FOR BUTTER OR WORSE – Erin La Rosa
HQN
ISBN: 978-1-335-50634-4
July 26, 2022
Romantic Comedy

Los Angeles, California – Present Day

For the past three years, acclaimed chef Nina Lyon has co-hosted a reality cooking show called The Next Cooking Champ alongside restaurateur Leo O’Donnell. However, her relationship with Leo is frigid, especially after he dubbed her on-air as Nasty Nina. On the finale, which is being done live instead of the usual taping, things come to a head between Nina and Leo. She announces that she is quitting the show. But in the aftermath of her announcement, public (meaning social media) opinion of her plummets and her restaurant suffers. She needs the public perception of her to change, so she and Leo are persuaded to pretend to date. It’s good business for both, but will they kill each other before their “dates” end?

Things don’t always go smoothly for Leo and Nina in FOR BUTTER OR WORSE as they start appearing in public. For starters, they still don’t exactly like each other. Yet, despite working together for three years, they don’t really know each other. Going out means not only seeing how the other lives but getting to know one another. Sometimes it is for hilarious results as Nina and Leo open up about their lives. Nina is driven to succeed in a business dominated by men, while Leo is dealing with a mother who wants to tell him what to do, whether it’s right or wrong. As they get to know each other, Nina and Leo start to have feelings for each other…and it leads to the bedroom. Can their relationship last? Will they start season four hosting the show together?

FOR BUTTER OR WORSE is a cute and funny tale that will have readers smiling. While Nina and Leo are opposites attract, they are deep down much alike. She has worked hard to build her restaurant, but it is her visibility as one of the hosts of the show that brings people to her restaurant. Of course, her feud with Leo has the interest spiking, so when she announces she is quitting, her manager panics. He also happens to be Leo’s manager and he needs them together, even if it is a fake romance. Instead of ignoring the social media brouhaha, they go along with the fake dating plan. Neither expected the sexual sparks which fly between them. The chemistry between them is palpable to readers and makes Leo and Nina likable characters and a couple that readers will want to root for.

While FOR BUTTER OR WORSE focuses on Nina and Leo, there are a few characters who stand out as they “advise” our couple. Nina has the support of her best friend, Jasmine, and her sister Sophie. Leo tolerates his brother, Gavin, while their mother’s advice is best to be ignored. Leo suffers from anxiety attacks and having something fail—whether it’s affecting his restaurant or his love life—puts a lot of pressure on him. But Nina brings out the best—and the worst—in Leo. Can they make it work?

Sit down with a cool drink and enjoy the sexy romantic hijinks of Nina and Leo in FOR BUTTER OR WORSE.

Patti Fischer

Thank you to NetGalley, HQN Books, and Ms. La Rosa for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I do enjoy a good enemies-to-lovers book and this was possibly one of the best starts I've come across. Nina and Leo are real enemies: filled with hostility and spite and childish bickering. They can't stand each other off-camera and can barely tolerate each other on-camera. Through a slightly questionable chain of events they're forced into a fake-dating situation (ANOTHER favorite trope) and have to pretend to be into each other. Of course, where there's smoke, there's fire, blah blah blah, and there was plenty of heat in the kitchen to start with. HA HA, cooking puns; I can see I will really have to restrain myself.

Two of the subplots I really was into, and I can see other reviewers were too, were Nina's lingering grief over losing her mom and Leo's mental health (anxiety, panic attacks) issues. Let's normalize mental health issues as just HEALTH issues! I LOVED that Nina's sister reprimanded her for being upset that Leo hadn't fully disclosed his issues to Nina by saying that his health was none of her business and equating his panic attacks to Nina's gynecological health report. YES. Health = Health. Oh, wow, I am on a real tangent here, lol.

I was also really impressed by the fully equal importance placed on Nina's and Leo's restaurants and entrepreneurship. Both of their restaurants were really important to them for many reasons, emotional, financial, and more, even though they held different working roles.

