I'm glad I gave this author another chance as I really liked this book. I love a good Vegas wedding mistake plot. Plus, it had a chef hero so I figured there'd be some good food in it.

Unlike in the first book in the series, which had a hero who was a jerk IMHO, in this book, both Eli, the hero and Marlee, the heroine were both sweethearts and very caring people. Marlee was dumped at the start of the book by her fiancé just 2 days before the wedding. Not only did he dump her, he also enlisted her parents against her so she was feeling pretty alone. Eli is the older brother of her best friend, so when she calls her friends to get help moving out, Eli comes along. Her friends decide that what she needs is to get out of town and they come up with the brilliant idea of going to Vegas. At this point, Eli reluctantly comes along to keep an eye on them. Before you know it, there are some dares, some drinks, and Eli and Marlee end up married by mistake. She then flubs their annulment hearing and they are faced with the prospect of staying married for the 3 months that it will take to get a divorce.

From there, it's typical romcom fun as they both push each other out of their comfort zones, Marlee starts to reclaim her life and her personality after years of molding herself to fit her ex, and Eli comes to realize that although relationships come with strings, sometimes those strings are worth it because of what you get in return. I felt like they treated each other with respect and had a good foundation to build on for an HEA.

This is such a fun read, so light hearted, so funny, it’s a great book to cheer you up and see the lighter side of life. Great chemistry and a fun plot.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This yummy tale of M..istakes is just what the wedding planner should have ordered! Take It Off the Menu is a definite departure from the enemies to lovers binge I had been on. Though if you want to hate someone, Scotty fits the bill perfectly!

Christina Hovland has snared my interest. Take It Off the Menu was my kind of fun. I am a firm believer in doing things at your own pace. Boy do Marlee and Eli have their own pace! I had previously added Going Down on One Knee to my TBR because it looked fun. Fast forward to seeing TAke It Off and I couldn't resist.

Fun, flirty, and just the right amount of ridiculous, Take It Off the MEnu is the perfect treat or pick me up for any reader. Jilted Bride and all! I assume that those that have followed the series from the beginning enjoyed the epic mess Marlee caused for their happy lives. I need to go back and get more Babushka.

So if you enjoy, badly behaved pups with hilariously appropriate names, getting caught in compromising situations (no not that!). If you have a sense of humor and a healthy respect for happily ever afters...

Take It Off the Menu should definitely be on you list.

Take It Off the Menu is the third book in Christina Hovland's Mile High Matched series. Each book in the series can be read as a stand alone but features characters from other books.

This whole series has been hilarious and Take It Off the Menu is no exception. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Marlee is a rich socialite who just got dumped by her fiance. Eli is Marlee's best friend's brother and the owner of a catering company. After Marlee's breakup Eli joins her and her best friends in Vegas and somehow they end up married. What follows is a touching, hilarious story about two people trying to find themselves as their worlds change.

I loved this book and honestly loved all of the characters (Marlee's ex excluded). If you haven't read this series you are missing out. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Title : Take It Off The Menu
Author : Christina Hovland
Publish Date : August 02, 2019
Mature : Yes
Rating : 4/5

Synopsis :
Marlee Medford wedding is cancel 48 hours before the wedding by her fiance name Scotty. Marlee also have a dog name Lothario. After she have a break down about the wedding, she call her bestfriends Sadie, Becca and Kellie but she bring his brother along (Eli) as a support.

Elis or Elias Santiago Howard is a chef and a caterer. His little sister name is Sadie and he is someone who are affraid of marriage and commitment.

If you want to know more about how their story unfold in this "A Mile High Matched Novel" don't forget to buy the book

My Review :

First of all i want to thank you for giving me this ARC. I really enjoy this book and to be honest i did not expect to finish reading this book because there's a few chaoter that is a little bit boring for me.

I really love the female character in this book and her relationship with her friends. I wish i have a friend like marlee and her best friends.

For Eli. I totally understand that he scared of commitment but when they are in that kind situation. I like how he handle it by considering Marlee situation before the event that happen to both of them. But there's a few part where i really hate Eli.

Other character that i like in this book is Jase grandmother. She's so funny. It's a good character to be add in the book

Lastly i want to said that in this book there is no cheating involved.

Quotes :

“You are always what anyone needs you to be. It’s time you are who you need you to be.”

