3.5 stars rounded up.
The Slowest Burn was a sweet debut novel from Sarah Chamberlain.

Ellia and Kieran are total opposites. She's regimented and tidy, he's gregarious and messy. Neither of them are even thinking about love and romance. She lost her husband two years ago. He is focused on opening a restaurant after winning a reality TV show contest and he knows with his ADHD, love could make him go off track.

But, they are forced to work together because he needs a ghostwriter for his upcoming cookbook, and she is the best in the Bay Area. Trope check: opposites attract, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, forced proximity (with a very cute "one bed" joke), and fake dating.

I loved the food descriptions, the Bay Area representation, and how understanding these two were of one another. Also, Kieran is 5'7, so yay for short king hero! Seriously, getting a little tired of the 6'4 heroes.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC for my honest review.

3.5 stars. This was tender and sweet. It wasn’t anything new or super memorable, but I still enjoyed it. I loved how both Ellie and Kieran‘s relationship wasn’t just about love or getting over trauma, but about really growing as better people TOGETHER and for EACH OTHER.

The reason this isn’t rated higher is I forgot who characters were — that’s either on me simply remembering or lots of characters with no strong moments/writing to really give me a chance to remember them, ya feel? I also didn’t care to read the epilogue which is always a sign to me that I didn’t fall in love with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This will be great for our summer romance table. The cover pops, and the story is an easy trope to get behind. Was it my favorite romance ever? No. But I did root for the characters and enjoyed the story very much!

First, thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy of this book!

The Slowest Burn is just that, a slow burn romance. Ellie is a ghost writer for cookbooks and Kieran is a chef fresh off a win for a cooking show. Paired together to write a book, things don't start off well. Ellie is uptight and organized while Kieran's ADHD makes it difficult to focus. Once they learn to accept each other, however, things start to look up.

This book was slow in the beginning and took awhile for me to get into. However, I loved both the characters Ellie and Kieran. I loved them unpacking each other's backgrounds and figuring out how best to help the other. There are definitely some heavy topics in here (absentee parents, death of a spouse, depression) but I think they were well done. Overall, I enjoyed the book once I got through the first maybe 25 %.

This book ticked a lot of boxes for me — I love a slow burn, books set in the SF Bay Area, and culinary romances.

Ellie is a ghostwriter who works with chefs to translate their recipes into books that will be accessible to home cooks. Her latest client, and biggest challenge to date, is Kieran, who recently won a "Top Chef"-style reality show. The problem: Kieran is a genius in the kitchen, but he can barely get it together to focus on the cookbook project. Eventually, Ellie figures out that not only does he have ADHD, but he's dyslexic, and the two develop a positive working relationship which gradually turns into a mutual attraction.

There are, of course, roadblocks galore, from the fact that they are on a tight deadline and can't afford any distractions, to their various personal issues. Most significantly, Ellie is a young widow whose husband died of an undiagnosed heart defect three years earlier. She's still living in a cottage on her in-laws' property, something that's prevented her from moving on with her life, particularly since her mother-in-law is still disabled by grief.

Along with that heaviness, there's still plenty of fun banter and some cute nods at favorite romance tropes. And like all the best dishes, there's a good amount of spice, but not too much. Fans of culinary love stories will find a lot to savor here.

The title is very suited for the story. This is a debut and I am hooked. Looking forward to more from the author. Well written with good characters.

A fun sweet read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

I thought the concept of this book was cute, I love the cover, and I was excited to read a slow burn book from a debut author, however this just didn’t land.

But, I think it will be good for others — especially those who don’t mind a bit more inner dialogue.

I knew this probably wasn’t for me early on when it took the mmc 60% of a full page to describe the fmc and it was basically along the lines of “she reminded me of my mom’s chocolate chip cookies, the ones she never let me eat.”

That’s…nice?

I also wish this wasn’t written in dual POV as I think it would have given the reader more opportunity to make their own inferences rather than having everything explained.

Not bad, not great. I am looking forward to seeing what this author creates in the future, though!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Ellie likes her quiet life. She likes order in her life. Her next client will interrupt her orderly life. Ellie grows to like him as they spend more time with one another. A good read.

