Thank you Berkley, Netgalley, PRHAudio for the complimentary copies of Best Served Hot by Amanda Elliot.

In the foodie romance Best Served Hot, social media influencer/ restaurant reviewer, Julie Zimmerman applies for her dream career as a food critic at a well-known newspaper in New York but is sadly rejected. Devastated that she doesn’t get the opportunity to interview for the job, Julie decides to meet the new newspaper food critic Bennett Wright at a local food festival. She takes her best friend Alice and her 50K followers along for the impromptu meeting. An intense competition between Julie and Bennett begins.

Bennett is Julie’s opposite in the food world. He thinks very little of social media and has no problem telling Julie how he feels about it. While they don’t have much in common, they both share a passion for food!

If you are a foodie, you need to check out Best Served Hot! This is such a fun book! 😍

I recommend listening to the audiobook while cooking, because the dishes described in this book are absolutely mouthwatering 🤤 I was so hungry! 🧑‍🍳

Read if you like:
Enemies to lovers
Opposites Attract
Forced Proximity
Slow Burn 🔥

Enjoyable but not nearly as much as her first book. I just wasn't nearly as invested in the characters this time around.

Still a fun read, but nothing memorable.

This was such a cute romcom! I loved that it had so much food chatter, and especially mimicked places in NYC. I also loved the Jewish MC and am really happy to continue to read more Jewish rep in romances!

Best Served Hot pits a digital food reviewer against a traditional print media reviewer. Add in the fact that they're rivals who have to work together and are both super hot, and you have fireworks.

My only warning is to not read this book when you're hungry.

Best Served Hot by Amanda Elliot tells the story of Julie Zimmerman, a foodie social media influencer who goes to restaurants all over New York City and reviews them for her thousands of followers. Unfortunately, she also has to work a day job where she is the assistant to the very rich Mr. Decker. She wishes she could be a food reviewer full-time.

And she has a potential job in the works to be a full-time reviewer for Scroll but when they announce the new hire, it’s not her. It’s some guy named Bennett Richard Macalester Wright. He’s a rich, privileged dude and she immediately hates him.

That hate quickly shows itself when she sees him at the Central Park Food Festival. The two of them get into a huge shouting match. Julie’s friend Alice gets a video of it and Julie ends up posting it on her account. To say it becomes viral would be an understatement.

It becomes so popular that Bennett’s employer wants the two of them to review restaurants together and get both of their points of view. And the views that Julie brings in don’t hurt them either...

I enjoyed reading Amanda Elliot's sophomore novel, Best Served Hot.

Julie is an assistant by day and food critic by night. Totaling over fifty thousand viewers, she gives humorous criticism to restaurants and food festivals. But what she really wants is to be a food critic with The New York Scroll. Julie is turned down and job given to her enemy: well known Bennett Richard Macalester Wright.

Quickly, Julie tries to our best Bennett in food reviews and viewer counts. But with food that is best served hot, anything can happen.

Amanda Elliot's Best Served Hot is a novel for those that love food. With multiple meal descriptions, this is a book you will NOT want to read when hungry! While I enjoyed the enemies to lovers setup, I was more invested in the side characters and the way their storylines would play out. I wouldn't be opposed to getting an Alice novel next.

Thank you Berkley Romance for my earc in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Food! Food! I really recommend having something you love eating whole reading this because you have some mouth watering descriptions coming up (specially if you are non vegetarian).

Julie is an assistant and a food blogger, social media influencer in her free time. She is good and I liked her except time or two where she makes stupid decisions.

Benett is a food/restaurant critic at a major newspaper. Julie also applied for this role but lost to him and they start at a wrong foot at the good festival. They were kiddish, fighting and arguing. Here we get our enemies to lovers with a slow burn.

Again the food descriptions are irresistible. I liked how the author has included various topics like sexism, class etc. The secondary characters were amazing specially Emerson Leigh. The writing and story was creative. The humour was good.

I would recommend this book to all the romcom and food lovers.

THIS BOOOK! It was so cozy and cute. I loved their relationship from the beginning, and the concept was so different and yet so well done. Seeing them fall in love was the sweetest - I loved this so much!

