The Secret Ingredient’s premise appealed to me because it has two chefs falling in love in a small town. I expected a fun comfort read and was pleasantly surprised when it delivered more than that, especially through one of the leads, Adah.

Adah Campbell’s excited for a fresh start with her son, Pete, in South Bay, Maine. After working her way up from greasy spoons to fine dining restaurants in Chicago over the last decade, Adah’s been handpicked for the head chef spot at Bella Vista. She’s been paired with Sean, a real jerk of a general manager, and Adah’s ready to show him and the rest of Maine that she has what it takes to make Bella Vista THE place to go for an amazing meal.

Beth Summers thought South Bay was all in her past, a place she’d only visit when she wanted to see her family. Her vision of travelling the world totally changed when Beth’s mom had announced she was closing the family cafe and Beth returned home to take over. Now, The Yellow House is one of the Northeast’s most lauded restaurants, and Beth is burning the candle at both ends to make sure it’s run the right way: with locally sourced ingredients and paying her employees fairly.

When they meet, Beth and Adah have the first of several clashes because their personalities and approaches to cooking are wildly different. Their mutual attraction is intense, however, plus Adah knows she should make friends in her new town, so it isn’t long before they get a good thing going. But just like the Missouri accent she’s never quite shaken from her youth in the Ozarks, Adah carries the scars of growing up in a restrictive religious home. Adah has a big decision to make: finally let someone other than Pete into her heart or keep protecting it like she has for the last decade.

I didn’t expect to enjoy The Secret Ingredient as much as I did because I was lukewarm about it at first. Two things in particular weren’t working for me. The first is how rude and dismissive Adah is to Beth in their first few interactions. I suspected this problem would get better with time, so I wasn’t overly concerned about it even if I was annoyed.

The second issue, which was much more concerning, is Sean, the restaurant manager. He’s a thoroughly smarmy, angry misogynist and I hated the way he undermines Adah at every opportunity. I also got angry about how mean he is to Beth when he first meets her, treating her like a child and not the owner and proprietor of an award-winning restaurant. I braced myself whenever Sean showed up because I have no tolerance for shitty men and he is an irredeemably shitty man. Despite Sean, I’m glad I stuck with this book, because it ended up being more complex than I expected and I was able to appreciate why Sean was there (more on that later).

Beth was the easiest character for me to like. She’s warm and friendly, and cares deeply about the community. I love that she’s committed to running her business responsibly, taking care of her employees while offering her best takes on rustic, local food, using only what’s in season. Beth is also adorable when she can’t help thinking about Adah and how attracted she is to her androgynous look. I was completely charmed by this bit from Beth, when Adah and Sean are leaving The Yellow House after their first meeting.

[…] Adah, the one I oddly wanted to hear my words, had stalked away. She leaned against the car, arms crossed over her chest, infuriating blank expression on her face. I was too damn busy for this kind of thinking, but for a brief moment I thought she looked like the tough greasers I’d fantasized about after devouring The Outsiders when it was assigned as summer reading in seventh grade.

Beth is good for Adah because she’s so emotionally mature and stable, and has a strong foundation in the relationships she has with her parents, brother, and best friend. My favourite thing about Beth is her emotional intelligence, particularly how she recognizes:

1. Adah’s priority will always be Pete.
2. She needs to be very careful in how she approaches Adah, because even before Beth knows Adah’s story, she can tell Adah comes with baggage.

Adah is the opposite of Beth in several ways. She’s guarded where Beth is outgoing, her food is highly polished compared to Beth’s, and her childhood was as cold as Beth’s was warm. The last point is particularly significant because it informs everything about Adah and her arc in this story. The youngest of seven kids, and the only girl, Adah was raised as a Pentecostal preacher’s kid. Her deeply religious, violently heteronormative family had no tolerance of her queerness or her unwed pregnancy.

After taking care of Pete and struggling for so long on her own, Adah doesn’t trust easily. Even before her first meeting with Beth, we see Adah struggle to accept kindness from her landlady, Vanessa, when she offers to help out with childcare for Pete. Adah also has a hard time with Sean’s anger, shutting down instead of saying anything, especially when he reminds Adah of her father. My whole perspective of the book and my connection with Adah shifted for the better when I realized that she’s so prickly and guarded because of her experiences with her family, and that she’s still running away, even if only in her mind. As a former Evangelical Christian, reading about Adah’s continued damage from her upbringing was validating. I identified with the way her thought processes and emotional responses are still informed by her indoctrination even a decade after leaving that part of her life behind. That said, if you’ve recently left the church and are still feeling the worst of that pain, this story might be triggering, so just know that going into it.

My favourite part of Adah’s arc is seeing her start to deal with her religious trauma so she can move forward with her life. Running away from it only has only gotten Adah so far and it’s the catalyst for the big crisis moment between her and Beth.

The Secret Ingredient shifts back and forth between Adah’s and Beth’s perspectives in the first person. I know that’s not everyone’s jam, but I enjoyed it. They have distinctive voices, so it really does feel like Adah and Beth are each sharing their side of the story. For example, I like that this excerpt shows how warm Beth is and how taken she is with Adah.

Adah pulled out a chair, gesturing for me to sit. I wanted to laugh at her old-school manners but bit my tongue.

I laced my fingers together, elbows resting on the table, and leaned forward. “So…what do you want to talk about?”

“Alright.” Adah sat up a little straighter, like a kid who’d been called on by her favorite teacher. “I have three things I want to say.”

“Just three?” I couldn’t contain my amusement now.

Adah rolled her eyes. “Yep. Just three. May I?”

“By all means.” I made a sweeping motion with my hand.

Was The Secret Ingredient perfect? No. Like I mentioned above, I wasn’t super sold on it at first and I found it incredibly easy to put down. I started two other books while reading this one because it wasn’t holding my attention. But halfway through, once I really understood who Adah was, my whole perspective on this book changed. I couldn’t put it down after that and was deeply invested in Beth and Adah. Now that I’ve finished, I’m still invested in them. I’m hoping some of the side characters, like Beth’s friend Nina and Adah’s friend Jay get their own books, just so I can see Adah and Beth again. I really enjoyed The Secret Ingredient and I’ll definitely read it again, especially now that I have a deeper appreciation of Adah and her journey.