Why did it take me so long to read this one!! What did I love:
- baking competition setting
- non-binary/LGBTQ+ representation
- complicated family issues

Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Forever Publishing for ARC for this one.

3.5 stars rounded down

What I liked:
-Cooking show setting
- Representation of non-binary MC

What missed:
-Side characters felt like an afterthought
-Seemed to drag and felt too long

This would be a cute, light read for anyone who wants to see more LGBTQ+ rep in books, but overall I think it just fell a bit shy of the mark for me.

Dahlia and London are such a great couple. And it was maybe the first romance I had read with a non-binary main character which I hope I see more of. Thank you @readforeverpub for the early copy!
Love & Other Disasters is set on a cooking competition kind of like Master Chef. Dahlia is recently divorced and learned how to cook to help her through that journey. London is non-binary and being out on the show leads to some transphobic hate. But they find each other and there is instant chemistry that comes off the page so well. I adored reading this one and hope others find it too!

I really love this romance. It is well written and enjoyable. It is a great addition to LGBTQ+ romance in our collection.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Apologies for the late review, but I have made this book my entire personality and I will psu everyone to read it oh my god! This is the kind of representation we need because this was one of the realest romances, especially queer romances, I think I have ever read. I haven't read a lot of books that handle the cooking subplot as well as I'd like but Anita Kelly really nailed that as well. I admit, it did feel a little slow at first but Kelly's writing style is very easy to get into so I finished pretty quickly regardless. Thank you Netgalley for a eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book.

I really loved the concept of the story, but for some reason I couldn't get into the writing. I do think that a lot of people might enjoy this read.

Two disaster queers on a cooking show vying for the top spot? Sign me up. Dahlia Woodson is feeling a bit lost - after a divorce and quitting her job, her appearance on Chef's Special is her way of hopefully righting her ship. London Parker, the first openly non-binary contestant on Chef's Special is also feeling lost. After rejection from their father after coming out, London also hopes to find a little balance with their appearance on the show. Over the filming of the competition, the two connect in a way neither of them expected, and both Dahlia and London are soon confronted with choices they never thought they'd have to make. The chemistry in this one was top notch and the pages practically simmer. Also - all the food descriptions made me hungry, so have some snacks nearby when you're reading this one.

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC and advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was fun! I really loved the cooking show aspect—it brought me back to my days of exclusively watching Food Network. The romance was cute and I really appreciated the queer and nonbinary representation. However, I did feel like it dragged at points, so this took much longer for me to finish than usual. Regardless, this was still a great, lighthearted romance!

This was a wonderful love story between two queer constestants on a cooking show. I loved the representation and the story was filled with such heart and real emotions. Couldn't put it down!

This book took me so long to finish because I didn't want it to end and I think this is my favorite book of 2022. I loved the characters (and representation) and several times their interactions reminded me of myself and my partner. The added cooking competition and stakes throughout the book just made me love it even more.

I read this one not long after The Holiday Swap and am such a fan of the TV show trope and anything to do with food! This book was super cute and even provided a few laugh out loud moments! If you're looking to cozy up with a cute book this fall/winter then grab this one.

"When you were around someone who felt everything, it made you feel like you could feel everything, too. Like the depths of the world were suddenly limitless." This quote... just is imprinted on my brain. I think that this book has the power to make so many different kinds of people feel understood and for that reason alone I do not think that it is ratable... in the sense that it is beyond just good or bad but rather a book of our times. The representation in this book honestly makes me want to cry. It is such a beautiful thing when books have the power to validate human experiences no matter how varied and this in my opinion is one of those books.

This was a really sweet romance book. Right from the start I knew I was going to enjoy this book and these characters. I loved the cooking show theme in this book, I found that to be very fun! Overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend checking it out!

I loved Love and Other Disasters! The book had amazing rep for the LGBTQ community. I don't think I have seen many romances deal with pronouns, and handle it well! I will be looking for more from Anita Kelly!


Recently divorced and on the verge of bankruptcy, Dahlia Woodson is ready to reinvent herself on the popular reality competition show Chef’s Special. Too bad the first memorable move she makes is falling flat on her face, sending fish tacos flying—not quite the fresh start she was hoping for. Still, she's focused on winning, until she meets someone she might want a future with more than she needs the prize money.

