⸻

Cassie, a lawyer in a long-term relationship with her accountant boyfriend James, finds herself feeling stuck. She’s burnt out from always being on call for work but knows it’s part of the grind if she wants to make partner. Still, something feels… off. Something is missing.

Then, tragedy strikes—and everything changes.

Cassie takes a sabbatical from work, stepping WAY outside her comfort zone. Suddenly she’s traveling through Europe, dining at exclusive restaurants, brushing shoulders with world-renowned food critics, and making unexpected connections—maybe even romantic ones. But in the wake of so much loss, is Cassie setting herself up for heartache by diving into a world she barely understands… or is she finally discovering what it means to truly live and love?

I was really excited to read this one, but ultimately it fell a bit flat for me, earning three stars. Cassie’s reevaluation of her relationship felt off—she seemed to view James as nothing more than stable and convenient, completely overlooking how patient and understanding he was, especially when work constantly pulled her away. One scene that really stood out as odd was when James’s best friend flew all the way to confront Cassie, only to brush it off the next day with a casual “we’re good now” over the phone. That resolution felt a little too convenient.

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Arden Wells, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Armchair travel at its best with this one - not only are we going to Europe, we are eating in the most exquisite restaurants there! I’m a sucker for both foodie-themed books and travel-themed books, put the two together and I’m in heaven.

The tour of Europe and its restaurants was enhanced by the fact that she goes to places that exist in real life, so I looked them up as we went along and vicariously enjoyed the beauty of her trip thanks to Google!

You do have to suspend disbelief in this one. Everything seems to happen too easily and there are a lot of plot conveniences, but the point of cute romance novels is to escape reality and this one sure does deliver on that! It’s basically my personal fantasy life (minus the dead boyfriend part of course).

Ended rather abruptly but left me satisfied! Our girl June was living the dream and I was here for every minute. And mixed in with all the fluffly fun, there were some unexpectedly profound lines about love and grief that I truly appreciated.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager Publishing for sending this DRC for review consideration.

Let me start off by saying that this cover is deceiving. What you think seeing such a cover is romance and rom-com. What you get is an emotional story about loss and grief by a lukewarm fmc. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people grieve just like this but reading about her going through it, wasn't hitting. The food and travel were my favorite bits, her as a character, was not.

I would read another book by her.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the arc.

Cassie Brooks is a hardworking attorney in NYC who, on paper, seems to have it all—except the time to enjoy any of it. When life suddenly brings her to a crossroads, she accepts the opportunity of a lifetime. As she embarks on an incredible journey across multiple countries, she begins to appreciate food in a whole new way and discovers there's more to life than the daily corporate grind. I really enjoyed this book. It’s well-paced, and I loved being taken along on a journey through Europe that offered a glimpse into a food world most of us don’t usually get to experience.

This was a cute read overall and a unique take on healing after loss and finding what makes you happy and going after it. I did feel somewhat disconnected from the main FMC and found I was frustrated at times with her actions or reactions. I did enjoy the side characters as I felt they each were unique in their own ways. The descriptions of the food definitely felt more advanced than for someone who isn’t a true foodie but to be expected with the context of the book. This book did leave me dying to go on my own European adventure though and really left me feeling immersed in the cultures and vibes. The main conflict that occurred and how that wrapped up felt too quick for me and there was a disconnect with her own journey into starting her new adventure in a way. I also would have loved an epilogue set months after the main storyline that would give more closure to the story and the love connection made. It felt to open ended.

🔎 ARC Review

Eat Post Like

@emilyardenwells
@avonbooks
@netgalley

Publication Date: June 3rd, 2025

My Rating:
🌟 4/5

👀Read if you like
Self Discovery
Resilience
Transformative power of food

Cassie Brooks has her life all figured out.

Make partner at the prestigious law firm she works at by age 35
Put in as much work as required to make goal #1 happen
Spend as much time as possible with her boyfriend, James Colwell
Work might be exhausting, but for now she’s satisfied making good money and enjoying New York City with James. He’s an accountant but has surprisingly eclectic taste in food. Cassie is starting to think he could be the one when her life flips upside down with one call: James has died tragically.

Months into her grief, she uncovers a worn diary belonging to James and stumbles upon a remarkable revelation: James was the mastermind behind the hottest, anonymous foodie account in the city. With detailed food reviews, lists of new restaurants, and a tantalizing plan to involve Cassie, James had been preparing for an adventure of a lifetime.

When Cassie unwittingly accepts a dinner reservation on behalf of James’s viral account, she embarks on a whirlwind journey filled with unforgettable meals and unexpected connections. She goes from endless hours on-call as a lawyer to savoring exquisite pasta in Italy and indulging in the finest French cuisine in Paris.

