.
Growing up, she spent most of her childhood at her father’s restaurant, Nicky’s. He always had plans for her to become his sous chef and take over the restaurant one day. But after a falling out, she had hardly seen her father over the last 15 years.
So when he tragically passes away, Olive was surprised to find out that he left her the restaurant, and everything in it, including his hottie sous chef, Leo Ricci.
Her father was in the middle of completing his cookbook, and was supposed to travel to Italy to finalize it. He wants Olive to go, but requested that she bring along Leo. A month in Italy, with the guy who got to spend everyday with the father she lost, and worked the job she always thought she would’ve done.
Olive just wants to get this cookbook over with, sell the restaurant, and be done with it all for good. But a month in Italy brings her back to her childhood as the two reminisce on where their love for food started.

This book got me so excited to travel to Italy in September! I can’t wait to eat all the pasta, cannolis, gelato, and everything orange and lemon flavor 🤤

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for this early release!

I’m such a fan of her previous titles and Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent sure didn’t disappoint either!
The book is full of funny moments and endearing characters. It was a fun, light beach read and my heart was filled.
The characters were fun and the plot was exciting and well paced.
This was an utterly riveting book that I literally could not put down.

Thank You NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Olive Stone’s estranged father has left her his failing Italian restaurant in his will, but the inheritance comes with a caveat. Olive must complete her father’s cookbook with sous-chef Leo who’s been like a surrogate son over the last decade and a half. Olive wants to sell the restaurant ASAP and Leo wants her to reconsider. As Olive reflects on her relationship with her father, she and Leo travel throughout Italy working on recipes for the book and rethinking their own lukewarm relationship.

I loved everything about this book which was really no surprise because I’m a big Lizzy Dent fan! The setting and sense of place in Just One Taste is perfect. If you need to go on a little mental vacation to Italy for a few days this is your book! You’ll feel like you’re walking down cobblestone alleys, and the descriptions of delicious meals and just ingredient talk in general will leave you craving a big bowl of pasta! Her relationship with Leo felt natural and progressed realistically. The banter, humor, and innuendo sparkled. I especially loved how much Olive relied on her girlfriends to work through her grief and her evolving feelings towards Leo. Olive’s journey to reconciling her own feelings on her relationship with her father and separating them from her mom’s packs quite an emotional punch. Overall, Just One Taste is everything I’m looking for in a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. #JustOneTaste #NetGalley #BookReview #LizzyDent

lizzy dent brought me to tears and moved me with her insanely beautiful and intricate imagery! this book was a full on immersive experience for me!
the way she describes every meal, every dish, every ingredient, the flavors, the textures— i felt like i was tasting it. the way she describes every Italian city, the streets, the people, the sounds, the colors, the weather— i felt like i'd just traveled thousands of miles and was standing in the middle of it all. the way she describes every memory, every dream, every feeling, every interaction, every intimate moment- it felt like they were my own.
i love how slow burning and thoughtful the romance between olive and leo was. the tension between them felt so tangible and the moment they gave in to their desire for each other was utter perfection! the blossoming of this love was so pure and so sweet!
the heavier themes of loss of a parent and the grief that comes along with that felt written with such honesty, empathy and care. i also really appreciate the representation for other less common but equally sensitive themes.
this book is such a gem. it's so so special and one that i'll think about for a long long time. i'm already craving to reread it and scribble a physical copy with so much underlining and all of my thoughts in the margins.
i will definitely be reading more lizzy dent!
thank you so much to Penguin Group Putnam and Netgalley for this eArc in exchange for my honest thoughts! ilyyy