This book was such a fun one. Filled with humor and recipes in the chapters to show what is coming.

Maria is a celebrity chef, author, and has a TV show along with other endeavors. She is also the wife of chef Damien who disappeared twenty years before. She definitely is an interesting character.

Now she is wanting to share more about her life and looking to publish her story. She is very specific on what she wants and who she wants involved.

Get ready for a delicious and unique story. Witty, entertaining, and one to watch out for.

I give this book 3.5 stars. It started out a little slow, but got more interesting as it went on. Loved the dark themes and all the twists, but the ending was a little messy. Overall it was good.

3.5 stars for Dead Husband Cookbook, rounded up! It took me a little bit to get into it, but once Thea realizes she’s trapped at Maria’s house and we start getting the chapters I was hooked and could not get enough of this story.

The whole book I was thinking did she actually kill her husband? Did she really eat him? I didn’t know who or what to believe! I feel like the way it was put together where you read Maria’s POV, get a little more from side characters, and then hear the truth from Maria was really clever. I docked 1.5 stars because while I really did like this book, I won’t be telling anyone to rush out and buy it.

Story was engaging enough, but it all wrapped up too quickly in the end and I felt like I was missing something. The dialogue between Thea and Maria was great, but in the end it wrapped up too quickly and we missed out on so much story and reaction from everyone finding out the truth and coming to terms with how they will live with that truth.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

I unfortunately did end up DNFing this one around 12% in due to the writing style not connecting with me. I would rather DNF and pick it up at a a later time.

I liked the cover and the recipes. There was some humor mixed in that I appreciated as well. I just didn’t find myself wanting to pick this one back up at the moment. I do recommend this one though, as it’s got the fun premise, the humor, the cool cover, and you’re gonna want it on your shelf. I want it on mine.

Thank you for the eARC! I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

As a Food Network addict, I loved this.

It was a perfect mix of suspense, mystery and cooking. I loved the dual timeline and I’m a sucker for mixed media being incorporated. The twists were well-written, to the point where every couple of pages everything I thought I knew was wrong. The characters were well-developed and I felt like Maria was a real person. Overall, “The Dead Husband Cookbook” was fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for access to the e-ARC!

Listen, if there's cannibalism, I'm there. This was a fun ride with a bit of a mystery to it and I was sold when I saw this at C2E2 during Sourcebooks' panel on their upcoming titles! Love the recipes!

DV is a sort of refuge from book slumps and mediocre readings for me, especially if I want something to keep me hooked till the last page.
Because — and if you’ve already read anything by her you know it — something big is gonna happen at the end, some sort of plot twist that will make the journey even more terrific.

That said, this book has lots of other great qualities, especially the food aspects.
I've always considered myself someone who doesn't particularly like recipes and cooking in books because I don't have that great of imagination, and most of than not people put Italian names to dishes Italians wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. But not here, not under the supervision of DV.
The Italian spelling is perfect, the Italian recipes are perfect, and the cooking jokes are miserably hilarious.

I haven't got all that was promised, so I'm a little sad I didn't witness the gruesome glorification of cannibalism that I thought I’d have found, but I'm also not disappointed in the meaning of this at all — girl power, am I right?! 😏

Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Oh this was GOOD! The twists were twisting and I found myself nearly getting whiplash as the story proceeded on. As a mystery/thriller lover, this definitely itched a scratch I didn’t know I had!

An entertaining novel that really gets cooking (pun intended) in the second half. Clever premise and a real page turner after the set up. Enjoyed.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for this ARC!

This book was such a fun read, however predictable the end twist was. I’m always a sucker for a “down-on-their-luck journalist or editor getting a chance with a celebrity” story, but add in a murder mystery and I’m sat.

It took a while to get into it, with a lot of backstories to set up, but really picked up half way through! Once it got going, it was an absolute page-turner, so I wish it had a bit of a stronger start to really hook me in.

I loved the addition of the recipes and how they connected to the plot - will definitely have to try a few!

3.5/5 stars rounded down.

the book is charming and cheerfully fun throughout despite it being a fairly traditional thriller about what really happened. the recipes really break up the flow and allow a lot more breathing room than in other thrillers of this type, and i find it works well. the ending is kinda predictable, but eh. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC of this book!

The Dead Husband Cookbook is about Maria Capello and the mystery surrounding her husband's disappearance. This book kept me guessing up until the very end! The plot twists kept coming and I found myself trying to squeeze in just a few extra minutes of reading because I was hooked on this. Great read.

Once known only as the quiet wife of culinary icon Damien Capello, Maria stepped into stardom after Damien’s unexplained disappearance twenty years ago. Since then, she has become a beloved figure with bestselling cookbooks, a popular TV show, and a signature line of sauces. But she has never spoken about the events that launched her into fame, until now. When Maria announces she is finally writing her memoirs, the publishing world takes notice. But instead of accepting a lucrative deal from a major house, she chooses an obscure small press—under one condition: the book must be edited by Thea Woods. For Thea, a disillusioned editor and lifelong fan, it’s an unexpected invitation she can’t refuse, even if it means abandoning her resignation plans. As Thea travels to Maria’s secluded countryside estate, what begins as a dream project slowly unravels into a tense and frightening mystery.

This was a great mystery/thriller. It had wild twists and kept you on your toes the entire time. It was creepy in the best way. I really enjoyed this book.

A lot of people have a secret ingredient they add their recipes. Sometimes its so simple that even those with the most prestige tastebuds won't be able to figure it out. Today, Maria Capello is a chef and icon who has a dark past. 20 years after a tragic incident that involved the disappearce of her then famous chef husband Damien, Maria has finally decided to tell her story to the world. What the secret ingredient is to her most famous recipes along with that happened to her husband Damien all those years ago.

