Big thank you to Abby for submitting this fun, and surprisingly tough, request:
I’ve also been marathoning cooking Youtube videos (while eating PB&J sandwiches) and especially love the NYT Cooking series featuring Sohla and her husband Ham.
I am looking for books featuring couples with the same energy as Sohla and Ham – a little chaotic, very creative, unfailingly kind and deeply competent? Bonus points for recs involving cooking!
Here is a clip Abby provided as well:
Sarah: Battle Royal by Lucy Parker is more grumpy/sunshine, but the hero has great kindness towards his staff and they’re pretty base-level supportive of one another as business owners.
Claudia: I’m not sure what Josh of Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) does (I don’t think he’s a chef) and Hazel is an elementary-school teacher but I feel they have the same energy?
What books would you suggest? Let us know below!
So maybe I’m wrong, but what I get from this request is really a request for low romantic angst, and kindness. The first thing that comes to mind is The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan. Jeremy is unflinchingly supportive of Chloe, and she does have a sort of chaotic energy with her lists and tendency to perfection. The conflict in that book is all internal within the characters as opposed to external.
I also thought of The Flatshare by Beth O”Leary. It’s been awhile since I read it but I recall that also being about kind and slightly chaotic characters who only want the best for each other throughout.
I’m really excited to see what other suggestions come up since I would love some low angst, crazy goodness right now (or anytime really).
Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie has the same sort of zany, positive energy, although it has nothing to do with cooking.
This could be way off the mark but I’ll throw it out there anyway – The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish. Lots of chaotic creativity (cooking and drawing) and the MCs are incredibly kind people. The book has a melancholy undercurrent but I thought it was overall a happy book. Lots of dogs too!
I also second the Courtney Milan rec!
I think Josh is in a medicine related profession, but I read Josh and Hazel in 2019 so I could be mistaken.
Maddie/Theo in the Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory may apply, though I don’t know if it would be exactly what they’re looking for. I think they have that balance of chaoicness with supportiveness. Also Jasmine Guillory’s heroes and heroines are generally pretty competent in their chosen fields.
I also think romantic action/mystery has a chaoic with competency dynamic a lot but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for. I did quickly look at the first two chapters of the Spy x Family manga since panels I’ve seen of that main couple in passing kinda of have that dynamic, but the results remain inconculive at this time.
Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron might work for this rec league! The hero and heroine are neighbors who fake a relationship to submit video entries for a couples’ cooking contest. They are initially at odds because of a family business issue, but they bond over food, especially sourdough bread (seriously, this book will make you hungry). There are some secrets and angst, but IIRC, this is overall a light and kind book.
Two books that I can think of that feature food and kindness are Reserved and Brew by Tracy Ewens. Reserved is set in a restaurant (chef/manager) and has my favorite book date ever that is a library visit. Brew is between a brew master/doctor.
Artistic License by Elle Pierson (artist-student / security specialist). I’m not sure if it has the dynamic that you’re after but it does have both characters being kind, in general and towards each other.
My favorite book with food is Hard Pressed by Kate Canterbary (book store owner/sheriff) The heroine likes GBBO and makes all sorts of sweet things.
I haven’t read it yet (I own it, but picture me gesturing vaguely at the Leaning Tower of TBR), but it sounds like Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert would fit this nearly to a T. And in one I have read, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall has this energy. Rosaline is trying to get her life together, and goes on a fictional GBBO to get some money and get her baking skills out there. One quick work of caution: before getting to the guy that’s not a huge bellend, she hooks up with one that is, and he’s a gaslighting prick that nearly has her sexually assaulted in a drunken attempt at a three-way. She handles him well and gets out of the situation, but if that would be distressing for someone to read, take care of yourself. All that said, most of the book is lovely and hilarious, and there is one scene in that book that had me cry-laughing so hard I nearly injured myself. So I will always recommend just for that part.
