Lauren coffeebooksandescape's Reviews > Love & Other Disasters

“Are you serious ?” she boomed, shoving London in the chest. It hurt a little. “You eat Brussels sprouts when you’re sad?”

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Chef’s Special is a cooking show for amateur chefs (basically MasterChef with more drama). Dahlia Woodson, whom self-taught all her cooking skills after her recent divorce, was accepted as a contestant, and as she was about to present her first dish to the judges, she fell flat on her face! London Parker, the first ever non-binary contestant, couldn’t stop thinking about the clumsy girl in front of them. This is the story of Dahlia and London’s unexpected friendship after an awkward first encounter!

I’m not sure where to start with this one. Can I just say that Anita Kelly really has done the non-binary population justice here. The use of third-person pronouns throughout the whole book just seemed completely natural, although hard to get used to as a reader at first. I think this book really helps people who may not understand, get clued up on what identifying as non-binary means.

This book was sweet and funny as anything. I was laughing out loud so hard at points throughout this book, especially the scene where London is milking a cow. They had some right surprises! There was a great mix of funny, sad and dramatic scenes, as well as smutty (if you don’t mind a bit of toe-sucking that is).

This was a really great read and I recommend to anyone who maybe doesn’t quite understand what non-binary means, or if you love a foodie-related story!