Free copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an absolute delight. The premise, competitors on a cooking show, is weirdly one of my favourite tropes. For some reason I imagined it would be more like Bake Off than Masterchef but it was so enjoyable! The chemistry between London and Dahlia was excellent, which I sometimes find is a bit lacking in these kinds of shorter romances. It was really cool to read a book with a nonbinary character whose pronouns are always correct; even when other characters misgendered them, we were told about it rather than it being quoted directly. I found that an important touch.
I could have done with a bit more description of the actual food/cooking, but I guess this was a love letter to queer and trans people, not to food. I'll be recommending this to my friends, so no higher praise. I look forward to keeping an eye out for future work by this author too.

I’ve been dying to read this book ever since I read its premise and saw its gorgeous cover so I started reading it as soon as I got my hands on it. I had a feeling it was going to be a great book and I was right. I loved this book and these characters and I can’t wait to read more of Anita Kelly’s books.

London and Dahlia were amazing, complex characters and I loved how realistic they both felt. Their conversations about divorce, anxiety, gender identity, dreams, fears and insecurities (and life in general) often hit close to home and I loved how open and honest they were with each other

Seeing them fall in love was incredibly heartwarming. Even though neither Dahlia nor London were perfect, they accepted each other for who they were and, even better, challenged each other to do better. Dahlia’s protectiveness of London was very endearing and I loved seeing London stand up for themself later on in the book, as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. Not only for the romance, but for the representation as well, which I think was very well done. Also if you like cooking shows, this would be a great choice; while the show sometimes is a bit left in the background, when it is there it’s so good it made me start watching this last year’s edition of Masterchef😅

Content warnings: non-binary phobia, misgendering (off-page).

There were several things that I liked about this book I like that there was a nonbinary gender character in the book as more literature needs to have more representations of different genders, I liked the setting and the fact that it was focused around a competition/reality television series as so many of the shows and celebs in todays culture are reality based and I liked the use of social media because we live in a culture where social media is king.
I found the writing to be clunky at times with more fluff than I would have liked but that didnt take to much away from the book and I would have liked the characters to be developed slightly more but overall ot was a fun, humourous read.

Such a fun read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read a digital arc in exchange for my feedback.

Love and Other Disasters is a romance novel set around a televised cooking competition. It has two protagonists, Dahlia, a recently divorced 28 year old, and London, a 26 year old who comes out as non-binary on the show (already out to friends and family).

I loved the competition setting, it was a really fun mix of challenges. What I didn't like was that the show producers were pitting London against Lizzie, a contestant who did not believe in London's gender identity. But it rings true of something reality TV would do...I just wish there had been more consequences for the producers and Lizzie for creating a situation that incited social media into a Team London or Team Lizzie situation.

There's also a lot of info dumping in this book, honestly Dahlia's chapters just spewed her entire life story. I liked her character though, and thought she deserved better than the treatment she got on the show.

Overall, the book had some good conversations around gender identity but I didn't like the way it used London's identity to create conflict.

So the book was absolutely not my cup of tea and I actually didn't finish it - I can waste my precious time on stories that, right from the beginning, don't work for me, are just too politically correct and annoy me incredibly. Wooden characters that felt too forced and too correct, wooden writing style, humour that doesn't feel genuine. I am in minority here, so it must be my fault that I didn't gel with this book, but we just didn't get along and I couldn't be bothered what's going to happen.

This book had so many great elements that it's no surprise I fell absolutely head over heels for it. I love food in books so two love interests that meet on a cooking show was absolutely made for me. Plus the unabashed queerness in this book made my heart so happy.

In my opinion it towed the line of sharing hardships and hurdles trans/nonbinary folks without making the book depressing, there was still so much joy in this book that had me smiling from ear to ear.

It felt real and raw and there was some real maturity in how various situations were handled, something that too often is left out in romance novels. It was fast paced and I absolutely devoured it, I could barely put it down and I am sure I will keep thinking about it for a long time.

This is definitely a bit on the steamier side so if don't be deceived by the cute cover if you are not into that sort of thing.

This author is one to watch for sure and I am going to keep my eyes out for what they bring out next, for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this didn't really do it for me and if it hadn't been an ARC and my 100th book of the year I probably would've dnf'd it.

Let's start with what I liked about the book – which pretty much starts and ends with the nonbinary rep. I loved the way that London's assigned sex at birth was withheld for a good portion of the book, including how androgynous they look in the cover art. Even when Dahlia doesn't know that London is nonbinary they are referred to with they/them pronouns and when another character misgenders London you're only told that they used the wrong pronouns and not what pronoun they used instead. London's assigned sex isn't shared with the reader until about 1/3 of the way through the book – I loved this as it doesn't allow for the reader to think of them as anything other than who they are.

I also really loved how London's assigned sex was shared. I was curious as to how sex scenes would be handled and assumed that London's assigned sex would have to be shared with the audience for sex scenes to be anything more explicit than fade to black. I did think that London's assigned sex being shared for the first time in a sex scene would be awkward and somewhat intrusive. (I can't find the exact right words for what I want to express here but along the lines of 'but what's in your pants?' rhetoric if that makes sense). Instead, this information is shared in a casual remark in one of London's POV chapters. The placement of this comment about 1/3 of the way through the book allowed for London's identity to be cemented, not as a nonbinary afab or nonbinary amab but just nonbinary, but also got mechanics out of the way before sex scenes came into play. The fact that it was London who shared the information also gave them control over the narrative of their identity, which I really liked.

The nonbinary rep in this book felt very deliberate and I really liked how it was done. I know Anita Kelly uses she/they pronouns, although I haven't been able to confirm if they identify as nonbinary, it's clear that London's character and representation was very important to them.

