Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

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The first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favorite cooking show falls for their clumsy competitor in this delicious romantic comedy debut “that is both fantastically fun and crack your heart wide open vulnerable.” (Rosie Danan, author of The Roommate)

Recently divorced and on the verge of bankruptcy, Dahlia Woodson is ready to reinvent herself on the popular reality competition show Chef’s Special. Too bad the first memorable move she makes is falling flat on her face, sending fish tacos flying—not quite the fresh start she was hoping for. Still, she's focused on winning, until she meets someone she might want a future with more than she needs the prize money.

After announcing their pronouns on national television, London Parker has enough on their mind without worrying about the klutzy competitor stationed in front of them. They’re there to prove the trolls—including a fellow contestant and their dad—wrong, and falling in love was never part of the plan.

As London and Dahlia get closer, reality starts to fall away. Goodbye, guilt about divorce, anxiety about uncertain futures, and stress from transphobia. Hello, hilarious shenanigans on set, wedding crashing, and spontaneous dips into the Pacific. But as the finale draws near, Dahlia and London’s steamy relationship starts to feel the heat both in and outside the kitchen—and they must figure out if they have the right ingredients for a happily ever after.

Source: NetGalley; advance audio copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

I'll describe Love & Other Disasters in one word: PRECIOUS. It's a memorable experience when a book starts off so well and carries that momentum through to the end. I was wowed from the get go and couldn't help but smile every time I listened to it.

Dahlia and London meet on their first day of taping the cooking show, Chef's Special. They're both wracked by nerves that come from being on live tv, the jitters from competition and also all the personal stuff that lingers in the back of their minds. Each has come to the cooking show with a clear agenda - win the competition and show the naysayers that they can make a success of themselves. Dahlia has the kind of personality that easily makes friends. Everyone is instantly at ease with her. She's one of my favorite characters because she's forthright and speaks with absolute sincerity which I find to be an admirable trait. London is equally straightforward and has learned over the years that they don't want to deal with bull. Coming on to Chef's Special took guts because they're announcing to the world that they're nonbinary while back at home, their father has yet to accept them. Dahlia somehow endears herself to London and the instant connection and acceptance surprises them.

Listening to London's journey educated me about how one can question their sexuality and struggle to find a space that accommodates their sense of self. That London was able to do that and have so much support behind them was heartwarming. That it isn't always sunshine, roses and acceptance, as demonstrated by her strained relationship with her father, is heartbreaking. Dahlia's journey has also taken her in a different direction. Married at a young age, happy until she realized that she no longer wanted the same things as her husband, she made the bold move to divorce and then to pick up the pieces and remake her life. Both of them have much to prove to themselves and anyone else who has ever doubted them.

While Dahlia and London's relationship takes off with the cooking show as a backdrop, what happens away from the show is equally interesting. I lived for the little details they'd pick up about each other, the inevitable closeness that brought them together as friends and then even more. I loved some of the high jinx they'd get into like when they crashed a wedding, and I was floored by their raw, vulnerable moments like when Dahlia admitted her insecurities aloud after getting drunk at said wedding. That moment seriously got me in the gut and also broke my heart. I felt the weight of that and it's so incredible to come across a writer's words that so uniquely and perfectly captures what feels like a universal sentiment. 

I was pleased to see the nonbinary, queer and trans rep, and I was glad to read a story that wrote from those perspectives. London does have to deal with a fellow contestant's hostility towards their presence, but they don't give that person much energy, and Kelly doesn't make that a central issue in the story, either. Instead she devotes time to London's relationship with their father. London gives energy to the relationships that matter, but will set boundaries and is prepared to walk away from a toxic situation if it risks their well-being. 

I don't know how else to express what a gem Love & Other Disasters is. It took me a long while to even write this review because I didn't feel I could effectively say how much I liked this book. I strongly recommend listening to the audiobook, if you can. The narrator, Lindsey Dorcus, made Dahlia and London's personalities come to life so vividly. It's a wonderful thing to feel a book has enriched and expanded your perspective of life and I can say that Love & Other Disasters has definitely done that for me!

~ Bel

Southern Bombshell (North Carolina Highlands #5) by Jessica Peterson

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The Wedding Planner’s Rulebook:
Keep the bride happy.
Keep the wedding party out of trouble.
Never let anyone know you’ve been in love with the groom for years.

I lived by these rules. Until Nate Kingsley.

The Capulets and Montagues have nothing on the Beauregards and Kingsleys. Our families have feuded for centuries, and Nate was always forbidden—which made fooling around with him that much more delicious. But then I fell for him, and he fell off the face of the earth, ghosting me without so much as a goodbye.

Fast-forward two years: as an expert in romance, I’m a wedding planner to the rich and famous. I never expected Nate to show up at my office, least of all with a shiny new fiancée on his arm. She’s got money to burn, and she wants me to plan the most extravagant wedding of my career.

It’s a make-or-break moment for my business. I convince myself I can do Nate’s wedding and keep my feelings for him in check, even if he does look good.

Really, really good.

But when the secrets we buried years ago come to light, what kept us apart suddenly binds us together. Even if my heart belongs to Nate, and his belongs to me, he belongs to someone else. And that’s a rule we absolutely cannot break.

