“You have excellent taste in wine and terrible taste in men, are you happy?”
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy meter: 4.5 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses panic attacks, relationships with a narcissist, and parent death.
“For Butter or Worse” follows Nina Lyon, a renowned, award-winning chef, and Leo O’Donnell, a restauranteur who’s made his family restaurant into a famous franchise. They have been cohosts (and nemesis) on a cooking reality TV show for 3 years, but things quickly go south when management decides to have their final episode for season 3 filmed live, and Nina ends up quitting mid-episode. To make matters worse, when Leo goes to Nina’s restaurant to apologize, they’re photographed in a compromising position, sparking up dating rumors…which actually end up helping both their restaurants? Seeing the effect their “relationship” has on their respective businesses, their publicist decides it’d be best if the fake date, at least for a while—they’ll just have to not kill each other while doing so.
Um, can I just say I can’t believe this is Erin La Rosa’s debut romance novel? The story she’s told is well written and complex without being pretentious. Both main and side characters were lovely but imperfect. I loved Nina, I loved Leo, I loved their family and friends, I loved and lived vicariously through their story. I found out I apparently love cooking themed romance novels? I can’t get enough of it. I just finished reading it and want to grab it all over again.
And on the spicy side… I’ll just say it didn’t disappoint. The last few novels I had read were sort of lacking on that front, but “For Butter or Worse” definitely delivered. Also, I found it hilarious how in the acknowledgements, Erin La Rosa thanks (and apologizes to) her cousin, Mela Lee, who’s an audiobook narrator and who narrated the audiobook version of this book—with sex scenes and all.
I’ll be recommending this book for the rest of the year. It’s that good and entertaining, there is not a single dull moment. It’s relatively fast-paced and the different points of view really built on the pressure between Nina and Leo.
If you enjoy fake dating romances, close proximity tropes, books with “famous” characters, or books that involve the culinary world, then “For Butter or Worse” is definitely for you. Also, just in general, if you’re looking for a steamy, generous read… then grab this novel as soon as you can.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: July 26, 2022
“Believe it or not, I’ve dealt with bigger assholes than you.”
“Give me a chance. I’ll try harder.”
andrea's galley 