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review 2019-09-30 18:09
Even More Annoyed Now
The Saturday Supper Club - Amy Miller

Note: So my earlier review was of the same book with a different cover and author. No idea why GR didn't combine them or even acknowledge it. However, I loathe not having the review with the edition of the book I read, so had a massive clean-up. Sorry about that.

 

So I accidentally got this via Kindle Unlimited when I was trying to buy another book. I decided to give it a go and instantly wished I passed. I finished it though because I was hoping the author wasn't going to go where she was signaling from the beginning, too bad, she did. I hated the entire ending of this book and thought it was more of a HFN, then a HEA, due to not being dropped on the head. 

I am always on the lookout for good romance authors so I thought that this book sounded up my alley. I am on a Great British Bake Off kick right now so loved the idea of reading about anything that dealt with cooking or baking and romance. "The Saturday Supper Club" has Eve agreeing to be part of a amateur cooking contest to help out her freelance boyfriend Joe. After a contestant drops off, Joe thinks that it would be a great way for Eve to get some press. When Eve opens the door though, she's shocked to see her ex-boyfriend Ethan. Ethan dumped her via note three years ago and she has not seen him since.

So, I loathed Ethan from the beginning. A freaking note, what is this, Sex in the damn City? And then when we find out why he left. I saw red. No spoilers readers, but there are several things I don't want to see in my romance novels. And this one had a big red flag on the play.

I didn't like Eve. She was too starry-eyed about Ethan and seemed to want to gloss over everything cause feelings. And I have to say that I at one point started texting my sister while reading this and asking what she would have done and she was all, kill you and bury your ass in the backyard (still no spoilers.....trying very hard right now). I liked Joe fine until Bratley or Miller, I have no idea what name I should be going by in this review decides to rewrite the character we know. I didn't like Eve's sister Daisy at freaking all. And there's just a lot of crap going on that made my eyes cross via these characters.

The writing wasn't that good I thought. I wanted to read more about the cooking and it became so not about that after a while. Don't tell me about an amateur cooking contest that seems to not matter after about the first couple of chapters. We have Eve trying to open a cafe and I just didn't care after a while either. I don't know what it was, but the writing started to push me away. The dialogue didn't seem real, Ethan and his BS seemed beyond ridiculous. I was hoping for something more, but the author I think had scenes in her mind and wrote to that instead of checking with herself if it felt authentic. The flow was not good.

The ending of the book had me laughing at one point because it's so surreal you think you are watching a reality show. It does not hold up at all and it's a huge freaking mess.

 

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review 2019-09-30 15:10
Christian Romance Readers May Like This?
The Saturday Night Supper Club - Carla Laureano

There's a question mark in my review title because honestly I am not a Christian romance reader. I am also highly annoyed Amazon didn't mark this as Christian romance via my Kindle Store because I hard pass Christian romances. I feel uncomfortable reading about people talking about God and acting as if everything good that happens is due to God and when something bad happens, think that praying harder is what they need to do. I don't know. Probably because I was raised in the church and I feel uncomfortable with anyone pushing their religious views down my throat. This book didn't feel very realistic after a while and I didn't buy what the author was selling via the two leads. Also, I thought the heroine was actually a lousy person (sorry, not sorry). I thought the hero really did psychoanalyze people too much and it started to annoy me. Not going to continue with this series, though I was looking for a good romance series to start. 

 

"The Saturday Night Supper Club" follows James Beard award winner Rachel Bishop. Rachel has been living in Denver for 6 years and is finally a co-owner of her own restaurant, Paisley. Rachel pushes herself and her team in the kitchen, but is starting to feel a bit off. When a restaurant critic who accused her of sexual impropriety is taken apart by a viral essay, Rachel is ambushed by the press. Instead of no comment, Rachel shoots off the cuff and later has her words switched up. From there, everything is in free fall and Rachel is bought up and quickly unemployed. When the author of the original essay, Alex Kanin, tracks Rachel down to apologize, he offers his help in anyway that he can. Rachel starts thinking of ways to get back into the restaurant scene and then uses Alex's place as a location to host an exclusive Saturday Night Supper Club. 

