Scan barcode
witandsin's review against another edition
4.0
My review cross-posted from Wit and Sin: http://witandsin.blogspot.com/2013/06/review-skinny-bitch-in-love-by-kim.html
Clementine Cooper is a vegan chef whose career is on the rise until a bitter rival strikes her down with a pat of butter. Blackballed from the cooking community she loves, Clem decides to start the Skinny Bitch Cooking School so she can pay the rent and save up to open Clementine’s No Crap Café. It’s a brilliant plan…until her dream location is snapped up by Zach Jeffries, a restaurateur with a fondness for steer heads and steakhouses. Clem decides to give Zach a piece of her mind, but finds herself attracted to the sexy carnivore instead. What’s a good vegan to do?
Skinny Bitch in Love is a fast and fun read that’s perfect for summer! Kim Barnouin, coauthor of the Skinny Bitch lifestyle and cookbooks, brings her love for veganism and acerbic commentary to the world of fiction, and I was entertained by the result.
Clem is a bold heroine with lots of talent and little patience. She’s not as likeable as her lively roommate, Sara, and there are a number of times she screws up and pushes Zach away with her attitude. All the same, there’s something about Clem that draws you in. Zach, in turn, is a guy with a (mostly) relaxed attitude who’s able to go toe-to-toe with Clem — not an easy feat. The two of them bicker their way into love, but even so I wouldn’t call Skinny Bitch in Love a romance. The story is really more about Clem’s growth as a chef, and though sometimes things come surprisingly easy to Clem, the road to her various successes as a chef and businesswoman makes for an entertaining journey.
A cast of spirited secondary characters (most of whom are Clem’s cheer squad) bring humor to Skinny Bitch in Love. The supporting cast also provides Ms. Barnouin with a way to seamlessly integrate information about veganism into the story. If you’ve read the original Skinny Bitch you know that Ms. Barnouin is passionate about being vegan. I bring this up because (1) Skinny Bitch in Love is very much a love letter to veganism and (2) this might bother some readers. As a vegetarian leaning toward veganism myself, I enjoyed Clem’s commentary on the subject. However, if you’ve never read any of the Skinny Bitch books you might be in for a surprise.
Skinny Bitch in Love is a sassy story that’s a delight to read. Fans of the Skinny Bitch series should snap this one up!
Clementine Cooper is a vegan chef whose career is on the rise until a bitter rival strikes her down with a pat of butter. Blackballed from the cooking community she loves, Clem decides to start the Skinny Bitch Cooking School so she can pay the rent and save up to open Clementine’s No Crap Café. It’s a brilliant plan…until her dream location is snapped up by Zach Jeffries, a restaurateur with a fondness for steer heads and steakhouses. Clem decides to give Zach a piece of her mind, but finds herself attracted to the sexy carnivore instead. What’s a good vegan to do?
Skinny Bitch in Love is a fast and fun read that’s perfect for summer! Kim Barnouin, coauthor of the Skinny Bitch lifestyle and cookbooks, brings her love for veganism and acerbic commentary to the world of fiction, and I was entertained by the result.
Clem is a bold heroine with lots of talent and little patience. She’s not as likeable as her lively roommate, Sara, and there are a number of times she screws up and pushes Zach away with her attitude. All the same, there’s something about Clem that draws you in. Zach, in turn, is a guy with a (mostly) relaxed attitude who’s able to go toe-to-toe with Clem — not an easy feat. The two of them bicker their way into love, but even so I wouldn’t call Skinny Bitch in Love a romance. The story is really more about Clem’s growth as a chef, and though sometimes things come surprisingly easy to Clem, the road to her various successes as a chef and businesswoman makes for an entertaining journey.
A cast of spirited secondary characters (most of whom are Clem’s cheer squad) bring humor to Skinny Bitch in Love. The supporting cast also provides Ms. Barnouin with a way to seamlessly integrate information about veganism into the story. If you’ve read the original Skinny Bitch you know that Ms. Barnouin is passionate about being vegan. I bring this up because (1) Skinny Bitch in Love is very much a love letter to veganism and (2) this might bother some readers. As a vegetarian leaning toward veganism myself, I enjoyed Clem’s commentary on the subject. However, if you’ve never read any of the Skinny Bitch books you might be in for a surprise.
Skinny Bitch in Love is a sassy story that’s a delight to read. Fans of the Skinny Bitch series should snap this one up!
jayvall's review
2.0
Skinny Bitch in Love is the debut novel of Kim Barnouin, co-author of the Skinny Bitch cookbooks. After the main character, Clementine, finds herself fired after a rival in the restaurant she works at sabotages her vegan dish by adding butter, she decides that what she really wants to do is open a vegan cafe. In order to fund such an endeavor, she begins offering an assortment of vegan services including cooking classes, private chef gigs, and providing bakeries with vegan items. She also has a run in a with a wealthy restaurateur who she finds both intriguing (as he’s gorgeous) and frustrating (as he’s a carnivore).
