This is the perfect summer read! It was easy to read and very enjoyable. I didn’t love Effie but I was definitely swooned by Ernie. He was just so cute and kind. The romance is definitely a slow burn. I usually love a slow burn but I was getting a little impatient. Not sure why but the pacing of the book just seemed a little off for me. I also would have liked to see more of the side characters, they were just so interesting. Overall, I would recommend this book.

Thanks Berkley Romance for the egalley!

I loved Rochelle Bilow's debut, Ruby Spencer's Whisky year and this latest friends to lovers, second chance summer romance set in a fancy restaurant on a small Maine island was another fabulous read!!

Effie returns home for what she plans will just be a temporary time working as a sous chef at a Michelin starred restaurant on the island she grew up on only to come face to face with her former best friend Ernie she hasn't seen or talked to for years.

Luckily Ernie is open to trying to be friends again and as the two spend more and more time together both at work at doing various bucket list fun activities, feelings start to get real and things heat up, forcing Ernie to decide if he's willing to try taking a risk on something more with Effie after the epic disaster of the last time he tried.

Apart from the great friends to lovers romance though, this book was an excellent look at the world of restaurant life, including the challenges of the job to the difficulties working for a terrible boss who takes advantage of staff and is lying to customers. When a reporter comes along Effie has to decide if she wants to stand up for her coworkers and fight for what's right or keep her head down and keep her job.

Great on audio narrated by Nikki Massoud, this was a fun, steamy and heartfelt read with a memorable cast of secondary characters. Highly recommended for fans of authors like Amanda Elliot or books like Summer reading by Jenn McKinlay. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Steam level: open door

I unfortunately found this difficult to connect with and didn’t love the storyline.

Thank you for the arc!

Effie Olsen's Summer Special by Rochelle Bilow was a joy to read. This is my first book by Bilow and it gave me all the feels. There's something so nostalgic about the friends to lovers trope when it involves childhood friends. Great beach read, light and fun!

Effie’s back in her hometown of Alder Island, Maine after sixteen years roaming the globe as a chef. Effie’s there just for the summer to earn money and move on to her next assignment.

The small town holds a mix of good and bad memories for Effie. The good ones with her best friend, Ernie, until the night of their graduation, when he told her he didn’t want to speak to her again. Being on the island also brings back memories of her mother leaving. Effie had no choice but to tackle the feelings of abandonment caused by her mother’s actions. Her sister, Ingrid, was a great sounding board and source of wisdom for Effie.

I was thrilled that Ernie and Effie slipped back into friendship right away, and things weren’t super angsty. They just got each other. Their bucket list outings made it hard for Effie to ignore the love and attraction between them. It also highlighted some of the things she forgot she loved about Alder Island, which sounded so quaint and picturesque! Soon leaving Alder Island isn’t such an attractive prospect.

There’s drama at Brown Butter, the Michelin star restaurant they both work at. The head chef, Jared, is a jerk and there’s some shady practices gaining attention. I enjoyed how Effie bonded with all the other staff and made new friends along the way. Ms.Bilow's background as a chef comes through in her food descriptions and everything sounded delicious!

Effie Olsen’s Summer Special was such a wonderful story of healing, personal growth, and finding your niche in life. It was also a sweet, swoony, slow burn romance; the friends-to-lovers variety, that made my heart soar with joy!

🦞 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙚 𝙊𝙡𝙨𝙚𝙣'𝙨 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 🦞
𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘸
#BerkleyPartner #berkleyromance

If you're looking for a summer or beach read to add to your list you definitely need to add Effie and Ernie to your list! This book was perfection....childhood best friends to near strangers to lovers. Opposites attract, an amazing cast of characters set on the perfect little Maine Island. My Top Chef loving heart loved getting the behind of the scenes of the restaurant world...the good and the bad. The way Effie and Ernie reconnect and find that maybe now is when they were meant to be. You are going to love them I promise!

Childhood best friends Effie and Ernie reunite unexpectedly in their hometown of Alder Isle, a cute little island town in Maine.
Effie, a seasoned chef returning home, joins the renowned Brown Butter restaurant. As they rediscover their bond through their summer bucket list, Effie faces her past and the restaurant's secrets while contemplating a second chance at love and her culinary dreams.

Read if you enjoy
💞 Friends to Lovers
🏠 Small Towns
🦞 Maine
🧲 Opposites Attract
👩🏼‍🍳 Chef Life
🪣 Summer Bucket List
❤️‍🔥 Slow Burn
🫶🏻 Self Discovery

Thank you to @berkleyromance for the gifted copy!

𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸
𝘌𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘦 𝘖𝘭𝘴𝘦𝘯’𝘴 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭
𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘸
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

•𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚
•𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨
•𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙮
•𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚

☀️𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛𝙛☀️

Shout out to Berkeley and Netgalley for a copy of this fun read. It was cute, endearing, fun, and gave me all of the warm fuzzies. Perfect for lying on a beach somewhere!

The story follows the lives of Effie and Ernie (I mean those names are just absurd), two childhood best friends that are reunited after 16 years apart. The last time they saw each other, Ernie declared his undying love, which prompted Effie to instantly flee their sleepy island town in Maine.

Will Effie be able to handle being back home, living AND working next to Ernie, who has grown up in more than one way? Read and find out 📖📖📖📖

Short synopsis: Effie moves back to her hometown island off the coast of Main, to work as a Sues Chef in a fancy restaurant. She quickly runs into Ernie, her childhood best friend.

My thoughts: This was such a light bingeable read. The small town island setting was perfection, and the inside look into the restaurant business was accurate!

Don’t go into this one on an empty stomach. The talk of fresh seafood had me wanting to hop on a plane to somewhere not landlocked to get fresh shrimp and lobster.

I liked how the relationship between Effie and Ernie repaired itself slowly, and their bucket list island items were so fun to experience along with them. I especially enjoyed watching Effie find her passion, and roll with it.

Read if you love:
- Fresh food and the restaurant drama
- Friends to lovers
- Small towns
- Great side characters
- Second chance romance
- Bucket lists

Effie returns home, the one place she cannot stand and rarely visits, to shore up her bank account before going off into the world again. Her last job went up in smoke. Luckily, her tiny hometown in Maine features an incredible restaurant. Keeping her head down as the new sous chef is paramount to escaping after the summer is over. Only trouble walks in, both with the head chef and Effie's once-upon-a-time best friend, Ernie, refusing to ignore what they once meant to each other.
Friends to Lovers is not my favorite but @rochellebilow did the best job reminding me why any trope can be incredible with the right author behind it. The communication level was chef's kiss! And I could not be more in love with how everything pans out for Effie and Ernie. Rochelle is an auto-read author and I'm eager to see what's next.
Thank you to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

I spent the last 2 weeks on vacation and this HIT! I was laughing, giggling & having a great time! Second chance romance in a sense & very well done! This is my first book by Rochelle & WILL NOT be the last!!!

I'm not gonna lie, this book frustrated me. Effie was, in my opinion, a very unlikeable heroine. She rubbed me the wrong way from almost the beginning; the self absorbtion and lack of maturity on her part made this book a difficult read, even up to the end when she made a questionable decision about her entire life's path.

I get it, MC's are supposed to have "flaws" and grow out of them by the end of the book, but I didn't see that for her. And it just made me dislike her even more to know that poor doormat Ernie loved her for his whole life, and then suddenly allowed things between them to go back to the way they were before she left him in a blaze of glory for <b>sixteen</b> years! He came off as a total pushover when it came to her, and while I like my men sweet (and Ernie <i>was</i> sweet), I also like them to have some backbone.

While the main characters themselves made me crazy, the writing was good. I'm hoping I'll have the chance to read something from this author in the future with better character development for my liking.

This long-time friends-to-lovers, small town romance will appeal to foodies. It is a second-chance romance, but even more of an exposé on farm-to-table restaurant culture, toxic and sexually-abusive male chefs, and how much harder it is for a woman to find success in the high-end restaurant world. Effie Olsen has been in the business for 16 years, ever since leaving home (an island off the coast of Maine) and finishing culinary school, and in all that time, she hasn’t stayed in any one place for too long. When she is let go from her latest executive chef job in San Francisco, she begrudgingly moves back home, intending to only stay the summer and never expecting that the home she couldn’t get away from fast enough may be just the place she needs.

My biggest frustration with this book and reason for the 3* rating is Effie and her insistence that she must leave at the end of the summer, despite her growing feelings for her childhood friend, Ernie, and her admission that her life as an itinerant chef has left her unhappy and unfulfilled. I’ve never enjoyed the trope of a main character resisting love because they want to preserve a friendship, yet giving into their attraction while also giving the love interest false hope. Friendship is the best basis for a loving relationship, so when the chemistry is strong, how is that a bad thing? In this case, Effie’s indecisiveness and getting Ernie’s hopes up were just too off-putting for me. If this trope doesn’t bother you and you’re a fan of small town, friends-to-lovers romances, give it a try.

Effie swore she was leaving her small hometown and never coming back, she was destined for a life of adventure working in the best of the best restaurants. After finding herself broke and fired from her dream job she returns home to take a position at the fancy restaurant in her small island town. She is counting down the days and paychecks until she can leave and trying to avoid Ernie, her childhood best friend. Years ago she left and Ernie told her to forget him forever so she anticipates a cold shoulder. To her surprise she is welcomed back into the fold by the town and even Ernie with a warm welcome.
She quickly finds the feeling of family with her new workmates in the kitchen and is reminded of the perks of small town. She comes together with her work family to try to solve a mystery in the kitchen and realizes it might be harder to leave her hometown, and Ernie, for a second time.
This was a cute second chance romance that was elevated by the side characters and the restaurant setting. It made me hungy just reading the menu items discussed in the book.

3.5 Stars rounded up

Absolutely delightful foodie summer romance set on an island off the coast of Maine. So realistically descriptive, I could see the water crashing against the rocks, see the seaweed as the low tide lapped, hear the gulls cawing looking for breakfast and see the lobster boats out with their traps set as they watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. Though I don't live in Maine I have had the privilege of visiting the beautiful and charming state multiple times in summer and fall. I'm ready to return.
Effie left the tiny Maine Island and her best friend Ernie sixteen years ago, right after high school, thinking never to live there again. She had high aspirations for herself, become a professional chef and travel to foreign countries. She accomplishes both but her latest restaurant job doesn't work out so well and she's home again on the island after all this time, just for the summer she tells herself. Ernie, he's a lifer, he still lives on the island and is satisfied to not have the travel bug. Island life has treated him well. Effie knows it's inevitable on the small island she'll eventually run into Ernie. You can't plan these things, it'll just happen. Will it be awkward after all this time? Working at an island restaurant, Brown Butter Effie is satisfied and it's a popular spot for the locals and tourists alike. Behind the scenes there are things going on and Effie feels she must speak up. Once she speaks up how will her job security hold up though? I loved how so much of the book took place in the restaurant and got a real feel of the professional restaurant scene from the servers to the line prep to the dishwashers. The desserts sounded amazing and the dinners divine.
This was a slow burn romance that had Effie and Ernie reuniting in a surprising way, talking things out and taking it slow with their romance. Will Effie's mind be changed about staying just for the summer or will she be trotting off on her next adventure when the leaves start to change? Such a fun summertime beach read I'll be on the lookout for more by the author.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

• r e v i e w || EFFIE OLSEN’S SUMMER SPECIAL [thank you @ for the gifted book] •

If you're looking for a fantastic summer read to tuck into your pool bag, this book is a must-have. It tells the story of Effie, who returns to her picturesque hometown in Maine after 16 years, reconnecting with her old high school friend Ernie. Their relationship has history, and this time around, it's a second chance at love. The slow-burn romance is irresistible, with just the right touch of heat to keep you hooked.

What sets this book apart are the vivid details of the seaside island and the fast-paced restaurant where Effie works (and a culinary scandal brewing). I couldn't put it down and finished it in a single day! If you're into heartfelt stories with a splash of nostalgia and a delightful setting, this one is for you.

😍loved

📚read if you enjoyed Every Summer After

💬 Are you planning beach or pool days this summer? Or both?

#SummerReada #RomanceReads #BooksOfInstagram #SecondChanceLove #SeasideRomance #MaineBooks #PoolsideReads #IGReads #BooksToRead #ReadInADay

Cute and fun, and definitely checked my box obsessed with smalltown, waterside communities, stories where you can feel the sand between your toes. AND, I certainly loved Rochelle Bilow's last novel, Ruby Spencer's Whisky Year. However, there was just something missing in this one for me-- I wanted more out of the romance, and some of the storytelling felt a bit surface level.

It’s been said you can’t go home again but what if you can? Effie left her tiny island after high school and barely looked back. She lost her best friend after a friendship ending fight and had her goal set on becoming a chef.
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When she returns home sixteen years later she promises herself it’s just for the summer. Lucky for her, her hometown now is the home of the one of the most famous restaurants in the country and they are in need of a sous chef. Everything is falling into place, including reconnecting with her best friend Ernie and allowing them to make peace. She soon finds herself drawn to Ernie like she never was before and everything she ever thought she wanted is suddenly a giant question mark.
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I loved this one. I got sucked into the story, loved the setting, the cast of characters and oh my goodness did this book make me so hungry! This is a fun one for some summer reading!

Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought Effie Olsen’s Summer Special would be the perfect beach read, but it was just fine.

We start off with Effie returning to her hometown on a small island in Maine to take on a job as a chef at the hot Michelin starred restaurant. She finds out that her childhood best friend, Ernie, also works at the restaurant and they end up spending their summer reconnecting and falling in love.

As much as I loved the Maine setting, and Ernie being a total golden retriever MMC, I kept getting caught up in the awkward and forced dialogue. I just couldn’t get past the use of “shitballs” and “mother-fluffer”…

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Not me falling for a fictional character named Ernie. I absolutely LOVED this book! This childhood friends to lovers is right up there with Every Summer After and Love & Other Words. Falling in love with your best friend over the summer in a small town was perfection. I devoured the entire thing in a little over a day.

Despite the fact that Ernie and Effie actually sound like an old married couple, they are actually in their 30s and reconnect after 16 years of not speaking. I loved being able to read a romance with characters that are my age. Sometimes I feel like a grandma when I’m reading about people in their early 20s.

I also loved the cooking/restaurant aspect. I’m an insanely picky eater, but I love reading about food..? So this book made me swoon over the romance while simultaneously drooling over all the food descriptions.

Also, is Brown Butter a real restaurant somewhere? That just sounds like such a great place to eat.

Anyway, this is a must-read in my opinion. If you enjoy romance, you gotta pick this one up!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my gifted copy and having me on this book tour!

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Effie Olsen's Summer Special absolutely drips with a deep familiarity with the food service industry in a way I personally appreciate, both the good and the very, very bad. Otherwise, this is a solid second-chance romance with a lot of fun characters and a small mystery in the background.

For sensitive readers, there are explicit sex scenes, trauma, and (in context of the food service industry) incidences and mentions of sexual assault, misogyny, and references to racism.