Review: Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

Posted March 29, 2024 by Lola in Contemporary, Review, Romance / 2 Comments

Love & Other Disasters
by Anita Kelly

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: nb/f

Blurb:
The first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favourite cooking show falls for their clumsy competitor in this delicious romantic comedy debut!

Every recipe needs a little chemistry . . .

Recently divorced Dahlia Woodson is ready to reinvent herself and she’s found the perfect opportunity: the hit cooking competition show Chef’s Special. Falling flat on her face on the first day is admittedly not the best start, but Dahlia isn’t going to let it mess up her focus.

London Parker is also there to win. As the first non-binary contestant on Chef’s Special, they have a lot to prove, and they have enough on their mind without being distracted by the pretty contestant who crashed into them on Day One and hasn’t really stopped talking since.

After filming a few episodes, Dahlia and London grow closer and things get a little steamy as they spend more time together outside of the show.

Suddenly winning isn’t as important as either of them thought, but when their relationship starts to feel the heat both in and out of the kitchen, Dahlia and London realise that love doesn’t always follow a recipe.

My Review

Having read Something Wild & Wonderful last year I was even more excited to read Love & other Disasters. When I was in the mood for a contemporary romance I decided to pick this one up. I really enjoyed Love & Other Disasters. It’s a romance story with a cooking show element as the backdrop. It grabbed my attention from the first chapter and I really enjoyed the whole book. It has a wonderful romance and the cooking theme is fun too.

The book follows the point of views of Dahlia and London and I really liked them both. Dahlia is queer and fresh out of a divorce and the only relationship she has ever had. She’s this ray of sunshine and energy and I just loved reading about her. I like sunshine type character and even more when seen from the perspective of another character. I liked how she’s figuring out what she wants from life and how cooking helped her.

Then there is London who is non-binary and the first non-binary contestant on the show, they are out on the show and want to inspire teens and plans to starts her own queer non-profit if she wins. My sibling is non-binary and I really liked reading about a non-binary character, it was interesting seeing how they experienced gender and their struggles. I just really liked reading about both of these characters and together they were even better.

I really liked reading about these two and their romance. The first part has a bit of a grumpy-sunshine vibe with London coming across as grumpy while Dahlia is this ray of sunshine. I really enjoyed their first meetings and seeing them interact. And then seeing them grow closer and spending more time together was so fun. And then when things heat up and they grow even closer and fall in love. The only part I didn’t like was the inevitable drama, I could see it coming, but still wasn’t quite prepared for when it happened. It just made me sad and I struggled a bit to get through those few chapters. Luckily the ending was really good and I liked the epilogue.

The food contest is more of a backdrop to their romance than on the forefront. Which I thought worked well here. There’s still plenty of mentions of food and descriptions of some of the show episodes and what they make, while other of the show’s episodes are more glossed over with fewer details. This really is a romance first and foremost. I still really enjoyed the food theme of the book and how important food and cooking was to both characters. I did find it a bit hard to keep track of who the other contestant were as not all of them get a lot screen time.

To summarize: This was a lovely romance set against the back drop of a cooking contest. I really liked both dahlia and London. Dahlia is just this ray of sunshine and full of energy, she’s figuring out what she wants from life after divorcing the only person she ever dated. London is non-binary and I liked reading about that. It was interesting to see how they experienced being non-binary and sad to see some of their struggles. I loved reading about these two and seeing them grow closer and fall in love. The first part has a bit of a grumpy-sunshine vibe which I enjoyed as that’s one of my favorite tropes. I wasn’t a fan of the drama later in the book as those scenes always make me sad and I struggle to get through the few chapters till everything gets resolved. The ending and epilogue were great and I liked how things ended. I look forward to reading more by this author!