This was a surprising delight!

I was immediately swept into the story by KD’s easy writing style, the beautiful Maine location and the delicious food descriptions.

I especially enjoyed how these two opposites found each other and within that, their other half!

Adah was rough up in a strict religious home and now the single mother of a young boy has taken the opportunity to escape her refuge of the big city to make a hoe in a seaside resort town. She has the been give the hard chef position at anew restaurant… too bad she is still under the thumb of a misogynistic manager who does not respect her and her abilities.

On the flip side , there is chef and owner of the critically acclaimed restaurant across town, Beth. Beth was brought up in a loving home and has had the freedom to follow her dreams. She now lets her creativity flow in her business.

Like two opposite magnets, the attraction between these two is palpable. Both needing to learn to love and trust, in order to find happiness together. I adored both characters and found them both deeply relatable. A truly delicious love story!

The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher is scheduled to release October 27th, 2020.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin and the Harlequin Publicity Team. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheSecretIngredient #KDFisher #NetGalley #pinkcowlandreads

A romance story with yummy food aspects. The description of the food being made sounded scrumptious. Where’s the recipes?????
The main characters are Beth and Adah. They are both chefs working in different establishments. They have a mutual instant attraction to each other. Their personalities cannot be more different from each other.
The premise of the story is sweet and funny.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Publish date: 27 October 2020

I absolutely loved this book. This is a wonderful queer romance featuring two chefs. The main tension in the book comes from their conflicting work and Adah's background as the child of a conservative pastor. The story begins with the arrival of Adah and her son Peter to Maine, as Adah takes a job as an executive Chef in a new restaurant in a fictional southern coast town. The author does a wonderful job of capturing the experience of being a new Mainer (or "from away"). Maine's tourist economy and the warm nature of the Mainers Adah meets paints a beautiful picture of the Maine I know and love. Adah and Beth are rivals, often working in competition as their restaurants grow. This tension creates a perfect frame for layering the increasing romantic tension in the book. I found both Adah and Beth to be charming, but I'm pretty sure that Adah's friend/landlady Vanessa is my favorite character.

*An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

A good quick read that would be great for when you have a few free hours on a weekend. Adah was a complicated woman with deep seeded issues from her religious upbringing. I think that KD didn’t do enough to really speak on this. She gave us the highlights but Adah’s problems went deeper than what was given to us. I mean, she didn’t want her family to know where she lived, she didn’t want contact with her brothers, and while we were told that her parents were deeply religious, strict, and kicked her out when she got pregnant, what happened while she was alone in St. Louis at the age of 18 alone and pregnant. I think that the author was trying to show exactly how much Adah didn’t talk but it left me as the reader in the dark. Also, we really didn’t learn anything about Beth except that she was a flake who traveled a lot when she was younger. I think that more backstory is needed.

Fun Foodie FF Romance. This is a lesbian romance where the two ladies are about as opposite as it gets - one is a trained chef working for a corporate restaurant group, the other is a legacy baker who took over and revitalized her mom's shop. As a short romance, it works well in that it hits all the requirements of the genre (yes, including sex) and executes each solidly - but you're not going to get the conflict and growth of a 100 page longer book. Though there are still significant, more complicated than Hallmarkie, conflicts here. Ultimately a fun book that hits all the right notes and even manages to highlight the particular region it features very well. Very much recommended.

I really enjoyed reading a book with some characters that go against the norm in these types of books.

Adah just moved to North Port to be the chef at a new fancy restaurant. She lucked out on her tiny apartment and her landlady who just happens to be the nicest person on earth. Not only did Vanessa cut her rent, but she also babysits Adah's son for free every single day. When Adah and her employers check out the local competition they meet Beth. A seemingly go with the flow restaurant owner who actually owns one of the most popular restaurants in the area. To say Beth and Adah immediately click would be a huge stretch. One might say they get on each others nerves, but that's because there is this pull that they both don't want, but also secretly they do. When both their jobs become more and more stressful they need to discover what is really important to them. Beth has a hard time dealing with how reserved and closed off Adah gets when talking about feelings, Adah just pushes everyone away. When they overcome their own issues, they might just make it together.

