i thought this book was really good and really ctue. it's full of likeable characters and that makes it even more amazing!! good memoir!!!!

This was a fun memoir and super interesting at times. There were parts where it felt too "woah is me" for me to enjoy was was being said. 3.5 stars but rounding up to a 4 star.

Thank you to Ripe Press for providing me with a copy of Jessica Stone’s memoir Craving London: Confessions of an Incurable Romantic with an Insatiable Appetite, in exchange for an honest review.

After a break-up in her twenties, New Yorker Jessica Stone took a leap of faith and without having an apartment (flat) or job, she moved to London.  Failure was not an option as Stone literally pounded the pavement looking for openings at copy writing agencies and trying to navigate life in her new city. Soon, Stone finds herself settled into London life and although the dating scene is tricky, she finds love in London cuisine and other joys of city life.

One of the primary reasons that I wanted to review Craving London is because I am missing my favorite city. My husband is English and we usually visit England ( often including London) at least once a year. This year, the pandemic caused us to cancel our vacation. I was looking to Stone’s memoir to provide a bit of armchair travel to a city that we mutually adore, she did not disappoint.

In fact, one of her favorite places, is also mine: Borough Market. Borough Market is a culinary delight that I did not discover until a more recent trip to London. It’s a massive covered market with vendors selling food from around the world. It’s an overwhelming sensory experience. Stone is a huge food fanatic and budding chef. While in London, she took a patisserie course at the prestigious Cordon Bleu and she sought out both unique ingredients and food experiences in the city. Her memoir will make you hungry! It also made me keenly aware at how many amazing food experiences I have yet to try in London and despite having taken food tours of the city, nothing I experienced was repeated with Stones. I made a list of her recommendations!

Her memoir includes several recipes. I always think this is a nice touch when I see it in a book that is not specifically a cookbook, but I must admit that I never actually try the recipes. It did work with the themes in Craving London. 

Stone’s primary struggle that is woven throughout her memoir is dating. She is a passionate woman who is living a very full and exciting life, including joining running and rowing clubs, yet her romantic life always seems to fizzle. She meets men who are not the right fit or as equally committed. Sometimes it seems to be due to cultural differences, but also it just seems to be that she is meeting jerks. I think it is common for people to worry about the aspects of their lives that seem incomplete, especially if it happens to be a romantic relationship, but from my perspective, Stone had quite a fabulous and enviable life. She had a solid ( mostly) career, plenty of friends, was engaged in many activities, well-traveled and she was living in one of the best cities in the world.

Craving London ended with Stone realizing this and she is quite an inspiration for all people to get out and enjoy life, whether or not romantic love comes your way. I’m writing this review on Valentine’s Day 2021 and although I am happily married, I can get behind this theme of living your best life, whatever that looks like for you. Thinking back to when I was single, I also lived my life like Stone, enjoying things that made me happy and never letting a lack of a partner prevent me for dining in a restaurant or trying something new. It’s human to struggle over feelings of disappointment or lack, but it is also important to hear that being single isn’t all doom and gloom. Stone didn’t learn this lesson over night either.

Craving London is the ideal memoir for both Valentine’s Day and these months that we’ve spent lock-inside due to the pandemic. I relished both Stone’s personal journey and her thoughts on life in London.

This book is like sitting down and having a fantastic cup of coffee with a friend you haven't seen in a while. You just pick up where you left off with all the candor of being long time friends. Part travel memoir, part dating story, part cookbook: it's everything I want in a book. The chapters are easy to digest. The story holds your attention. The recipes are well written and easy to follow. 10/10. Will definitely read again. 

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an E-ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

Reading Craving London: Confessions of an Incurable Romantic with an Insatiable Appetite is like sneaking a peak at the diary of a good friend to see how the people and events shaped the person they are today. This book is part comedy with hilarious anecdotes from the dating scene and part travel guide with bucket list recommendations on what/where to eat to live in London. I found these recommendations refreshing since we have all been trapped at home during COVID and need to be able to live vicariously. I admit that I am not a great baker or cook (my husband says the best thing I make for dinner is reservations) so I cannot appreciate all the techniques she described, but I can appreciate the hunt for food and the beauty in the plating and how good it feels to have these decadent meals delivered to me on a plate at my favorite restaurant. I also am not afraid to eat alone and take in my surroundings. Throughout the book, I was intrigued by the author’s zest for life and her courage in creating the life she wanted versus playing it safe. I’m not sure I could have been that brave even in my 20’s when I thought I was invincible. The descriptions about the night life and drinking reminded me of scenes from Sex and the City, if only Carrie had been a lot less promiscious. It is actually quite refreshing to see someone stop and pause rather than reacting, but then sex was never her drug of choice. I loved the nicknames she gave to each guy. I wonder if they read this book now and recognize themselves and cringe? Overall, this was an easy read with lots of natural breaks and recipes you can go back and try if you like or skip over if you are lazy like me. I have to admit I may beg hubby to try the grilled cheese receipt as it sounds divine! I’m not pressing my luck with anything more challenging. I would be interested in hearing the author talk or checking out her blog. Kudos again for starting over, traveling, running marathons, eating, fasting, exploring, and living life on your own terms. Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

With (mostly) simple recipes scattered throughout, Ms. Stone has written a immensely enjoyable tale of an American in London seeking good food and the perfect soulmate. The food is easily found...the soulmate? Not so much. No names are given, rather, each possible candidate for romance is remembered with titles such as The Secret Agent, The Accountant or The Boyfriend. The writer's own shortcomings are examined as she reflects upon each relationship failure, and explores ways to resolve them.
A perfect book for anyone who enjoys reading about travel, food and love.

