Nope nope nope and definitely nope. I'm done. None of the characters are neither good or interesting. The writing style, characters, and world-building were not interesting or promising, or engaging. The cover was nice. I'm really disappointed. Because the synopsis was really intriguing. I wonder why this book has so many pages. Oh, well, I'm definitely not gonna force myself to read books I know I'm not going to enjoy.

⫷ The ARC copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for an honest review ⫸

After a disastrous holiday party for work, Gia creates a resolution list. However, after receiving takeout, it gets stuck to the delivery bag and ends up back at the restaurant. Ben finds it and begins writing to Gia, which begins their correspondences. They use these notes to get to know each other, falling in love one note at a time.

Initially, I looked forward to reading this book. I really liked the basic premise of the plot. The epistolary elements of the story is where the book shined. I also surprisingly enjoyed Ben’s soccer team, especially all his motivational speeches to the boys. Also the SO-BAR was a cool concept that I could definitely see opening in real life.

However, the writing was difficult for me to get through. The pacing was off throughout the story, with events that felt kind of thrown in there for virtually no reason at all. I struggled to keep up with what was going on at times. Transitions between chapters felt weak at best. The story dragged a lot of the time. I feel like so much of it could have been cut and it would have helped with the pacing issues. Frustratingly, some characters weren’t properly introduced so I kept trying to figure out who they were. In particular, I couldn’t keep Gia’s coworkers or Ben’s siblings straight. I also did not quite understand what Gia even did for work. Her whole job really confused me. Further, the boss storyline with Gia and Juliet felt odd and confusing. I still don’t quite know what to make of it. Finally, the family and friend dynamics felt stilted. At times, Gia’s mom was too much, and Jay really did not feel like an actual friend. I also did not quite understand Ben’s family relationships, specifically sibling to parent. It just felt all over the map. This book simply was not for me.

Thank you Avon Books UK for the advanced reader copy!

The story had a great premises. But unfortunately, it fell short when it came to pacing. I initially DNF'd around the 55% mark. And then I picked it back up to skim the rest of the book. I did like the main FMC, Gia. And I appreciate the dual POV. But it was incredibly hard for me to keep track of the other characters.

This was cute and I was intrigued at the beginning, but I found it hard to follow at times. The Kindle formatting was off in places, which maybe why I found it harder to read.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks to netgalley for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, it was a DNF for me after 40%. I tried and tried and I just couldn't get in to the book. The flitting between 2 people is usually OK for me, but the way the story was written made it really hard to follow. The way the writer skipped between people talking in each section without stating who was talking made for difficult reading. Sometimes a conversation was going on with 3 people and you couldn't make out who was saying what. There was also a huge amount of characters in the story who just didn't need to be there.
The description made me want to read this story, but unfortunately it just wasn't as good as I thought it would be.
Also, and not sure if this was just my kindle copy, but there was a lot of text with spelling mistakes, grammar issues and no spaces between several words which didn't help at all.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Gia decided to live in London for a job. While in London, she orders from the restaurant where she learns more about Ben. This book lagged at times.

This is one of those books with a fun premise that draws you in but unfortunately the actual story is not worth the read. I liked the opening where we find Gia comically hiding from her snobby co workers but then she very quickly gets drunk and is rude to her only friend. For reasons unknown the author keeps talking about the sex lives of both Gia and Sam’s parents which is just unnecessary. The author went off on far too many tangents to hold my interest. We first meet Sam’s siblings all at once so I had no idea who was who and later we follow him to a youth soccer practice he coaches and it went on in far too much detail. It was chore to keep reading in hopes it would get better so I’m giving up a little more than a third of the way in. This reads like a draft in need of a lot of editing. Sam seems like the more likeable of the characters but there was not enough focusing on why we should care about either of them. If there’s romance here I never saw it. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Another great romance book! I really enjoyed reading this and I hope to many more Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this title.

The blurb sounds so right up my alley, like I should love this book with everything I am, but the actual writing left something to be desired. Parts feel like an information dump, and I didn't feel like I connected with the characters as we opened the story. Stopped at 6%.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

I just couldn’t get into this book. I really wanted to and I loved the blurb/synopsis so I thought it would be right up my street. But I found the characters hard to like and develop a real feel for and the pace of the story was very slow.
Not my cup of tea, but hopefully it suits someone!

