This ain't your average cooking show.

Dahlia Woodson and London Parker are two contestants on Chef’s Special, a reality TV competition featuring amateur chefs and a $100,000 prize. Dahlia — queer, recently divorced, and almost bankrupt — is competing because she hopes to find a new direction for her life to take. London — the first openly nonbinary contestant in Chef’s Special history — wants to prove the trolls, including their own father, wrong and win so they can help trans and nonbinary youth.

After Dahlia trips and falls on the first day of filming, she becomes determined to make the other contestants and the show’s producers take her seriously. London writes her off as just another klutzy competitor, but they can’t deny the heat the two of them seem to cook up both on and off the camera. As real life takes a backseat and the two become closer, the competition gets fiercer as more and more of their showmates are sent home. But when real life rears its ugly head, both Dahlia and London have to decide if what they have is something worth fighting for.

I adored this book. I was constantly hungry while reading it, and it made me laugh and cry — sometimes at the same time! As I’m approaching my late twenties and spending time evaluating where I want my life to go from here, I could really appreciate the places both Dahlia and London found themselves, as well as the decisions they made and the struggles they had to overcome.

I loved reading about these two characters who are both members of the LGBTQ+ community, and I especially loved reading London’s perspective! I’ve read books starring trans characters before, but London was my first nonbinary MC (they/theirs) and they will not be my last. This book did touch on some heavy topics, including transphobia, but they’re handled sensitively and with great respect.

The steamy scenes were steamy, the tender scenes were touching, and the heartbreaking scenes shattered me. I can’t wait for this book to be released so I can add a physical copy to my queer romance collection. Read if you like LGBTQIA romance and/or Chopped marathons (but pack snacks. You’ll need them.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the eARC.

Tw: transphobia, misgendering

Very cute and easy to read. If you’re thinking about picking this one up I suggest giving it a shot!

A super voice-y and cute debut romance with a very relatable mc. Anita Kelly may be my new favorite romance author!

Beautiful, breathtaking, never been done before. I loved this book so much, they got together fairly fast but I loved it. The relationship between London and Dahlia was done so well, having both povs was excellent.

i received an arc from netgalley.

Review of Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
I’m just going to start by saying that this is probably my favorite book that I’ve read in 2021 so far. It’s funny and emotional and the romance is so wonderful.

Short Review
Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly is told in the points of view of Dhalia, a queer recently divorced woman who enters the cooking show Chef’s Special in the hopes of finding a new direction for her life, and London, a pansexual nonbinary person who enters Chef’s Special with the hope of winning and using the prize money to start a nonprofit to help queer kids in Nashville, Tennessee. Our protagonists have a bit of a meet-ugly, but once they actually start talking to each other, they hit it off and spend a lot of the competition cooking, ignoring their blossoming feelings for each other, and flirting. This romance novel is ideal for readers who enjoy humorous stories about characters who fall deeply in love with each other and have that sweet, sweet happy ending that is a guarantee in this genre.

5 out of 5 stars.

Additional Thoughts:
I don’t usually like point of view transitions that happen in the middle of chapters, but I think that Anita Kelly weaves the transitions together gracefully in this book, so I didn’t mind it for once.

London and Dhalia have siblings and readers don’t get to read about them much, but when London interacts with their twin sister and when Dhalia interacts with her brother, there is so much love there. It was so wonderful to read about.

This book has realistic conflicts between our two protagonists, and I appreciated the ways they get resolved.

I adore the way the romantic relationship in the story builds. The friendship they build as they get closer, and their feelings get stronger is so cute!

Trigger Warnings:
Kelly delves into transphobia that London experiences as a nonbinary person. Some of the people being transphobic include one of London’s family members and some of their competitors on the cooking show.

This book made my little queer heart sing (a Celine Dion song, obvi). Poignant and adorable at the same time, finishing this book gave me that warm, contented feeling you often experience after a happy cry. I’ll return to it on myriad cozy rainy days in the future.

