Book Review: Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate

Read: December 4-6        Verdict: 3.25 Stars

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Kelly has always thought her life was pretty perfect. She has a gorgeous and dedicated doctor boyfriend and a great career as a cookbook ghostwriter but things come crashing down when Kelly's mom suddenly passes away and leave her a letter telling her to shake things up and live life with no regrets. The next day, Kelly finds herself taking a job offer for Natasha Spencer, a very famous actress, and moving across the water to London for a whole year.

I enjoyed this book to an extent. The writing was good and detailed and I really liked Kelly's experimentation with all of the recipes. I'm not someone who enjoys cooking but I still enjoyed reading about the different ingredients used and how they changed the taste of the food. It would have been nice for Kelly to see a bit more of London while she was there and ingratiate herself into a group of friends a bit more. Normally with these kinds of novels, the protagonist finds herself a small group of friends she bonds with and can chat to and have some adventures with. Kelly was very isolated, and in a toxic environment, and I think this made my mood a darken a little bit while reading it. It would have been nice for Olga and Kelly to bond more, I felt like a nice relationship kept being hinted at and it just never happened.

And Natasha, oh my goodness. It's been a while since I hated a character so much and since a character has irritated me that much. I wanted to reach through the pages and throttle her. She, and Poppy, reminded me a tiny bit of Miranda Priestly, especially because Poppy acted like Miranda's assistant Emily, both in her attitude towards her job and towards Kelly.

I knocked off a few points on the ratings (this was originally going to be 3.5-4 stars) because of the relationship between Kelly and Hugh. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. I always suspected it wasn't going to end up great and I hate that, even though he wasn't necessarily a bad guy, he managed to get away with everything, I would have liked some kind of epilogue showing that Kelly did get her book deal for definite but maybe there will be a sequel. Overall, I was impressed with the writing style and strength and despite some of my problems, I enjoyed the story.