Whilst I liked the idea of this book I found it to be rather slow paced which is not my preferred preference. I found it overall OK but I wouldn't necessarily recommend as a must read.

Mixed feelings; it was fun and well paced but there were parts I just felt like I had to skim through as I wasn't entirely invested

Thank you Netgally and the publisher for sending this to me for an honest review!!

Well what can I say, I've found my book of the year I think. I adored this, Dahlia and London were so cute and I was rooting for them right from the start, I love the premise of this being set on a cooking show and that being intertwined with the cute love story, it really added to the plot and had you rooting for the characters from the start. I love how authentic London felt as a non binary character and how it wasn't just put there to tick the diverse box, they felt very real.

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly presents itself as a lighthearted romantic comedy but falls short of delivering a truly engaging and memorable story. While the premise holds promise, the execution and characterization leave much to be desired, resulting in a lackluster reading experience.

The novel follows Emma, a quirky and ambitious woman who is determined to find love despite her string of failed relationships. Along her journey, she encounters a cast of eccentric characters and navigates various comedic mishaps. Unfortunately, the humor and wit that should have enlivened the narrative often fall flat, and the comedic elements feel forced and predictable.

One of the major drawbacks of Love & Other Disasters is the lack of depth in its characters. Emma, as the protagonist, is meant to be endearing and relatable, but her actions and decisions often come across as shallow and impulsive. The supporting characters, while initially promising, lack development and depth, making it difficult for readers to form a genuine connection with them.

The romantic aspect of the story, which should have been the focal point, is overshadowed by the superficiality of the characters and their relationships. The chemistry and emotional connection between the love interests feel underdeveloped and lack the necessary depth to make their relationships compelling. As a result, it becomes challenging to fully invest in the romantic plotlines and root for the characters.

Furthermore, the pacing of the story is uneven, with some sections dragging while others feel rushed. Transitions between scenes can be abrupt, making it difficult to follow the flow of the story. The dialogue often feels stilted and lacking in authenticity, diminishing the overall reading experience.

While Love & Other Disasters attempts to explore themes of self-discovery and personal growth, these elements are overshadowed by the superficial and formulaic nature of the storytelling. The potential for deeper character development and emotional resonance is unfortunately left unfulfilled.

In terms of writing style, Kelly's prose is serviceable but lacks the flair and finesse needed to elevate the narrative. The descriptive passages and settings do little to evoke a sense of place or atmosphere, further detracting from the overall reading experience.

While Love & Other Disasters may appeal to readers seeking a light and undemanding romantic comedy, it ultimately fails to deliver on its potential. The lack of depth in the characters, predictable plotlines, and unremarkable writing make it difficult to fully engage with the story. As a result, the novel falls short of leaving a lasting impression.

Disclaimer: This review is based on a copy of Love & Other Disasters provided by the publisher.

I knew I'd love this book as soon as I saw it was set in a high intensity reality TV cooking show with a great love story! Dahlia & London are contestants who both love to cook but are very different personalities, but the stress of the show and heightened emotions are the perfect backdrop for a relationship to form. The intimate steamy scenes are well written, with great awareness and consent. Sometimes the switching of POV mid chapter was hard to follow, but I couldn't stop reading to find out who won the show and who won each others hearts as well!

Incredibly well written. Enjoyed it thoroughly! Got me obsessed with more chef/food centred books. However a few topics were new for me so it was more on the understanding side rather than being able to lose myself in a book..

An enjoyable read - a comfort read which was defientely cozy - will recommend but probably won't re-read

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

“Are you serious ?” she boomed, shoving London in the chest. It hurt a little. “You eat Brussels sprouts when you’re sad?”

✮✮✮✮✮

Chef’s Special is a cooking show for amateur chefs (basically MasterChef with more drama). Dahlia Woodson, whom self-taught all her cooking skills after her recent divorce, was accepted as a contestant, and as she was about to present her first dish to the judges, she fell flat on her face! London Parker, the first ever non-binary contestant, couldn’t stop thinking about the clumsy girl in front of them. This is the story of Dahlia and London’s unexpected friendship after an awkward first encounter!

I’m not sure where to start with this one. Can I just say that Anita Kelly really has done the non-binary population justice here. The use of third-person pronouns throughout the whole book just seemed completely natural, although hard to get used to as a reader at first. I think this book really helps people who may not understand, get clued up on what identifying as non-binary means.