This seems to be the month for foodie romance for me, and I can't seem to get enough! I got my fill of delicious, mouth watering food descriptions, and was living it up vicariously in the NYC backdrop, which I loved.

BEST SERVED HOT features a slow burn enemies to lovers trope, as Julie, a popular food influencer, dreams of working as a food critic at a newspaper. Tension boils over as Julie crosses paths with Bennett, the rival who has filled the position of her dream job, and I adored their chemistry.

There were also a diverse cast of characters that I enjoyed even as much as the MCs, and loved their interactions. I guarantee that you will want to have reading snacks handy while reading because of the yummy foods mentioned.

*many thanks to Berkley Romance/netgalley for the gifted copy for review

as a food lover and romcom connoisseur, i was really wanting to love this book but i felt that it fell short in creating characters that were engaging. I will be giving this book a reread before posting a review on goodreads later in the year.

Get ready for this cute Rom-Com that I think will definitely hit home with influencers and foodies. Julie and Bennett’s enemies to lovers, workplace romance is sure to have you turning the pages for more of their witty banter. It’s a fun read and definitely had me wanting all the food! 🤤

Best Served Hot features the enemies-to-lovers trope so if you’re a fan of that and food, this book is for you. I liked that this book was more than just romance. Julie faces a lot of challenges with her job and boss, which is relatable to a lot of people. The romance seemed secondary to her figuring her stuff out, so I appreciated that aspect.

However, I didn’t really like the main character, Julie. I found her to be a bit immature and judgemental so I had a hard time rooting for her. Though, I did like the secondary characters and kind of wish we saw more about them. All in all, it’s a cute romance to curl up with.

Ugh okay this seriously lacked character development for me. I feel like there was just not enough page time for the romance to be fully developed and I just wasn't super into it. I can see how it was meant to be an enemies to lovers type story, but with the lack of development, it just felt forced and childish to me. The second hand embarrassment was all too real with this one. Yeah idk. Overall it was pretty average for me I it did make me hungry though, thats for sure

This one left me perpetually hungry. A rom com about a food reviewer and a food blogger, well on Instagram. But I never forgot the moment where Julie makes ketchup fried rice and acts like that is a foodie thing. But all the rest of the food descriptions had me drooling and wondering what I could eat in my kitchen that would not be blah.

I really liked Julie’s friends and liked how they were always there for each other. I probably liked them more than I liked Julie. She wasn’t always shown in the best light, but I did root for her and Bennett to figure things out. And I loved how their enemies, or maybe rivals is a better description, to lovers developed. I liked the food angle and how Julie had to balance her paying job with her passion.

I enjoyed this delightful enemies-to-lovers story about two restaurant critics who find their happily ever after. I liked the foodie social media content and that there was some discussion about class issues. Plus, if you have read Sadie on a Plate, Chef Sadie gets a little mention in this book.

Read if you like:
*Enemies to lovers
*NYC setting
*Foodie content

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for the review copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion and for the invite to join this book tour!
To prepare for reading and reviewing Best Served Hot, I recently listened to Sadie on a Plate, the adult debut by the author. It was such a fun read, covering a female chef with Jewish influences who was competing on a Top Chef-style TV show. As a huge TC fan, I loved it!
Best Served Hot, on the other hand, follows a female food blogger/influencer. My best friend and I consider ourselves professional orderers at any restaurant, so I loved hearing the MC perusing menus and deciding on orders. Her enemies-to-lovers romance with a newspaper restaurant reviewer was fun to follow, but I can't imagine a food influencer who doesn't like wine! I was happy to see Sadie make an appearance in this book, but you don't have to have read that book first to still enjoy this one.
I was going to feature this book with a hot cup of coffee, but I think coffee is best served iced - so instead I paired it with my white wine which is also best served icy cold 🤣 I finished this book on my flight from Boston to New York, and I'm about to settle in for the long flight from New York to Rio de Janeiro! I have a full Kindle and plenty of audiobooks to keep me company.