It’s not just hot outside or in the kitchen, it’s getting hot and spicy amongst the pages of the Slowest Burn. Our heroine, Ellie is a widowed thirtysomething who finds herself bound to the past. Living with her demanding in-laws and with a leach of a little brother, her hopes and dreams have been put on the backburner. Her patience is tested when she’s entrusted with ghostwriting Kieran’s cookbook. Kieran has just won a reality TV cooking competition but the last thing he wants is the fame that comes with it. Their very first meeting is anything but successful and the two appear to approach life with very different approaches which leaves clashing. At the risk of missing their deadline, the two are stuck alone at Ellie’s boss’ cottage and forced to hammer out their cookbook once in for all.

The Slowest Burn is not only the title of the book but exactly how one may categorize the relationship between the two. But once that fire gets started, oh there is no extinguishing it. We get forced proximity, fake dating, opposites attracting, workplace romance, the male falls first and a neurodivergent love interest.

Chamberlain serves up two multi-faceted characters that you can’t help relating to from the onset. Both dealing with a lot of unresolved baggage from the past there is a lot for them to work through. Kieran often dabbles between alpha male and cinnamon roll energy and as a massive connoisseur of romance books, I do not say it lightly when I offer that he may be the best male romance lead I’ve encountered in a while.

Somehow amongst the passion and romance unfolding, I also learned the inner workings of cookbook writing and honestly, who knew how much went into writing one?! I have a new appreciation for the cookbooks collecting dust on the bottom of my bookshelves.

This one gets five fire emojis because stars just simply do not do it justice.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dual pov, chef mmc, writer fmc, adhd, dyslexia, grief, enemies to lovers, friends with benefits, he calls her love, third act breakup, second chance romance

I am officially obsessed with chef romances.

This book has so many layers to it that I wasn’t expecting. It’s a story of complex family relationships, addiction, grief, and finding a way to love yourself when you feel unworthy. This is one of those books that as I’m reading it I’m reminded of how good a life I’ve had so far, and to take a step back and appreciate what I have.

Ellie and Kieran unintentionally rely on each other to grow as characters. They need the other to help them see what they can become and not what their families expect them to be. Being shoved in a box and not knowing how to escape it is one thing, but being shoved and a box and not knowing it is another. But they are able to see what the other needs and how they can become the best version of themselves.

I have to say, I was a tad concerned when this book started. The author wasn’t kidding when she said slow burn. It felt like half of the book they were at odds with each other, then drip by drip, they started warming up.

There was a lot going on with this book other than the budding heat in the kitchen. We are also faced with intense grieving, which in itself was a lot for Ellie to deal with on top of trying to move forward. The guilt is strong in this one!

We also face parental neglect, mean personalities, and a multitude of other tropes popping in a out. There was a lot to unpack here. Some of the secondary characters you love to hate!

Once the two main characters started working with each other instead of against each other, I really got involved with the story. These two have a fabulous connection which allowed for understanding and feeling to grow. The romance was sweet, not overly hot, and in the end, the two stood for and with each other.

Overall, The Slowest Burn offers a wonderful plot that slowly grows and develops into a lovely romance. I love the fabulous ideas and foods they are cooking up together. Too bad the cookbooks don’t really exist!

**Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!**

3.5 🌟 rounded up!

The slow burn slow burned in this book and I loved it! Ellie is a ghostwriter for cookbooks and wants to write her own one day as she deals with the grief of losing he husband three years prior. Kieran is a newly famous chef who won a TV show who gets the opportunity to work on his own book.

And of course, who else is the ghostwriter but Ellie?

Ellie and Kieran's relationship arc as they grew into the people they wanted to become was amazing. They had their own traumas to work through and it was really nice to see that while they helped each other through it, their healing wasn't dependent on their relationship. I loved seeing them not really like each other to naturally becoming friends and then more. I also really liked the way diversity was woven into the story with a focus on Jewish customs, plus sized women, LGBTQ+ characters and POC characters.

My only wish is that the author had focused a bit on the relationship after they got together. Many times authors can see how characters start out and grow but not clearly about how they are afterwards. Other than that, I would still love to read more from her!