The List
- Find a sponsor
- Find a suitor
- Don’t drink
- Save £ 20 a day for 64 days
- Cleanse karma and call Ma weekly
- Run to a ten
- Cheat on Wednesdays
- Social standards, abstain or conquer
- Watch live comedy: keep it diverse
- Write a self-help book
- Replace Beyoncé

I picked this up through Netgalley, with thanks to Mimi Deb and Avon Books for gifting me this e-ARC

everyone makes a new years resolution list in some form. a pinterest board. a rushed scribble on a napkin. a bulleted list in the new journal you bought specifically for the new year. so when gia's list ends up stuck to the bottom of a takeaway bag and ends up in the lap of ben, an unlikely frienship occurs through hand-delivered notes.

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

my thoughts: i picked this up, attracted by the idea of becoming friends and finding love through notes attached to a takeaway box, especially since i adored the flatshare series by beth o'leary (still need to read my physical copy of that actually!) but i found it to be a little all over the place. because it is told through two perspectives, gia's and ben's, and then the amount of side characters such as siblings and friends etc i struggled to enjoy and keep myself remembering who was who.

there was a few formatting issues when reading through kindle, with words not where they should be and making it impossible nearly to read 'the list' and the following notes back and forth between gia and ben. i also was thrown by ben's side plot towards the end and made it extremely unclear as to what was going on.

i did enjoy ben's main plotline though, with him coaching a local youth football team and wanting to start up an academy for those less fortunate, but having also recently read my legendary girlfriend which i didn't enjoy much, i also found it difficult to associate myself with this too. in addition, the main conflict of the book is gia's belief that her workplace is setting her up to fail after a single accident at a new years party, feels like a
bit of a mess and something that could easily have been sorted by talking to her boss. i did however enjoy the subtle-ish nods to gia's heritage and also her being on the slightly curvier side, which is something that books always need more of - diversity.

as someone who likes learning more about marketing also, i would have liked to know why ideas pitched to the client in the book focused on dragging in their personal lives because of a newspaper article? it felt very immature, especially since it revolved around drinking too.

i did love the idea behind this, and feel like with a bit of editing that the plot would run a little smoother, instead of jumping around a little bit to the point where all the characters blur into one.

Love On The Menu is such a sweet and heartwarming read. Perfect for Valentine's day but also a great beach read.

While I found the pacing a bit odd, I enjoyed the premise of the book as well as the characters.

I was intrigued by the concept of this book. I love characters falling in love through letters, and I enjoyed the notes Gia and Ben write to one another. Through their communication, you learn more about Ben's family and home life, and you learn about Gia's work struggles. Both characters were fleshed out and had their own sets of struggles and challenges. However, it felt like there was a little too much happening. Many of the side characters felt similar and irrelevant. The two main characters sounded more authentic in their notes than they did in the first-person chapters, and some of the dialogue felt really stilted. That said, the way Gia and Ben supported each other was very sweet, and I liked the relationship growth Gia has with her mom. Overall, this was a nice, light read.

I'm sorry I couldn't get into this book. The synopsis sounded amazing however for me, the pace was too slow, and I couldn't connect with the characters.

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and Mimi Deb for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure- I read the reviews before I started this book and was honestly expecting it to be a boring flop but I can honestly say it rose above expectations!

I really enjoyed the style of communication between Gia and Ben, and the takeaway receipts were always a nice touch.

There were a few grammar/sentence structure issues at times but nothing I couldn’t figure out.

The ending however, left me a little disappointed and confused as Ben talked about going on more dates so we didn’t really get a love story between him and Gia

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Unfortunately could not get into this one. I had a hard time pushing through and connecting with any of the characters.

was actually excited to read this book (the cover was adorable and the description sounded rlly good) but tbh I didn’t end up finishing this book because I found the plot pacing to be a little muddled up and couldn’t rlly come to terms with the whole character arcs/development

This is a romance novel that a woman clearly wrote. That isn't such a bad thing. We all know and love other "men written by women." Ben, however, is written like a woman. It's like Mimi wrote the novel as a wlw romance book, then decided at the last minute to change it. Furthermore, it is evident that it's her first book, but her writing style wasn't too bad.

I LOVE the note-swapping, and the basic idea of the novel is pretty great. For a first-time writer, this novel is pretty darn good. However, I did knock off one star because there were SO many side characters just thrown in there for no goddam reason. (and because I hate the plot of "oh no, I got drunk, and now I have ruined every good thing I've ever done").

This one was really good! I love the characters. Gia and Ben are so good together, it's really sweet. The idea is original, I love the writing. It's an awesome book!

This really piqued my interest but sorry to say I just couldn’t get into it. It had so much potential but I found myself forcing myself to read it. I think there is definitely something there but it didn’t hit the right boxes for me