Remember the pre-COVID days, when you could travel around the world and explore distant cities??  My family and I took an awesome trip to London in the summer of 2019.  While there we at a lot of great food, so this book, Craving London, appealed to me immediately.    

 This is a memoir by an American woman, Jessica Stone, who quit her job in the USA and moved to London to find a new job and try out living abroad.  She had broken up with "The Boyfriend" and was also looking to find true love.   This memoir is part food writing, part travelogue and part a look into her experiences dating in London.    Stone doesn't call any of the men in the book by their name but rather by monikers like "The Barrister"  or "Secret Agent".  While in London she worked part time as a copy editor for advertising firms and also attended Le Cordon Bleu.   She wrote a blog at the time about her experiences, which became the basis for this book.    The tone of the book was lightly humorous and it was nice to read about her quest to make a place for herself in London.  I was hoping that it would be a bit more about food than it was but I still enjoyed the book and it did bring back lots of good memories of London.    There were recipes at the end of some of the chapters that coincided with what Stone wrote about in that chapter.

I do enjoy a good memoir that mixes travel and food!  I found this to be an easy book to read.  I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

I love this book. I've been wanting to travel to London for quiet some time, so for a short time I felt I was living through you, reading on your adventure with the culture, food and people was food for my soul. Thank you

What a love letter to a life of eating and adventure. The author takes your breath away with her love of food in its many manifestations. She gives you tidbits she has picked up along the way and let’s you form your own appreciation for all things culinary. It was a delight and a pleasure to read of how she came to love her life of trying new meals .

I didn't love this one. In fact, I am not sure I even liked it, to be honest. The "foodie" stuff was the best part, and there wasn't enough of THAT to save it.

[NOTE - contains spoilers regarding the ending !]. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Ripe Press for the ARC. I was intrigued by the premise of the book, having moved to London as an expat around the same time (and same age) as the author, where I lived and worked for 11 years. I really enjoyed the portions of the story where she describes London’s charms, such as Borough Market (an amazing foodie destination!), Laduree, even learning about the little known restaurant in the historic Catholic Church that hosted Henry the VIII, near Bleeding Heart Yard. Likewise, I bookmarked nearly all of her recipes, and I took pleasure reading about her favorite global food experiences (I could taste the Churros y Chocolate she describes in detail during the Spanish getaway.)

While I had read the blurb, it didn’t dawn on me until midway through the book that this memoir was primarily focused on her failed relationships, and the self-learning and healing she felt she needed to do to find her fervent wish of “lasting love” (self-proclaimed at the end of an 8-day spiritual retreat). I started to tire of the anonymous monikers given to her partners and even NON-partners (shout out to The Barrister and The Photographer). I assume this was a carryover from the blog, but in a condensed memoir format, the nickNames became too cloying and tedious.

I enjoyed the descriptions of her retreat in Thailand; who wouldn’t love 3-4 weeks putting on a swimsuit and either feasting or fasting for your health daily, with no worldly cares? If the book has been written this way most of the time, it would have been  a 4* read for me.

But the last chapters had the most bizarre hurried qualities. The author had previously devoted long sections talking about her beloved flapjacks in detail, but relegates a reunion with the infamous “Boyfriend”, arguably her most significant relationship in 12 years, to a few paragraphs? And the marriage she has craved and finally enters in 2013 is barely a footnote in the last 2 pages? The abruptness of the ending soured me on the parts of the book I had enjoyed.

This book will appeal to: (1) expats moving to London and wanting a flavor of what to expect (2) cooks - there’s a good amount of recipes (3) women who for whatever reason, are lost in their journey to find love. It didn’t tick those boxes for me but I give the author credit for sharing her action-packed life adventures (retreats, marathons, global travel, the Cordon Bleu)
and her vulnerabilities with the reader.

I love memoirs, which I have said time and time again, and I love reading about ordinary people and their lives. This one in particular really intrigued me: I am a Londoner and I absolutely love food. I had images of the culinary delights of London being described with a real hone in on British food. However, that is not what this book really is about.

I found the book quite confused and it didn't really have a clear direction or focus. The book really isn't about food, though it is mentioned and some recipes are included (not really anything to do with London/British cuisine). It is more about Stone's move to the UK, unsuccessful dating life and Stone's clear obsession with self-help books. It was very disjointed.