Source: ARC provided in exchange for an honest review

Now that all those pesky older brothers are out of the way, it's Milly's time to shine! She's always just been kind of on the periphery, quietly doing her own thing while her brothers have been getting all the attention. So no one would know that Milly was quietly in love with Nate Kingsley, quietly had a steamy fling with him, and then quietly got her heart broken into a million pieces when Nate broke up with her. Milly quietly nursed her broken heart and threw herself into her work as a wedding planner, putting Nate firmly in the rear view mirror. That is until he walks into her office with his fiancée, ready to hire her as their wedding planner. Awkward doesn't even cut it. Milly, who's meticulously cultivated a poised, organized professional persona over the years is slightly thrown off her game. However, she'll set aside her personal feelings and do the job.

Nate still feels bad about walking out on Milly two years ago. Worse because he never revealed the reason why. He'll always regret how he did it but not why he did it. But they've since moved on and by all accounts, they both seem happy. Sure, having her plan his wedding to Reece will be weird as all get out but they can both be adults about this. 

It's apparent that though Reece and Nate love each other, they're missing the sizzling chemistry that Nate and Milly had. And as I worried about the potential of the story moving towards a cheating storyline, Nate and Reece simply drift apart leaving Milly and Nate to pick up from where they left off, like none of the preceding two years ever happened. They still need to address the circumstances of their breakup but they can put that off while they ... reconnect.

Nate and Milly create a lot of heat and intensity which is great when you're expecting that kind of drama in a romance. I liked that they're both a few years older, also wiser as they've had time to grow up. While Milly's been thriving at work with her borthers at the family's resort, Nate's been doing the same albeit without the supportive atmosphere that Milly's privileged to have. Nate's dad is a gambler and a walking nightmare. Everything he touches turns to trash and Nate does what he can to keep him away from the business aspect of their whiskey distillery. He also gets protective of Milly, not wanting her to be in the cross hairs of his ongoing fight with his father. Milly has enough to deal with what with her brothers' overprotectiveness and her own troubles with finding joy in her work again - something we all experience at some point or other - and it takes rekindling things with Nate again and honest conversations with him to reconsider what brings her joy. I liked this second chance love story. It's obvious these two were made for each other and I loved their moments together. Nate's pretty much the whole package and Milly is pretty terrific herself. 

I do have to address a couple of details. One of them is during Nate's point of view when he's recalling his family dynamics and he mentions that his mother passed away, and in parentheses it's mentioned from what disease she died of. Honestly, it was jarring and caught me off guard and was incredibly triggering. It took me out of the moment and I was upset to come across it, even more so when that specific detail ended up not having any bearing on the rest of the story. If it had nothing to do with the plotline as a whole then I don't understand why it had to be included. Then this "feud" between the Beauregards and the Kingsleys. The blurb compares it to Romeo and Juliet levels of rivalry but there wasn't enough in there to give said feud any weight or presence in the story. All I could get was Nate's dad's jealousy of the Beauregards' success, and that the feud started decades back, and I wish there'd been something more tangible and recent perhaps to make the feud seem insurmountable, therefore making Nate and Milly's reunion scandalous. 

I liked Southern Bombshell even if those couple of details bothered me. There's a lovely epilogue at the end from another family member we haven't heard from before and it's actually a fitting end to the series on the Beauregards, filled with all the happily ever afters for everyone in this big, loud, protective, unconditional loving family.

~ Bel

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Edit 1/27/21  -- CW for mention of brain cancer (Nate's mom); also mention of CTE (Beauregards' dad who was a NFL player; Beau has also been diagnosed with it and this was first mentioned in Southern Southern Seducer book 1 of the series); gambling problems (Nate's dad, and Nate's brother but his brother has recovered)

Her Big City Neighbor (Cider House Sisters #1) by Jackie Lau

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When small-town engineer Amy Sharpe inherits a house in Toronto, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to start over and go back to school. Away from the family that takes her for granted, away from the ex who expected so much and gave little in return.

The new Amy enjoys wandering around the city and frequenting bubble tea shops, German beer halls, dim sum restaurants, and coffee bars serving Japanese pastries. She has a roommate with the same name as her favorite fictional character, and a group of friends who meet at a cider bar every couple of weeks.

The new Amy is also in lust with her brooding, tattooed next-door neighbor, Victor Choi, who is far from friendly but looks really hot cutting the grass without a shirt. Too bad the grass doesn’t grow faster.

As she starts telling him about her daily adventures—and as a little kissing in the garden becomes a regular activity—Amy begins to feel more than lust. But she fears she’s falling into her old patterns in relationships and refuses to let herself be underappreciated again.

Is Victor really more than a hot fling? And what’s he hiding behind that grumpy exterior?

Source: borrowed; audiobook from Hoopla

It's been one of my goals to get to a Jackie Lau book and let's just say that I now understand why she posts so much about food!