I had to subtract a half star because I don't really love extended groveling, and I felt like Leo did more than his fair share. Yes, he was responsible for Nina's unfortunate nickname AND he said it on live TV. That was reprehensible, and I get it, but Leo spent most of the book trying SO hard to make it up. Then, Nina was furious with Leo for not being fully honest with her when she wasn't fully honest with him either, about Charlie or about her own feelings. The Charlie stuff, especially, bothered me. Nina was fully aware of how hostile Charlie felt towards Leo (and herself), and how bothered Leo was by Charlie. If she really meant to have a relationship with Leo, she should've been upfront about meet ups with Charlie. Instead, that was one more thing Leo had to grovel for. Eh. That felt a little hypocritical to me.

This was a cute book overall and the Halloween/autumn excursions will really get readers in that fall spirit. The steam level, too, was pretty satisfying. The best part, though, is the extra salty one-liners between Nina and Leo at the beginning.

Read/Listen If You Like:
❤️ Celebrity Romances
❤️ Fake Dating
❤️ Dual POV
❤️ Coworkers to Enemies to Lovers
❤️ Spice🔥

Book Review:
With this one it was slow to start for me for the first half of the book and nearly lost me but seeing positive reviews kept me going and it was worth the push for the fake dating to really increase and spice to be added.

With the characters they started out with you wanting to hate Leo and feel for Nina, but as the book progressed the swapped for me and Leo became the more likable character.

I really liked the add in if the social media comments because for their roles of TV show hosts that would have been a total thing they would be looking at and considering.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of this book! I am so grateful to obtain a copy to read in advance of its release in exchange for my honest feedback!

If you like celebrity chefs, enemies-to-lovers, and fake relationships, you'll probably like this book. Personally, I couldn't connect to the characters. Leo is so horrible to Nina in the beginning, and she's so (justifiably) angry about it, that the book wasn't fun for me. DNF at 20%.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

Cute book! I really enjoyed the banter between the characters. This was a fun read, nice break between my usual mysteries.

I loved this book and had such a good time with it! I even told my group chat “I’m in my fake dating glory right now” as I was reading it, that’s how much I loved it.

Nina Lyon and Leo O’Donnell are co-hosts of a reality TV cooking competition. Nina is a chef with her own restaurant, and Leo is the owner of his family’s chain of Italian restaurants. She’s the strict judge, and he’s the friendly one. They’ve always had a contentious relationship both on and off the air, but have managed to keep it mostly professional while filming. However, things reach a boiling point when Leo calls her “Nasty Nina” on live TV during the season three finale of their show. The nickname has plagued her for years online, and her reputation has suffered as a result. She’s even had to close two of her three restaurants. The live TV incident is the final straw—she’s had enough and announces she won’t be back next season.

Following the finale, both Nina and Leo need to repair their images and give their businesses a much-needed boost. Nina’s publicist comes up with a scheme to get them some positive press and fan attention: a fake relationship.

Enemies! In a fake relationship! I was ALL IN. Nina and Leo were great together and apart. I thought Leo’s anxiety was portrayed well, as was Nina’s grief over the loss of her mom. Speaking of moms, Leo’s Italian mother was one of my favorite characters. She cracked me up every time she was on the page.

I loved how they slowly got to know each other better and revealed some of the deepest truths about themselves. Of course, it was also a lot of fun to see these two people who can’t stand each other have pants feelings that grow into real feelings. As a fan of higher heat romances, I appreciated how steamy this book was—Nina and Leo are HOT together, and the bedroom door is wide open.

I also enjoyed the texts and tweets that come at the end of most chapters. They were a lot of fun and were a little something extra that added to the world of the story and made it seem real.

I highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of enemies to lovers, fake relationships, or romances with settings related to food or reality TV.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

3.5 stars

That was entertaining. I loved all the cooking stuff and the chemistry between Leo and Nina. I also liked how some of the seriousness was woven in. My one complaint is about how everything seemed to happen very quickly in the end and how all of a sudden Nina and Leo refused to communicate with each other. Seemed a tad over the top and forced. But minus that, it was a highly enjoyable, food themed book.

🍝For Butter or Worse🍝

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, Erin La Rosa, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Nina ( a self made chef) and Leo (owner of a inherited family owned chain of Italian restaurants) are co-hosts of a food competition and reality tv show. And they despise each other. Nina is made out to be the bad guy of the show while Leo is the comedian who everybody loves. When Leo says a rather sexist comment to Nina on live tv she quits. Leo goes to Nina to get her back on the show and they get caught in a compromising situation which leads them to fake date to save both of their businesses.

I loved Nina and Leo in this book! The banter and chemistry between these two were off the charts. I love a good enemies-to-lovers and this one was amazing. This book does cover topics like sexism and anxiety. I think the author did an amazing job covering theses topics. Nina has dealt with sexism since she is a female chef in a male dominated industry, as well as being in the public eye. Leo is the one who deals with anxiety and I love that he’s the one who suffered with it and not Nina. Men can have anxiety just as much as women can, so I’m glad that was brought up in this book.

Overall this was a really fun quick read that will make you want to go grab some Italian food! I can’t wait to see what Erin La Rosa comes up with next!

All too often enemies to lovers' can come across as bratty and immature but Erin La Rosa executed this trop sooooo well.

I appreciated the mental health representation and discussion on cyber bullying. The healthy dose of spice was fantastic, as was the fake dating. The inner dialogue was a bit repetitive but nothing that made me want to put the book down.

I recommend reading this book with a sweet treat close by as it WILL make you hungry. Great romance, I highly recommend it.

Thank you to HQN and Netgalley foran advance digital copy.

"For Butter or Worse" is a fun, banter filled and angsty true enemies to lovers story. I was instantly drawn to the title and cover of the book.

Nina and Leo are co-hosts and judges on a popular cooking show for the last 3 years. Through the years, they were at an unsaid competition with each other, and on the season finale, the angst and tension between them combusts on live TV. To help their images, the two agree to fake date. But the banter and chemistry from the last three years start to combust.

I loved these two together. Nina is smart, independent and a force to be reckoned with. Leo might seem like he doesn't care but underneath, he's a sweet guy who cares deeply for his family and for Nina as well. Nina and Leo have great chemistry and their banter was great. It was a little bit of reverse grumpy/sunshine troupe and that made me happy. The buildup to the spicy scenes were great because Leo is definitely a giver. I loved Nina's friends and Leo's brother and I hope we get some stories with them in the future.

I was shocked by this book! Leo and Nina got off to a rather rocky start. Early on, I take sides in their conflict, and despite Leo's outwardly charming demeanor, it took me some time to warm up to him.
Having said that, the author did a fantastic job at outlining his backstory, giving him character depth, and developing him. Although he made mistakes, he eventually found his way, and I adore his generous gesture. Nina is fierce. She is a successful businesswoman, a well-known chef, a devoted sister, and she will stop at nothing to guard her assets. I liked how she made room in her heart for Leo. Almost sweet and leisurely, their narrative during their fake relationship. However, it was quite warm when they put on the heat. I liked how the author included serious subjects like mental health and sexism into the lighter plot. It appeared seamless! I believed the characters were well-rounded enough for their own stories, and the plot was entertaining and simple to follow.

Thank you to Erin La Rosa and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

How cute is this cover? I find myself loving these types of covers more and more especially if it fits the book. This cover is just perfect for Leo and Nina's enemies to lovers, fake dating love story.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would have given it the full 5⭐s, but there was just a little spark that kept me from pulling the trigger that last little bit. I'm not sure exactly what it was honestly, but I still really liked the book.