This book was sweet and funny as anything. I was laughing out loud so hard at points throughout this book, especially the scene where London is milking a cow. They had some right surprises! There was a great mix of funny, sad and dramatic scenes, as well as smutty (if you don’t mind a bit of toe-sucking that is).

This was a really great read and I recommend to anyone who maybe doesn’t quite understand what non-binary means, or if you love a foodie-related story!

After seeing Love & Other Disasters all over the internet, I knew I had to give it a read. This is a debut novel that tells the story of the first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favourite cooking show falling for their clumsy competitor. It is sweet, entertaining and wholesome!

I enjoyed this book a lot and although it did not meet all my expectations it is definitely one that I will be recommending in future. The plot was fun, I loved the characters and it is most certainly made me excited to see what else Anita Kelly writes in the future.

London and Dahlia are wonderful and unique in their own ways. Dahlia had my heart straight away because of how honest she was about her feelings and what is going on in her life. She is flawed, extremely kind and adorable. She works incredibly hard at everything she does too, which was inspiring. I loved seeing how lost she seemed at the beginning of the book in comparison to who she was at the end of the book. Then, we have London who is amazing. Their storyline made me incredibly happy and hopefully for more nonbinary main characters in the future. I loved reading their journey of self-discovery and how we are shown that they aren’t perfect but they are real. We need more representation like that more books.

I have to make a quick mention of the side characters. Especially Barbara who I wanted to see so much more of. Each side character is developed excellently. Although, I would have loved to see more of the feud between London and Lizzie as I feel this was not developed enough.

This story take place mostly during a cooking reality show. I am obsessed with cooking shows on TV. Not just for the food but for the drama and the friendships as well. I was so excited to read about a book set on a cooking show but this is the section of the book that let me down. The cooking show may be a main section of the book but never seemed to be developed enough and it left me with quite a few questions. Still it was a fun part of the book and I loved reading about the food and the show drama.

Anita Kelly has written a wonderful book and it is an excellent debut. It was lovely to read about the characters and their life experiences. I have to mention that the sex scenes in this book are unique and show queer love in a way that I’ve never read before. It was extremely refreshing. I look forward to seeing what else Anita Kelly writes in the future.

Overall, Love & Other Disasters was a fun, refreshing and entertaining read that I thoroughly enjoyed. Even if it did not live up to all my expectations, I still thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience and will be recommending it a lot. Go and give this one a read!

This is a cute queer romance with the struggle of gender identity and cooking!

Dalia and London met in a cooking show. Dalia is newly divorced, a bit clumsy sunshine. London is a non-binary competitor. They start to build their friendships and there begins a love interest.

Do you like books which involve cooking? I love it, especially in a romance story. Moreover, this cooking competition gives me the vibe of my favourite show, British Bake Off. I enjoyed the cooking scenery and the tension of competition.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, I felt the two main characters are a bit too similar. Their struggles and identity are different, but how they are written seem quite alike.

Overall, I enjoyed this light romance.

This was my first book about characters, so I needed a slight adjustment, but I enjoyed it.
I rated this book as 3.5 stars out of 5.

💥misgendering, homophobia, sexual content

I thought that this was overall a sweet read and great for some queer representation, especially in romance. I thought the cooking show was a great setting and added a lot of the necessary tension to the plot.⁠
⁠
I liked the main characters but at times they felt a bit unfinished and unrefined. I would have loved more attention paid to the other contestants and family and friends of both Dahlia and London. ⁠
⁠
One thing that I didn’t like was the miscommunication plot which leads to a breakup in the final third. To me, it felt a bit cliche and not the best use of the well fleshed-out characters and a great plot. I understand why it was used in this case, but I wish the author would have gone in another direction.

What a wonderful read this was! Dahlia and London were great characters, with chemistry from the get go. It was so easy to get lost in their friendship-turned-romance, and you couldn’t help but root for them. Who doesn’t love grumpy-character-reluctantly-finds-joy-in-little-things-thanks-to-ray-of-sunshine-love-interest? It’s a great trope that I will always have time for. This book transported me to another world… fascinating… I found it difficult to put the book down

This was a cute story. I love the mIn characters and their chemestry.
This was a fun little read. 3.5 stars for this one

On the one hand, I procrastinated on reading this one for ages, which means this review is now distinctly late. Whoops. On the other hand, that means I read it on Valentine's Day, which feels distinctly appropriate, so hey, maybe I was onto something.

