Recently divorced and on the verge of bankruptcy, Dahlia Woodson is ready to reinvent herself on the popular reality competition show Chef’s Special. Too bad the first memorable move she makes is falling flat on her face, sending fish tacos flying—not quite the fresh start she was hoping for. Still, she’s focused on winning, until she meets someone she might want a future with more than she needs the prize money.
After announcing their pronouns on national television, London Parker has enough on their mind without worrying about the klutzy competitor stationed in front of them. They’re there to prove the trolls—including a fellow contestant and their dad—wrong, and falling in love was never part of the plan.
As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. Goodbye, guilt about divorce, anxiety about uncertain futures, and stress from transphobia. Hello, hilarious shenanigans on set, wedding crashing, and spontaneous dips into the Pacific. But as the finale draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat both in and outside the kitchen—and they must figure out if they have the right ingredients for a happily ever after.
Love & Other Disasters gets published January 18, 2022.
I just wasn’t having a good time with this book.
For one, I never ended up connecting to the characters. I can’t say a specific reason, but I didn’t come to care for them and their story. This made enjoying the book fairly difficult, as it was mostly just a slog to finish it.
I also was not a fan of the sex scenes. To be fair, this one is mostly on me. I’ve only ever liked about 5% of the sex scenes I’ve read in the past. But since toe sucking is my anti-kink and the first sex scene featured it, I couldn’t get into the other sex scenes. Every time things were getting sexual, my mind went back to that toe sucking.
But, y’know, no kinkshaming. If feet are your thing, this is the book for you.
I do think the author did a good job walking that fine line between being respectful of a nonbinary person’s assigned gender at birth and referencing body dysmorphia. There’s a scene early on where a transphobic character uses the wrong pronouns for our nonbinary character (London), but the narration changes the sentence to use the correct pronouns, only pointing out that the wrong pronouns were what were actually used when the character said it. I was very impressed by this scene in particular, but I was also impressed in a later scene, where London looks at their fancy clothes in a mirror and focuses in on the parts that are lumpier than they would like. While the second half of this book does explicitly reference their assigned gender at birth as they deal with tension from their family, I really liked how these two scenes in the first half expertly avoided an explicit mention while also pointing out some of the struggles a trans person may face.
I also think that this is a perfectly fine book on its own and that anyone who may be interested in this book will have a great time with it. Personally, I could just never get into it and based my rating to reflect that, but I can also understand the people who absolutely love this book.
KiiitasticBooks 