4,5/5 stars

Best Served Hot is a romantic comedy. It is my second book by this author.

Last year I absolutely adored Sadie On A Plate. So I was beyond excited to read this new book.

The narrator is social media restaurant reviewer Julie (1st person POV). She works as an executive assistant during the day. But at night she is trying new restaurants with her best friend Alice.

The story is set in New York City. And it is extremely funny. Julie's boss has a daughter, Emerson Leigh. And she is hysterical. There are also so many mishaps. And it was so nice to see a rom-com that was heavy on comedy.

I adored everything food related about this book. Julie goes to so many restaurants. And I was obsessed with everything to do with her restaurant reviewer hobby/job.

I did enjoy Julie and Bennett (the male main character who is also a restaurant reviewer). However the romance took a long time to get going. Although once it started I was definitely feeling it.

My one small complaint was that I wanted this book to be more Jewish. Julie is Jewish but it is barely mentioned. The main Jewish aspect was one Jewish restaurant that they went to. I loved this part of the story so much and wanted more! But overall this was such an enjoyable read. I really liked it!

Elliot is starting to cement herself as one of my auto-read authors.

Julie is a food review influencer. Or at least, she’s trying to be. She has a solid following, but not enough to only review full time. She applies to be a reviewer for a newspaper, but loses out to a rich white male who she immediately decides she dislikes. When she runs into him at a food festival, she gives him a piece of her mind. Her friend records their fight, and Julie decides to post it to point out the disparity growing between food critics and food influencers. The fight goes viral, leading the newspaper to want to capitalize on the publicity and have Julie and Bennett complete reviews together.

This book has a bit of a different vibe from Sadie on a Plate, but it does exist within the same universe which I always love. There is less of a Jewish influence in the story, but it is mentioned a handful of times that Julie is Jewish. I always love a good enemies to lovers trope and I think Elliott handled it well. A lot of the dislike comes from Julie’s side, which helps to make their eventual liking of each other a lot easier to handle. I never found him to fall into the “I like her so much so I must be mean to her” type of situation which can sometimes happen.

I did love the food based storyline and loved reading about all of the different types of restaurants Julie and Bennett got to review. I did find that towards the end it got a bit much and I found myself skimming Julie’s thoughts on everything that she ate as she described it.

I was intrigued by the supposed beef between food critics and influencers. I never would’ve thought about it or any issues it caused, but it made a lot of sense. Food critics are known for being stuffy old men, so I loved reading about how women and women of color were making their way into the industry by their own rules.

Of course, most importantly, I loved the chemistry between Bennett and Julie. It was believable and I liked both of them. I think it could’ve been easy to make Bennett dislikable or make him fall flat, but I enjoyed him, though I do wish we could’ve gotten a little bit more depth of character.

I flew through this book and enjoyed every minute. I like that Elliott balances the romance with good character development and intriguing storylines. There were multiple non-romance related storylines that I greatly enjoyed. I’m a sucker for romance stories that have great side characters who you want to follow on their own adventures and there were a lot within this story I’d gladly read about. While it wasn’t as much of an instant favorite as Sadie, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to more.

Best Served Hot definitely spoke to the foodie in me. I love cooking, but eating and appreciating food is where I truly shine. Julie and Bennett were a perfect spin of enemies turned lovers but I also loved all the other factors at play here.

There seems to be a “changing of the guard” in terms of the power of influencers on social media vs. the more traditional print media. Examining this through the lens of food writers was fun but also illuminating.

And on a more basic level- restaurants make for such a fun setting for romantic banter. Banter which works so well in both the ebook and audiobook format! I loved and recommend both!

This was such a cute idea! A traditional food critic and an online food blogger have to team up for reviews after they have a disagreement in public. Everyone loves a good collab esp when there's chemistry.
There was a lot of privilege discussed by the people around her. And there was a little minor indirect miscommunication. I don't mind a bit of confusion and anger.
Julie and Bennett worked well together and despite differences in approach and critiques they appreciated each other for the most part, eventually.
Totally here for the tech girls and their accomplishments away from the bro environment.

Thank you berkleyromance and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.