Adah and Beth are both chefs, where Beth respects Adah's work, Adah doesn't return the favour in the beginning. Adah seems a bit of a snob and I didn't like her character for about 1/3 of the book. I did warm up to her, but I kept having some issues with her. I do like Beth, I wonder if I can borrow some of her patience and positivism. It's nice to read about a butch character mothering a child, these characters don't come by too often. But honestly, Adah is such a softie! She appears butch, but all her emotions are bordeline dramaqueen and this is what bothers me about her character. The story is nothing too special, it's sweet and nice. I did enjoy reading it. I would give it 3.5 stars if it were possible, 4, would be too much so I am going with 3.

“And what about The Yellow House? I really want to see what they’re doing over there.”

Moving from Chicago to Maine, Adah Campbell had big dreams of starting a new life with her 9 year old son, a new job as the executive chef of a posh restaurant and leaving her past behind. When her recce of potential competitors in the area brought her to Yellow House, she was both enamoured and put off by its owner, Beth Summers.

Beth Summers gave up travelling the world to take over her family’s coffee shop and through hard work with her team made a name for her award winning bakery cum restaurant.

Although first interaction between the pair left much to be desired, they could not deny the instant attraction towards each other. Even as rivals in the industry, it was heartening to see the characters bond over food and their competitiveness spicing up the relationship. All was well until Adah’s past and insecurities halted their progress.

The book gave both main character’s point of views and while it was easy to like Beth, with her resilience and general optimism with life, Adah left readers wanting. With the ghosts of her past and pride to succeed on her own, it was easy to understand where Adah came from but her prolonged reluctance to open and warm up to Beth difficult to relate.

3.5 stars as the book has its charms for a foodie romance and diversity of LGBT characters.

just reviewed The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher. #TheSecretIngredient #NetGalley

I enjoyed K.D. Fisher's The Secret Ingredient, it's a lovely romance. I would have liked just a bit more character development. Both women are interesting and very likable, and it would have been great to get to know them better. A little more back story would have been great, especially for Adah.

No doubt they have chemistry, whenever they were together that was clear, maybe they simply fell in love too fast?

Still, I adore the way K.D. Fisher writes. Their descriptions are amazing - the charm of this traditional and quirky Maine village, the changeable weather, and the food! Yes, this book will make you want to EAT.

There's a fantastic cast of secondary characters and I really hope K.D. Fisher has more books planned!

Beth and Adah are 2 colorful characters.
Competitors at first sight, both working as a chef.
Beth is very loveable, she wants to love Adah,
But Adah struggles with her past, her boss and also a single mother.
Googling to keep all the ball's up in the air and loving Beth to pieces, until her past creeps up on her

KD Fisher is a great author, I hope to read more of her books in the future

Thank you, Carina Press and Netgally have the opportunity to read the ARC.

Adah Campbell is a single mom to ten-year old Peter. They recently moved from Chicago to North Port, Maine, where Adah accepted an executive chef role at Bella Vista. One afternoon Adah and some of Bella Vista’s executive leadership pay a visit to a restaurant in the area called The Yellow House. The restaurant has recently won a prestigious award and they want to learn more about the restaurant and its owner, Beth Summers. Beth doesn’t really have time to talk to the visitors since her restaurant is quite busy. But she does take notice of Adah.

Beth and Adah are quite different in personalities and their demeanor. Beth is very talkative and outgoing while Adah is quiet and reserved. We learn that Adah grew up in Missouri and is actually the daughter of a reverend who found it difficult to accept Adah’s sexuality. Eventually Beth and Adah begin to spend time together while Adah’s landlord and friend, Vanessa, takes care of Peter. They grow close over time. We learn about their developing relationship in the chapters that follow.