Stone based this book on her food blog and I think this really what has confused the book. Whilst the format of a food blog works online (with a detailed story before a recipe) this does not translate into a book.

Sadly, not for me.

I really enjoyed this story. I loved how there are different elements gone into it. 

We get a tale of Jessica's life and her embarking on her new journey in life. It was good to read all the dating escapades. I liked how she gave each man a moniker rather than their real name. It gave us an insight into the character of the man. 

We got lots of recipes that I'm excited to try out and sample. Got to love a reason to try food. 

On top of all this we get a great travel guide for London. Learning the ins and outs of the City through the eyes of Jessica. 

All in all Craving London is a lovely light hearted tale. An amalgamation of dating tips, recipes and guide book.

This Confessions of an Incurable Romantic with an Insatiable Appetite had me interested as soon as I spotted the empty plate on the cover and read the words Insatiable Appetite. I love eating, especially sampling little dishes here and there and can never get enough of culinary discoveries so I immediately felt akin to the writer. 
Turns out I might have focused on the wrong part of the subtitle. 
This novel is very much more of a romantic autobiography of a lost girl in London, looking endlessly for love, than a real ode to food. And while there is nothing wrong with the novel, when you are into man struggle and love self-help books, I was less interested by it all than I had hoped. This is really a question of taste, perhaps this is more for fans of Sex in the City and Desperate housewife, thought it is very tame… admittedly I never saw any of those shows so I might be a bad judge. I would have enjoyed more about tapas, Cuban foods and scones, and less about boyfriend hunts and learning about yourself through relationship failures and cleanses.
I guess this is not the humour that talks to me either, I find self-depreciation as refreshingly and surprisingly funny as anyone, but I have little patience for women who desperately seek relationships and Mr Soul mate and think it’s someone else’s job to make them feel whole. So I was left leafing through rather quickly by the end to get to the good bits: that’s the recipes scattered about. 
There is several nice recipes in the book, and admittedly I picked up the novel because I thought it was mainly a cookbook, which it isn’t really. I’m ok with that, I adored the novel “Like Water for Chocolate” and other similar ones, but maybe because I’m more into fiction, and perhaps because romance to me has little to do with the modern rather dismal and sex-crazed dating scene, I could not relate despite being the same age as the author. The message about self love is sweet, but I’m not into self help books. I really was not the target.
I’m just glad that inside those pages we find tasty British classics like brownies, cheese melts, banana pancakes and a curry of course that reads nicely. There is about 10 recipes that are closely related to the adventures of our author hero. I might have been greedy, but I admit that I had hoped for more Cuban foods too, since Ms Stone is Cuban in origin. Maybe in her next book?

This was not the book for me.  I just couldn't get myself invested in the story.  I think my main issue was that everything seemed to go by so fast.  There wasn't much detail to draw the reader in, and instead it read like a list of food and love interests.

I love visiting London and as a single girl in my mid-(or more realistically late) 30's I could relate to many of her stories and struggles. While reading about her journey to move to London, I jotted down several quotes and am looking forward to trying several of the recipes. I also jotted down the names of a few restaurants I want to try the next time I'm in London. One of the things I particularly like about memoirs is that the stories aren't wrapped up in a tidy little package and tied with a bow like they would be in a fiction book. And that is definitely true of Jessica's story, and I appreciated her honesty and vulnerability. 

With thanks to NetGalley and Ripe Press for an early copy in return for an honest review.

Jessica Stone is still single five years after breaking up with her fiancé and decides that a change of scenery is necessary. Deciding to make a fresh start in London, Jessica takes a chance and moves there without a set plan. Settling into her new life, Jessica sets out to try to change her luck on the dating scene. Following some pretty disastrous dates, she turns her focus to food and cooking and enrolls in the Le Cordon Bleu. Interspersed with her story, Jessica adds some wonderfully sounding recipes that makes your mouth water. 
But I was a touch disappointed with this memoir. For a book entitled Craving London, I really didn’t come across as much craving as I thought it would have. For neither food nor men, I mean there was a recipe for a Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich. The writing just did not pull me into this book. It fell flat several times and I almost stopped reading, but I wanted to see how Ms. Stone fared through it all. 
**I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. 

This was a great book about exploring life in your 30s. It had great scenes and a relatable author, but I just wish there was a bit more FOOD. It was fun and funny, but was light on actual food talk.

England can get kind of a bad wrap food wise and I love that this book breaks down those barriers and gives us some great recipes to boot. This is not a cookbook though, it's a memoir of sorts, and I enjoyed getting to know Jessica Stone and learn about her journey. There are some funny stories that will make you laught out loud and relatable stories of being single and dating no matter where you live. The setting of her living in London really rounded out the book as a whole for me because I am a romantic dreamer who loves the idea of living in another country and experiencing the cutural differences, but I will never get that chance so living vicariously through Ms. Stone will have to do. I recommend this book if you enjoy memoirs or are a foodie.