She enlists the help of Thea Woods to tell her story but Thea quickly discovers that not everything is what it seems. While anxious to get back to her husband and daughter, Thea is thrust to a secluded home with no internet and feels as if she is constantly being watched. Why is Maria going to such great lengths to seclude Thea and will she be honest about what happened that fateful night 20 years ago?

This was, dare I say, a delicious thriller. Before you give me the side eye, there are actual recipes in the book which was a welcome surprise. While I enjoyed the story, I have to say there wasn't much of a shock to the reveals. It's a pretty standard thriller in terms of plot but I loved the setup and the creativity Danielle added to this genre. I think if you are new to thrillers or even thinking of dipping your toes into a read thats light on the cannibalism, this would be a great book to start with. 3.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

3.5* It took me a little while to get into this one, and I wasn’t fully hooked until we started getting Maria’s chapters of her book. After that I couldn’t put it down because I wanted to figure out what was going on. The overall concept itself wasn’t anything that I’m not familiar with - a celebrity wants to write a tell-all memoir and chooses and very particular person to work on it for some mysterious reason. I did enjoy the recipes that broke up the sections because I always love when food and mysteries come together. However, one of the biggest twists was pretty underwhelming to me because I guessed it super early on. Some of the other twists were also kind of lackluster - I didn’t get that shock factor that I usually enjoy. The untrustworthy characters, speculations of cannibalism, and the recipes made it a fun book, but the mystery aspect wasn’t anything crazy for me.

Not quite as in your face horrific as Delicate Condition, but just as easy to devour. I apologize in advance for any and all food puns within this review. This was almost…diet cannibalistic horror mixed with a family saga of sorts mixed with a whodunnit…oh and there are receipes dabbled in there. I absolutely loved it and ate it up. One of the bigger twists was on my radar early on, but the journey there was incredibly entertaining. I love how we slowly got reveals from the memoir as well as in real time. The last 20 or so pages had me absolutely gobsmacked and I loved it. The pacing was a little wonky for me at times but overall it was overshadowed by how much fun I was having reading this story.

After reading Danielle Valentine's last novel, I was so eager to get my greedy little claws into this book- and I wasn't disappointed. Who doesn't appreciate an atmospheric book about a mysterious (famous) woman and her equally mysterious family and history?
So many questions with this one- why was Thea chosen-without even actually applying- to be the ghostwriter of Maria's book? Why the extreme secrecy surrounding the book, which Thea is given a chapter of at a time? Why was Damien's body never found? Was he still alive many years ago? And what about NOW? Interspersed with delicious-sounding recipes, this book was able to answer all my questions by the end, thankfully. I didn't see the reason behind Thea being chosen coming, at all, thankfully. That was a nice surprise.... so was the "secret ingredient". In the end, this book is really about how far one will go for family. . . . Because in the end, family is all that really matters, and should be protected at all costs. Right? Definitely going on my must-recommend list, and Valentine will remain on my must-read list, as well.

This thriller has all the recipes for success!

The Dead Husband Cookbook is the psychological thriller of 2025! This book follows Thea, a struggling editor, who lands the opportunity of a lifetime. Working on the memoir for America's home cooking sweetheart, Maria Capello. While working on this memoir, she discovers hidden family secrets while sequestered at the Capello family home. There are so many twists within this story, readers should be prepared to get whiplash. There are so many hidden motives and character developments that readers have a lot to look forward to. Each character adds another element to the overarching mystery - what happened to Damien Capello?

With mentioning characters, I have to mention how talented Danielle Valentine is at making me hate certain characters. After reading Delicate Condition as well, I had a sneaking suspicion this was going to be the case. When Valentine wants you to hate a character, you will hate them. This shows such a talent for the emotional impact of her writing style. I got so invested that I could not put this down. Between the story and the characters, it just built such a spectacular world. And because this all takes place at the Capello farm, the environment was contained enough that I visualized everything explicitly, adding another layer to the story. It was so realistic that the story just came to life in front of my eyes.

Not only is this book full of intrigue, mystery, and suspense, but the recipes within these pages are delightful, and I am excited to test them out. This was such a fun extra within this story. It gives an added flavor (pun intended) that I know readers are going to enjoy. Run, don't walk to get your copy of this book, it is sure to be the thriller of the year!

Perfect for fans of Frieda McFadden, Tarryn Fisher, and John Marrs.

After a major scandal, Thea is down on her luck in her editing career. She’s given the opportunity of a lifetime to change the trajectory of her career and work with the infamous Maria Capello on her memoir. Maria is famous for her cooking, recipes, and the suspicious death of her husband, Damien. There are lots of rumors about Maria’s involvement in the death including some whispers of cannibalism! 😬 If Thea can get the real scoop on Damien’s death and maybe even Maria’s secret ingredient she uses with every recipe her life will be forever changed. But Maria has some weird requests and demands and Thea begins to wonder if all the rumors surrounding Maria could be true.

This book was more than I could have hoped for! It had me guessing and guessing until the very end. There are 2 POVs and also excerpts from Maria’s memoir — which was unique. I really enjoyed reading this one and I look forward to checking out more by Danielle Valentine!

This ARC was provided by SOURCEBOOKS Landmark via NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC!!

I was honestly so impressed with this book. The addition of the recipes…so unique! This was a page turner for sure. I think the ending was slightly rushed, but overall, I found my jaw dropping and even parts towards the end where I felt a little spooked. Will for sure be recommending this to others!