I decided to check out Love & Other Disasters because it sounded like a heartwarming, fun read. Also: the main romance is f/nb, which is awesome because I think we can all agree there are not nearly enough books with non-binary main characters. Doubly also: the story takes place during a cooking competition (like Chopped or Sugar Rush), and I’ve never read another book with that kind of setting before. Needless to say, going in, I was very excited to see if Love & Other Disasters would live up to my high expectations.

And good news! It did! The baking scenes are fun and the romance is adorable. What I love about the romance especially is that Dahlia and Logan’s relationship is built on kindness and mutual respect—there’s none of the pressure or dubious consent that turns me off of romances so often.

I also love that the author, Anita Kelly, wrote so clearly and wonderfully about the struggles of being queer and mostly-but-not-entirely-out. I highlighted a lot of passages that made me want to point at the book and say, “Yes, that’s it! That’s exactly what it’s like!”

As I was reading, I had only a few frustrations and qualms. One of these qualms is that up until about the 50% mark, I struggled to connect with one of the main characters, Dahlia. She feels in some ways like a typical YA/NA protagonist: clumsy, bubbly, always referencing pop culture and never thinking before she speaks. She’s 26, but she’s not very emotionally mature and also pretty oblivious, so she reads more like 19 or 20 to me. But around the halfway point, she started to feel a lot more like a real person, and I hugely enjoyed her journey through the rest of the book.

And don’t get me wrong—I still had a great time reading the book’s first half. Logan, the other main character (and Dahlia’s love interest), felt immediately real to me. They’re a tad grumpier and more introverted than Dahlia, but a big softy underneath; and their more serious personality complements Dahlia’s bubbliness well. (I may be a bit biased here because I am also one of the most introverted introverts to walk the earth.) Again, once I hit that 50% mark, I was completely rooting for them and Dahlia to work out.

Love & Other Disasters is an engaging romance novel that I’d recommend to anyone who wants a comfort read with well-drawn LGBTQ characters.

The romance starts pretty early on and it was kind of refreshing to see! I honestly adored Love & Other Disasters and it was very cute.

3.5- 4 stars.

Okay—I loved this so much. The couple swoony and refreshingly realistic. It also had sunshine x grumpy vibes that I always crave. My only complaint is that a lot of stuff happened off page including the cooking show aspect and character development. All the secondary characters just existed and I wanted more. Overall, it was adorable and we love the non-binary rep. Also, London I’m free on Thursday if you’re free on Thursday to do something on Thursday.

Okay I’m all in on the cute queer adult romances! Keep publishing these queer romances!!

A pansexual nonbinary cooking show contestant falling for another queer contestant brings the hotness, the drama, and all the food!

When I first saw this book, I was immediately drawn in by the cover. After reading the description, I knew I would love it. A book with cooking and romance? Count me in. I have never read a book with a non-binary character in it, and it was really nice to see their POV and inner thoughts. I felt I gained a better understanding of it just by reading this book, which was really cool. There was a great balance between the cooking and romance for me, so I got to feel like I was watching the food channel while ALSO watching a rom com! I would definitely recommend this book to friends.

Ok WOW this book was lovely. I didn’t realize how special it would be to read a book with a main character who uses they/them pronouns but it really hit me. I loved the cooking competition aspect, the queerness, the important conversations about acceptance and ignorance and just really everything about the love story. This book could not have been any better. Definitely need everyone to read this.

3.75/5 stars, read from 9/6/21-9/9/21.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. That being said, this is my unbiased opinion of this book.

Okay, first off, the first line of the book had me HOOKED. I feel like it captured the humor of the book in a nutshell. Also, this is my first time reading a book about cooking… and I really enjoyed it?!

Dahlia and London are two contestants on “Chef’s Special”, a cooking competition TV show. The two of them are such a cute couple, and I LOVED the dynamics of their friendship-turned-relationship. The chemistry between them was fantastic, and the banter was just *chef’s kiss* SO cute!

