BROOO, I'M SO HYPE FOR THIS BOOK. I KNOW THAT'S NOT A PROFESSIONAL WAY TO START A REVIEW BUT LISTEN THIS BOOK CAME THRU OK.

The first thing you need to know is this book is DRAMA. Half the characters are the most high-key high maintenance you've ever seen. When they say "Jane Austen retelling," they mean it. It's nuts.

Also, the food writing comes through. I actually showed up for the food so I was very excited.

All Stirred Up came, saw, and conquered. It doesn't skimp on anything it promised. It delivers a heaping dish of 5 Michelin Stars. It is chef's kiss approved. Round of applause on this one, ladies and gents.

All in all it was a good read but nothing exciting.
⠀
I would recomend it if you're looking for a light read.

⠀
Thank you to @netgalley, Alcove Press, and Brianne Moore for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Yup. Nope. I gave this a go and I wasn't a fan.

The pacing was too slow for me and at least ½ the novel was based on the restaurant remodel that I care less about and could have easily found something similar on the Food Network/DIY channel if I wanted a bite, there was barely any interaction between Chris and Susan until ⅓ mark and by then I was no longer invested in their relationship, the side characters were annoying as fuck, and the tedious details on what was being done to save the family restaurant just about put me to sleep.

This culinary second chance romance novel nearly made me weep in displeasure and was an utter waste of time and energy. I had skimmed more than what was actually read and I was left with no desire to make it to the big finale. So with that being said, off to my drop pile you go!

Brilliantly done cover. The initial bits are slightly hard to follow with the constant to and fro in the timelines but then the plot catches pace and gives this Jane Austen feel to it. Would love to see it being made into a movie.

This is an interesting modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The book was written in third person, which isn’t my favorite for a love story like this, but it worked. I really enjoyed all the behind the scenes of watching a restaurant work to make a new name for itself. I liked both Susan and Chris, and some of the side characters are fun too.

Bottom Line: Cute read. There are no steamy scenes in the book if you are looking for a fun second chance romance.

**I received a copy of All Stirred Up from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

All Stirred Up by Brianne Moore is a fun read.
⠀
Susan and Chris reignite their interest in each other after having to work together in order to make a restaraunt successful again in Edinburgh. Susan helps people find positions they fit in and Chris is a celebrity TV chef. It is the story for second chances.
⠀
What I liked: I enjoyed the food world and the story line. I liked the fact that Moore didn't skimp around food descriptions or the processes of cooking.
⠀
What I didn't like: I somehow felt a little detached from the read. I can't quite put my finger on why. I didn't like Susan's family, even thought everything was well-written. I think I found them a bit frustrating and I feel like they took away from Susan and Chris' story. I also was left searching for Susan and Chris throughout the book. Even until the last bits of the book I didn't get enough of them. But, I suppose that is more realistic. They ended their relationship badly the first time and I suppose it would take time for them to be in the same page again. It just wasn't what I was expected.
⠀
All in all it was a good read but nothing exciting.
⠀
I would recomend it if you're looking for a light read 😊 ⭐⭐⭐ 3 /5 Stars!
⠀
Thank you to @netgalley, Alcove Press, and Brianne Moore for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

All Stirred Up by Brianne Moore is a fun, easy read. A loose retelling of Persuasion by Jane Austen, this book is well written and is a nice escapist food-centered story. This book isn't as steamy as other romances I've read, and the plot is more centered on the main character, Susan, her restaurant journey, and her family. If you're into light romance with just PG-level kissing, this is for you. Susan's love interest, Chris, really doesn't come in hot as a pivotal character until maybe halfway through the story. I wish more time was spent having them reacquaint themselves. I did enjoy how much of the book was focused on food and Susan's development of her restaurant. I love a good food description, and this book is full of them. Yum.

I did have some misgivings about the plot and characters. First off, every single person in Susan's family is a horrible snob. Ugh. I wasn't sure if the multitude of classist remarks were supposed to be funny and endearing, but I was not a fan. If Julia was my sister I would continuously gag. Is an unlikeable family an element of Persuasion that I'm not remembering? Also, this book is rife with reinforcement of basic heteronormative stereotypes regarding relationships that just made me roll my eyes. There's also a moment of drama towards the end of the book that I think blames the victim, and then makes light of it by quickly "solving" the "problem."

All in all, All Stirred Up is a cute, quick read if you're looking for something escapist and low-stakes.

*I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

It was a fun read! I feel like it took a while for the main characters to get back together though and I wanted more contact between them. I also wanted to know what the gossip writer had on Philip but I don't think it was ever expressly stated.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Susan Napier is tasked by her incompetent father to take over the family restaurant empire. Unfortunately, this happens after closing all bit the original restaurant. Now, she needs to revamp it and make it successful or the family will lose it all. The story is an interesting look at family dynamics and the restaurant industry.

I really struggled with this book. Reading a book which so callously begins with people losing their jobs (given the current economic situation) did not feel good. It made it difficult to commit to the characters and the rest of the story when the beginning was so cruel.

