Love from Scratch
Amy Hutton

“Called you irrepressibly charming.”
A small grin twitched at the corners of his lips. “Irrepressibly charming, huh?”
“I thought that might cheer you up.”

Cute, light hearted romance with adorable furry companions. Ethan is the sunshine to Hazel’s grumpy and although it’s easy to see where the plot is going, it’s a cute read that I greatly enjoyed.

Opposites attract in this Australian rom com about a heart-throb actor, the grumpy woman who pet sits his beloved dog and her cat who steals the show.

Ethan James is hot, nice, successful and on the blink of huge Hollywood fame, but has been unlucky in love and has a tendency to overshare. Ethan is filming on the Sunshine Coast and needs someone to mind his dog Harry while working long days on set. This movie is Ethan’s launching ground for bigger and better things so needs his full undivided attention.

“Aww. He’s wearing a bow tie.”
“He’s my dog, he knows how to own an occasion.”
“Kevin sends his apologies. He’s my cat, he knows how to avoid an occasion.”

Enter Hazel, Harry’s pet sitter who might end up being more of a hindrance than a help to Ethan. She’s gorgeous, funny and smart but doesn’t care for Ethan’s world or his fame.

Hazel’s grumpy cat Kevin doesn’t give her any attention or love. But Kevin adores Ethan and shows him all the love and attention, acting like a smitten little kitten around him. This makes Hazel question if there’s something her cat can see that she can’t!

“You look worried,” he said “I promise to be a perfect gentleman.”

Massive thank you to @simonandschusterau for this ARC! Love From Scratch is released June 5th!
@amyhuttonauthor 👏 Ethan is a dream, thank you.
#lovefromscratch #aussiefiction #amyhuttonauthor

REVIEW POSTED ON 26th May 2024.

Hazel Conor is a chef without a job, but needs to get one ASAP so she and her grumpy cat, Kevin, don't become homeless and starve. She is wallowing in self-pity thinking her career is over, so when the opportunity for a dog minding job comes up, she takes it despite it not being what she wants to do.

Ethan James is a movie star in need of a dog minder while he films his new movie. He is at a make or break point in his career, but with his flirty charm and good looks, he is already halfway there.

Ethan can't help but feel drawn to the moody, funny, gorgeous chef, and Hazel is less than impressed by his charm until Kevin, the cat who hates everyone is smitten and smoochy with Ethan.

I didn't particularly connect with the main characters, I felt there was a lack of substance, and therefore was not invested in their story. Hazel was judgmental, rude, and very pessimistic, so I struggled to read her story, let alone care about how her story ended. Ethan was more tolerable, but even he had a complete lack of self-awareness and a very narrow-minded focus.

I also didn't feel particularly drawn to any of the secondary/background characters, though at least a few of them were good at telling the MCs to pull their head in. I did, however, love the pets, especially Kevin, and that is what kept me reading.

This is absolutely a grumpy x sunshine romance novel with cute pets in an Aussie setting. It was light-hearted, easy to read and written well for what it was, but it was also skimmable and predictable. There is the inclusion of mild sex scenes, but some of them are only alluded to rather than detailed.

The only part of the whole book I genuinely loved was the FMC's hatred of being called "babe". Her hatred of the pet name may be for a different reason than mine, but I appreciate Hazel bringing up that "babe" is not a respectful pet name.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. If you want a quick contemporary romance novel and are not too focused on substance, this may be a book you'll enjoy.

I loved this book, great romance and I loved all the characters. It was hard to put down. If you like romance, then you will love this book.

This grumpy-sunshine, rom-com was a good read.. It was lighthearted, had laugh out loud moments and a fun story.

I love that this one was set on the Sunshine Coast (where I live). Also a big tick for Kevin and Harry. I'm not usually into the whole movie star thing, but Ethan grew on me. Perfect example of a rom com and a cute story. Now I need to go back and read Hutton's earlier book - Sit, Stay, Love. Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance copy for review purposes.

The animals in this book where clearly the stand out characters. How could you not love them, however the human charters weren't particularly memorable. I didn't love this book but also didnt hate it. I think I probably would have enjoyed this more in audio format but that's just a personal preference.

I’ve never read anything by Amy Hutton previously, but I quite enjoyed this book. It was somewhat predictable but in a cosy kind of way, where I knew it would give me the happy feels I wanted. The characters were adorable and cute, with some steam thrown in too.
I liked Hazel a lot and found her to be extremely relatable.
The only thing I sometimes struggled with, was that often it would skip from scene to scene without a lot of flowing sentences to connect them, or without a chapter break to make it clear we were now in a new scene. It sometimes made it hard to discerne how and when the scene had changed, or which characters were still in the scene/now in the new scene. Possibly just this authors writing style, and as I say - it’s my first book by this author.
Overall, a fun and enjoyable read with lovely chemistry between the characters.

