I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

As a romance, Love and Hot Chicken is fine, the problem is everything else. This feels like a Southern novel for non-Southerners. Everyone is aggressively quirky and "southernisms" are dropped constantly. Look, I'm a Tennessee native and lived most of my life there, this whole novel feels like a caricature. Yes, we're colorful, and a humorous romance should be a little broad, but this goes a bit too far.

My search for the next Fannie Flagg continues...

PJ planned to return to her tiny hometown of Pennywhistle, Tennessee, only long enough to attend her father’s funeral, but between her and her mother’s grief, she can’t seem to get back to her PhD program at Vanderbilt. Instead, she impulsively takes a job as a line cook at Chickie Shak, making Nashville-style hot chicken. There, she falls for her coworker Boof, gets pulled into the campy Hot Chicken Pageant, and helps search for Boof’s biological mother.

Such a thoughtful (and hilarious at times) exploration of queer Southern identity, grief, and how messy and complicated love can be.

It was… okay. Not bad at all, but it didn't entice me either. The story was quite sweet and heartwarming with small town setting that felt intimate. There's one thing that felt personal to me and i was like heyyyy is this book trying to call me out🙄 but whatever, overall it was fine.

The perfect, unabashedly Southern, blend of hilarity and heart, this feel-good, small-town debut had me laughing out loud in places and wiping away tears in others. It's a story about family, friendship, searching for your place when your world's been turned upside down, uncovering your beginnings, overcoming grief, and forging new connections in unlikely places...in life, in love, within family, even in a treehouse while on your way to the Hot Chicken Beauty Tour with an unlikely cadre of two and four-legged companions, including the woman you're falling for.

The pace of the book is on the slow side, like a meandering ride down a lazy river, but that fits with the pace of life in PJ's small Tennessee town where everyone knows you and your business. Anyone who grew up in a small rural town will be able to relate, whether Southern or not. Those Southern roots though are on full display with plenty of local wisdom and humor that comes through in a deep Tennessee twang. At least in my mind. I can't be the only one who heard Dolly Parton's voice in my head as I read.

The (closed door) romance is endearing with enough emotional layers to keep it interesting but not the primary focus of the book. I enjoyed all of the relationships revolving around PJ that are explored, including her lifelong friendship with her (gay male) bestie, her supportive dean at Vanderbilt, the wise elderly town librarian, even her abrasive co-worker, Linda. But I especially enjoyed the evolution of the relationship between PJ and her mother. After being a daddy's girl all her life, watching her slowly bond with her momma was one of my favorite parts of the book.

If you enjoy Southern, slice of life stories that are brimming with character, humor, and heart, I enthusiastically recommend picking up a copy of Mary Liza Hartong's debut novel: Love and Hot Chicken. She's a sparkling new voice in Southern fiction that I'll be keeping an eye on.

4.5 stars
ARC received from publisher via NetGalley

This romance focuses on PJ, who has come back to her hometown following her dad's funeral, to help her mom and to heal her own heart. On a whim, she takes a job at the famous local chicken shack where she meets Boof, an aspiring musician who also works at the chicken shack. PJ finds herself unexpectedly falling for Boof.

I wanted to like this one so much - a queer romance, set in the South, and of course hot chicken! It was giving me Fried Green Tomatoes vibes based on the synopsis. However, the writing style did not draw me in. I struggled along through this one because I don't think the author gave us enough character depth to be super involved with what happened to them. I also don't feel like there was enough plot to carry through it.

This showed promise, the writing was witty and quick and the characters interesting. My biggest issue with the book and the reason I couldn't bring myself to keep reading was the description in the opening chapters of the character's diverse community which was completely white. I'm guessing the diversity they were referencing was financial and/or queer, but to have a novel based in Tennessee, in the food service industry that is completely populated with white characters felt short-sighted and culturally dishonest. Given the historical significance of the black community and their connection to the origination of "chicken shacks", this felt like appropriation at is worst, and I was too offended to keep reading.

I will try another book by the author in the future but for now, this is not a book for me.

I was a fool and let a fun cover and title intrigue me, but can you blame me? It's so catchy!

Sadly, I put this book down about 30% of the way in. While those chapters had a few good laughs, it was already becoming too predictable and stereotypical for my liking. I may pick it back up one day when I don't have more enticing stories to read, or just want something a bit cliche. But for now, it goes back up on my shelf.

I tried. This book was slow and didn't catch my attention past the first few chapters. I could not believe a person left a good job to sell hot chicken, but okay. The central activity in this book is... *checks notes* a pageant? I felt myself groan when this plot point was revealed. I thought this would be a cute and fun read, but this just isn't my kind of book anymore. The writing is fine, very warm and southern. The overarching theme of moving through life while experiencing grief is palpable, I suppose. The pace is just... slow. This seems more like a summer novel maybe?