After announcing their pronouns on national television, London Parker has enough on their mind without worrying about the klutzy competitor stationed in front of them. They’re there to prove the trolls—including a fellow contestant and their dad—wrong, and falling in love was never part of the plan.

As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. Goodbye, guilt about divorce, anxiety about uncertain futures, and stress from transphobia. Hello, hilarious shenanigans on set, wedding crashing, and spontaneous dips into the Pacific. But as the finale draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat both in and outside the kitchen—and they must figure out if they have the right ingredients for a happily ever after.

I think this might be my first nonbinary love interest. Grumpy/sunshine? Yes. LGBGTQ rep? Yes.

This is a fun and swoon-worthy read! I really enjoyed it!

⁉️Do you watch any cooking shows?
My husband watched Food Network as a kid, for like fun 😆, and has had me watch all kinds of cooking shows over the years (thanks, YouTube, for making the options limitless 😒 lol). My favorite will always be OG Iron Chef America.

BOOK REVIEW
Love and Other Disasters by @anitakellywrites
Pub date: Jan. 18, 2022
384 pages
@readforeverpub

Okay, so, those of you who know me, know that
1. I prefer my romances closed door
2. I almost never read a synopsis before I start a book

Love and Other Disasters, is about hot mess divorcée, Dahlia, and London Parker, who has recently come out as nonbinary. The two meet on a cooking competition show, and things get . . . cooking.

I really liked London’s character a lot. My favorite part of this story were the dynamics between them and their family. In fact, there was some tension between Dahlia and the producers of the show. She begins feeling like her only contribution is being London’s clumsy other half. I’d have preferred to have more insight from London’s perspective on being production’s sort of “token” nb character.

As for Dahlia, I could relate to her in a lot of ways, but she also annoyed me 😆 I don’t know how London was so patient with her, because 😵‍💫

And then the steam . . . I’m sure this representation is really important to a lot of readers. There’s steam, and a fair amount of it 😳 but I generally skim spicy scenes wanting to get back to the rest of the story, and felt like I could’ve done with easily half of the spice of this book personally. At almost 400 pages, I’d have preferred to cut some of this out. I herwise I wouldn’t have taken anything else away from this story.

I really liked this one and would be curious to read more from Anita Kelly. The writing reminded me a bit of @alexambooks, who I really love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thanks @netgalley @readforeverpub for the e-arc!

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This was SO good! Adorable and funny, it's a sweet love story. Add to it the setting of a competitive cooking show and you definitely have the elements to make it unique. And I love that THIS is really what the story was about. The fact that one of them is nonbinary was really just an addition to the story and not THE whole story. And that was so refreshing.

The story is told from both London and Dahlia's POV. Each contenstant is there for different reasons and you slowly learn who they are, a little, with each competition. You learn Dahlia is self taught and only been cooking for the last few years. You learn that London is there to get the prize money and start a nonprofit LGBTQ+ summer camp. You learn how fun (and also sexy) cooking can be!

But both Dahli and London have real lives outside of this cooking show. And although they cute flirty banter is fun, each of them have to figure out if this is just a cute flirting thing or if it could be more, outside of this competition. I liked how they each had family issues and both were untangling who they were outside of parent expectations. I love how messy both Dahlia and London were and how each sibling was an important role in each of their lives. It was steamy in parts, adorable and cute in others, and I loved all of it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This was a glorious cooking romance. I loved everything about it and can't wait to read more from this author!

I'm not a huge foodie/cooking show person--I haven't seen Master Chef or any of its spin-offs except when walking past my sister watching. I don't dislike them, but I find that I don't have the patience to sit and watch people cook and eat food when I can't be on the opposing end of the spoon. That being said, I think books with a reality TV angle have really been growing on me. This book was what I wanted The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia to be, in terms of having a cooking show backdrop.
I found that the author did a wonderful job with the cooking show aspect--it was so important at the beginning, but by the end, I found I wasn't super interested in who won or lost the competition. It wasn't that it was boring or dragged on, but I think the author realized that if they wanted to make a big deal of the ending, something dramatic would have to happen, or some wild plot-twist. But again, with reality TV books, it's so hard to successfully pull off that sort of ending, so Kelly was wise to focus more on the couple than the show.
The romance was nice and spicy. I'm not really a prude, but I did blush on more than one occasion (in a good way!....except the toe-sucking...) This is the first romance novel I've read with an enby main character, and I NEED MORE!!!
All in all, a fun, enjoyable romance!