 

So here's the thing, Rachel kind of sucks. We find out that she's fallen out with a lot of female chefs because she walked off a panel that was discussing sexism in the kitchen. Rachel thought it was not fair to do that since she's had a lot of male mentors who have ensured her success. And there seems to be the author wagging her finger at people who think that sexism in kitchens is bad. This book was written in 2018, this is way into the metoo movement and also the articles coming out about the sexual harassment in the restaurant industry (see Spotted Pig’s owner Ken Friedman, Mario Batali, John Besh, etc.) So this is a very real thing and I wanted someone to curse Rachel out about it. Things went from bad to worse from me when once again a reporter asks her about how sexism in the kitchen is terrible and Rachel goes who cares if they are a man or a woman, they don't belong there if they can't cook. (Paraphrasing). So there you go. I just shook my head. For someone who was all about getting out of her religious stepfather's thumb, she sure took his lessons to heart about how a woman should act.

 

Alex just bugged me. He finds himself attracted to Rachel as soon as he sees her, and then can't write, cause his conscience is bothering him. I never got that even a little bit. He was writing a piece talking about online trolling, Rachel's mouth got her into trouble, not the other way around. Ah well. There are some interesting elements to Alex, but I didn't like how her characterized Rachel after a while. I didn't get why she was interested in him either.


The secondary characters are all fluff and no substance. I know that Rache's two best friends are subjects of the next two books, but I am hard passing on continuing to read this series. 


The supper club idea was interesting, but disappointed we only get two supper clubs. that annoyed me since I think you need to have more than 2 dinners for you to suddenly have a comeback.  Everything else in the book was Rachel not wanting to get involved, Alex wanting to, and Rachel starting to "dress" up for him. Rachel cooking for her friends to discuss Alex. I think this book would fail the The Bechdel test. Everything deals with Alex, with Rachel occasionally feeling guilty since her best friend walked out on the job at Paisely in solidarity with Rachel. And them talking about me. A lot. The food sounded interesting, and I just wanted more of that.

 

When these two talked about God though, I really didn't buy it. It sounded so fake. I mean in the end Rachel does something totally out of character and goes well God will provide. Or something. My eyes started to roll. 

 

The ending made zero sense to me based on what came before. I just went okay then and went about my day. 

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review 2019-03-22 18:13
The Saturday Night Supper Club, Carla Laureano
The Saturday Night Supper Club - Carla Laureano

I enjoyed this Supper Club romance. I received this for free and I voluntarily chose to review it. I've given it a 4.7* rating, This was a clean, foodie type of romance. The heroine in this is in the top of her field in this back and forth romance. The hardest thing is to trust in this Supper Club idea with each other. And the hero is a fixer. A bit of action in this also. Lots to keep your attention and I found it hard to put down.

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review 2014-02-18 00:00
The Saturday Supper Club
The Saturday Supper Club - Amy Bratley Segreti, bugie e cioccolato
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review 2013-11-21 16:09
The Saturday Supper Club by Amy Bratley (romantic fiction)
The Saturday Supper Club - Amy Bratley

I quite enjoyed this one, and the recipes and dinner parties were great fun - even though I'm not a fan of these Dining Competition shows. However, Eve's a strong character and carries the romantic will-she won't-she and which-man-will-she-choose storyline very well. I also very much enjoyed the family intrigue.

 

That said, it does go downhill about 75% of the way through, as what Eve's sister gets up to is frankly appalling and I wouldn't have been anywhere near so forgiving - so that seemed unrealistic to me. I also thought the two men weren't a great choice, and Eve should have ditched them both and just got on with her life. So, for me the decision she makes concerning which man at the end is definitely the wrong one and I groaned and threw the book across the room at that point.

 

Still, it's well written so I'd try more Bratley books in the future.

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