Characters:

Nina is a strong, independent female chef in a field dominated by men. She works hard and while she comes across as hard and unfeeling, she's really just trying to make sure everyone has constructive criticism so that they can grow. Leo is a charismatic restaurant owner, who only truly knows the business side of the food world. He's good looking and Nina's worst enemy since he constantly makes her look bad on air. What I loved about these two is that we got to see so many different sides of them. I felt the ice thaw when they began to see that there was more to one another. Fun little jokes here and there, small touches that sent tingles through both, and a respect slowly grew out of what was once absolute disdain.

Story:

I love the fake relationship and enemies to lovers tropes, throw in some food and a fierce FMC and it's a recipe for success (see what I did there 😏). The tropes were commonly used, but the story itself had a unique spin since it dealt with so many different real life problems many of us can relate to. There were discussions of parental loss, mental health, financial struggles and even past relationships that bordered on emotionally abusive. Erin La Rosa did an excellent job of tying them all in so that we were given a story with depth and substance.

Spice:

I was worried this was going to be a fade to black romance, it wasn't! It doesn't have a ton of spice, but there parts that were written in detail were done right. It didn't take away from the story, only added the sprinkles on top (man I'm on a ROLL 😜).

Overall:

I really enjoyed the book, I WILL be reading more Erin La Rosa and I would love to have more stories on some of the side characters. I highly recommend checking out this book, grab a glass of wine and tuck in for a great story.

This book is SO GOOD. I loved the characters - the main characters felt entirely three dimensional and the supporting cast was well developed. I love a dual POV! This was a dual POV done brilliantly. My favorite part about this story was that each character clung desperately to something they could they couldn’t live without - just to teach each other that that may not be true after all. Absolutely recommend this to anyone who is looking for character driven stories, sweet misguided heroes, bad as heroines, and just a bit of spice ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
A fun story about food and love, that also explored the challenges of fame, cyber bullying, and mental health. I enjoyed this quick read.
Pros:
-realistic mental health representation
-good character development, especially for the hero
-reasonably well-developed side characters and back story
-dad jokes and banter
-adorable vibes
Cons:
-holy miscommunication trope
-internal monologues from both hero and heroine were repetitive to the point of incredulity. I feel like no real person would be that confused for that long, or could believe the other person had no interest given so many obvious signs

Would definitely read more from this author, great potential! And I would love love love to see the next book center on Gavin because I’m obsessed with him.

I was super excited for this one but I think I'm a little bit burnt out on reality tv/competition romance novels right now. Enemies to lovers is by far my favorite trope, and the execution of it was really good in this book. The banter was fantastic, well written, and fun. I just didn't FEEL this book, and that's on me.

I want to formally say that I will read more cooking and baking romances. Seriously. Give them all to me. I love the mouth watering scenes, the tension of the kitchen, and the heat of the banter. And La Rosa does it so well in For Butter or Worse. This dual POV story delivers one of my favorite new romance leads, Nina. Who could resist an ambitious woman who has been villified in the media and just wants to save her restaurant. The world is so quick to call a woman nasty - when they mean honest if it wasn't a woman - that Nina was instantly my favorite.

But the tension and banter between Nina and Leo is off the charts. Like a true rivals or nemesis to lovers, there's layers of misconceptions. How we can think we know someone well enough to despise them or understand them, but how there's always more to know. More to realize the differing opinions, the similar motivations, and the undeniable heat. Being dual POV is a fabulous move for For Butter or Worse.

Even with some traditional romance tropes, this was a fun and sexy read!

As co-hosts of The Next Cooking Champ!, Nina and Leo seem like they get along with their playful, barbed banter, but in real life, they can’t stand each other. When Leo makes a not so subtle comment on air, Nina decides she’s had enough and quits during a live episode. But after the incident, both Nina’s and Leo’s restaurants suffer; however, when a photo comes out of Nina tripping into Leo that looks more like a kiss, business explodes. Nina and Leo decide to make a deal with each other: fake date to ensure that they both stay afloat.

