Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate (Contemporary fiction, Fiction, Romance, 9/10E, short 'n' sweet review)

4th June 2015, Corsair, 448 pages, Ebook, Review copy from NetGalley
 
Content: romance including an affair of sorts, humour, food, diva, 

Summary from Little, Brown
Two's company, but three is a recipe for disaster . . . 
 
Kelly Madigan seems to have it all: a fabulous boyfriend, a supportive - if eccentric - family, and a flourishing career as a cookbook ghostwriter. But after finding a letter from her recently-deceased mother, criticising her stable but unexciting life, Kelly knows she needs to make a change. When a mysterious new writing opportunity in London presents itself, she jumps at the chance to get away from it all.

Enter Natasha Spencer - Oscar-winning actress and health nut, not to mention a total nightmare. She's working on a new cookbook and has asked for Kelly's help. What Kelly didn't factor in was meeting Natasha's dishy MP husband, Hugh Ballantine.

Away from her family, friends, and the life she knows - will this fish out of water ever get back in the swim?


Nayu's thoughts
I realise most readers may be drawn to the romance side of this book, which for me isn't entirely right given that the guy is married (I'm not going there, ok?), I was intrigued about how the high life would be for Kelly, what would be different to her 'normal' life (a lot), what scrapes she'd get into (ever so many and some putting her in a difficult situation, how many laughs she would have (some, often others laughed at her antics), how many tight spots she'd find herself in (sort of coming under the scrapes category, some of her own making, others not). 

I enjoyed watching Kelly grow in confidence as she got used to her new veritably crazy employer, as she got to play with food which is her passion. It was clear to see how devoted she was to food, which I understood as I feel the same away about books. Give me a story like this one about food and well, it's great match! 

I learnt a lot about divas, their insane demands as well as what it's like being a ghostwriter. At the moment I've mixed views on ghostwriting, and have no idea if it's something I'll want to do when I eventually get published, but I fully respect those who do it. The end for Kelly was unexpected for both her and me. The reason this drops a grade is because of the way the romance side of the story happened – I didn't agree with it at all. However I will be checking out Dana's other books when I can! 

Find out more on Dana's website.

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