I stumbled upon Faker last year, and I knew that I would be obsessed with Sarah Smith forever. Lo and behold, Simmer Down. THE CUTEST book I've read this year. Food trucks, beautiful Hawaiian setting, enemies-to-lovers, fantastic dialogue and characters? Yes please! Nikki was so much fun and I was totally enamored with Callum. Ugh! I wish I didn't read it so fast. LOVED THIS BOOK!

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope but this fell slightly short. Although it was the perfect little romantic comedy to get me through the dark days of quarantine, I did find parts of it very repetitive. The two characters were constantly misunderstanding each other and that was frustrating.

This book was 🔥 and I found a new book boyfriend. I was all for the food trucks, Hawaiian beaches, hot kitchens, English accents, and cute little cats. Nikki and Callum are competing food truck vendors and their loathe to love story had me turning the pages fast! I could not put it down!

Enemies to lovers is one of my favorites tropes so it’s no surprise that I really enjoyed this book. The beginning was a little unrealistic at some points when Nikki and Callum kept running into each other. However, the book was such a great rom-com and had some steamy scenes mixed in. I was super invested in their relationship and sometimes wanted to scream at the book and tell the characters that they need to communicate better! But that is what made the book so great!

Foodie and fun! An excellent first purchase for collections where contemporary foodie romances are popular.

If you like contemporary romance, you’ll enjoy this novel.

Nikki quits her dream job in Seattle to help her mother with a food truck in Maui. There are food truck etiquette rules, and when Cullum James parks his and his brother’s food truck right next to Nikki’s, she’s happy to inform him that he’s breaking them. This sets off a rivalry that leads to a steamy romance that they have to keep secret because they’re competing against each other in the Maui Food Festival.

This is well-written, and I liked all the characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES OCTOBER 13, 2020.

📚 Book Review 📚

Food. A hero with an accent. Hawaiian and London locations. What more could one want in a romcom? Simmer Down is my first by Sarah Smith, and overall I enjoyed it!

What I Liked: I really love romances where food is also a central theme or character, and this story did not disappoint. The food and the food trucks themselves had a strong presence. I also loved how I was able to escape within this story. I actually felt like I was in Hawaii and London which was fun because I definitely miss traveling. I loved Callum (and not just for his accent). He actually knew what he wanted and was pretty open about those feelings. Which can be rare for heroes in romances sometimes. Nikki has a lot going on, but I loved her devotion to her family and how processing grief was central to the plot. Too often, I hate how selfish some heroines and heroes become in romances, but that wasn’t the case here. Lastly, THE STEAM. This book had the perfect amount of steam. I loved that Nikki and Callum’s chemistry jumped off the page.

What I Struggled With: I know Nikki was working through her grief, but not only was she horrible at communicating, but she also prevented Callum from communicating his feelings which was so frustrating. There were one too many instances of miscommunication or misunderstanding that drove me a bit nuts and slowed the story down.

Overall, this was a fun read and a perfect escape read for all of us stuck at home!

Will be posting review on pub day 10/13/20 to my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookswithemandfrankie/

This is a very good book and another sweet build up to a really great ending.My only frustration wth the book was when instead of going to talk to him after they broke up when she knew she loved him,she made up all the stuff in her mind about what was happening and it could have been cleared up with just a conversation.But that was the point I guess. I liked it from the beginning to the end.

Simmer Down follows a woman, Nikki, who runs a food truck alongside her mother in Maui. However, a newcomer starts up a food truck across from her and threatens business. Callum, one of the owners of the new food truck is handsome and attractive, from England, and downright rude to Nikki during their very first encounter. Their relationship consists mostly of them hating each other and arguing any chance they have, which eventually tracks more business for them both. However, the close proximity they are eventually forced to share, opens up a whirlwind of emotions and they end up in a friends-with-benefits situation and the likelihood of love seems far fetched, until it's not. A food competition threatens the arrangement they have made and they're forced to make difficult choices along the way.

The banter in this book between Nikki and Callum was so incredibly cute. I really enjoyed the fact that Nikki was so driven by her work and her family and the importance that had in the story. Her motivation to win the food truck competition was so delightful to see, because I rarely see romance novels where the woman's job comes first, but in this story it really was the center focus for her. Callum was absolutely my favorite character. He always expressed what he wanted when it mattered most and I loved how well he communicated his feelings throughout the book. The only thing that I was not super convinced about was their arguments in the beginning. For me, I wasn't super convinced that they really disliked each other that much. Which is fine if that was the point, but, I would've liked to actually have seen a real reason for their dislike for one another. For me I just didn't care for the "insta-hate". I'm a romance reader, and for me, the banter was cute, some of the experiences they had together were enjoyable, but I was not completely captivated by their love or romance so-to-speak. It definitely is a cute read if you want something quick and that will make you feel good.

This book was cute, but in a lot of ways very predictable. I liked Nikki and Callum and I liked how their relationship blossomed and how devoted he was to her. I liked that Nikki finally figured out that she could get close to people again and really became her own person through her cooking. I also like Nikki's relationship with her mom and how that grew and changed too.
A cute hate to love romance with yummy food and a beautiful island setting.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

Alright, this is basically The Hating Game in a food truck format. First, Filipino food and English food are so different I don't know how this is a real competition for customers. Second, there's absolutely nothing cute about their get-together or their romance Third, aside from just finding him sexy, I don't think she actually like shim at all as a person. The hate in this was done well with all the four-letter cursing and name calling that when she finally does get with him, it seems really fake and forced. Like, they just had to get together because it's that point in the book. However - I am not a fan of the haters to lovers trope so maybe this is just how it always is - just sort of awkward and all of the sudden, we love each other, not hate each other.