What a delightful, light romance! Ethan, an actor who had a dog phobia, and Hazel, an out of work chef after a bad encounter with an actor left her jobless, cross paths when Ethan needs a dogsitter while he's shooting his movie.

I love reading books set in Australia; it feels so familiar, like a big warm hug.

I really enjoyed Hazel's character, who I feel was flawed like a real person, and I loved following her rediscovering her love for cooking.

Also, the pets - Harry the dog and Kevin the cat - were too cute, and added another depth to the story. As the owner of a jack russell, like Harry, I totally understand the trouble that he gets himself into.

My only gripe was with Ethan. Sometimes, his behaviour was not excellent and a bit toxic - I was a bit worried for them sometimes, but he was much better with Hazel than without her.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia for the review copy of Love from Scratch! All opinions are my own.

So I requested this book and then later realised that I wasn’t a fan of Sit. Stay. Love. Which meant that I was apprehensive picking up this book.
But, I would say that I found this one more enjoyable. I am glad to see that Ethan finally found someone but I wanted something more from the storyline and found myself in and out of disengagement.
Regardless of how I felt on and off, I still liked the read. It was sweet, easy and predictable which helps when taking a break from heavier and bigger books.

This is so fresh - from the Australian setting to the relaxed feel of it all, Amy does a wonderful job of conveying a beachy relaxed vibe - perfect for an in-the-moment romance.

Hazel is a chef who lost her job after some restaurant food criticism got personal. She gets the gig as movie star Ethan’s dog sitter while she works out her next move.

Ethan is alone in town, so hires Hazel to look after Harry, his recent rescue dog. Ethan is an archetypal golden retriever, so energetic and goofy but as you expect there’s a lot of insecurity underneath and he has some real issues with his family relationships and the alienation that comes with the acting life. Hazel’s crisis is more around her work issues.

There’s tension between how Ethan feels, and how he comes across to Hazel. She has fixed ideas about how a movie star would think and act and this provides some of the friction between them. One thing I loved is that they are both adults and navigating stuff around ambition, work-life balance and their real hopes and dreams. It’s easy to see how good those two are together, supporting each other, and just having fun. It’s a really lovely dynamic - call this a holiday read and mostly just enjoy these gorgeous people finding each other, but it’s not all fluff.

It’s a companion to Amy’s first book, Sit Stay Love where we first meet Ethan, but it works as a standalone. There’s a little steam 🌶, lots of dogs, Kevin the cat, beaches, and fun times in the kitchen 😉

Amy Sutton has a light touch and a delicious writing style - looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

Thank you NetGalley, Amy Hutton and Simon and Schuster for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

i absolutely loved this from start to finis I can't wait for it to come out next month this was my first completed arc the characters are easy to like the storyline is adorable I could not get enough 4.5 start did a GoodReads review its under jade garcia

Ethan James an upcoming movie star is away on set and his newly adopted Jack Russel Harry is a terror, enter Hazel a chef turned dog minder, with the spawn of Satan cat Kevin, we see Ethan hire hazel to mind Harry,
We watch the love blossom between Hazel and Ethan and their pets, I loved the story of Hazel and Ethan and the way it’s written was fantastic. This story was cute, I enjoyed reading it, it was light and fun. A perfect book to read on a cozy night. This was such a good rom I enjoyed reading, I flew through it in 4 hours!

I would highly recommend it!

Hazel se mudó para su nuevo empleo como sous chef, pero a las dos semanas el dueño cerró el restaurante, tuvo que buscar un trabajo y terminó paseando perros y uno de sus clientes resultó ser el famoso actor Ethan James.
A ella no le gustaba Ethan, pero los beneficios eran muy buenos como para dejar pasar esa oportunidad. No le gustan los actores porque uno de ellos destrozó su reputación.

Ethan tiene un perro que sufre de ansiedad por separación y como tiene que grabar una película contrata a una cuidadora. Conforme va conociendo a Hazel se va enamorando, pero el no se quedara mucho tiempo en Australia.


Todo iba bien hasta que llegó el último cuarto y muchas cosas no me gustaron:
-Coml actuo con Hazel cuando hizo su audición, fue grosero.
-Las fotos de él con Ronnie
-El incio del epílogo con Sera, no me molestó que estuviera en ese momento, pero si las acciones de él con ella.