A sweet story inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion. There are some adorable and believe characters that you’ll root for. I only wish some others were more developed like Lauren. A heartwarming read that will bring a smile.

This was my first time reading Brianna Moore.Overall,I thought it was an easy reading.Not challenging,which I loved because our heads are already so full of thoughts.I love watching cooking shows and all so I loved the food element in the book.It wasn't mind blowing but it was fun and light.

Okay this one was so cute! I actually read another YA that was very similar to this one :) Susan Napier's family lived on the success of the restaurants who were started by her grandfather. Her family inherited bad luck and worse management has brought the business to the edge of financial ruin. Susan is now confronted with her ex boyfriend who also wants to open his own restaurant,

I thought this was a really cute story, I liked the family dynamic and how it all came together in the end. I think this is kind of a second chance romance book, which I really enjoyed :)

I was so excited to receive this ARC from Alcove Press!
This modern retelling of Persuasion does a great job of staying close to the characters that we know and love while adding in some new twists. Rich girl whose family owns a famous restaurant scorns poor cook working there. Poor cook moves to America, becomes a famous chef, and moves back to open a restaurant right around the corner from her family's last chance to save their business. The main character Susan holds it together for her sister's who deal with the grief of their lives in very different ways. In a very Austen fashion the slow burn between Chris and Susan takes most of the novel but in a realistic way. She isn't pining over love lost, she accepted her fate and tries to do better by her family.
This book comes out September 6, 2020 and I would read it again!

Fun romance combining food and second chance at love with a Scottish setting and a nod to Jane Austen. Perfect light reading.

Scotland, cooking, and Jane Austen! This was a fun retelling of Persuasion set in the Edinburgh restaurant scene. Will appeal to readers looking for a light escape and second chance romance.

First off, I love a good romance set in the UK, and so I was instantly interested in this book with its Scottish setting. It features descriptive language that draws you as the reader in and it stars two equally intriguing perspectives of Susan and Chris. However, the exposition is super slow and takes nearly half the book for anything to actually happen. It almost feels like there's too much backstory, and you are just waiting and waiting for some action and intrigue. Then, some side characters aren't fully fleshed out and introduced, which is confusing at first to figure out who they are and how they relate to the main characters. I wanted to love this book, however, nothing truly excites me about this slow, slow, slow-burn romance. Susan and Chris have a smidge of chemistry but nothing goes further than that and I just wanted something more than just a family-friendly romance with no heat or sparks. There are some sweet or funny moments, but those are few in number.

Great summer read, Jane Austen feel to this page turner. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling without the sickly sweetness of a typical romance novel. This one is truly a rose with thorns!

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

I'm a sucker for anything Jane Austen inspired and this one did not disappoint!

So apparently this is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, but having never read it, I jumped into All Stirred Up without any knowledge of how things would go. Well, it's a contemporary romance, so there's obviously some knowledge of how things will turn out, but it's always the ride there that makes the ending worthwhile, and this book has a fun one. All Stirred Up is a story of family, forgiveness, and food that made me smile and made my stomach grumble!

Susan Napier is a wonderful leading lady. She's determined, caring, and talented, and what's more, she's not afraid to do what needs to be done in order to save her grandfather's restaurant business. I loved Susan's knack for getting the right people in the right positions to optimize the restaurant, even if that meant stepping on some toes. Of course, those toes deserved to be stepped on, and it was Susan's honesty that really made me like her. However, honesty wasn't always her strong suit, and that's part of what lead to her break-up with Chris Baker so many years before.

Chris himself has a complicated story, but he also had some issues with honesty before his determination and skills in the kitchen earned him celebrity status. When Chris and Susan end up back in the same city fighting for the futures of their respective restaurants, sparks fly once again, and the pair are forced to reevaluate what they think to be true and decide whether their busy schedules will ever give them a second chance.

Although the romance is probably meant to be the main aspect of this story, the main thing that stood out to me--and what made me interested in the story in the first place--was the food. I've been on a major kick with food fiction, and this book took a deep dive into the kitchen and all its related chaos. Susan is a pastry chef while Chris is a more general cook, and it was very interesting to read about the different techniques that go into the different types of food preparation. I especially liked the mentor-trainee relationship between Chris and Rab and later between Susan and Rab as a way to show that the world of the kitchen is a family unto itself and that talent can come from all sorts of unexpected places and people.

I will say that aside from Rab and a few others, the secondary characters really didn't do much for me. I found Susan's family in particular to be quite irritating most of the time, but I'm sure if I had read and loved Persuasion that I might have a different opinion of them. Then again, Lydia is annoying in every adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I've read or watched, so maybe it's just that Austen liked to write annoying families to make the main character that much more likable. Nonetheless, they play an important role in the story, so I just rolled my eyes at their antics and moved on.

Overall, All Stirred Up is a fun read. It's not perfect, but I loved the food/restaurant aspect, and the second-chance romance made me smile.