‘Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish’: Hate-to-Love in a Fun RomCom
STORY | With her career on the rise, Hadley Beckett enjoys what she does. She’s a chef competing on a cooking show with some of the best in the business. Only things go horribly wrong when her fellow competitor, Max Cavanagh explodes, anger which is directed towards Hadley, in the aftermath of her unexpected win. This opens the door for Hadley’s At Home with Hadley cooking show to take the number one ratings spot, which Max previously enjoyed.
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But then, her quiet life is interrupted when Max returns months later. Hoping to pick up where he left off, before his public meltdown, Max and Hadley receive the opportunity of a lifetime, only the catch is, the show invite they receive is a joint offer that neither want to (or can!) refuse.
Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner | Book Review
REVIEW | The third novel by Bethany Turner, one can no longer refer to this romantic-comedy author as a newbie. Her first novel, The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck, was one of my most favorites of its year. While this story is fun, I’ll confess to having a hard time getting “into” this one.
The plot is cute, playing up the usual romantic-comedy tropes and expressions of the genre, but I struggle with liking Max Cavanagh, and as such I think the story takes on a kind of disappointment. It’s not so much that he’s flawed, and trying to be better, that’s always a nice character growth, it’s more that no matter his internal thoughts, he always seems to be making fun of Hadley. As a rule in general, I feel as though Hadley is the brunt of a kind of “let’s-use-her-Southern-idiosyncrasies” as the means of all the jokes. This said, given the reviews I see, I have a distinct feeling, this is another of an “it’s not you, it’s me” situation.
There’s some notable redemption as the story continues to the end, but it the prior moments stuck in my mind, and so for that, I have a hard time with this as a romantic-comedy. That said, I can admit there’s a pretty good, quotable speech. There’s lots of cooking, and recipes sure to inspire the reader to want to try some yummy new recipes. There’s pop culture reference after pop culture reference to depict or describe a sense, emotion or just for the fun of it. If you enjoy romantic-comedies in novel form, you’ll like enjoy Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish.
Also, does anyone else think of Kate Beckett (because of the name) from Castle when reading this?
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Author: Bethany Turner
Publisher: Revell
Publication Date: 2020
Source: Publisher provided – THANK YOU, REVELL
Genre: Fiction; Contemporary Romance, Romantic-Comedy
Find the Book Elsewhere: Goodreads
Find the Review Elsewhere: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★½
Sincere thanks to Revell for the opportunity to review this novel; all opinions are my own.
Loved this book. I think it’s my favorite of hers. Quite Hilarious!
I do reviews at Inkwell Inspirations with 6 other gals. I also review on Goodreads.
So glad you enjoyed this one, Paula; and thanks for sharing Inkwell. I’ll have to visit soon. :)