Yeah, it took me a second to think of it, but Act Your Age, Eve Brown came to my mind, too. Eve is a bit of a whirlwind upending Jacob’s more staid, regimented life, but Jacob inevitably comes around to embracing the changes to his life and business.
Sweethand by N.G. Peltier has this dynamic during the middle of the book but less at the beginning and at the end. It’s a rivals to lovers romance between a baker and a musician. They’re childhood rivals and have to set aside their differences when his best friend gets engaged to her sister and they’re named the best man/maid of honor. In the beginning they’re both sulky and he says something really ungenerous. But once he apologizes and they start working together to create a really fun sounding engagement party, it has the energy I think the LW is looking for. The end has a really annoying big misunderstanding but the hea is satisfying.
Jackie Lau’s Donut Fall in Love just came out and it hits these notes very nicely. The hero is an actor and the heroine is a baker. She teaches him the basics so he can avoid total humiliation on a celebrity baking competition. Lots of delicious food description along with genuine kindness.
I just finished The Lady Gets Lucky by Joanna Shupe. It takes place in Gilded age New York and features a shy heroine who aspires to be a chef and asks the hero, who is opening a supper club, for kissing lessons.
If fantasy is an option, pretty much all the “Paladin” series books by T. Kingfisher would fit here.
PALADIN series seconded!
It’s not out until January but Anita Kelly’s Love & Other Disasters totally qualifies! Dahlia and London are both contestants on an amateur chef reality TV competition. They meet for the first time when Dahlia runs into London while walking onto the set the first day. Just a delight!
I have two fake dating romances set during Thanksgiving to recommend, both novellas. None of the protags are professional chefs or bakers, iirc, but there’s lots of food and good chaos.
Mr. Right Now by Annabeth Albert – mm romance between neighbors
Take Me Home by Lorelie Brown – ff romance. Hijinks ensure after our narrator answers a Craigslist ad and brings a fake girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner to annoy her judgmental aunt.
Rosaline Palmer takes the Cake by Alexis Hall!!
Great couples who have a lot of kindness toward each other:
m/m: Character Bleed series by K.L. Noone and Jon’s Mystery series by AJ Sherwood
m/f fantasy: Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland – first in a fantasy trilogy and one of my all-time favorite couples – but the h is a swords woman and not necessarily nice, especially at the start of the series.
I also have lots of recommends of chaotic/force-of-nature-energy characters, but they frequently have grumpy though amused partners – not necessarily nice ones (think Roy Kent in Ted Lasso). Happy to do that list too if anyone is interested.
It’s not about food, but I think Meg and Reid in Kate Clayborne’s “Love Lettering” would qualify. Reid’s career has been his life and he is lonely, but Meg helps him see the beauty of the city and the joy of opening his heart to the world around him. Reid is so protective and honest, so intensely focused on Meg and how to help her rediscover her creativity. Together they are quite lovely and I loved this book.
@drewbird- I would love those recs for grumpy but amused and supportive. I thought of Keely and Roy for this rec too because she is all competent chaotic energy and they are so supportive and respectful of each other. I never thought I liked the grump in romance but Roy Kent could make me rethink that.
Grace Draven’s Wraith Kings series would fit the bill, not for the cookery aspect but for the kind/chaotic character energy. The first book Radiance and the third one The Ippos King are probably the best in this regard. I sometimes reread Radiance just because I love the kind, competent character trope so much.
Also thirding (or whatever) T. Kingfisher’s Paladin series for this trope and adding that her book Swordheart has some elements of this as well.
One more by KL Noone I think – Frost & Raine. They are so good together… and so much coffee!!!
What about “Scandal Wears Satin” by Loretta Chase? Sophy is a fantastically competent dressmaker and spinner of tales (all for a good cause), chaotic for sure, very empathetic — and Longmore is down for all of it.
Just read Josh and Hazel’s Guide To Not Dating, so I second that rec! Josh is a physical therapist (though it hardly gets mentioned after the first chapter).
I would like to recommend One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston and In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren for featuring couples who have really great, creative energy with each other.