Susan Napier's family once lived on the success of
the high-end restaurants founded by her late grandfather. But bad luck and
worse management has brought the business to the edge of financial ruin. Now
it's up to Susan to save the last remaining restaurant: Elliot's, the flagship
in Edinburgh.
But what awaits Susan in the charming city of Auld
Reekie is more than she bargained for. Chris Baker, her grandfather's former
protégé--and her ex-boyfriend--is also heading to the Scottish capital. After
finding fame in New York as a chef and judge of a popular TV cooking
competition, Chris is returning to his native Scotland to open his own
restaurant. Although the storms have cleared after their intense and rocky
breakup, Susan and Chris are re-drawn into each other's orbit--and their
simmering attraction inevitably boils over.
As Chris's restaurant opens to great acclaim and
Susan tries to haul Elliot's back from the brink, the future brims with new
promise. But darkness looms as they find themselves in the crosshairs of a
gossip blogger eager for a juicy story--and willing to do anything to get it.
Can Susan and Chris reclaim their lost love, or will the tangled past ruin
their last hope for happiness?
I was lucky enough
to receive an advanced reading copy (ARC) of Brianna Moore's new novel, All
Stirred Up, thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press. All thoughts and opinions are
my own.
With any ARC, I
always go through three tests before fully going through the story itself:
- Does the cover appeal? Fully
yes. I'm really loving the new style of romance novel covers where you're
not actually seeing a real person, but a caricature style (unfortunately
as you can probably tell I'm not an art person, so excuse the ignorance
for what the actual style is here). Either way, loved the cover!
- Does the cover match up to
the story? I'm a little mixed on this one. It did have key elements of the
story, but I'll confess that the cover made me think of this story going
in a different direction than it did.
- Did the formatting work?
Unfortunately there were some choppy errors here which made the book a
little disjointed to read at times. Paragraphs were sometimes in the wrong
place, words dropped down mid-sentence, words with no spaces. Having said
that, once this is cleared up, the book flow will definitely improve.
Onto the story
itself! Reading the description, I knew that we were heading into a romance
story with a cooking element. But, I didn't find that this actually matched,
and it actually felt more like a cooking/family-relationship story with a
romance element. Don't get me wrong, this novel is very well-written, detailed,
and intriguing. We're given a lot of information about the cooking scene in
Edinburgh, the operation of a kitchen, and I'll admit it has given me an
incentive to start cooking again.
We're given some
insight into Susan's family and the legacy of her family's restaurant, combined
with some of the disjointed family relationships. I found myself somewhat
confused at times which character was actually which as there were so many
different characters to keep track off. I would definitely say that Susan was
our main character, but I wouldn't actually say the same of her love interest -
Chris. We see a lot more of Susan's interactions with her family and her
emotions than we see of Chris, and again, that's not a bad thing, it just
doesn't fit the usual romance novel that I read.
I do feel that this
was more of a general fiction novel with romance elements, which again, is
well-written, just not fully falling into the romance genre. For most of the
book, our lead characters are dating another person, leading to some confusion
about who was actually going to end up together. The romance between Susan and
Chris was discussed at various stages, but I didn't feel with enough conviction
for me to want the two to end up together. Personally I wasn't that invested in
Chris and hoping he'd get back together with Susan, but I was invested in Susan
and getting her restaurant sorted!
Overall, I think
this was a well-written novel, with many fascinating details about the cooking
world and the Edinburgh scene, and one that I did thoroughly enjoy. I would say
that this was more of a general fiction novel with a romance element, but nevertheless,
a light-hearted, well written book.
Rating: 3/5
This book is scheduled for release 8th September, 2020.
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