I picked Her Big City Neighbor because I wanted something light-ish and also adventure-ish, and its blurb fit into what I was looking for. I loved Amy's wide-eyed, open to all possibilities attitude and I found it uplifting, something else I realized I needed as I listened along. Moving from a small town to having her own place in the big city is a bit of a culture shock in some ways but her excitement at exploring her new neighborhood and trying new things just made me smile constantly. Having a hot neighbor who's not bad to look at while he's out mowing the lawn is a definite bonus. I was amused by Amy's attempt to befriend Victor who only ever responded to her non-stop cheery commentary with grunts and monosyllables. Her good nature eventually wears him down and before you know it he's sharing beer with her in the backyard. Chatting turns into kissing which turns into ....

So here's what I most loved about the story - Amy's liberation. While she lived at home she was the reliable daughter and aunt who never said 'no' and did everything for everyone. No one in her family could understand or support her decision to move away and go back to school. She was so taken for granted and it was frankly annoying. Living on Toronto and having these new experiences showed her what she had been missing and more importantly, what she had every right to do. She also left behind a an ex boyfriend who didn't bring much to their relationship. In fully enjoying her single life and making new friends, she garnered the strength to set aside any lingering guilt to declare out loud exactly what she wanted and deserved whether it was family or a burgeoning relationship with Victor. For his part, Victor was learning to come out of his self-imposed bubble after suffering a loss that hit him hard. Numbness was his cure to life carrying on. Amy's enthusiasm and energy simply renewed his interest in things around him and gave him the courage to feel again.

The second thing I loved about the story - the food! Oh.My.God. I learned a hard lesson in the first chapter and that I should never read or listen to a Jackie Lau book on an empty stomach. The story is filled with serious food porn which made me ravenous half the time! There is serious joy in someone excitedly trying new things and gaining such pleasure from those experiences. I kind of wished that I was the one trying some of these new foods for the first time again. From pastries to bubble tea to dim sum ... it was all so delicious and I pretty much lived vicariously through Amy. 

I thought the audiobook narration by Emily Woo Zeller was well done. She was animated and captured all of the characters nicely. I especially liked how she captured Victor's mom. It was perfect and so very familiar to me. Her Big City Neighbor was a fun escape for me and I know for the next time I listen to a Jackie Lau book to make sure I have some delicious snacks on hand.

~ Bel

Star Mother by Charlie N. Holmberg

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A woman’s heart proves as infinite as the night sky in a breathtaking fantasy by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

When a star dies, a new one must be born.

The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden, who considers herself an outsider, sacrifices herself to secure her family’s honor and take control of her legacy. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, however, it’s not nine months later—it’s seven hundred years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants.

Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious—and desperate—godling. Ristriel is incorporeal, a fugitive, a trickster, and the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins.

Together, pursued across the Earth and trespassing the heavens, Ceris and Ristriel are on a path to illuminate the mysteries that bind them and discover the secrets of the celestial world. 

Source: gifted paperback

I've had the pleasure of reading my first 5-star novel of 2022. I hadn't heard of Star Mother until I saw my good friend's brief review of it on Goodreads which immediately caught my interest.  She loved it so much that she gifted me a copy and what I discovered was an exceptional story unlike anything I've read recently. 

Ceris is a young woman on the cusp of leaving home to be wed when the Sun God sends a signal to her village that he is looking for a new young woman to birth a star.  Two young women are up for the honor but it's Ceris who volunteers.  Realizing her betrothed is in love with one of the possible contenders for, and wanting to secure a legacy for her family that would make them proud, she gives up her mortal life.  She defies all expectations when she survives the birth of her star and  gets the Sun God to agree to let her return home.  Only it's 700 years later and Ceris fis now alone in a world that has moved on from her.  She resolves to find her descendants so she can make a home amongst them and on her journey encounters the godling, Ristriel.  Ristriel is running away from something and is cagey about himself. They make a pact to protect each other until they reach their destinations.

Star Mother is a truly unique experience in that as a reader, I had to leave my preconceptions at the door and allow the story to flow.  A majority of it feels abstract, like the idea of the Sun God needing a mate to birth a star, and then wrapping my head around the concept of how that unfolds.  Then there's a big section where Ceris is finding her way to another city and she befriends Ristriel.  Talk about abstract! Not only is he ethereal, there's also so much about him that's mysterious and jolting.  He carries a sadness within him that's so tangible, and even had one of the most heartbreaking lines in the novel.  In a way, parts of this story were challenging for me.  While the world-building is impressive it's also describing the obscure.  Midway through something just clicked for me and I couldn't set it down.  A lot of that had to do with Ceris who's a formidable personality.  She's astute, circumspect, and loyal.  Definitely not someone to be underestimated as evidenced when she questions the Sun God and the gods' laws.  The romance that eventually grows between her and Ristriel is one borne out of a shared understanding of their immeasurable losses.  Finally they are honestly loved for themselves. I was so entranced and moved by them.

When I finished Star Mother I was left with a deeply contented feeling. I couldn't believe how much I ended up loving it.  It challenged my own senses at first before I happily surrendered to the story.  I see that a sequel will be coming out in March, this time about the Sun God and I know I'll be getting my hands on that real fast. In the meantime,  for a quietly satisfying and mystical read, that feels like the creation of a new mythology, I wholeheartedly recommend reading Star Mother.

~ Bel