“Being alone is not the only cause of loneliness.” “Sometimes, it’s being afraid.”

I really tried to read this book. Picked it up a couple times. But I just couldn’t get past the 10% mark. The characters just didn’t have any personality. The dog did though so that is something.

Maybe remove the whole cooking breakfast thing??? That is boring.

Take it Off The Menu is the first book I read by Christina Hovland, however it will not be the last! I loved this book. I have already rushed over to my Kindle Unlimited and snagged up more books to devour. Take it Off Then Menu is the third book in The Mile High Matched Series. I was immediately drawn to the cover. Yellow is my favorite color, and then there is this very well built gentleman doing some cooking! Be still my heart! Take It Off the Menu I believe briefly highlights other couples from past series, but can be read as a complete stand alone. I loved this story. Eli and Marlee work so well together. Without giving too much away, this is a great friends to lovers romance. Marlee is not only Eli's sister best friend, but they were old school mates as well. Marlee experiences a rough breakup, and Eli is there to be a friend. Of course with every great story there are tons of twists and turns, and these two become much more than just friends. Shenanigans all the way around, but I seriously enjoyed it from start to finish!

NOTE: this review will be posted on my blog (http://sunshinenbooks.wordpress.com), and on goodreads (http://goodreads.com/sunshinenbooks) on monday, august 19th, 2019 at 5pm (GMT+1) under the link: https://sunshinenbooks.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/take-it-off-the-menu-by-christina-hovland
thank you for your interest in my blog. here's my review:

let's just say i'm glad i finished this book.

TAKE IT OFF THE MENU was probably the messiest, most this-can't-get-any-more-ridiculous-but-somehow-it-does book i have ever read. it follows marlee, who's perfect life is thrown off the window when she gets dumped by her boyfriend two days before their marriage. her friends decide to take her to vegas to get over it. next morning, BOOM! she's married to her best friend's brother, eli.

i mean, yes, the book looked amazing, and it really had great potential, but i went in for more than what i got. the story was completely forgettable, i felt nothing special coming out of it while reading it. in fact, i had a hard time getting into it, especially in the first 30% of the book. and as the story goes, the plot kept getting messier and messier. i kept reading, wishing somehow it would get better; it didn't. 

i think the story is also supposed to be funny, but i found most scenes just cringy (except for one scene or not which i did find amusing). i think the reason behind that is that the chemistry between the characters (especially the main two) felt forced. i really didn't feel any connection to any of the characters whatsoever, and wasn't rooting for the romance. i did however like the friendships, and how the characters were always there for each other.

but what caught my attention the most, is some of the lines i came across, which i couldn't believe i was reading:

"He took the most masculine sip of fizzy booze that he could manage" -Chapter Four

okay first of all, what the hell is a masculine sip of fizzy booze supposed to mean? i mean i'm not into drinks but i know for sure there isn't a masculine one.

"Marlee didn't have the fake breasts that one might expect on a socialite with her kind of money" -Chapter Seven

"[...]Her breasts heavy and real. Laugh lines starting to etch around the corners of her eyes that many in her world would've Botoxed away. But Marlee didn't. They were part of who she was. Yes, she was real."-Chapter Fifteen

these lines are straight-up shaming women who decide to do surgery, questioning their "real-ness", and just being completely useless in the story. this is just putting women in some kind of boxes. i'm just...wow.

i may have not paid attention to some other lines in the book, but these are the ones that made me stop and question whether i should finish it or just drop it and move on to something else.

overall, to say i'm disappointed in this book is an euphemism. i expected a fun and cute rom-com and i got...this. i really had other expectations going into it. i just couldn't wait to be done with it, and i even conisdered just dropping it altogether. oh well...

2.5 Stars

This book was pretty middle of the road for me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.

The emotions in this book are pretty high from the get go, and the first few chapters were so close to something I experienced that I couldn't believe it! So that being said, she totally nailed Scotty, the breakup, and the emotional fallout. The friendship between all the girls, especially her new group of friends she made through Eli, were the highlight of the book for me. While it is a part of a series, you could absolutely read this as a standalone (I did!) and be fine. It would be interesting to see how the character dynamics in the other books are; I might give the series another chance and read one of the earlier books.

