I recommend this! Sexy chefs, lies, deceit, food what more do you want?fun refreshing read makes you wonder what goes on in restaurants!

Thank you NetGalley & Joffe Books for this ARC!

I think anybody who appreciates mystery in books—and top chef or chopped—will enjoy reading The Chef since it was a good thriller. Amid challenges between Dante and Kira, a married couple attempting to maintain their restaurant and their marriage, they soon find themselves uniting against an eccentric chef they have hired.

Although I didn't believe this added anything especially novel to the genre, I still found a lot to keep me interested as a lover of chef programs and behind-the-scenes restaurant stories, and I really liked reading it. This one, in my opinion, is guaranteed to appeal to thriller fans.

Kira and her husband, Dante, just opened a new restaurant in Los Angeles. Things take a turn for the worse when they have to fire their head chef, after he accidentally stabs Kira's arm. Frantic to find a new chef, luck is finally on the couple's side when they find Marco. Marco is an experienced chef. Kira and Dante are instantly impressed by his skills. As soon as luck comes into the couple's hands, it is quickly taken away from them. Little did Kira or Dante know that Marco would change their lives forever.... I will keep my synopsis short, as the events that unfold in the novel are key to keeping the story suspenseful! I do not want to spoil the fun!

This was my first read from Robin Mahle. I am impressed! The Chef was a wild ride. It was hard for me to put it down because I HAD to know what was happening. There were many twists and turns and the shock level increased as the novel went on.

The story alternated between Dante and Kira's perspectives. There were also a couple Marco chapters thrown in. It was really interesting to see things from Kira and Dante's perspectives, as they were battling different issues. I felt that the alternating chapters kept the intrigue and suspense levels high. The character development was excellent!

I also really enjoyed the chef/restaurant setting! Very unique - I read tons of thrillers and have yet to come across this setting.

Thank you Joffe Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was very different from anything I've read, and i found that to be refreshing. One of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat. I love a good restaurant, so I felt this book was screaming my name. I enjoyed the dynamics and dialogue between the characters. I had no idea who to trust. I love varying POVs in the books I consume, so i enjoyed the 3 various POVs used to tell this story. The way this story was written helped me get into the thoughts of each of the main characters. This story was fast paced, thrilling, and exciting. There were good twists weaved throughout that made this an enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Very good read. Some parts dragged but, the ending made up for it. Decent read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of the book. Receiving it in this way had no bearing on my thoughts.

THIS BOOK TOO ME ON A RIDE!!! Wowwwww!!! I thought I had it allll figured out and everything. Nope. Didn’t. This was great!!! Fave of the month

thank you to joffe books, netgalley, and of course the author Robin Mahle for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I, like many other people, do in fact judge a book by it's cover, no matter how much nobody wants to admit it.
This is a cover I've seen on many books (the Frieda McFadden Effect, as I call it), so this is a book where the cover didn't draw me in. If I had seen this book in a store, I would have skipped to the next one.

Despite the cover being so basic, this book's contents were unique and thrilling.

I love the fact that it's set it in a restaurant, as I'm a HUGE fan of books like this and am always on the hunt for more books with tasy-sounding food descriptions. This book had plenty of them! I could feel myself drooling every time the cooks were described making a dish. I wish this restaurant was real so I could go and eat everything on the menu.

While I guessed "the shocking twist" from pretty early on, it was mainly a lucky guess and I'm sure many people reading this will be shocked by these twists and on the edge of their seat the entire book. I didn't find it really "thrilling" and there weren't many moments that had me biting my nails as I turned the pages in anticipation - but the characters and the setting made it worth it. I loved sweet Naomi, the young chef who needs to stop letting people walk all over her! and I loved Kira and Dante, who I know run their restaraunt like the damn Navy but care so much about their employees.

As soon as I opened the first page of The Chef, I knew I was going to like this book by Robin Mahle.

The novel centers around a crazy chef and the couple who are forced to deal with him. Not many books I read take place in a restaurant, so I appreciated the setting. The characters, pacing, and plot were all perfectly balanced and I liked the twists and turns the book took here and there.

This seemed long, it took me a few days to finish it, but I was glued to the pages to see what happened next. Solid suspense!

Here is the plot:

Hiring him might be the most dangerous mistake I ever made . . .

I started as a server in a New York restaurant. That’s where I met my husband, Dante.

Now we’re opening our own restaurant in Los Angeles. It’s our dream come true.

But it’s turning into a nightmare. We’re nearly out of money. I had to fire our head chef after he ‘accidentally’ stabbed me. And now I’ve caught my husband flirting with a waitress. He used to flirt with me like that.

Then Chef Marco shows up. The answer to our prayers. He’s cooked in top restaurants all over Europe. He also has the most stunning green eyes. We hire him on the spot.

That’s when the nightmare really begins . . .

This was such a good read and I was entertained from start to finish! The Chef is out now.

I was pleasantly surprised with how much i enjoyed this book! Thrillers don’t normally come with multiple POVs and that definitely made this one stand out. The multi POVs helped the suspense and tension throughout the story. There was so many twists, turns and surprises throughout each page of this book. I was so intrigued to find out what the heck was going on - all the characters had MAJOR flaws and so much depth. You hated them and rooted for them all at the same time.

Definitely a quick, tense, enjoyable thriller.

