The photography is absolutely gorgeous, and the cookbook is packed with inventive ideas that go way beyond the typical charcuterie board! I promptly went out and bought a big board to start making beautiful boards for my family..

Who doesn’t love a good charcuterie bird? They elevate parties and are a fun excuse to graze. But creating them used to seem like an art form until this book came along and helped demystify the process. So many amazing boards you can recreate at home and for parties. Love this book and stocking it in our library!

This was a great book about making boards and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for my personal collection!

There are dozens – maybe hundreds of cookbook out there promoting boards, which are very trendy. Some, of course are very well written, and others aren’t worth looking at. However, Sandy Coughlin’s The Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More: 100 Mix-and-Match Recipes to Make Any Gathering Greatis an excellent one containing some new and innovative recipes that take boards to a higher level.

This cookbook not only has ideas for beautiful boards when entertaining, but also contains dozens of excellent recipes that can be made anytime, and not only to put on boards. Just perusing this book will inspire any cook to put appealing recipes in their “to do queue.” The book has beautiful photos of every board and most of the recipes, making it hard to choose just what to make because every single one looks really good. This book makes it easy to find something to serve when entertaining.

The actual recipes are written in the traditional manner making them easy to follow by everyone, whether a beginning cook or an advanced cook. There are also excellent lists of what to add to the recipes to make them into a beautiful board. Some of the recipes and board ideas in this book are very unique, and there are enough different boards that everyone will find some that they want to duplicate.

All told, this is one of the good board books to choose from and with good recipes. It will make a good addition to a cookbook shelf.


Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Since my husband and I make and sell unique charcuterie boards, I was excited to review this book and use it for inspiration. RELUCTANT ENTERTAINERS BIG BOARDS AND MORE by Sandy Coughlin.

The boards are organized by season and size of gathering and includes customized options for gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant-based. Everything looks delicious and inspiring whether you’re new to charcuterie boards or have already made several.

This book is great for anyone looking for new ideas for entertaining. There’s many that I plan to make for our family get togethers. 5 stars!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishers for allowing me to review this book.

My review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More by Sandy Coughlin is a fun guide to serving food on boards, which I've noticed have been popular on social media!

This has great photos for showing you how to set the boards up and gives ideas for themes for the boards!

I enjoyed getting ideas for how to put together a board!

I was given access to this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Quarto Publishing

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Reluctant Entertainer’s Big Boards and More is a great book for anyone who entertains, wants to learn how to entertain and find ranges of food that go well together on a food board. There's so many great themed types of boards in this book and lots of tasty and yummy looking dishes to try your hand at. The recipes are easy to follow and we'll set out and the photographs of the foods and boards was fantastic! Alot of these are suitable for kids too so it would be handy for fun party food spreads too. I'm hoping to try at least one of these out in the spring and summer months this year.

We’re doing a bring a board for Christmas Eve so this gave me some WONDERFUL ideas. Beautiful pictures and clear instructions- would definitely recommend

This is SO much more than a board cookbook. A lot of the board “cookbooks” are more about the presentation than the actual food. That’s not the case with this book. These are incredible recipes! Fun way to entertain or just get a meal on the table. I loved this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review "Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More." First of all this cookbook is full a beautiful images! everything looks so enticing and a blast to make. The mouthwatering Cinnamon Orange Sticky Buns with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting looks amazing and definitely a recipe I will be making. All these board ideas are so creative and are way different than your standard meat and cheese charcuterie. There were some very interesting Asian inspired recipes like Chicken Tikka Masala Tenders, Chinese-inspired Braised Beef and Miso Green Onion and Cheddar Biscuits. The author had images of her an others with her boards traveling which I don't this is very practical for these type of recipes. This a great gift for an entertainer or charcuterie enthusiast.

There were tons of great recipes and board ideas. I love the pictures and that they weren't all your traditional meat and cheese and fruit boards.

This book has some neat concepts but has 0 suggestions for modifications for recipes to accommodate food allergies, which most of the newer cookbooks are starting to have, realizing they have a wider audience.

Entertaining made easy. Sandy Coughlin's Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More lays it all out for you (quite literally) with gorgeous food photography and menus and suggestions for a variety of entertaining options. I love that book is divided into warmer weather options and colder weather options. The board suggestions are complete with lists of board items and the recipes. From easy to more advanced options and many out of the box ideas, this cookbook makes it easy to assemble a meal for small or large groups with style. Delicious options abound including Shaved Beef Gyros Picnic Board, Campfire S'Mores Cookie Dough Fondue, Cheesy Lasagna Boats, and Chicken Mole Enchiladas.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More is a well written guide with recipes by Sandy Coughlin for removing as much of the fuss and stress as possible planning a gathering. Released 4th Oct 2022 by Quarto on their Fair Winds Press imprint, it's 216 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

The book is well organized with an easy to understand format. The board selections are arranged seasonally in two main sections: Spring & Summer, and Fall & Winter. Boards are arranged further with relevant recipes arranged with the boards they're a part of. All the recipes are listed in the comprehensive table of contents (it's -very- detailed and well arranged). Boards are listed as being more appropriate for small gatherings (2-4 people) or for feeding larger crowds.

