Way back when I was a food blogger, I’d occasionally get the opportunity to do a sponsored post, and… to be honest, I wasn’t very good at them. As much as I love the idea of being a recipe developer, in actuality I’m really bad at it (even with all my cooking experience, I still prefer to work off a recipe rather than try to improvise something). And I’m also really, really bad at promoting literally anything - my own stuff, other people’s stuff… you get the picture.
But is it tacky to admit that I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who has ARCs (advance reader copies of books) just randomly show up on her doorstep? It almost happened a few years ago, when I was doing book reviews on YouTube, but then I got pregnant with our now toddler and first trimester kicked my ass, so that all went down the drain. (My apologies Erewhon Books, I still owe you a review!) And I don’t feel so icky reviewing books I’ve gotten for free, because half of what I read these days comes from the library, so I’m already mostly reviewing books I didn’t have to pay for anyways.
I’m not quite there yet (ahem, hint hint publishers, my doorstep is ready for alllll the books heh heh heh) but now that I’m actually being (more or less) consistent with this newsletter I’ve realized that I now have a perfect excuse to start requesting books on NetGalley! (Cue evil laughter.) So while you’re not likely to see any sponsored posts on the cooking side of things anytime soon, I’m going to start reviewing upcoming books that I’ve gotten for free through NetGalley (but I’ll always add a note so you know which ones were free review copies!)
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What I’m reading
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
You know I’m here for alllll the nerdy rom-coms, so I’m obviously destined to be a huge fan of Ali Hazelwood’s books. But why, oh why did it take me so long to get here? I blame the fact that I didn’t even realize I loved rom-coms until this year (and also the extremely long waitlists for all her books at my library.)
The Love Hypothesis is about Olive, a third-year Ph.D. candidate at Stanford who’s trying to find a new lab in which to continue her ground-breaking pancreatic cancer research. Along the way, she is pushed into some great (but terrifying) new opportunities, has to deal with the sexism that’s rampant in academia, and accidentally ends up in a fake relationship with the resident hotshot professor who’s universally known to be an ass (but of course is sweet and loyal beneath it all).
Of the two Ali Hazelwood books I read this week, Check & Mate ended up being my favorite, but I still enjoyed The Love Hypothesis quite a bit.
Fair Play by Eve Rodsky
The premise of this book is great - have a more equitable relationship! Get your partner to take on more of the mental (and actual) load of running a household so it’s not all on you! And if you follow all the steps, I have no doubt it works, but my goodness it all feels like such a complicated and overwhelming system. Granted, I’m one of the lucky ones whose husband takes on more than the average dude (I have not washed a single load of laundry in over a decade! Yes I know how lucky I am.), so while we have plenty of room for improvement, it’s not nearly so drastic as most couples. That said, I did really like how the list of 100 household tasks (which is available on her website) really clarifies everything that needs to get done in a family, and the book provides some good tips about how to broach the topic of your partner taking on more of the duties around the house.
Tested by Temptation (Tracking Trouble, Book 5) by Lindsay Buroker
This is the last book in Lindsay Buroker’s Tracking Trouble series. Normally I’m a huge fan of her books, but with this series I found myself just the tiniest bit bored. Maybe it’s because the three main men are practically carbon copies of each other (although I did appreciate Starblade’s extreme geeking out about all things engineering) or because Arwen just isn’t as interesting a character as Matti or Val (I found Arwen to be the most personally relatable, but let’s be honest - I wouldn’t be all that interesting to read about either), but by book 5 I was ready for the end of the series. Despite all that I did enjoy the book, and it wrapped up the story nicely.
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
If I could binge every single one of Ali Hazelwood’s books I absolutely would, but unfortunately most of them have a huge waitlist at my library, so I’m forced to consume them at a more reasonable pace. (Woe is me.)
This one pulls you into the world of competitive chess. Mallory has sworn off chess ever since her chess-player father abandoned his family, and is now just trying to support her siblings and her sick mother (never realized I needed a trigger warning for characters with RA, but oof - that one got me). But her best friend lures her back in with a charity tournament, in which she accidentally beats Nolan, the reigning world champion. What ensues is a fun rivals-to-lovers romance - she accepts the opportunity of a lifetime and reluctantly rediscovers her love of chess.
