#for butter or worse

[userfayne]

BOOKS READ IN JULY 2022

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

~ books read in 2022 ~

#15: For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa

Nina Lyon stared into her dressing room’s vanity mirror.

[brittanybwrites]

I don’t normally read about food in books, but it’s enemies to lovers but with chefs and food, soooo

[bookcoversonly]

Title: For Butter or Worse | Author: Erin La Rosa | Publisher: HQN (2022)

[daisyherondxle]

Uh, I have a good feeling about this book.

[haleyfury]

For Butter or Worse Review

For Butter or Worse Review

Summary (from the publisher): All chef Nina Lyon wants is to make a name for herself in the culinary world and inspire young women everywhere to do the same. For too long, she’s been held back and underestimated by the male-dominated sphere of professional kitchens, and she’s had enough. Now, as co-host of the competitive reality TV series The Next Cooking Champ!, she finally has a real shot at…

[betterbooksandthings]

For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa

For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa is sweet, savory, spicy, and everything in-between. This culinary rom-com has a classic enemies-to-lovers cooking competition with a bit of a twist. Our love interests, Nina Lyon and Leo O’Donnell are celebrity chiefs and co-judges on the reality cooking show, and they cannot stand each other. Typically, Nina and Leo hide their snarky remarks and eye rolls behind the final cut making their animosity look like playful banter, but during a live taping of the show, Leo lets a sexist nickname slip and Nina quits altogether. When he goes to ask her why she left the show, the paparazzi snap a pic of them together and dating rumors circulate. Now it looks like fake dating each other could save both of their businesses. They would do just about anything to save the restaurants they built, including pretending to like each other. But when their fake dinner dates help them cook up real feelings, will they be able to navigate their past to create a delicious future together

Listen, I was a fan of the book. Culinary romances have been a favorite of mine recently and this book was no exception. The cooking show premise creates a foundation of real animosity. The book gave room to the sexist audience's responses to the strict female judge on reality competition shows without forgiving the man who didn’t notice how bad it was during taping. Impressively, the book makes you like a guy who recognizes he was a part of a bad period in his love interest’s life. 

I also think it helps both Nina and Leo have home lives and restaurants that balanced them out. They could reasonably talk mistakes through with the people around them. The reader also has a chance to see the people who they are fighting for when they fight to keep their restaurants open.

Leo and Nina are both fun and funny protagonists (I argue these are two different things). They both have things they do for fun that made me love them even more. Then, Nina and Leo’s banter was a chief’s kiss. When you have the enemies to lovers trope in a book, the transition from “I hate you banter” to “I love you banter but it sounds like I still dislike you banter” is excellent. The emotional scenes they have where they end up understanding and respecting each other as people help. Leo reveals his struggles with anxiety, even if he doesn’t mention the extent of his current mental health. Nina lets Leo know she is struggling to keep her restaurant open, and she still misses her late mother. In all these little, heartfelt conversations, it is easy to see why they fall for each other. I completely fell with them.

If you want to get on a delicious bandwagon, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa on July 26, 2022. I would like to thank Harlequin for providing my reviewers copy of For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa in exchange for my honest review.

[potatobugz]

scenario in which butters runs away from home & disguises himself as professor chaos. grins

[butteredfrogs]

i wish my mum would stop having a go at me about not having a job, like my dude i have applied for so many jobs, she literally said herself companies are being picky right now. like i’ve applied for so many and i just keep getting rejected over and over again and her having a go at me does not help at all

[butters-flower-mom]

Kyle's not even one of my favorite characters but the horrible way the general fandom mischaracterizes him, either trying to villainize him to make Cartman look better or trying to make him into a walking stereotype, is making me feel really protective over him.

[sappy-detective]

LMAO THIS MAKES ME LAUGHE SO MUCH

[welcum-to-sp]

apparently it’s a controversial opinion but… butters’ character arc in season 20 makes sense in the context of the show and butters is not ooc (character development is a thing, guys)

[museofthepyre]

your art really fits your appearance... are you the real life sydney sargent? i'd be freaking out if you were sydney sargent ahh

Well, yes.

I could explain my multi-year spanning selfhood/ ID situation in depth… buuuut we would be here for hours. Short answer for all intents and purposes is: yes.

[hystericfae]

I actually kinda like the accidental pregnancy trope until the baby is born. Then it's all south from there. But if there's an accidental pregnancy and then a miscarriage >>>>

[le-agent-egg]

why is there only four body types in danganronpa

1. twink

2. ripped

3. fat (see also: perv)

4. woman

like i know this shit came out in 2010 but cmon 😭😭 why are all the fat characters such creeps??? why don’t the athletic girls have abs??? why is every boy either a literal stick or a guy with a 6 pack??? uuuughhhhhhhhhh

[taleweaver-ramblings]

If I ever get my hands on a time machine, the first thing I am going to do is find whichever individuals are responsible for the misconceptions that you have to be a journalist to be a good writer and that every writer likes journalism. And then I am going to shake those people so hard they each break at least one tooth. And I am not going to apologize for it.