Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The Romance Recipe

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett

20 reviews

finnthehuman217's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It took me a year and a half to finish this book. I wish there were more books that were written about the cooking life! I loved Chef’s kiss and Love & other disasters and I thought it would be just as fun but it was kind of a boring start so I put it off. The amount of books where a queer person has daddy issues and decides to push people away because of those issues is so real!

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seventhswan's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

July’s read for book group. I liked the premise of this - I enjoy food, restaurants and cooking shows - but the execution left a lot to be desired. I am not a fan of the miscommunication trope, personally, and its liberal use really put me off Amy as a character. I liked Sophie a lot and wanted to protect her from Amy, not see them get together. We get it! She has trauma! But it felt gratuitous and like it was perpetuating the idea that people with trauma in their past are doomed to have volatile, emotionally unhealthy relationships.

I also thought the writing itself wasn’t great. There was a lot of repetition and not much consistency, and I struggled to differentiate between the PoVs at times. The sex scenes also had some elements that made little sense.

I have to give this book some credit for feeling fairly true to life - it was believable, even if I didn’t want to believe. But a romance novel should fill me with warm fuzzy feelings, and all I got from this was irritation.

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what_kel_reads's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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alexalily's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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amfiallo's review against another edition

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3.5

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wardenred's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rule number one of fucking your business partner is not to catch feelings.

I think my one problem with this book is that it never seemed to be able to decide what kind of story it wanted to be, so to speak. There are plenty of common romcom tropes and conventions here. At the same time, there are a lot of heavier, more serious themes, such as Sophie figuring out her bisexuality and dealing with the aftermath of her break-up, and even more prominently so, Amy's continued grief for her mother and her attempts to reconnect with her Dad. Now, it's fully possible to balance romcom tropes and heavier topics, but I don't feel like the author reached the right balance here. For me, the book constantly swung back and forth between a couple of very different moods. One moment, I'd be reading a fairly lighthearted melodrama; then I would turn the page and find myself plunged into something far more emotionally bruising.

For what it's worth, I feel like the author did an excellent job portraying all those heavy feelings and experiences. I'd love to read some less romcommy books from her, perhaps some angsty, hurt/comfort-ish contemporary romance with a real focus on the hard feelings. I think she'd be amazing at that! But this book was marketed as a romcom and tried to actually be a romcom half the time, so. Yeah.

I did very much like both leads and their relationship. Even through all of the misunderstandings, they have the kind of connection where they both lift each other up. Amy helps Sophie restore her confidence. Sophie helps Amy learn to accept help. It's so clear how they make each other's lives better and more complete, and I really, really shipped them. I guess Amy's arc resonated with me more—I have a soft spot for characters who have no idea how to deal with feelings, so they decide they're Just Not Empathetic and spring into action instead of making connections while feeling entirely too much under the surface. But Sophie was also a really interesting character with a full personality and a logical arc. I loved her relationship with her mother: rocky yet accepting. And her relationship with cooking, too—how she felt like now that it was her job, not just her passion, she wasn't good enough, and how she rekindled the "passion" part over the course of the story.

My other favorite parts involved Amy's relationship with her twin and all the moments focused on the restaurant: all the day-to-day in the kitchen, the glimpses of the staff's interactions, and of course all the tv show parts. I wish there was more focus on all of that, tbh!

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