BOOK REVIEW: Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish

At least once a month, I will try to post a book review.  Sometimes it will be a book I read years ago, other times I will have just turned the last page and feel like writing a review. 

My reviews will always be about a book I rated with either 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads and/or Amazon.  There are soooo many books available for readers to choose from—and to choose to buy—that I want to save you readers both selection time and hard-earned money.  I want to give you “the best bang for your buck.”  So, even though there are some 3-star books that are still “good,” I’ll only post reviews about the “better” and “best” books I’ve read.

Goodreads’ rating system:                  Amazon’s rating system:

3 stars = I liked it                                3 stars = It’s okay

4 stars = I really liked it                      4 stars = I like it

5 stars = It was amazing                      5 stars = I love it

I selected Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner for this month’s book review because I loved Turner’s debut novel The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck, and because I received a free Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of this book from the Revell Reads Blogger Program in exchange for an honest book review.

4 STARS ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

• 

4 STARS!

for Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner

Back Cover Book Blurb

Celebrity chef Maxwell Cavanagh is known for many things: his multiple Michelin stars, his top-rated Culinary Channel show To the Max, and most of all his horrible temper. Hadley Beckett, host of the Culinary Channel’s other top-rated show, At Home with Hadley, is beloved for her Southern charm and for making her viewers feel like family.

When Max experiences a very public temper tantrum, he’s sent packing to get his life in order. When he returns, career in shambles, his only chance to get back on TV and in the public’s good graces is to work alongside Hadley.

As these polar-opposite celeb chefs begin to peel away the layers of public persona and reputation, they will not only discover the key ingredients for getting along, but also learn the secret recipe for unexpected forgiveness . . . and maybe even love. In the meantime, hide the knives.

Fan-favorite Bethany Turner serves up a heaping helping of humor and romance with this thoroughly modern story centered on cooking, enemies, and second chances.

My Thoughts

Author Bethany Turner serves up another heaping helping of laugh-out-loud romantic comedy in her third novel, Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish. Every time I found something funny, I’d highlight it in orange on my Kindle Fire. Over one-third of the text in this book is now … quite peachy!

If you like watching a variety of cooking shows, then you’ll love reading about two very different celebrity chefs—sweet, Southern Belle Hadley and egotistical New Yorker Max—as they appear on TV together to compete against a group of chefs; to perform on their own cooking programs; and to share the limelight on a third “tell all” kind of production.

There’s “proof in the pudding” that opposites do attract, and author Turner does a fantastic job of writing scenes that show the progression of a hate to love kind of relationship. I like that the pace of this progression is slow and steady, compared to many other rom-coms that have the main characters saying “I love you” after only knowing one another for a mere week or two. Turner’s entertaining prose show how flames of anger and annoyance can make a pot boil over, or the warmth of sweet actions and words can make a heart melt like butter. And we’re talking about lots, and lots of butter – Hadley is a cook from Nashville, and we Southerners love our butter!

Romance in this book is portrayed as super cute in some places, then more “serious” in others. Turner shows that part of liking someone usually stems from getting to see the whole picture of a person; not only learning all about the “fun” side of a person, but also learning about, and either relating to and / or sympathizing to a person’s “darker” side. The topics of alcoholism, parental issues, and self-worth come into play in this area.

Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner is a scrumptious story that you’ll devour in one sitting, and that will leave you stuffed with joy.