🔎 My review
This is Emily's debut novel. She did a great job with vivid descriptions throughout the novel of places and food. There were several spots in the novel where the plot turned unexpectedly and I was on the edge of my chair. I was a little disappointed as I was expecting more of a cutest romance, but this is a emotional self discovery novel that was worth the read!

Thank you @emilyardenwells
@avonbooks @netgalley for the ARC!

#books #bookreviews #bookstagrammer #bookworm #bookstagram #bookobsessed #heartfelt #food #avonbooks #NetGalley #EatPostLike #emilyardenwells

Eat Post Like, by Emily Arden Wells, drew me to it with its colorful cover and catchy title. While I enjoyed the story, I did find it a bit slow at times, and caught myself skimming through parts.  
I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC ebook that I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

This was a really interesting story line.

Cassie thinks she's got her life on the right track - great job, good friends, and James, her boyfriend. However, everything is flipped upside down when James dies and she's left picking up the pieces. When her grief finally allows time, she starts cleaning out James' apartment when she finds notebooks of food reviews, and notes, and photos - and finds another whole side of Jame's she didn't know. He's been a famous online food reviewer for years and she's determined to pick up his reviews and keep them going. Then things get really strange and interesting. It's a fun book with a lot of depth, too.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

What a beautiful story! All the emotions, laughing, crying, good food. Love. Healing.

Thank you for the opportunity ton read this arc.

I really liked this debut novel. I’m a food person and the descriptions of the locales, restaurants, and meals are beautifully described and will definitely make you hungry! The idea of a food reviewing account is appealing to me too.
Briefly, Cassie is a lawyer whose boyfriend is an accountant. When he is suddenly killed in an accident, Cassie discovers that he’s was the anonymous writer of a popular restaurant review site. She’s grief stricken and feels betrayed, and accepts an invitation in his name to review restaurants as part of a group in Europe.
Once she starts, she finds she’s got an affinity for the job and opens an account in her own name. Can she get past her grief and anger and move on with her life with a handsome fellow reviewer?

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you, to NetGalley and the publisher, Avon & Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this book.

I rated this book a five out of five stars and this will likely be at the top of my list for favorite books this year. This book was beautiful, well-written, and a love letter to food and traveling the world. The themes of grief and longing, as well as healing and learning to cope are prevalent and led to a story that was unputdownable.

When Cassie unexpectedly loses her partner and finds out a secret that he’s been keeping from her (a really big one too), she is devastated. How could he keep such a big part of his life from her? Cassie is a workaholic for lack of better words and decides to use this opportunity once she finds out about James’ former secret identity as a well-known and highly sought after social media food critic, to take his place and pretend to be him for a little bit. She takes a sabbatical from her law career and accepts an invitation to travel the world.

However, she has to tell quite a few lies to get there and along the way, she finds that she will have to work harder than she expected, to fit into this world that she knew nothing of. During her travels throughout Europe, taking in the sights, the sounds and of course, the eats, she realizes that her life is not what she wants it to be and sets out to change her trajectory.

There are a lot of tears, a lot of laughs and a lot of yummy food to be written and posted about! I am shocked to learn that this was a debut novel. The descriptions of the food and ambiances were immaculately done and I was very impressed with this book as a whole.

Cassie is a young attorney who is working her way up the corporate ladder in NYC. She has an amazing boyfriend, James, who is an accountant and who she thinks is “the one” but James dies suddenly and shatters her perfectly constructed world. She uncovers he's behind a viral Instagram food account! She takes over the account and it motivates her to travel the world and taste different cuisines while trying to move forward with her life without James.

I liked Cassie and her journey. She needed to move forward but she was stuck and taking over the account gave her access to James and let her stay with him in memory and continue his work. It also opened doors for her that she would have never had the opportunity to open if not for the account and it also allowed her to meet new people and make new connections.

With Cassie being new to food reviewing, she was very unsure and green. Fake it till you make it was her style but she did well. I wish she had more faith in her views and opinions. She didn’t seem to study up on things she just kinda winged it and hoped for the best

The story was ok
The premise was ok
The execution was ok
It was an overall ok book.

I didn't feel the need to pick it up and it didn't consume me but it was a fun journey that I'm glad I got to share with Cassie. Those with a travel bug and culinary palates will appreciate the places and food reviews. How food is described is like art and while I am a meat and potatoes girl myself, I do appreciate the descriptions of all the amazing food and all the amazing places they visited on their food tour.
Huge thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for sharing this book’s digital advanced review copy with me in exchange for an honest review.

