Hi Everyone
I hope y'all are having a good day! I've been catching up on some newer book releases recently and my latest read, Love & Other Disasters, was too good not to share about. This wasn't originally a book I had planned on reviewing at all, but I couldn't not say something about it after finishing it. I'm an absolute sucker for queer romances and this book was no exception.
This was one of the book I preordered last year, and have been anticipating it ever since. As much as I always do it, anticipating books can make me nervous because I always have such high expectations. This book exceeded all my expectations I had for it.
Both London and Dahlia were such loveable mc’s, and I liked how it had both characters pov’s so we got to understand both characters equally. In romances like this one only having one character's pov always makes me feel like i'm missing a part of the story, so I was glad we got to see both characters thoughts. They also each got a side-plot about a complicated/difficult family member, which stayed separate from the romance and both characters worked through it individually which I thought was good and the two weren’t just glued at the hip the entire time. The family troubles could’ve gone more in-depth for sure but for the romcom that it was I didn’t mind that it didn’t take over the story.
I also enjoyed the balance there was between the characters being on the cooking show and spending time together outside of it, that made it feel like the show wasn’t taking over the book. I thought the cooking show really helped solidify London and Dahlia’s friendship and the free time they spent together was when their friendship changed to more. I won't go into detail to keep from spoiling anything, but the beach scene halfway through the book is a scene that still live in my head rent-free days after reading it. Definitely one of the pivotal moments of the book and overall just an adorable scene.
Of course I can’t not talk about the rep in the book. London coming out as nonbinary day one of the show was incredibly brave and I loved that he wanted to be as genuine as possible right from the start. What I loved just as much was that Dahlia comes out as queer (not on the show) but never puts a specific label on her sexuality. There’s so many labels when it comes to queer characters in books it was nice to see someone who’s just queer without specification. The rep honestly just made me so incredibly happy.
Lastly I have to mention the romance, I felt like the pacing worked really well and the friends to lovers arc made for a genuine connection between the two and the sweetest moments together. I do also think seeing their friendship grow first made the romance even sweeter when it switched to that over friendship. There were a couple steamy scenes, which I thought played in nicely and didn’t take over the book. And, without spoiling anything, I thought the ending couldn’t have been any better. London and Dahlia both deserve all the best ❤️
Emily Marie