Love at 350° is a sweet sapphic romance novel set during the taping of a reality baking show. And, long story short, it’s a good sign when I finish a book and kind of want to re-read it shortly thereafter, yeah?
Tori is a high school teacher, avid baker who is recovering from a bad divorce a few years back. Without her knowledge, her twins enter her into the running of the Great American Bake-O-Rama because they don’t want her to become a sad empty nester. She discovers this, of course, when she’s welcomed to come in for the preliminaries.
Kendra is a celebrity chef and the “bad cop” co-host of the baking show. She’s going through her own things on the business front, never had time for a relationship (because chef) and has grudgingly accepted the network’s notes that she should probably (read “needs to”) soften her style on the show. To be fair, she’s been struggling in a male dominated industry, but… I mean, it’s just a TV show, right? And then she sees Tori and what she brought to the audition and…
I really liked this book, did I mention that? The author clearly put in the effort to research not just the business of reality TV production, but also a solid chunk of time around the business of baking and cooking, which is what caught my eye in the first place. I absolutely put the book down a couple of times to find recipes as I went along. While the plot points are a little fantastical (because reality is dumb), the foundation throughout felt solid and I was engaged by all the main characters, even kind of rooting for the other contestants in the show.
What I really liked was that the drama is found largely in the filming of the show and not in the budding relationship. To be sure, there’s a lot of hesitation and uncertainty, not least of all because of the contracts involved ensuring no canoodling between the hosts and the contestants. But the relationship is a pleasant slow burn, without the misheard conversations and recriminations where Our Heroines won’t speak to each other for three chapters because of a missed text or whatnot. The show brings enough, with some heightened stakes here and there that added a nice spice to the dish without being truly ridiculous.
All in all, sweet and fun and compelling and I’ll probably adopt it as a comfort read soon enough.
–Chris Blakeley, Seattle, WA
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