The connection with Eli felt very natural, and I really appreciated that there weren't any huge communication mishaps between them that were the cause of drama between like a lot of stories seem to rely on (until the end of course, but that was at least short lived!). While I didn't care much for Marlee, Eli was lovable enough. The ending did feel very rushed though, and as I was getting to the end a part of me wondered what I had been reading about this whole time?

There were just a few things that I couldn't get past that really stopped me from enjoying the story more. Overall the characters really felt like they were lacking depth and weren't that well rounded, and a lot felt very immature. How the whole scene played out in court was just frustrating (again, immature and really, how could you not realize what you were saying in that context?!), Marlee's comments on taxes, being that bad in the kitchen, and honestly don't even get me started about her dog. Her parents and Scotty at least fit into the story line, but that didn't make their actions any less frustrating to read.

And at the end of the day, don't we all know not to trust novelty condoms?

I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this series and all of the characters. Christina Hovland knows how to add fun and laughter with her romance. After a wild weekend in Vegas and waking up married, Marlee and Eli head back home to file for a divorce. The longer Marlee is with Eli the more protective he is of herm and her finds he enjoys having her around. Once they accept their feelings for each other the sparks fly. Eli amd Marlee are a great couple. You can't help but fall in love with this series.

Take It Off The Menu is a unusual take on the older brothers best friend trope but I liked that it was different from the norm. As I like in most of the books that I read I loved the opposites attract thing these two have going on. The give and take, push and pull.

Marlee has a people personally who loves family and being in a comfortable relationship while Eli is a low-key non-commitment kind of guy. What started out as a Vegas Wedding dare gone wrong, they might just see something they didn't before in each other, and maybe they pull each other out of their comfort zones into what can be something great.

There wasn't anything notably new or defining about this book but was funny, moving and balanced in all the right areas. I also liked that there were characters from the previous books were in this one. Christina gave hints at who's book was next, and I will read more from her in the future.

ARC generously provided by Netgalley, the publisher and author.

I really like this series and this book was not an exception to that rule. Funny, smart, an a whole lot of heart! Great summer read!

I’m not sure how a book that starts with our heroine getting dumped two days before her wedding turned out to be so funny and lighthearted, but this book is just that. I loved the last book in the series, so I knew I was going to be in for plenty of laughs with this one, but it exceeded my expectations by having so much heart mixed in. The story follows Marlee, a woman who has been with the same guy for the last ten years. When he calls off their wedding in the final hours, she knows she should be devastated, but she can only feel relieved. Somewhere along the way they fell out of love, and she’s been living a lonely life while coupled up. Her friends take her on a trip to Vegas to lift her spirits, and her best friend’s brother, Eli, accompanies them because he’s always been the one to bail them out when they get into trouble. Fast forward to the next morning, and Marlee finds herself a married woman... just not to the groom she originally intended. What follows is the story of how these two deal with the fallout from their drunken wedding.

This book could easily have felt like a total downer, but the author’s writing makes the pages fly by and put a smile on my face for much of the book. Eli may be a bit of a commitment-phobe, but he’s known Marlee for years and their relationship doesn’t feel new. He’s a great guy who just wanted to focus on himself for a change, and now he finds himself married to a woman he likes and respects. I absolutely loved the courtroom scene - Hovland made some smart word choices here, leading to a hysterical predicament for our couple. While this can definitely be read as a standalone, characters new and old make appearances that enhance the story. Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I’ve loved getting to know these characters and look forward to the next couple.

So apparently this book is in a series I totally skipped the others! But this book was great! Christina is a great author and I look forward the catching up on the rest in this series. Marlee and Eli were great together. Their chemistry, connection, their dialogue . I enjoyed everything about this book . Now I’m off to binge on all her books!!!!