I really enjoyed this. I'm not a foodie myself and never watch cooking shows -- I have a ton of allergies and dietary restrictions, so food is a fraught endeavour -- but for some reason I enjoy reading about them in books. (For example, I loved "Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake".) Despite this lack of foodie credentials, I found all the descriptions of cooking perfectly accessible and easy to follow. Did I know what every ingredient was or what all the terms meant? No, but I also didn't feel at sea in a haze of unfamiliar words. The descriptions were clear, grounded and easy to follow.

This book also made me realise that I don't think I've ever seen a nonbinary POV character who was written in 3rd person before. I've seen secondary characters referred to with they/them pronouns, and I've seen POV characters who are in 1st person who use they/them pronouns, but not a whole viewpoint like this. It was... thought-provoking, actually. I use they/them pronouns myself, but of course, it's a lot easier to use them for yourself (a 1st person viewpoint, as it were), because you rarely have to describe yourself in third person. Seeing London's chapters and how natural and uncomplicated Kelly made that narration challenged me to think about why I, as a nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns, still initially found it odd to read. (Although I do personally use "themselves" rather than "themself", which threw me at first!)

Natural and uncomplicated the pronouns might be to the viewpoint characters, but that doesn't mean everyone's okay with London's identity. And this was an aspect of the book I found hard to read. Not because it wasn't handled well -- I thought it was handled really sensitively. But because I related to it just a little bit too much, particularly London's interactions with their father. (Hello, having to have a go at my own dad for not using my pronouns *four and a half years after I came out*.) The constant background transphobia that London has to deal with -- people questioning and invalidating their identity, always having to explain themselves, etc... that's my life, and it's exhausting. It meant in a few places, this became less of a comforting romcom and more of a "okay, I need to put that down and go process that for myself" read. That's okay, and that sense of recognition of the self in a book is super important, but I'm flagging it in case any other readers in a similar position might find it challenging too. It hit me hard *because* it was well-written and relatable and felt very real and authentic, resonating with my own experiences.

I was grateful that, despite sex scenes and Dahlia's admiration for London's body, the book doesn't dwell on London's body in great detail in ways that might have made me dysphoric. I thought that aspect of things was handled really well too. It didn't feel like London was being treated as a "woman but spicy" in the way that afab nonbinary people so often are.

Finally, I liked that there was a certain level of unpredictability about how the cooking show was going to go. There were setbacks, and it was never obvious who would win. I was anticipating a happy ending for the relationship, but it didn't feel like that would require either character to succeed at the competition itself, so the stakes continued to feel high throughout -- there were no foregone conclusions in that regard, nor was there a classic "underdog who needs the money will obviously win and everything will be fine" narrative. However, I would say I felt everything got wrapped up a bit too quickly in the final chapters -- there's a timejump and we get to see what's happening a little way after the show, but because we haven't seen that developing, it felt a little less 'earned' than it might have done.

I did feel that some of the challenges to the relationship were just bad communication (strange since the characters were great at communicating during intimate moments), when it felt like there was potential for more real-world issues to provide meatier conflict. E.g. there's a significant difference between the two in terms of class/financial background, and while this tension is touched upon in places, it wasn't a major theme, but could have been developed further. I occasionally got slightly lost between POVs if I hadn't been paying enough attention -- I find 3rd person switching narratives can be challenging unless the voices are super distinct, and sometimes I slightly loss track of where I was.

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed this -- even if it wasn't universally comforting for me as a reader who related to it a little too hard.

This was a great book for so many reasons. I'm sorry to admit that I didn't have much understanding of what it is to be nonbinary before reading this book, but it really helped me to understand, I think in a good way. The romance was so sweet, the characters were all engaging, and the cooking show setting just added to how much I enjoyed the whole thing overall. I can't wait to read more from this talented author.

Thankyou for giving me the chance to read in advance. Really enjoyed it. Had me literally laughing out loud some times but also very apt for todays times.

This was such a fun read, the characters were brilliant, the plot was fantastic and I’m a sucker for a romance!

Arc provides my netgalley
aaah! finally a new queer and adult romance added to my reading list! i personally think it's hard to find adult romance that have good queer representation but this one right here!!!!yes yes yes!
it was such a sweet novel! I love the culinary competition dynamic and of course the romance!

This book was a pure joy from start to finish. A love story that was so, so much more. It combined cooking with exceptional characters and amazing representation.

I can't wait to see what this author writes next.

Such a funny book that’s totally different from my usual genre! Was a really good that made me want to keep reading. Well done on such a good book.