I didn’t “warm” to this cooking-themed romance as much as I’d hoped to. The romance felt much too easy and there wasn’t a lot of internal growth for each character, aside from making some career decisions.
I did enjoy the setting of the novel, which was a food-vendor conference in Chicago. Ellie is helping her parents with their Armenian-American food company, when she meets Vanya, who is working with her family’s Armenian-American food line. The two hit it off immediately, until they learn their parents hate each other. Both families’ livelihoods are on the line when they enter a reality show cooking competition at the conference. The warring families make great TV coverage as the producers manipulate events to pit them against each other. At the same time, Ellie is struggling with a project that will make or break her career in tech marketing, and she has to balance helping her family and staying on top of her demanding job.
I liked that Ellie had to struggle with how to work with her parents, and how to balance her career ambitions and her love of her family and their business (Natalie Cana’s A Proposal They Can’t Refuse was similar). Another aspect I found interesting was Ellie’s ambivalence about San Francisco, her home, as she’s exploring Chicago. This isn’t a big part of the story, just something I connected with, as I felt similar ambivalence when I lived in SF, and moved to DC (SF a city you’re expected to LOVE, but what if it doesn’t love you back?).
Unfortunately, I felt like the connection between the two main characters was largely superficial. Ellie is dishonest about a lot of things – she lies to her parents, she lies to Vanya about how she feels about her family’s food, and she doesn’t even mention the boyfriend who broke up with her days ago. It never feels like they really get to know each other. Vanya is lovely but didn’t feel fully developed. This might be me, though, as I prefer much angstier romances, where the characters are dealing with serious emotional issues (a good example is the Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake). Although, considering that the book begins with Ellie completely in love with a boyfriend who doesn’t even want to tell people they’re dating, it seemed like she had some issues that needed to be resolved.
One thing I noticed as I was comparing this book to Voskuni’s first book, Sorry Bro, is that she writes fairly unlikeable main characters. Most romances try to balance the flaws and strengths of each main character, but in both of Voskuni’s books, it’s the narrator who has the flaws (including dishonesty, poor decision-making, lack of self-confidence). That’s not a pro or con, just an interesting difference.
This book will appeal to those who are looking for diverse romances, especially readers who are Armenian-American. It will also appeal to those looking for romances about cooking or about reality show competitions, and I know that’s a huge trend right now. I enjoyed those elements of the book, but felt like too much time was spent on the cooking competition and the parents’ rivalry, at the expense of building a deep relationship between the two main characters. It’s got a beautiful cover and a much better title than Voskuni’s first novel.
Note: I received an advance review copy of this novel from NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. It published May 7, 2024.
