A satisfying debut for foodies and romance lovers alike.
An aspiring restaurant owner who's joined a reality food competition learns she has bigger fish to fry when her sexy fling turns out to be the show's new celebrity judge.
After having been fired by her ex-boyfriend/boss at Seattle’s renowned Green Onion restaurant, the last thing chef Sadie Brooke Rosen expected was to land a spot on the illustrious cooking show Chef Supreme. Eager to escape a secret that made her the laughingstock of the Northwest culinary scene, Sadie boards a plane to New York in hopes of showcasing her "food with a Jewish twist"—like matzah ball ramen—to interested restaurant investors. She faces off against 11 talented and opinionated chefs, including Nia, who's memorized every statistic from previous seasons of Chef Supreme; and Kaitlyn, Sadie’s quasi-nemesis from back home. The only person missing from the competition is Luke Weston, the dreamy half-Korean chef Sadie met on the plane and had an impromptu date with though she assumed he was going to be one of the other contestants. Sadie's memories of their steamy post-date kiss evaporate, however, as soon as he walks onto the set and is introduced as the show's new judge. Sadie knows she could jeopardize her chances of winning if any details of their date go public, but she soon realizes that she’ll never get anywhere in her relationships or her career if she continues to play it safe. Elliot’s first adult novel (she writes for teens and middle graders as Amanda Panitch) has the perfect amount of reality show hijinks and food innuendos that help dial up the heat: “By the end of our allotted time, I was sweaty, satisfied, and coated in a thin layer of jelly, which also described one of my past late-night flings with the owner of a local doughnut stand.” Elliot also highlights issues of diversity in the culinary world, like the way Black chefs are pigeonholed with Southern cooking or the problem with dubbing any “non-White” plates as “ethnic cuisine.” With the mouthwatering recipes and delicious romance served here, readers will be left hungry for more adult content from Elliot.
A satisfying debut for foodies and romance lovers alike.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-33571-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Escape to the lakefront with this entertaining romance.
A Canadian 30-something gets a second chance at love and career.
If Fern Brookbanks ever opened the Toronto espresso shop of her dreams, the first song on the playlist would be “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. That could be the soundtrack of this upbeat, often very witty Canadian romance novel as well. Unfortunately, though, 32-year-old Fern will not be opening any espresso shops but instead must cope with managing the struggling cottage resort she's suddenly inherited on Lake Muskoka. She grew up on its grounds, and her only significant accomplishment so far in life is getting out of there. But then her mother, a 55-year-old powerhouse who's been running the place single-handedly all her adult life, dies in a car crash. Left to help poor Fern keep things going are her high school boyfriend, Jamie, and her mother's dear friend Peter, the resort's master baker, who helped raise Fern and nurtured her love of great playlists. Then Will Baxter, a handsome hunk her mother hired as a consultant to help save the hotel, turns out to be the very guy Fern had the most amazing night of her life with 10 years ago—only he broke her heart by failing to show up for their second date. Fortune fills her novel with food, music, and clothing descriptions and has some truly great one-liners: “I didn't know an apron could be sexy, but this apron is the lost Hemsworth brother of aprons.” The suspense is created by withholding information: What was Fern’s outrageous teenage transgression? What was the terrible thing she read in her mother’s diary? Why did Will stand her up 10 years ago? While this technique does feel a bit formulaic, it keeps the pages turning.
Escape to the lakefront with this entertaining romance.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593438558
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A compelling story about grief, sex, and money, but also the power of family and forgiveness.
After her tycoon father’s death, a woman reunites with her estranged family for a dramatic week on their private island.
Alice Storm hasn’t visited her family in five years, but this is no normal house she’s avoiding. Her father was Franklin Storm, founder of a world-changing technology company, and their home is a private island off the Rhode Island coast. When Alice went against her controlling father’s wishes, she was cut off and banished. She’s been supporting herself as a teacher and artist, trying her best to forget that she was ever a Storm—that is, until Franklin’s death. Now she’s back with the family she hasn’t spoken to in years—her icy mother, Elisabeth; rule-following older sister, Greta; bratty, power-hungry older brother, Sam; and spiritual younger sister, Emily, who never met a crystal she didn’t like. Among them, Alice is the rebel—the only one who managed to ignore their father’s wishes and escape the island. But it turns out that, even in death, Franklin is still calling the shots. He’s left them challenges they must complete if they want to earn their inheritance, and if any one of them fails, the whole group loses. Alice’s task seems almost impossible, even though it's simpler than the others': She just has to stay on the island, with her family, for the entire week. All this information is delivered by Jack Dean, Franklin’s right-hand man. He’s also the guy Alice accidentally slept with before realizing who he was (whoops). Now she’s stuck with her family and a man she’s deeply attracted to even though she hates him for being involved in her father’s company—and she has to make it through her father’s funeral (or “celebration,” as her mother insists on calling it). MacLean’s first foray into contemporary family drama has notes of Succession along with the steamy romance she’s known for in her historical novels. The Storm family is full of complicated, flawed characters, and sticking them together on an island for a week leads to lots of delightfully dramatic fights, secrets, and reveals.
A compelling story about grief, sex, and money, but also the power of family and forgiveness.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972250
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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