First of all, thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark! And NetGalley for this arc!

Can we say that the cover of this book is STUNNING and draws you in? That is what made me immediately click on it and hit “request.” The book turned out to be very dark and atmospheric, with a laugh mixed in too.

I definitely did not expect that final twist!!

This book kept me going till the end. I didn't always see Maria as the bad one. I did think she was behind her husband disappearing. There was always the thought in the back of my mind if they were really making the food for the recipes with people that she had killed. I didn't see the son shooting him though. Each family does have their issues and ways to deal with it. The way that the book was put together was very clever. The names of the recipes had me giggling as well. If there was a follow up to this book I would defiantly read it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc. The cover to this book is awesome and made me want to read it. I highly recommend reading it and it was really good.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This book was very dark, which kept me hooked the entire way through. I loved all of the twists and the suspense was well written. Thea does not come across as very smart, which annoyed me but was probably necessary to advance the plot line. Overall, this is a very good thriller/horror that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a creepy read.

if you’ve ever watched a cooking show and thought, wow, i wonder what that secret ingredient is?—let me assure you, you don’t want to know.

Maria Capello is the kind of chef whose knives are just a little too sharp, whose family is just a little too secretive, and whose long-missing husband is just a little too...well, let’s just say "unaccounted for." enter Thea Woods, a writer who should probably have read a few more true crime novels before accepting a gig in Maria’s secluded estate—because the Capellos have been keeping their family recipes (and their family secrets) under lock and key for decades.

this book is a deliciously unsettling blend of mystery, gothic horror, and psychological suspense. the atmosphere is so thick with tension you could spread it on toast, and Maria herself? let’s just say i wouldn’t accept a dinner invitation from her anytime soon. The slow unraveling of the truth—both through Maria’s storytelling and Thea’s increasingly claustrophobic reality—left me absolutely hooked. the horror elements and the twist was INSANE. subtle but chilling, like the feeling you get when you realize there’s one too many chairs at the dinner table. and that final reveal? i’ll never look at a "signature dish" the same way again.

highly recommend if you like your thrillers dark, your protagonists in way over their heads, and your food metaphors served with a side of existential dread.

thank you SOURCEBOOKS Landmark!

I enjoyed the premise of this book and, amazingly, was surprised by the final twist. The characters were interesting and I really enjoyed the inclusion of the recipes throughout, to add to the story.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Thea is down on her luck and lands the job of editing a celebrity chef. The celebrity chef husband went missing 30 years ago and gossip is sure Maria did it. As Thea works with her she starts discovering secrets that could rock not only Maria's world but her own. I really enjoyed all the twists and how everything came together .
This is my first book by this author and won't be my last

Thea Woods was a book editor on the rise until a scandal (that shouldn’t have been a scandal, unless it was against the other side) derailed her career. Just as she’s about to be fired, celebrity chef Maria Capello decides that Thea is the only editor she’s willing to work with. Maria has a lot of additional conditions too, including making Thea visit Maria’s home, where she hands over one chapter at a time. As if this wasn’t odd enough, there have been rumors that Maria’s special ingredient is human meat.

This was an enjoyable book. I didn’t like that there were so many recipes, but at least they made this a quick read. Plus, it was good that I could never get comfortable with Maria because that helped keep me off balance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

This is the 3rd book that I have read by Danielle Valentine and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed the characters, the plot and just every aspect of this book.

One husband, well done.

When infamous chef, restauranter, and television personality Maria Capello's husband died, the media circus was intense…and quick to cast the blame. Whispers claimed Maria murdered her husband to build her culinary empire on his bones, and that there was an all-too-grisly reason his body was never recovered. Yet for the past few decades, the Capello family maintained their stoney silence—until now.

Thea Woods has no idea why she was chosen to work with Maria on her sure-to-be-infamous memoir, but she doesn't question her luck. Spirited away to the Capello's rustic upstate farm, she's soon embroiled in the mystery—and cut off from the rest of the world. It should be the job of a lifetime, but something's not quite right with the close-knit clan, and Damien Capello isn't the only one to go mysteriously missing over the years. As the true story of Maria's past unfolds and the stench of rot hidden behind the kind coastal grandmother veneer rises, Thea finds herself trapped...and desperately afraid.

Because there are reasons why Damien's body was never found...and why, in over thirty years, Maria Capello has never revealed the secret ingredient in her most famous recipe.

A suspenseful read with some surprising twists throughout. Maria’s character is an intriguing hybrid of Miranda Priestly and Giada De Laurentis, with a sinister demeanor that leaves a sense of foreboding in her wake. I enjoyed the contrast between the chapters from her memoir and Thea’s perspective, though I found Thea to be the less compelling of the two main characters. The author weaves in some vivid imagery like screaming pigs and skull soup to infuse the story with a popcorn thriller vibe, but there is a layer of sordid family drama and deception that retains a plot amidst the shocks. Overall, 3-stars for a fast-moving plot and creative format. I think the phrase ‘murder, cannibalism, and meatballs’ will echo in my mind like a macabre chant for a few days at least.

This was such a fun thriller! I couldn’t put down this book - it was very very juicy (pun intended!)!

This made for an interesting read. I loved the chapters by Maria which unfold from Thea’s editing, along with the recipes interspersed in the book. Stay away from the meatballs!

The secret ingredient: cannibalism or just the right amount of seasoning? This world's Rachel Ray, Maria, hires Thea to edit her memoir and set the record straight against the rumors of her murdering her husband and the truth of their cooking empire. We get the first look into the secret chapters of her life as Thea edits from the remote farm where all the magic of Maria's home cooking was born. But, the longer Thea spends at the farm, the more out of the ordinary Maria's life appears to be.

I loved getting fed the chapters of Maria's book alongside Thea. This gives the reader the opportunity to try to and decipher the truth alongside our FMC. Maria's recipes scattered throughout were also a bonus that added to the immersion of the story. I kept imagining what it would be like to shadow Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart and unveil their secrets.

Overall a fun and twisty read, but I may skip the family meatballs for the foreseeable future.