All of the recipes contain a basic introduction, ingredients in a sidebar bullet list, followed by step by step prep directions. Ingredients are listed in imperial (American) units with metric measurements in parentheses (yay!!). Most ingredients will be easily obtainable from any moderately well stocked grocery store in North America. Some few might require a trip to an international type market. Alternative ingredients and preparation tips are provided in text boxes. Nutritional information isn't provided.

The photography is excellent and all the dishes are pictured in the spread photos. The food is well styled and serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate. Most of the individual recipes are also accompanied by one or more color photos.

Four and a half stars. I love boards and buffet style entertaining and this is an excellent and (more importantly) usable book. This would be an excellent selection for public library acquisition, hostess gift, or home use.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I loved this book although it wasn’t what I expected at all when I requested it. I expected the focus to be on board recipes but the book has all kinds of recipes. Many of which are quite complex with special ingredients that won’t be easy to find in a regular grocery store. I was also confused on how they translate to serving on the board.

I am sure there are missing details for those that if familiar with that recipe maybe someone will have an aha moment and know what to do.

I’m assuming garnishing or stuff served with the recipes goes on the board. However, that information I missing and would be helpful for those like me that aren’t familiar with what to serve with the recipe.

However, I can say the book is very diverse with recipes I definitely wouldn’t have expected so I have to give credit for thinking outside the box.

I do have mixed feelings. This is not a beginner book or one fir those wanting a simple but pretty board display with easy presentation or preparation so it probably isn’t for everyone. But the pictures are amazing and despite my reservations I still like it.

So for this if you’re a pro at board displays n need next level recipes and can read between the lines for the more complex recipes you’re gonna love it. If you want quick, easy and fast this isn’t for you.

Thank you NetGalley for a this ARC in exchange of an honest review.
It was not what I expected… I expected more boards recipe but it doesn’t represent half of the book, quite misleading really. Despite the fact that the recipe looked good and wanted me to try some of them; the ingredients seemed tricky to find. Some seems impossible to find in your normal supermarket and will need to go to more specific shop to find what you need. It seem that if you want to cook with what you can buy you might need to changes some things within the recipe. By wanted to be too fancy, that might frustrate people to not be able to access some of the ingredients.
Otherwise yes the recipe looked tasty and doable, but I pass on this one as I wanted board food and it is not really the main thing on this book.

I was all in when I spotted "Reluctant Entertainer's Big Boards and More, 100 Mix-and-Match Recipes to Make Any Gathering Great" by Sandy Coughlin. As a host myself of some club nights and girlfriend happenings, I wouldn't describe myself as reluctant, but I do love the beauty of a grazing board that is put together well with lots of options. I jumped at the chance to take a peek at this gorgeous book hoping to inspire some new creativity when putting together my next grazing board.

What I was hoping for, was curated lists of snack options that work well together when assembling these boards. What I found within this book, was more elaborate recipes for themed boards that represent full dinners. Most of these recipes require time, planning, some difficult ingredients and dinnerware. I found more of them to fall along the lines of "how to present your dinner meal".

There were a few boards that did appeal to me and stick out for future use. Oddly enough, they were kid themed including Field Day and the Firepit Board. Also, there a couple true fashioned charcuterie boards that were helpful to me. I appreciated the authors use of brand names when listing ingredients as i.e.: Strawberry Rosemary jam may be difficult to locate and sounds absolutely delicious! One creative recipe that I most surely will try, is Hot Buttered Rum Mix and I love the idea of serving with mini bottles!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for the opportunity to read this this ARC. This review is authentically mine.

I feel the title and front cover of this book is a bit misleading as less than 1/3 of the recipes are for boards. The book has good recipes for a buffet table, but not really enough boards as that was the promise with the title. It is a good start for anyone who has not made a board before as the hardest thing to do is estimate quantities, and there are good ideas of what to add to boards to make them interesting, but there really are not enough boards in the book.

I love entertaining - mostly small groups of friends - and I am also a big fan of buffets, small dishes and charcuterie boards. So when I saw a recipe book designed for small plates served on boards, I was in.

There are lots of individual recipes for small dishes that you can mix together on a board, or could eat as a side, tapas, or as a main with something else. Spiced Zucchini Kale and Gruyere Fritters were the first recipe I made and they were amazing and super easy to do! I love that it also includes lots of recipes for dips and very small accompaniments, these will be useful to me for entertaining at all sizes. The boards then helped pull all these small recipes together in interesting and complementary combinations.

There are some really fun ideas I'd never have thought of like the Poolside Pina Colada Poptail Board, lots of recipes the whole family will enjoy (my 5 year old is going to go nuts for the Field Day Chocolate Banana Pudding board) and the Baked Brie Dinner Board is going to be happening on my next book club hosting night.

I'm gluten free and I'm used to substituting my own options in recipes, but I really appreciated how many gluten free options there were in this book, alongside dairy free and plant based options. It's really nice to be included in a normal recipe book and not to have to make as many switches and substitutions!

The recipes are well presented, easy to follow and I appreciate the measurements being in both imperial and metric, so no problems for those like me, reading from the UK. I also didn't see any ingredients I would have huge difficulties obtaining.

On the whole a fantastic recipe book for anyone who likes exploring small dish options.

This was a fabulous book and extremely inspiring! I can't wait to try so many of these creative combinations.