I featured Eat Post Like in my June 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q31xhbo1tE, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog.

This book was a fun adventure about self-discovery and growing into yourself. I really enjoyed this and it made me want to travel the world and eat all of the food.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the E-ARC. While I did like the book overall there are some things in my opinion that I would of liked in order to be better. I really liked the concept of grief I just feel like it should of been dealt with more respect (IDK if that is the correct word) I feel like Cassie (MFC) seemed a little cold and or childish at times in regards to her relationship and the grief she was going thru. The build up was great the delivery felt a little rushed for me at the 90% but I will say I applaud the ending that really worked for me. I will say the description of the food was chefs kiss

Heat Factor: Very mild, bordering on closed door

Character Chemistry: It becomes a really good match as the book progresses

Plot: Cassie is a lawyer with a punishing schedule and no social life, whose very supportive boyfriend turns out to have been a renowned anonymous food critic—only she only finds out after his unexpected death, sending her into a tailspin as she assumes his identity to find herself.

Overall: Not smut, has a few rough edges—but overall a very enjoyable read.

This book opens with a really deliciously uncomfortable premise. Cassie and James seem to be a really ideal couple—they love to eat at their favorite New York restaurants, James is supportive of Cassie’s goal to become a partner in her law firm, and understands when she has to leave dates and commitments early. But when James dies in a car accident, Cassie discovers he’s been living a double life—complete with costumes and fake email accounts. He’s not cheating or a spy, which is good…he’s a renowned, anonymous restaurant critic. He secretly goes to restaurants, dines, and writes reviews on instagram with a massive following. Cassie is stuck with two overwhelming concepts simultaneously—that her boyfriend was living a rich, full, exciting life she knew nothing about and that her own life is stale and limp, and she’s not sure she wants it anymore.

So Cassie decides to learn how to be a restaurant critic and keep James’s account alive, essentially stealing his identity. Desperate for a break, she accepts an invitation to serve on a blind award committee, traveling around Europe and providing one last review for a whole bunch of restaurants who are finalists for a celebrated award in the restaurant industry. On the way, she finds her footing while feeling like an imposter, re-evaluates her life choices, and starts to pave a path forward…all while worrying about being exposed as an incompetent fraud.

The second I realized what kind of tension I was going to be sitting with in this book, I had to grit my teeth. I’m a huge baby when it comes to tension stemming from an intentional deception. I can’t stand it; even when I love the plot I find it really challenging to read. I also thought it was likely to be a pretty formulaic plot—woman is deceived, woman makes bad choice for grief-reasons, woman is exposed, woman’s life burns down, woman forges a new path and makes things right. But, remarkably, while that is kind of what happens it’s also…not what happens.

Initially, I would have given my left big toe just to have Cassie speak basic words—just TELL people the truth. It was obvious that the supporting characters weren’t the type to gatekeep or ice her out if she did tell. Plus, James’s best friend, David, who serves as her conscience during this entire escapade by messaging James’s old account demanding to know who is posting as him (obviously David was in on the deception, which can’t have felt good for Cassie), is incredibly unlikeable. I did not want to agree with him at all, but for the entire first half of the book I had to—it wasn’t very ethical for Cassie to assume James’s identity and judge those restaurants. She really didn’t know what she was doing, and her vote could make or break a chef’s life work. But then somewhere along the line, as Cassie grows in confidence and takes her work seriously, I started dreading David’s inevitable involvement in her story.

I loved that while the situation Cassie created didn’t change—she did absolutely do something less than “right”—the context made it work. There’s no governing body that decides who can or can’t be a restaurant critic. She had an opportunity and she took it; people (ahem, men) have done this since the dawn of time. And it would be completely different if Cassie just magically developed the ability to review restaurants while asleep in first class, but she doesn’t—she researches, reads, asks questions. She respects those who have come before her in the industry. And, it isn’t like she hasn’t been dining out with James for years—she has enjoyed well-crafted food for a long time (albeit as a passive guest).

So when, predictably, David throws a wrench in things, I was surprised by how “Team Cassie” I had become–—I, who does not like Bad Decision Tension, who was very clucky about Cassie’s decision making and who huffed and puffed every time Cassie ignored one of David’s irate, probing messages. I didn’t actually want her to apologize and make things right anymore, I wanted her to make him very sorry for being such a jerk even though I knew full well that she really needed to.