5 stars
This book had everything! Enemies to Lovers! Humor! Family! Food Trucks! And I loved every second of this book!
Nikki and Callum are food ruck owners in Hawaii (loved the setting).

Nikki is helping her mom out in her dream of owning a food truck in Hawaii after her dad's death. This in NOT where Nikki thought her life was going to be. She was happy in her old life. Now, she just wants to make her mom happy and finically stable in her retirement.

Callum is helloing his brother run his food truck. This is not where he thought where he thought his life would be. He loves cooking, but his career was in finance.

The met under bad circumstances. Callum parks his food truck in Nikki's spot. When she nicely tells him to move, it goes downhill quickly. Then their feud starts.

The book was funny, Heartwarming. I loved the banter and wit between Nikki and Callum. To be honest, I loved every aspect of the book.

This was such a fun read. I enjoyed reading a romance centered around food, it was a fun story like none other i have read. I like the characters and found them fun and inviting. I thought the banter of the characters was great and kept me interested throughout the book. I LOVE Hawaii and Maui so the references were fun to read about.
I did not like certain aspects of the book like the characters being on the same plane, sitting next to each other by chance... not believable at all but I guess thats many romance novels! I also did not like how many hoops the characters had to jump through to be together in the end.

After her father’s death, Nikki is committed to making her parent’s dream of a successful Filipino food truck come true. Singularly focused, Nikki has no room for distractions outside of her mother and their business and is ready to defend their parking location when a British food truck swoops in on their hard won customer base. This hate to love foodie story is filled with delicious eats and steamy romance. I love that the author brought her own Filipina American background to this fun and flirty read and I couldn’t help but speed through it!

I think every romance/romcom book has a point to where if it continues as it is going, it will be corny, or if it turns, it will be very good. This was for sure the latter. I mean who doesn't love rom coms AND food? Enemies to lovers trope is always a good one to me.

Simmer Down by Sarah Smith is the story of Nikki DiMarco, who has given up her previous life to help her mom run a Filipino food truck on the beach in Maui. It's not her dream job, but she's making it work until Callum James, a British food truck owner, shows up in her spot and starts stealing customers. They agree to let whomever wins at the Maui Food Festival be the winner of the prized spot.

I love a good rom-com that incorporates food as well as a bit of a rivalry and this book did not disappoint! Callum and Nikki have the type of chemistry that is intense both in the bedroom and in public. I loved their banter and their competitive spirits. I also liked that Callum was not your typical asshole hero that can't have a decent conversation with the heroine.

I'm giving this a 4 out of 5 because I felt like this book did focus more on the food trucks and Nikki's personal life more than any budding romance. However, I did appreciate that this wasn't as slow of a burn as other books I've read in this same theme. I think foodie romance fans will love this book. But be warned, don't read this on an empty stomach!

So. Much. Fun. Simmer Down is definitely a fun, mouth-watering (ahem), read-in-one-sitting novel based around food, culture, and beautiful people. Nikki, a young chef leaves her life behind in Oregon to move to Maui to take care of her parents during her father's illness. Now faced with a recently widowed mother, and doing the best she can to make the food truck dreams of her parents reality, it's not the time for Nikki to lose focus when a rivalry with a new truck encroaches on her hard-won spot. Everything heats up as British Callum refuses to back down and challenges Nikki at every turn. This is a book that made me smile, laugh (and sure, swoon) and was perfect for a summer day read. #SimmerDown #NetGalley

I started and finished this book in 2 days! It was filled with romcom cliche after cliche (hate to love, grand gestures, public fights at inopportune times, get stuck in small spaces together and dumb misunderstandings) but they all worked in this story. I loved the different setting and the food truck aspect - it added a fun element I haven't seen in a book.

I read and finished @authorsarahs ‘s SIMMER DOWN this weekend and LOVED. Following the owners of warring food trucks in Maui who may or may not love to hate each other, this was one of those books where the setting becomes its own character. YAY for the beach, yummy food, and enemies to lovers romance with shared cat custody! Intrigued? It’s out Oct 13th from @berkleyromance and you should be THE MOST excited. HAPPY READING! 💕🤩🌺.

If I see a book involving chefs, I know I have to read it. This was the perfect rom com!
Nikki and her mother have a food truck in Maui and when a competitor parks a little too close to her, she kindly lets them know the rules. Callum has come from Chicago, left his job in finance, to help out his brother Finn with his struggling food truck. Callum believes in Finn and will do anything to ensure he succeeds, so when Nikki tells him they can't park there, sparks fly.
The tension between the two is palpable, you can tell it is going to get worse before it gets better. They come up with ways to try to sabotage the other's truck and some of it is quite funny. They are both entering a food contest to win 10,000 and there is so much at stake for each of them.
You can tell quite quickly that these two are going to give one another a run for their money, but it becomes clear that Callum is falling for Nikki pretty early on. They agree to only be friends with benefits because Callum is leaving and Nikki doesn't have time for anything else. These two fall hard for each other though, and that is a recipe for disaster.
I would have liked to see a little bit more of a slow burn with this one, which is something I rarely say. I did enjoy the banter between the two, but I wish it would have lasted a little longer. I really loved Callum. He was so sweet and I could feel all the love he had for Nikki. Nikki was understandably overprotective of people in her life, but it got to the point it did annoy me a bit. It was nice to see Callum get her to open up. I enjoyed this book and it was a light cute read.