My only (very minor) complaint is that there was a scene I had been looking forward to reading, but instead the author faded to black; I’m sure there were good reasons for this choice, but I found it a little disappointing. Even so, I still very much enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading more from her!
Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay - available on May 14th, 2024
In this sweet romantic comedy, a librarian named Emily accepts a job offer to be an assistant to her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, and work part-time in a bookshop, and moves to a small town in Ireland to escape her overbearing, narcissistic mother. Siobhan’s son is the owner of the bookshop, and resents everything about Emily being there - he hates change, and he’s worried for his mother… and, of course, he’s extremely good looking (this is a rom-com, after all.)
If you took Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, transplanted it to an adorable small town in Ireland, and added a generous dash of Travis Baldree’s Bookshops and Bonedust, you’d end up with something like Love at First Book. You’ll fall in love with the people of Finn’s Hollow, find hope in Siobhan’s journey back to writing, and encounter heartbreak and betrayal as Emily finds family and belonging in Ireland. And you’re really, really going to want to try Brigid’s baking (I love that there’s a recipe for her Irish Whiskey Shortbread included at the end of the book!) Overall I quite enjoyed the story, and I’m already adding more of Jenn McKinlay’s books to my TBR!
This review copy of Love at First Book was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
What we’re eating
Pastries from Chaupain Bakery. This bakery has a booth at our farmer’s market, and in the last month or so we’ve become regulars because everything they make is just so good. We’re especially fans of their cinnamon cream cheese pastry, their croissants, and their quiche, but there’s still lots we haven’t tried yet!
Pizza. Oddly enough, we’re not much of a pizza family. But every once in a while we get a craving, so this was our once-a-year pizza dinner. Yes, pineapple belongs on pizza.
Jok from Sweet Rice. My husband is still getting over a cold (he was the last of us to get sick, and the longest), so we got him some comfort food. This Thai-style rice porridge is fantastic, and super comforting. (I’ve also discovered I can’t do congee for breakfast because my blood sugar will crash hard a few hours later, but that’s neither here nor there.) Their mango sticky rice is also a must, and if you’re there on a Friday (we’re very sad they don’t serve this every day of the week), get their Hainan chicken!
Crab cake benedict. I think I found this recipe in some air fryer cookbook, I don’t remember where. But pretty much you layer English muffins, kale sautéed with minced garlic, tartar sauce (I mixed mayo with relish and lemon juice and called it a day), crab cakes (you can make your own but ours were store-bought), and eggs (the recipe says poached but I just went with fried). It’s filling and delicious, and makes an excellent breakfast or lunch (if you don’t mind a little garlic breath).
Hasselback potatoes. This was my contribution to the family Easter meal. It was surprisingly easy to make, thanks to using the food processor to slice my potatoes (my husband got me a fancy new food processor last year and I am in love). Making the recipe as written, I ended up not having enough potatoes to fill a 8x8” baking dish; next time, I’d triple the potatoes, double the cream sauce, and make it in a 9x13” baking dish - it was tasty, but there wasn’t nearly enough for everybody! The one time I try to reel in my tendency to make way too much food…
Carrot cake cupcakes. I made these on a whim and they got rave reviews. By themselves, I wasn’t a huge fan of the muffins - in searching for a muffin recipe, rather than a cupcake recipe, I had hoped for something not too sweet, but these were more like bakery muffins in that they were little sugar bombs. But when I topped it with a cream cheese frosting (I used this recipe and doubled the cream cheese, but left everything else the same), and then rolled the frosting in chopped pecans, it transformed into something that was not too sweet, and extremely craveable. I’ll definitely be making them again.
That’s all for this week! What have you been eating and reading lately? Reply to this email or let me know in the comments - I’m always looking for food inspiration and books to add to my TBR!
Aaaaand now I'm hungry, thanks. That all looks so yummy.
Funny, but your first book, our daughter just finished reading, lol. She found a fun idea to make a book cover inspired quilt block for every book she reads (she has some catching up to do) and that's her first block.
I confess to a tendancy to thumbing my nose at recipes after the first time (sometimes even the first time). I wing it a lot. My apologies to all the recipes I mangle, lol.