To be clear I’m not rating this one star because this is an Ed Sheridan fan fic, but that sure as hell didn’t help.
I’m rating it one star because the MMC just MIGHT be 14 years old.
Not only is he extremely immature (reads her diary without permission, whines, puts asparagus in his hair?), but he practically BEGGED to hear how the FMC ‘s (Ellie) late hubby kicked the bucket then replied “that’s really shitty”
Which apparently Ellie translated as “he gets it” and deemed it heartfelt. And that was that.

My favorite part of this book was when Ellie called Kieran a brat. I felt that.

All and all, writing wasn’t bad and this might be a book for someone, but it was not a book for me.

- thank you NetGalley and publishers for this arc <3

The Slowest Burn is a decently written book with great imagery and well-rounded characters. I was very interested in the beginning of the story where we were introduced to the main character (Ellie Wasserman)—it was refreshing to read about a woman that wasn’t in high school/or fresh out of it, that had big personal issues that she had to deal with. And the other main character—Kieran O’Neill—is another very interesting character who really intrigued me from his first moment. The storyline was great, and I was immersed in it almost the entire time—although, it did get very slow at a few different spots.

Particularly, I wasn’t impressed with the formatting of the book—like how the pov’s kept shifting from Ellie to Kieran and the back to Ellie, all within a single chapter instead of either (A) separating the narrators by each chapter, or (B) just using a third person omniscient writing style. That really took me out of the book and was poorly executed, almost like it was fanfiction.

I loved the idea of two very broken people—coming from different parts of their lives—were forced together to learn to trust and rely on one another and build onto that before falling in love. And I think it could’ve been an amazing read if our two main protagonists weren’t constantly bickering and throwing around harsh words to each other. I think I would have appreciated it more if they actually got along better and really, slowly developed their bonds considering they both had major issues with letting people in.

At first, I was blown away with both characters and how unique they were—I don’t see many adult ADHD characters and Kieran really stood out . . . until he made it his whole personality. He’s a 27-year-old man and acted like a crazy teenage ex-boyfriend that kept growling at people he didn’t like or appreciate. And I don’t mean he didn’t it once in annoyance or anger, but continuously growling at people, including Ellie’s little brother at one point. For example, “”He hurt her,” a wolf inside me snarked back. “He made her cry.”” And the way he treated his supposed ‘lover’ was strange. They barely know each other and he’s acting out because she isn’t ready to move in with him—“”You can’t? Or you won’t?” . . . “So I’m a distraction now?” He barks back bitterly.” It’s probably just a me thing, but I really hate romance novels where the male love interest is literary growling at people, like how is that attractive?? Anyway . . .

All in all, I was quite pleased with the overall writing and presentation of the book. I loved the characters despite what I wrote in the review, and loved the final chapter. I can’t wait to read another book by this author!

Thank you Sarah Chamberlain for writing this amazing book and thank you St. Martin’s Press for an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Such a quick read! Perfect book for summer. Was definitely a slow burn but I felt that was a given lol. I’m always a sucker for a dual pov storyline to hear their individual thoughts.

This book is a cozy slowburn romance that has some serious topics that are approached appropriately and delicately. Ellie is a delightful FMC who feels like she needs to take care of everyone in her life. One of my issues was that it felt like the book was trying to do too much and would have been better to focus on doing a couple of things well instead of several things just okay.

Well written and definitely a fun, slow burn. It tackles some serious topics and struggles that ring true. The food descriptions are a lot of fun.

This is a debut novel from this author, and I cant wait to read more! Ellie is a ghost writer and is paired with a hot up and coming chef who won a reality cooking show. She is organized and he is chaos and they clash in the beginning. But, both of their pasts bubble up to the surface and a lot of depth comes out.

It was fun reading through the cookbook writing process, and the side characters made things interesting. I really liked Ellie’s relationship with her father in law. The book is called the slowest burn, and it is just that! The pace of the book was fine, but it was weird that we would go from one day to the next, then months had past. I am not sure the purpose of that time line? Also, a fake relationship was thrown in at one point, but it wasn’t expanded on. Overall, it was very enjoyable.

Bottom Line: Read it!

Releases September 24, 2024

**I received a copy of The Slowest Burn from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Very cute. Loved the banter between the characters. The writing is slow reading. But the story makes up for that