After leaving the Big Apple, Kira and Dante moved to sunny LA to manage a high-quality Michelin-starred restaurant. However, they came to the wrong place because of financial problems, and Dante's promotion to the sous chef did not help their relationship.
The worst came in when Kira was accidentally stabbed by the head chef, who was fired due to drugs. Kira and Dante hired a new head chef, Marco, to have the restaurant up and running, hoping for some long-awaited good fortune. Hiring him might be the most dangerous mistake I ever made...
And now I've caught my husband flirting with a waitress. He used to flirt with me like that.
The answer to our prayers. He's cooked in top restaurants all over Europe. He also has the most stunning green eyes. We hire him on the spot. That's when the nightmare really begins...


This was such an interesting book and loved it as much as I have loved all of her other ones. I can’t wait to read more from her!!!
Definitely a must read who loves a good book.

3.75 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 stars! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Dante and Kira are a married couple that have recently opened their restaurant. A food critic visited their restaurant and gave them rave reviews, with the help of their head chef, Eric. Kira discovers that Eric has an addiction issue and fires him, and now they need to replace their head chef.

Kira is walking in the area one day and sees that another restaurant is opening in the area and peeks in the window to see what their set up, and while she is doing this the “owner”, Marco shows up behind her. She mentions that she is looking for a head chef and if he knows of anyone to send them her way. Dante and Kira set up interviews and Marco is one of the candidates, and Kira is confused because she thought he was the owner of the new restaurant that would be opening. They decide to hire Marco, even though Kira is a little leery about him because he has great credentials and can really cook.

Marco starts working for them and bad things start happening, to the employees, their family and eventually them. But why are they happening and will they survive. This was a fast-paced thriller that I enjoyed and I recommend it.

I found this all a bit predictable and to be honest I didn't really like any of the main characters which made it hard to care what happened to them. I have read so much better from this author.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book

The premise of this book was very different from anything I've read, and i found that to be refreshing. One of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat. I love a good restaurant, so I felt this book was screaming my name. I enjoyed the dynamics and dialogue between the characters. I had no idea who to trust. I love varying POVs in the books I consume, so i enjoyed the 3 various POVs used to tell this story. The way this story was written helped me get into the thoughts of each of the main characters. This story was fast paced, thrilling, and exciting. There were good twists weaved throughout that made this an enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

I thought this book sounded interesting, but it wasn't my favorite. It was an ok read. It started out slow. It did pick up, but by that time I had lost interest.

The Chef's book was extraordinary. I felt like I was watching a movie with so much suspense, drama and so many unexpected things to happen next. By far one mind-blowing book. So much Worth reading it.

First read by this author!

Was a great read and great writing!!! It first started slow bu it did get better!!! Would read more by this author

Wow! What an exciting and suspenseful story! The Chef was a book I read very quickly partly because it was a great fast paced story and partly because I couldn’t put it down! I have no experience in how a restaurant works behind the scenes but these scenes felt very realistic and interesting to me. I’m very eager to read more books by Robin Mahle!
Many thanks to Net Galley, Joffe Books, and Robin Mahle for allowing me to read this advance edition in exchange for an honest review.

I truly tried my best to get into the plot of this book. I opened it as soon as I got it approved and only got 13 pages in, which is very abnormal for me and thrillers (especially 300 page ones!). I tried again about 3 weeks later, and this time I got about 100 pages. The plot sounded so intriguing--I love food and restaurants and I love thrillers (kind of the vibes of Hell's Kitchen the show lol). But I really can't.

The positives: the food sounded really good! I find the restaurant industry (especially the kitchen) fascinating and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I definitely felt some of the creepy/thriller-y vibes from Marco and wanted to know what happened next

I have 2 main issues with The Chef: the characters, the plot. Character-wise, I feel like I know almost nothing about the 3 POVs I've gotten so far, and I am not invested in a single one of them. Dante and Kira are the married owners of the restaurant and their whole jealousy thing really annoyed me (Kira is jealous of Dante and a female employee, Dante is jealous of Kira and Marco). Like be grown adults and communicate about all of this. Plus the employee aspect? I hate when there are power imbalances. Marco seemed extremely creepy in the way he used Naomi (a female employee) and the way he stalked Kira and Dante.

The plot: it was a bit hard to get into. It starts off very slow-paced, and then about 90 pages in, something big happens (or so we think). I had a really hard time trying to care about what happened because it was already established that the guy who died was kind of a jerk (it's a book, I can be judgmental). I didn't feel any of the thrill or curiosity about what was going on because I didn't care. Otherwise the only weird/thrilling part was that their meat shipment was weird and that Marco was just using Naomi for sex, neither of which were significant.

I think if I got to maybe 200 pages the plot would have greatly picked up like other reviewers have said. I just struggled a lot to get to page 100 and have so many other books that I know I will like better sitting on my shelf to read. I wish I was able to finish this one for the plot as the premise was very intriguing (I just want to know what's up with Marco and what the main conflict even is).

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC!

I received this book as ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I found this book rather interesting from the very beginning, and I did enjoy that each chapter was perceived from a different characters perspective, without overlap.

I enjoyed each character development and the story was rather gripping.

I found the story to be a bit of a slow burn at first, but halfway through the book, it suddenly sped up, which I didn't expect, and then I felt I was a little overwhelmed with the increased pace.

However, with the twists and turns that came, it managed to keep me on my toes.