Honestly, I was hooked by the cover of this book itself… but the storyline and characters made me swoon & love it even more. Although the ending felt a little rushed/too bland for my tastes, I still recommend this read!

Some of my favorite quotes:
“I need you in a way that can’t be temporary.”
“Maybe you got to see her brightness for a fleeting moment, but you couldn’t chase her. She didn’t deserve to be caught.”

How do I even begin to explain how much I loved this book?

Set against the backdrop of a cooking competition show, this romantic comedy follows the shows first openly non-binary contestant, London, and walking chaos machine, Dahlia, as they cook, compete and make emoji heart eyes at each other.

This book delivers everything I could possibly want from a rom-com. I laughed, I teared up a bit and I fell in love with more fictional characters. London and Dahlia are literally *chef’s kiss* (pun intended?) on the page together and I was so invested in their story from start to finish. I’m not a huge fan of cooking competition shows (I much prefer baking shows), but the cooking competition led to some truly delightful moments in this book that I can’t stop thinking about.

I just, sigh, super want to live in this story. It doesn’t help that I highly relate to Dahlia’s particular brand of chaotic.

Pick this up if you’re looking for: a queer romance, open door romance, fun/funny rom-com moments, and/or a love letter to cooking.

This book was so much FUN! I get bored with romances sometimes, but this one drew me in for two reasons: a love interest who happens to identify as non-binary and the setting of a reality TV show! The chemistry between Delilah and London was spiccyyyyy!! I grew up watching reality shows, so I enjoyed the Chef's Special competition they were participating in. I also love Los Angeles, so I appreciated all of the references to the city. *Chef's Kiss!*

Dahlia needs to break out of her rut. She's newly divorced, tired of her job, and sick of her small town. She applies to be on Chef's Special, a Top Chef-like cooking competition show, but she never expects to get chosen. Her first day on set, she literally bumps into fellow contestant London. They do not seem impressed with Dahlia's clumsy charm, but they also keep staring at her during the show. London, meanwhile, is determined to make a good impression on the country and their family as the first nonbinary contestant. They cannot afford to get distracted by the chaotic Dahlia, no matter how warm and beautiful she might be.

This was a very sweet story (no pun intended, but the baking always did sound delicious). The two leads are determined to focus on the show but just can't seem to stay away from each other, and they're cute enough together that their fellow contestants are rooting for them, even before the two acknowledge there's something between them. You'll be cheering for both of them, too.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Love & Other Disasters! I want to start out with saying I loved the representation within the book. The story was cute and heartwarming and I really loved the development of the story. I will say the story fell flat in some aspects but overall it is a good read!

Anita Kelly is a star. Write it down now. This debut is the start of what I hope is a long and prolific career of writing beautiful, funny, complex, sexy romances. What a place to start. Kelly's writing is more confident than a debut author has any right to be. It had a stand out voice for both of the main characters. Dahlia is impossible not to love. She's funny and quirky, a little clumsy, and so feisty and sweet. London is prickly with a heart of pure honey. Together they are magic and the setting on a cooking show perfectly shoves them together and pulls them apart.

Anita Kelly is a star. You can count on it.

This is absolutely a modern romance that will take you on a fun ride through the new challenges dating life has to offer you. I also found this book is a great way to become versed in uncertainties that hover over the young mind in today's reality.
This was definitely a fun ride that Kelly takes us on 😄


LGBTQ+ community 🏳️‍🌈

3.5 stars

i really enjoyed this! london and dahlia had great chemistry, the cooking competition setting was fun, and i loved the discussions around identity and family and personal growth. my only issue with this book is that i wanted the romance to feel a bit more substantial than it was. it definitely wasn't instalove or anything, but things developed pretty quickly, and i didn't feel like there was quite enough buildup before london and dahlia actually got together. regardless, i'll definitely read whatever Anita Kelly comes out with next and i'm super excited for the other books that are going to be in this series!

Thank you to Grand Central for providing me with an e-ARC of this via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!