It’s not clear the degree to which Skinny Bitch in Love is a roman a clef, and on some levels, it probably doesn’t matter whether it is or it isn’t, but if it was, it would at least help to explain why this book is short on plot. Life doesn’t evolve neatly in story format, and I get that, however, I would expect a novel to have more of a plot than just “I need to save money so that I can buy a restaurant of my own.” Also, this is kind of billed as a romance, and there’s not much romance in it at all. Yes, Clem becomes involved with another chef but by the end of the book I was not at all convinced that they were in love, much less “happy for now.” I got the sense that ten minutes after the book ended, they would have broken up again due to someone’s insensitive comment. What I did enjoy about the book is how much Barnouin clearly loves her vegan food and how tasty the food descriptions sounded. While vegan cheese still doesn’t sound appealing to me, some of the other dishes described in the book sounded really good and I would have liked if there had been some recipes included at the end.
All in all, Skinny Bitch in Love is an easy book to read, not without its flaws, but still entertaining nonetheless.
It’s not clear the degree to which Skinny Bitch in Love is a roman a clef, and on some levels, it probably doesn’t matter whether it is or it isn’t, but if it was, it would at least help to explain why this book is short on plot. Life doesn’t evolve neatly in story format, and I get that, however, I would expect a novel to have more of a plot than just “I need to save money so that I can buy a restaurant of my own.” Also, this is kind of billed as a romance, and there’s not much romance in it at all. Yes, Clem becomes involved with another chef but by the end of the book I was not at all convinced that they were in love, much less “happy for now.” I got the sense that ten minutes after the book ended, they would have broken up again due to someone’s insensitive comment. What I did enjoy about the book is how much Barnouin clearly loves her vegan food and how tasty the food descriptions sounded. While vegan cheese still doesn’t sound appealing to me, some of the other dishes described in the book sounded really good and I would have liked if there had been some recipes included at the end.
All in all, Skinny Bitch in Love is an easy book to read, not without its flaws, but still entertaining nonetheless.
bookishlyruby's review
4.0
Before I start my review, let me say that I am not a vegan/vegetarian. I don't judge those of you who are, but I am not a vegan. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
The first thing that drew me to this book was, quite honestly, the cover. You know I like cartoonish covers, so it's not that surprising. I thought it was a fun cover and after reading the blurb I was convinced I had to read the book. Plus, you all know just how much I love chick lit.
I loved Clem. She was like a breath of fresh air. She's a very strong woman, she doesn't beat around the bush, you won't see her trying to sugarcoat things and she's one of those women that want to do things on their own, no matter how difficult the road to get there is. I also liked how ballsy she is. Yup, she's my kind of gal :-)
Zack is...well, he's hot. Infuriating sometimes, but hot. I think the reason he was attracted to Clem was because she was so different than what he was used to. I could actually feel that at times he was frustrated by her unwillingness to accept help, but he eventually came to terms with it.
By the way, when you read this, make sure you have some tasty noms nearby. There were these scenes with cooking and...man, did they sound tasty! Besides the food and the romance, you get some funny scenes too.
I am wondering if this book will turn into a series. I would so read it if it did. So go ahead and read Skinny Bitch in Love if you're in the mood for some fun reading. You'll love it :)
The first thing that drew me to this book was, quite honestly, the cover. You know I like cartoonish covers, so it's not that surprising. I thought it was a fun cover and after reading the blurb I was convinced I had to read the book. Plus, you all know just how much I love chick lit.
I loved Clem. She was like a breath of fresh air. She's a very strong woman, she doesn't beat around the bush, you won't see her trying to sugarcoat things and she's one of those women that want to do things on their own, no matter how difficult the road to get there is. I also liked how ballsy she is. Yup, she's my kind of gal :-)
Zack is...well, he's hot. Infuriating sometimes, but hot. I think the reason he was attracted to Clem was because she was so different than what he was used to. I could actually feel that at times he was frustrated by her unwillingness to accept help, but he eventually came to terms with it.
By the way, when you read this, make sure you have some tasty noms nearby. There were these scenes with cooking and...man, did they sound tasty! Besides the food and the romance, you get some funny scenes too.
I am wondering if this book will turn into a series. I would so read it if it did. So go ahead and read Skinny Bitch in Love if you're in the mood for some fun reading. You'll love it :)
jennjuniper's review
3.0
I'll admit it up front: I've never tried out the Skinny Bitch cookbooks. But I've never been once to resist novels with delicious cooking in them and so was very excited to read this! It was everything I wanted: fun, romantic and full of sumptuous descriptions of diving-sounding food. Clementine is a brilliant heroine: smart, determined and talented, but with enough of a vulnerability to remain likable, while she has a supporting cast full of fabulous characters, including her smart-mouthed roommate, a handsome fellow vegan chef, and the mysterious billionaire Clementine can't help but be attracted to. While of course the plot isn't exactly a roller-coaster ride, it did go in a few directions I didn't expect, and left me feeling very satisfied. A delightfully frothy, feelgood read, perfect for summer (if it ever gets here!)
thefictionaddictionblog's review
4.0
"Skinny Bitch in Love" by Kim Barnouin, is frothy chick-lit with every requirement. Heroine Clementine has a suitably bizarre family, a gay best friend and a fat best friend. Her fat best friend is actually an aspiring actress, hoping to play the Fat Friend in movies.
Read the rest on Yahoo!
Read the rest on Yahoo!
More...