The book was a refreshing change of pace since it represented people of different identities and sexualities quite well. It also outlined the challenges that someone can face when their family does not accept these qualities. I also enjoyed the fact that Adah was a butch character and the birth mother of Peter. This is pretty rare in lesbian fiction. I would recommend this sweet romance to other readers, especially for people who enjoy reading about a food and restaurant environment. 3.5 stars

I received an ARC from Carina Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.50 Stars. This was a sweet foodie romance. I don’t know what it is about books that star chefs or bakers but it is so easy to enjoy a good foodie romance. You could also put the enemies to lovers tag on this. Actually, I think annoyance to lovers might be the better tag for this if I want to get technical. This is my first time ever reading a Fisher book and I would read another.

I really loved the setting of coastal Maine. While I’m only a few hours from Maine myself, where I live is all landlocked and heavily wooded, so there is no ocean around. The smell of the sea and more lobsters than you can eat, Maine is a great state. I also liked the overall premise of two head chefs that have an attraction but also a competitive tension too.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Fisher’s writing style. I think Fisher writes well with a lot of nice descriptions. She is not overly descriptive but just enough which I think was needed for a foodie romance. She also decided to write this book in a way that we don’t see too often. She wrote it in first person, but it was alternating POV. A chapter would be in the head of the main character Beth and then the next chapter would be in the head of Adah. Each chapter is clearly marked so there is no confusion. While I love first person, third is normally the better choice for a romance (unless you want to hide one characters thoughts). But because this was alternating first, you got to understand both character's feelings which was especially important when it came to the character of Adah.

When it came to how much I liked and connected with the characters, I was a tad bit up and down. The character of Adah is hard to like at times. Sometimes she was great other times she was frustrating. The past she had was difficult which makes it so certain things trigger her easily and she shuts down. I totally understood all that and why her character wasn’t always so likeable. The problem was I wanted a bit more about her past. It was briefly talked about a few times, and again I get it, I just felt like it needed to be more developed so that I sympathized and connected with her more. Coming from a controlling religious family that would not accept you, yeah super tough, but I wanted more of the “why” and “how” not just the “what” that affected her if that hopefully makes sense.

On a positive Adah note, I really liked that she was a single mother. I can honestly count on one hand the number of books where the single mom is a butch woman. It just doesn’t happen and I can actually remember the last book I read that had a butch single mom in it which was exactly two years ago. I find that super weird to be so uncommon. Anyway, I also liked the sexual diversity in this book with lesbian, bisexual, and genderqueer characters.

If you are looking for a sweet romance with a little angst, set in a great setting with lots of good food, this book is for you. While I was not blown away, I thought this was a solid first book for me by Fisher. I thought she wrote well and if she writes more wlw fiction I would read her again.

'The Secret Ingredient' by KD Fisher is a charming and funny small-town romance that foodies will love.
It's the story of Adah, a single mom and the head chef of a new high-end restaurant. Adah and Peter, her son, move to Maine for the opening of a new restaurant. She doesn’t have time for relationships as all her time is tied up with her son and making sure her restaurant is a success.

Beth, the owner and baker at her own restaurant doesn’t have time for anything. She’s recently won a prestigious award for her restaurant and it’s brought too much business for her to handle.

They meet when Adah and two associates go around to other local restaurants to meet the competition. Although the first meeting isn’t great, both Adah and Beth are infatuated immediately, it isn't insta-love, more like insta-attaction.

Adah, is pretty cold and standoffish in the beginning but that melts away once you get to know her and realize all the things she's overcome to get to where she is. Beth, on the other hand, is her complete opposite. She's warm, friendly and outgoing. Beth is patient and kind with both Adah and Peter and slowly works her way into Adah's heart and life.

One of the things I really loved about this book was the queer representation in the book. Its got lesbians, bisexuals as well as a non-binary character. And everyone is well developed. I didn’t really feel as any of them were there to just fill a void.

The story is written in first person alternating point of views. I happen to like that as I like knowing the motivation of the character's actions. In this case it was necessary for Adah, as she wasn't one for speaking a lot of her thoughts.

‘The Secret Ingredient’ left a smile on my face and I recommend it to anyone wanting a nice romance with a bit of an ice queen trope. Food lovers will especially love this as there are tons of descriptions of all types of food!

An ARC was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review.