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

I was very lucky to get my hands on a sneak read of Amy Hutton’s latest gem, Love From Scratch, dropping June 5th! My first digital read and what a way to kick it off! 📱

After bingeing thrillers and heavy hitters, this warm, fuzzy rom-com was exactly what I needed in my life.

Amy describes her books as funny and uplifting, emotional and a little steamy. Tick, tick, tick and TICK!

Cute boy-meets-girl story? Check. Witty banter? Double check. Relatable characters? Triple check! (Hazel and Meredith's friendship is pure gold).

Add in the bonus of an adorable puppy and cat duo where I may, or may not, have finished the novel and gone straight to my local pet adoption website looking for my own Harry! 🐶🐱

While it was a light hearted read, it covered some important topics really well - tackling disappointment, resolving family conflicts, managing relationships and how easy and quick we can be to judge people.

This was a fun, feel good read that not only had me giggling and wanting to adopt a new pet, but also reevaluating my TBR pile – more rom-coms, please! 🌈📚

This is a fun story. I will wait until after it is published to show a photo and give a quick review on my social media.

Aimed at a much younger age group than me, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The two characters are both very likeable and the plot does have some believable twists and turns.

Terrific genre fiction and it will be popular. It served as a fun light read for me that took me onto film sets and into kitchens. The sex scenes were well done but a bit long for me!!

If you are a fan of Grumpy/sunshine, you will adore this book. It’s amusing and heartwarming and you will probably fall just a little in love with Ethan yourself.
Kevin the cat is the archetypal aloof cat, yet he’s kittenish with Ethan. Is Hazel the only one who doesn’t fall for Ethan’s charm? What if two ambitious people want their careers and love? I enjoyed it.

This book is written for a very specific audience and that audience is just not me.

The plot has potential with two ambitious people chasing their careers leading them to different places but the storytelling was so bland and by the 102nd mention in what felt like every second chapter of deep blue, ocean blue, sparkly blue, sky blue, blue blue eyes (cos both mc’s have blue eyes) and long long legs, tall frame, have you seen supermodels? Runway not magazine, long legs, did I mention she has long legs? Long legs - What could have been a fantastic story about chasing our dreams became more about how they looked, his collagen skincare routine and going out for runs… tbh I should have just DNF and moved on.

Then there’s all the unnecessary filler dialogue, had I skipped a few pages, we would still be at the same place and this is not a long book.

Overall, the characters weren’t interesting, the banter was boring and there’s no spice.

It was at least easy to read, I didn’t hate the book & I did like the nickname Nut for the fmc named Hazel

cawpile rating | 6.00 (equates to 3 stars)
thoughts | ✧Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Aus for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.✧

I’m not going to lie… the best part about this book for me was the animals. Kevin and Harry absolutely stole the show! I need to read more books that involve animals as side characters, because they put a smile on my face the whole way through!

I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it. I found myself cringing more often than not and I felt like our FMC, Hazel, was missing a bit of substance. She came off as quite a judgemental, angry person. I don’t blame her though when the people in her life (*cough cough* her sister and best friend) believe she’s not worth being ‘girlfriend’ material. Or at least that’s how it came across.

On the other hand, I did really enjoy our golden retriever type MMC, Ethan and his dog, Harry! He was hilariously charming.
Over all, Love From Scratch was a fun, easy and quick read!

Hazel Conor is an out of work chef, with a grumpy cat called Kevin, who is pet sitting to pay the bills. Ethan James is a movie star on the verge of making it big and needs a full time dog minder for his anxious dog, Harry, while he shoots a film in Queensland. Hazel isn’t easily charmed by Ethan when she takes on the job, but Kevin and Harry begin to change her mind about him. Hazel and Ethan have to manage their feelings for each other whilst their careers pull them in opposite directions.

This was a super cute, lighthearted romcom that was well written, well paced with realistic dialogue and characters. The third act break up made sense and was almost sweet, although it was maybe resolved too easily. I liked that both characters were ambitious and didn’t give up their career opportunities for each other. I liked that Hazel was tall and this was referenced throughout - refreshing when a lot of romance novels put a focus on describing the FMC as tiny compared to the MMC.
I signed up for this ARC when I saw there was a cat involved and I was so happily surprised by this book by a local Sydney author!

Chef Hazel and movie star Ethan never expected to cross paths but with help of Kevin the cat and Harry the dog they will set you on a cosy story of their journey. This was a lovely read and hard to put down. It was warm and welcoming as well as an easy read.