Now onto everything else. The writing of this book was clunky and awkward, I found myself cringing and rolling my eyes at various points. There were a couple of instances of what I can only describe as 'internet phrases' being used that felt so forced and like the author was uncomfortable using them and wasn't quite sure of the proper context to use them in. On top of that their use was completely out of character for those saying them and so they could've been left out altogether.

The characters felt both developed but also very two-dimensional. I felt certain aspects of their personalities were really fleshed out but other parts fell completely flat and, in places, I couldn't tell at all what was in character for them or how they would act in a certain situation.

This clunky writing and weirdly developed characters led to there being absolutely no chemistry between Dahlia and London. It was very much a case of telling rather than showing – it's all well and good to tell me that London can't think because Dahlia is nearby and they're completely crazy for her – but I just didn't feel the attraction between them at all. Because of this lack of chemistry, the sex scenes were also incredibly awkward to read. I'm not sure I would enjoy reading a sex scene that includes toes in mouths in any context but definitely not between characters with as little chemistry as Dahlia and London had.

For a book set around a cooking competition, the show felt entirely inconsequential. The stakes should've felt high with $100,000 on the line, but it didn't feel like Dahlia or London were that invested in winning, or that it would matter if neither of them did.

I'm not against the third-act breakup trope, I think it makes sense in romance books where the main focus of the book is the relationship between the characters. If the entire plot hinges on their relationship then as the climax of the story tension in that relationship makes sense. However, the 'breakup' (if we can call it that) just felt like it was happening because that's what happens in romance books. It was such a rushed scene and I didn't understand Dahlia or London's motivations or thought processes as it was happening. When there's a third-act breakup you know that they're going to get back together because romance books have a formula and that's what makes them tick, but I should still feel like the breakup makes sense. It should be impactful and feel as though it could potentially be over for good. This was neither of those things, it was rushed and vague and felt contrived.

Overall, this book fell short for me on almost all fronts. I didn't fully understand who the characters were, which made them hard to connect to. The stakes of both the romance and the show didn't feel high and there was no chemistry between the characters.

There are some authors who you read a novella from and you enjoy it and you think, yeah, I’m gonna like their book. And then you read the book and somewhere along the way something has broken down because, actually, you don’t really enjoy it. This, I fear, is what happened with me and Anita Kelly.

This is not to say this was a bad book: the myriad 4 and 5 star reviews attest to that. It is, however, a book that didn’t suit me. That’s really the major reason behind my rating here. Me and this book just did not get along.

I think the primary issue here is that I just didn’t feel half the things it wanted me to feel, or even, half the things it was telling me to. In all honesty, when London and Dahlia first kissed, I was surprised, because I really thought they were still only at the “good friends” stage of their relationship. I wasn’t expecting them to start getting together for a long while yet. Which I think is indicative of the problem: the entire book felt more that I was being told things than shown things. It’s a trite complaint, I’m sure, but it’s probably the best way to put into words what I think of this one. I never felt the tension between London and Dahlia. In fact, can I even tell you what they liked about one another? Not really. London was fascinated by Dahlia’s hair. That’s about all I have.

Which, frankly, made for a bit of a boring romance. I mean, that was why I was there after all, for the romance, and it just fell very flat. And I had this problem with the show in the background as well. There was absolutely no tension there either. I was never concerned that maybe Dahlia or London might not make it through (up to a point). In fact, I was more confused that they did make it through. The show was in the background a lot of the time, but it seemed that when it came into focus, it was just to show London and Dahlia… screwing up, basically. And because you never got a sense of how the rest of the contestants were doing (in fact, you never really got a sense of the rest of the contestants full stop), you were left with the general feeling that it was rigged.

So when Dahlia does leave the show (precipitating the third act break up), it comes out of nowhere. Because this whole time I just wasn’t able to gauge how she was doing in it, so when she was kicked off, firstly it was a very short and abrupt scene, but secondly it felt somewhat out of place in the narrative. Not to mention that London… frankly, I think London handled this part badly, and they should have been the one to apologise more than Dahlia did. In the moment, it felt as though they were preoccupied more with their own feelings than Dahlia’s and then, in anger, they made a dig at Dahlia’s insecurity. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d find that hard to forgive. This is something Dahlia’s told London in confidence, and London has no problem using that in a fight? Okay, so they’re angry, but then they go on to not apologise. In fact, it’s never brought up again.

All in all, then, I’m left a bit let down by this one. Given that I had liked one of Anita Kelly’s novellas before, I had hoped I would enjoy this. Alas, it was not to be.

Love & other disasters was a really cute and fun book to read, the opening sentence was quirky and I thought it would be an instant binge read, but I started to struggle with it a lot as it was quite slow.

I expected the book to centre on the cooking show, but felt the story focused more on the relationship between Dahlia and London. The challenges and actual cooking moments were very brief and rushed over, the judges were never really given any personality, and the other contestants weren’t mentioned until they were eliminated, with the exception of Lizzie (trash) and Barbara (robbed) who had small roles in the book.

To be honest, I struggled to see any connection between London and Dahlia, their first meeting was awkward, and then they suddenly had feelings for each other, it didn’t feel like there was a slow burn romance, but it also wasn’t rivals to lovers, so I was just lost. Despite that, there were some cute moments between them, and it was obvious that Dahlia saw London as their own person and was very protective of them.

The book had a very light tone, despite the deep conversations the characters had, there were moments that were really fun and I could definitely see happening on masterchef, like the cow scene.

This was my first book by the author, and whilst I enjoyed it, I would have liked to see more cooking and drama from the show, but I am excited to see there are more books in this universe and the character’s will be returning.