Sometimes I'll pick a book up just for it's title or it's cover.  If it's a cookbook we're talking about with the promise of gratuitous puns, well, I'm pretty sold.

The book delivers on promised tone and puns both, fun, snarky, and well explained.  The recipes veer into the unexpected, with the inclusion of various snack foods such as Doritos and Hot Cheetos as part of the flavor, texture, or highlight of sweet treats.  But even if you're conservative when it comes to flavor combinations, there's plenty for you here, and a number of recipes you can make a more traditional version of by simply sidestepping the inclusion of the salty munchie in question.

A fun addition to your cookbook collection, and if you're in a library one I think that will definitely circulate on amusement value alone.

Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of Capstone via Netgalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.

28y.o. fashion designer wants to resist her one-time lover and brother’s college best friend from 10 years ago so she can fully focus on her new fashion line.

But she’s still very attracted to 30y.o. hockey player Hero who agreed to be 1 of her male models. And he’s decided to pursue a 2nd chance with her. Their affair fulfills their passion for each other and heroine doesn’t expect anything long term from it, knowing his dating history. However, Hero hints at more. Yet, when she really needs him to be there for her, he shuns her. What caused Hero’s change of heart?

I love second-chance romances and this one was fair. I liked that Hero apologized for his mistreatment of heroine 10 years ago & tried to be a better person with her now. But I didn’t like the emotional imbalance between them. Heroine was always the one who cared more. And Hero knew it and was cocky about how she wanted him, especially when she tried to fight it. His decision to pursue her now was more out of convenience than it was because he loved her. Heroine had her good and bad moments too. I liked her independence and focus. But I did not like her fickleness and playing coy with Hero. It made her seem weak. The steam factor was hot and sex scenes were explicit and plentiful. Emotional tone was middling overall but it did get a bit angsty when Hero had a change of heart.**

Moderately recommended.

**A more detailed review with SPOILERS is on my blog. Click here.
*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
 

24y.o. model invites her ex-boyfriend Hero over to finally tell him that they have a 5-month-old son together.

But she lets their strong passion sweep them away since she believes that he’ll want nothing to do with her romantically once he knows the truth. Famous scriptwriter Hero is livid over what she did and confronts her about it. It opens up their unresolved past problems. How can they work on their irreconcilable past problems now? Are their betrayals too much to be able to have a future together?

I had mixed feelings about this Kendrick book. On one hand, I like the realistic portrayal of the couple’s issues and their reactions to them. On the other hand, it was a little too real. Hero and heroine had a lot of irreconcilable differences in the past due to heroine’s immaturity and Hero’s seeming indifference to their dying romance. Adding a secret baby to the mix seemed like a recipe for an explosive present reunion. But, due to Hero and heroine doing some maturing in the past few years, they were able to discuss some things reasonably well. They both confronted his betrayal and her subsequent betrayal.** The ending didn’t make me sigh though. Instead it made me wonder about their future. The way things ended seemed a lot like how they came together in the first place, driven by strong passion. An epilogue detailing Hero and heroine happy a few years later would’ve reassured me.

Sufficiently recommended.

**A more detailed review with SPOILERS is on my blog. Click here.
 

Some of these are hilarious, and some of them are only funny because they reflect how little we human beings see of ourselves. The one thing I learned from this book is that I do not write passive-aggressive notes. Every note I've ever left for neighbors, housemates, co-workers, and family members has been direct and to the point. Every note I've left requesting a change in behavior has been preceded by a face-to-face attempt at resolution that has not been successful. So now I feel pretty boring. I'm not hilarious like the people who wrote the notes in this book. That's not to say I haven't thought ugly things about the people who bug me. It's just that I want results. Directness without malice is more likely to produce the results I want. Now, would you please go change the f***ing toilet paper roll before you lose your bathroom privileges?!!

Very funny examples if the kinds of notes coworkers, roommates, and family members leave for others. Not all of them are necessarily passive aggressive in my book, just a way to let multiple people know the same thing, but most are really funny, some laugh-out-loud hilarious. Near the end the notes became similar so I felt I was rereading the book but overall it was very enjoyable.