As a Tennessee gal, I was SO excited when I received this book! I love reading romance novels set in the south that are written by folks who live there! Mary so accurately captures so much of the good and bad of living in a small town. Even though I had high hopes, this book ended up being so much more than I expected. It is full of humor, family, queer love, and sooo many silly Tennessee/southern lore references. I loved the MC's so much and thought they were written SO well! I truly can’t believe this was Mary’s debut novel!

A solid debut about a Southern Tennessee lesbian who returns home after her father's death and sticks around to help her mother grieve. Full of humor, heart, Nashville hot chicken, a beauty pageant, family secrets and queer love. This was a fun story perfect for fans of authors like KJ Dell'Antonia. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

I'm not going to lie, I picked up this book based solely on its name. Hot chicken is my all-time favorite food, and I just couldn't wait to dig it (pun intended?). The cover describes this book as "a delicious southern novel," which is definitely accurate. I loved the small-town charm and antics of Pennywhistle, Tennessee, and the hilarious southern quips had me laughing out loud and missing my days living in the Volunteer State. While the book had its funny moments, there are also more serious themes of grief, friendship, and relationships. The story itself was good—albeit a little wordy and woke at times. It took awhile to get into it, but overall it was an enjoyable and quick read. I really enjoyed the beauty pageant and that there was a bit of an underlying mystery to solve. An impressive debut from Mary Liza Hartong, and now I'm craving some hot chicken!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so the first thing I want to get off my chest is could we just not have, in 2024, these casual very small references to Harry Potter? I think we can all agree JK Rowling has 100% deserved the deletion and we can leave the cultural legacy in the past. Now, I enjoyed Love and Hot Chicken. It's incredibly setting driven - which feels weird to say about a romance - but the setting is so clear and vivid. The community, Chickie Shack, the Elvis references, feels so detailed and alive. And this setting makes the book vivid and alive.

Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Liza Hartong has created a delightful sapphic romance.
It was the perfect mix of hilarious and heartwarming.
I adored both of these characters on their own, but together? Something amazing.
Love and Hot Chicken is marvelous, full of all the wit and charm and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Mary Liza Hartong has written an adorable, small town queer romance full of greatness, love and memorable characters.

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

PJ returns to Pennywhistle, Tennessee after her father’s sudden death. Instead of going back to graduate school in Nashville after his funeral, she gets a job as the cook at Chickie Shak, a town favorite, and tries to remake her life with her mother, gay best friend Lee Ray, and co-worker/crush, Boof.
Love and Hot Chicken is an easy read book with little conflict and over the top characters. My biggest challenge with the book was around language. It’s written in what might be called a folksy Southern style and the language is very casual and filled (perhaps overfilled) with Southern sayings.
Thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins, and the Book Club Girl Early Read Program for the opportunity to read Love and Hot Chicken in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Hot Chicken is a book about finding connections in the unlikeliest of places, about finding love when and where you least expect it. It’s a heartwarming little book, with a cosy feel to it all.

The story follows PJ, who, following the death of her father, finds herself giving up on her post-graduate degree and coming home to work as a fry cook at Chickie Shak. Here she meets Boof, who’s searching for her birth mother, and Linda, the less-than-friendly manager of the place. Then, just as PJ is settling herself, comes the CEO’s big idea: a Hot Chicken Pageant, where Chickie Shak workers the country over will compete to win a prize.

The book, at times, feels very much larger-than-life (much like the Chickie Shak CEO), but in a way that feels like it’s bursting with love, if that makes sense. It’s not just love between the characters, but also love for the region in which the book is set. Love even for Chickie Shak, with its questionable sounding hygiene rating. This is a story about community, and about healing: PJ from the loss of her father, and Boof when it comes to her mother.

So if you’re looking for a read that will warm the cockles of your soul, Love and Hot Chicken fits the remit entirely.

This was ridiculous in the best way possible. There’s a beauty pageant of workers at Chickie Shak, a historical landmark that serves Nashville Hot chicken, where the contestants are called Hot Chickens, there’s a local author who writes book about “The Raccoon King,” and there’s a sweet love story where one of the characters names is Boof, I kid you not.

PJ Spoon, who is a student at Vanderbilt, returns to her small town of Pennywhistle, Tennessee after the death of her father. She’s not sure what she wants to do and if she wants to return to school, and she starts working at the Chickie Shak. There she meets singer songwriter Boof, who is searching for her mother, a Pennywhistle native.

This was fun, charming, silly, and sweet! And it was really well done. If you’re looking for some Southern charm check out this debut novel!

2.5⭐️ - If you’re looking for a light, easy read, this is for you. I appreciated the family dynamics, the small-town charm and the sweet romance that came out. As a debut novel, the book is well written. However, it wasn’t my cup of tea - the story takes a little while to get into, and is a little predictable at times.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow publishing for sending an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

An enjoyable read once you get into it. But it took awhile for it to hook me. A major point in the story is very predictable and I was able to figure it out before the first hint was dropped. I very much appreciate the fade to black over explicit sex scenes. If that’s what you are after this book isn’t for you.