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emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia
Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Eating disorder, Grief
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It took me almost half the book to get fully invested in the romance, but I was flying through the pages by the end.
I picked this up for the enby rep, but ended up liking Dahlia’s storyline more. If you ask me, she was the better written character out of the two.
That’s not to say I disliked London, I just couldn’t quite grasp what their personality was supposed to be like. Their characterization felt inconsistent to me.
The cooking show setting was super fun & definitely my favourite part of the book. #TeamDahlia
I picked this up for the enby rep, but ended up liking Dahlia’s storyline more. If you ask me, she was the better written character out of the two.
That’s not to say I disliked London, I just couldn’t quite grasp what their personality was supposed to be like. Their characterization felt inconsistent to me.
The cooking show setting was super fun & definitely my favourite part of the book. #TeamDahlia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Transphobia, Grief
Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Blood, Dysphoria, Classism
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia
Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Transphobia, Alcohol
Minor: Mental illness, Dysphoria
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
reading a romance novel with a main character who has (almost) the same name as me is a dangerous game, but this book was so good that i think it actually improved my reading experience (<- cringe admission)
aside from a few small things (ex. a paragraph where london describes dahlia much in the same way a straight male mc in a movie would describe his MPDG love interest) i have almost no complaints. i loved reading about them swoon over each other and will def be recommending this!!
aside from a few small things (ex. a paragraph where london describes dahlia much in the same way a straight male mc in a movie would describe his MPDG love interest) i have almost no complaints. i loved reading about them swoon over each other and will def be recommending this!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Transphobia, Alcohol
Minor: Biphobia, Mental illness, Lesbophobia
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness
challenging
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Transphobia, Alcohol
Misgendering
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Transphobia, Classism
Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Medical content, Grief
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the eARC of this title!
So, I confess, for some reason I stalled on this title in the first few pages. I do not have a proper reason why, something about the first chapter gave me pause, and I sat on it almost until my time was up with ARC, but then I randomly opened it back up the other day and could barely put it down, I just devoured it! So, we'll just not consider that stall as a comment on the book, maybe I just needed to get some spec-fics into me before I read a romance again.
This was such a sweet and wonderful story! Dahlia and London were wonderful, multilayered characters, and their chemistry together was incredible! I could happily plenty of stories of their HEA. I liked how they were flawed, at times very damaged characters. I also like that they weren't stereotypical love story tropes...they both had their sweet sides and their dark sides, and they challenged one another. It was a fantastic dynamic!
They supporting cast, when we got to know them, was often wonderful, with the obvious exception to Lizzie, the closest we come to an external antagonist (but she's mostly background noise, really the main antagonist was principal characters own internal anxieties). The supporting characters we get to know the best were Barbara, the wonderful grandmother-like contestant, and Julie, London's twin sister. Many of the others were a little more vague...a name and an attribute...Cath, the cool lesbian; Jeffrey, the Gordon Ramsay wannabe, the judges...and then there were the contestants that were literally just a name. This is not a book that focuses much on other characters, it's very much about London and Dahlia only.
Anything else I would talk about would very much be a spoiler, I think, so I'm going to cut this off here by just saying it's a wonderful little romance about food, identity, and being true to yourself. 4.5 stars rounded up.
So, I confess, for some reason I stalled on this title in the first few pages. I do not have a proper reason why, something about the first chapter gave me pause, and I sat on it almost until my time was up with ARC, but then I randomly opened it back up the other day and could barely put it down, I just devoured it! So, we'll just not consider that stall as a comment on the book, maybe I just needed to get some spec-fics into me before I read a romance again.
This was such a sweet and wonderful story! Dahlia and London were wonderful, multilayered characters, and their chemistry together was incredible! I could happily plenty of stories of their HEA. I liked how they were flawed, at times very damaged characters. I also like that they weren't stereotypical love story tropes...they both had their sweet sides and their dark sides, and they challenged one another. It was a fantastic dynamic!
They supporting cast, when we got to know them, was often wonderful, with the obvious exception to Lizzie, the closest we come to an external antagonist (but she's mostly background noise, really the main antagonist was principal characters own internal anxieties). The supporting characters we get to know the best were Barbara, the wonderful grandmother-like contestant, and Julie, London's twin sister. Many of the others were a little more vague...a name and an attribute...Cath, the cool lesbian; Jeffrey, the Gordon Ramsay wannabe, the judges...and then there were the contestants that were literally just a name. This is not a book that focuses much on other characters, it's very much about London and Dahlia only.
Anything else I would talk about would very much be a spoiler, I think, so I'm going to cut this off here by just saying it's a wonderful little romance about food, identity, and being true to yourself. 4.5 stars rounded up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness