Netgalley adding audiobooks has been a gamechanger for me in terms of reading ARCs. So I thought I would start posting release day reviews of ARCs I have read in an attempt to bring them some attention!
Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.
Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane…
Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.
Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean…
Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.
Why does it feel as though I am constantly talking about The Romance Recipe!? Maybe it is because I am and I want to make everyone read it!
I am also constantly talking about foodie romances, and this is one of the best ones that I have read recently. While there is a cooking show element to the story, it primarily takes place inside a restaurant and we get to know the ins and outs of running a kitchen and owning a business. It was so compelling!
If you are a fan of mutual pining, this is the book for you! Amy is lusting after her head chef, Sophie, and she is unaware that Sophie has ended her engagement and is exploring her bisexuality and is also very attracted to Amy. They have some fun banter and they really get under one another’s skin, but they eventually get together and this book becomes super steamy!
They both have interesting family dynamics that they work through throughout the novel and Amy’s dad is truly awful. It was so frustrating to read but the way Sophie stands up for her is satisfying.
If you are looking for a fun, sapphic, and steamy romance to read this summer, I don’t think you can go wrong with The Romance Recipe!
From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
T. Kingfisher is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. Her range is unbelievable!
What Moves the Dead is one of the creepiest books I have ever listened to. It really gets under your skin, but somehow you can’t stop listening. That is such a credit to both the author and the narrator. I definitely recommend listening to the audiobook if you can.
I think fans of Mexican Gothic will love this story and will appreciate that it moves at a quicker pace. This was a good reminder of just how much I enjoy Gothic st, haunted house stories where the house itself is a character.
The descriptions are so well done you almost feel as though you are there and all you want to do is get away, which is what I look for when I read horror! For a story under 200 pages, it had a huge impact. I don’t want to tell you anything else because I think it is best enjoyed when you go into it knowing as little as possible.
I cannot wait to explore T. Kingfisher’s entire backlist!
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SCREECH WHAT MOVES THE DEAD IS OUT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! time go buy it!
Yes!!!!!! It’s a must!
I am awaiting my pre-order of What Moves The Dead! I am also hoping to read The Hollows in the next week or so!
The Romance Recipe sounds really cute! And while I love T. Kingfisher, I’m still not sure I can enjoy her horror pieces. I love the rest of her work, but even some of her fantasy gets a bit toward the creepy / body horror side of things, so I’m scared to see what her actual horror contains.
What Moves the Dead is the only horror I have read from her. It’s more eerie than anything else but it is about a sickness and fungi so it might not be something you’d like!
I think her horror is borderline what I can handle (without too many nightmares) but it’s so hard to tell! Oh well, I guess I still have plenty of her fantasy to catch up on still, so it’s not like I’ve run out of her work to read!