Erin La Rosa uses several tropes in For Butter or Worse: enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, and workplace romance. However, La Rosa doesn’t waste any opportunity to elevate each, overlapping them and shifting them to make the story better. As a reader, I dip into the romance genre every so often, and I read A LOT of romance novels during graduate school as a break from theory. Lately, when I’ve read within this genre, I’ve found myself disappointed, most often due to the ability to predict the villain, the challenge the pair needs to overcome, or, most devastatingly, the twist at the end. Due to La Rosa’s keen writing, I found this wasn’t the case with For Butter or Worse.

Much of this had to do with the characters themselves. Nina was an independent self-starter with big dreams. Coming up in the sexist cooking world, Nina wasn’t afraid to fight for herself, sometimes using snarky comments and sarcasm as a defense. Nina felt like someone I wanted to be friends with because of this. As Nina’s counterpart, Leo was a very self-aware individual who tried to take care of everyone but himself. One of my favorite aspects of Leo’s character was his empathy, which gave him the ability to put himself in Nina’s shoes, especially when he examined his own behavior and how he was complicit in the sexism stemming from the show and spilling onto social media.

The chemistry between these two was also quite palpable throughout the novel. Every scene felt electric when Nina and Leo were together. And the sexy bits…whew…I’m fanning my face just thinking about them. These two were written well and fit together in ways that made sense.

The secondary characters were the weakest point of the novel. While ensuring that the protagonists were fleshed out, other characters became two dimensional stereotypes. Jasmine was the badass best friend; Sophie was the hopeless romantic sister; Charlie was the terrible ex-boyfriend; and Gavin, Leo’s brother, to his great misfortune, embodied a number of gay stereotypes. However, despite these minor missteps, I would recommend the novel for anyone looking for a quick, enjoyable, and sexy read.

Enemies to Lovers is usually a reliable genre for me to read. I struggled with For Butter or Worse. I didn’t buy the chemistry between Leon amd Nina. It seems forced and contrived, even when it was supposed to be read.
The premise was cute, but I wasn’t on board for their romance.

This book took me by surprise! Nina and Leo had a really rocky start. I choose sides in their antagonistic relationship early on and despite Leo's sweet persona it took me a while to soften to him.

With that said, the author did a great job of explaining his back story, giving him depth, and creating a well rounded character. He made mistakes but over time he finds his way and I love his grand gesture.

Nina is a badass. She is a business owner, a celebrity chef, a great friend and sister and she will do anything to protect what is hers. I enjoyed her find space in her heart for Leo. Their story was almost sweet and slow during their fake dating courtship but when they turned the heat on it was pretty hot.

I appreciated how the author blended the heavier topics like sexism, online bullying, and mental health into the lighter story. It felt seamless!

I thought they had great chemistry, the story was fun and easy to follow, and the supporting characters were good enough for their own stories!

Nina loves food. She's very passionate about it and she owns a restaurant that she's equally passionate about. She's a co-host of The Next Cooking Champ! reality cooking show with Leo O'Donnell who is more of a business-minded person when it comes to food. They dislike each other intensely.

They are taping a live show in an attempt to get their dwindling ratings up. This has everyone worrying as they truly hate one another. Leo coined the "Nasty Nina" moniker she's had to deal with for a couple of years on the internet. She's the strict judge and has a public relations problem because of it. (including death threats!) Two of Nina's restaurants have closed in the last year so restoring her reputation via the show is critical to her.

When Leo calls her "Nasty Nina" on the live show Nina announces that she's quitting and walks off.

I'm sorry to say, this book was not for me. I like enemies to lovers romance but not when it comes from a really hateful place. Nina and Leo's arguments were too nasty for me. I didn't believe in their relationship. I didn't actually want it to succeed.

I received an e-arc of this book and this is my honest opinion.