Marlee was to marry Scotty in two days. But then he broke up with her, he’d been thinking about it for awhile. Marlee waited to feel the heartbreak but felt relieved. Relief that was starting to make her panic. She tried to see the man she fell in love with but he was gone and has been for awhile and she wasn’t the woman he fell in love with either. Marlee had been with Scotty ten years since she was twenty. Scotty promised her there was no one else but she knew that; they worked together, lived together, exercised together. He wouldn’t have any time for someone else. Marlee called Sadie to help her pack, she was going to stay at a hotel for awhile. Sadie brought her brother Eli to help. Eli was shocked with how he liked how at ease marlee was with him. Two more of Marlee’s friends came over- they’d come to town for the wedding-Becca and Katie. Eli was a chef and offered to cook breakfast, Marlee had spent many Saturday mornings with Eli and Sadie and their family. Marlee took her friends-Eli included to Vegas to spend the weekend to get away. Eli and marlee were dared to go through the motions of getting married . When everyone else was passed out they did that but actually signed the license with their real name- they weren’t supposed to do that. Than they had sex in the motel room that came with the wedding package. Eli had sworn he’d never get married Eli had lost the scholarship to study with culinary geniuses in Europe when his mother got sick and he stayed to help. He still had dreams of opening his own restaurant and nothing was going to get in his way. He was about a year from having the funds to open Eats grille in LoDo- Denver’s trendy neighborhood -a place for up and coming chefs. With marlees hand against his Eli was feeling things for Marlee he’d never expected. Wired were getting crossed between his brain and his groin and that was unacceptable. Eli said he would call Sadie who was na attorney. She was not happy. They tried to get an annulment in Vegas but couldn’t. Than Marlee’s parents cut off the money from her trust fund.
Excellent book. I really enjoyed this so much. I loved Eli and Marlee together and how they interacted and that they had known each other for so long. I loved how Eli was there for Marlee even before their drunken night and marriage and also after. I was so happy to see Marlee’s parents had changed toward Marlee and they got rid of Scotty. I loved marlee’s heart even though she had a lot of money- at least until her parents cut her off. Then she got a job first with Eli than with Jace and actually worked and loved working with flowers. I loved the pace and the plot. Iread this in one sitting well other than taking a couple of hours to sleep. A new favorite. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I highly recommend it.

This was cute and light and well written.

Some people are all about enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, second chance, etc., but my favorite trope is the Vegas wedding. I loved this one. It wasn't drenched in angst, although it got a little that way at the end, and it wasn't over the top cheesy. It was everything I look for in a romance.

Marlee and Eli have known each other for years, so it's not insta love, and they have a solid foundation. They each have solid friend groups that are supportive and not one dimensional. I really enjoyed this and am smacking myself for not checking this author out sooner

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am just loving this series! I didn't think much could top Going Down on One Knee, but this story pleasantly surprised me.

Marlee Medford is supposed to be getting married in 2 days and her fiance, Scotty suddenly calls off the wedding. So what is a jilted bride suppose to do...head to Las Vegas with her besties....and who tags along to make sure the girls don't get into any trouble....Eli Howard, her wedding caterer and big brother of her best friend, Sadie.

What starts as a drunken fun night ends up with Marlee and Eli married. This wouldn't be so bad except 1.) Eli doesn't believe in marriage 2.) Marlee and Eli really enjoyed their wedding night ;) 3.) The quickie annulment is denied and 4.) Marlee's parents have cut off her trust fund and sided with Scotty!

Broke and homeless Marlee and her dog Lothario end up moving in with Eli until their divorce is granted and she can get her trust fund back. What starts out as a stupid mistake quickly turns into something real and just when it looks like Marlee and Eli are headed into a perfect happy ever after, life has a way of throwing wrenches into their life's plan. It is going to take some major soul searching on Marlee and Eli behalf before these two can find their happy ever after that they both deserve.

I just adored this story! Marlee may be rich but she is not a spoiled brat....she gives the homeless Starbucks a few times a week! Eli may have thought he didn't believe in marriage but it seems he just had never found the right person because once he realized that Marlee was it for him, he fell hard! I also loved Marlee's dog, Lothario! This character was a hoot! Overall this was another perfect story in this series....great characters, great story line and many laugh out loud moments!

I always enjoy and love a new book by Christina. She never seizes to amaze me. I love this series of books. This one is probably my favorite. It made me laugh and I loved the chemistry between the characters. Another great book for the collection.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

a great book so refreshing to find love and makes you belive that there is love for all of us out there... loved this book . it was funny and a joy to read . you be sure I will be reading more from this author.

*I received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*. This is the first book I’ve read by Christina Hovland & I absolutely loved it!! It was funny, emotional & well written. I loved Eli & Marlee and the rest of the characters. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series along with the rest of her books. The only thing the book needed was an epilogue at the end. She did have a bonus epilogue to download on Book Funnel but it should of just been part of the book. I highly recommend this book & author!!