It was really interesting to note the strong points and the weak points of this book—the beginning few chapters read so differently than the rest of the book that it was almost like two different people wrote it. Our introduction to Cassie and James is clunky and awkward; there are too many physical descriptions crammed in and Cassie seems silly and kind of vapid while James feels like any other generically good-looking smut hero. Cassie’s a lawyer but she can’t remember anything? It doesn’t seem right. I couldn’t settle in. But the moment Cassie and James enter a restaurant, the entire thing comes into focus and the characters gel into who they are for the rest of the book. Food seems to be the author’s comfort zone, and it shows.

I will say that a little part of me wanted Cassie to find a fulfilling life path outside of being a restaurant critic, only because it seemed so much like what James wanted. There really weren’t enough indicators that Cassie was going to be fulfilled by that life long term in the opening of the book. For example, there are a few scenes—one where Cassie is in her office, eating sad salad and feeling bummed about missing out on food James is having elsewhere, and one where James is nudging her to hurry so they can get to the farmer’s market to get the best ingredients for the week, but the interest is solely his—where Cassie doesn’t care at all. Being able to review food isn’t the same as being fulfilled by reviewing it, and I’m not sure Cassie shows enough inclination early on in the book for me to feel like the last puzzle piece of her life is clicking into place at the close of the novel.

As you might have guessed…I’m rating this as smut adjacent. While there is a romance for Cassie in this book, the book itself is not shaped around that relationship, and I’m actually really okay with that. The book is far more about a seismic life shift than anything else, and the happily ever after is hinted at and not cemented. It was still a good read and I enjoyed it, though I think some heavier editing to get the beginning more gelled would have been a good idea, and I think the food descriptions took center stage at the expense of the plot on more than a few occasions, but honestly I liked them. It wasn’t hard to see where the author was going with things, and some of the resolutions were a bit rushed. Ultimately, it really just seemed like swiss cheese; some things were really well developed, and others were missing or not fully fleshed out. But…it made me think about imposter syndrome and enjoying life, and I felt intense cravings for good food, and I can’t say I didn’t like it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

Thank you to Avon Books for the review copy of Eat, Post, Love by Emily Arden.

This novel surprised me—it’s less of a breezy romance and more of an emotional journey about grief, self-discovery, and rediscovering passion through food and travel. While I didn’t completely connect with this one, I can see why it might resonate deeply with other readers.

The story follows Cassie as she navigates loss and tries to rebuild her life, with vivid backdrops and rich food descriptions. The author’s background in architecture shines through, transporting readers with a strong sense of place. That said, I struggled a bit with the writing—it felt overly dense and at times awkward or clunky, which made it hard to connect fully with the story or characters. Cassie herself felt a bit distant, and I didn’t quite click with her or the supporting cast.

The plot’s main conflict emerged later than expected, which left the pacing feeling uneven and the ending somewhat rushed. Still, I appreciated the introspective themes and the emotional depth that gave the story weight.

Recommended for readers who enjoy general fiction with light romantic threads, and especially for food and travel lovers looking for something more reflective than rom-com.

Eat Post Like by Emily Arden Wells is a heartwarming debut novel of self-discovery, resilience, and the transformative power of food.
Ok, I devoured this book.
This was a cute, well-paced read.
I was able to picture every aspect so perfectly and think this is going to make for a fantastic summer read.

Hear me out on this one, please.

If this was a book about a good blogger’s experience as she travels across Europe, I would rate it higher. The descriptions of the food and beverage pairings are detailed enough to leave me salivating. Reading this book was like binging Top Chef or another gourmet Food Network show. Foodies will love it.

But, and this is a big but, I expected the main storyline to be a grief journey as Cassie grapples with the unexpected death of her boyfriend. EAT POST LOVE was not that book and I was left hungry (see what I did there?) as a result.

The book reads like a travelogue with gorgeous descriptions of cities and architecture, as well as food. Armchair travelers will eat this up (I did it again), but I was unsatisfied and wanted more. After reading the author’s note and biography, I had a better understanding of her approach to the book. This may be a case where going in blind did not pan out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley, Avon Harper Voyager and Emily Arden Wells for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

During the beginning of the book I struggled with Cassie. Cassie seems like a very self absorbed person and honestly, not a great girlfriend. Their relationship seemed odd for 2yrs in.

After continuing to read, I understood her and their relationship a bit more. That being said, I struggled with her decision to take his place in secret and yet immediately tell a few people the secret.

I didn’t love the conflict and how that was resolved. It felt like there needed to be more to that situation beyond just a texted apology.

The story itself was unique. The writing was incredibly detailed and brought in all your senses. I’m not a big foodie person and have the palate of a child so a lot of this was lost on me but would probably be more of an experience for someone more into food.