This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She’s landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern–and her main competition for the fall job.
Reese’s plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet’s newest ship. Audiences are hungry for more, and their bosses at Friends of Flavor are happy to deliver. Soon Reese and Benny are in an all-out food war, churning homemade ice cream, twisting soft pretzels, breaking eggs in an omelet showdown–while hundreds of thousands of viewers watch.
Reese can’t deny the chemistry between her and Benny. But the more their rivalry heats up, the harder it is to keep love on the back burner…
- Title: Love From Scratch
- Author: Kaitlyn Hill
- Publisher: Delacorte Press
- Publication Date: April 5th, 2022
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Source: Netgalley / publisher sent ARC, (Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publisher/Author in exchange for an honest review)
- Targeted Age Range: Young Adult
- Content Warnings: Bullying (online harassment), predatory behavior and unwanted sexual advances (not explicit), sexism, panic/anxiety attacks, mentions of homophobia, mentions of strained family relationships, slut shaming
- Rating: ★★★★.5
Love from Scratch centers around eighteen-year-old Reese Camden, social media intern at the online cooking channel Friends of Flavor. It’s been a dream of Reese’s to work at Friends of Flavor since she started watching the channel in high school, and with a fall job position up for grabs, Reese is determined to show the company just how valuable she can be. The only thing standing in her way is the witty and charming culinary intern, Benny Beneventi. When the two get roped into recording a segment for the channel, they never could have imagined it becoming a viral sensation — or that they would be starring in their own series. Reese tries to keep her distance from Benny when they’re not working as she doesn’t want any distractions from achieving her goals, but she can’t deny their budding chemistry.
What an absolutely sweet debut novel! I’ve had Love from Scratch at the top of my TBR for quite a while now, and I’m so pleased that I enjoyed it so much. Love from Scratch is filled with so many of things that I feel creates an absolutely delightful and delectable novel — food competitions, a+ flirtatious banter between our protagonist and love interest, witty, sarcastic, and supportive best friends, a plethora of food puns, and lots of heart.
I loved so many things about this book and I thought it would be fun to highlight my favorite things, and four reasons why I think you should read Love from Scratch.
- Benny, Reese, and their banter — I was pretty much obsessed with Benny and Reese from the start. They’re absolutely the grumpy/sunshine trope, with Reese being the grumpy and Benny being the sunshine. I loved their nicknames for each other (Reese’s Cup and Benedict Cumberbatch among the many) and how well they worked together. I also really appreciated how Benny created space for Reese, especially when she was trying to work through something difficult and how he would listen and encourage her to share with him without pressuring her. They gave me similar vibes to Brendon and Annie from Hang the Moon. They were just so precious!
- Friends of Flavor — I absolutely love all these cooking competition related, so the Friends of Flavor channel is right up my alley! I liked that the channel offered series on all different types of cuisine and that there was diversity of gender, and race within the Friends of Flavor cast. The recipes sounded delicious and I definitely had lots of cravings while reading! There is a cake that is featured at the end of the book that I 100% would love to recreate.
- The supporting characters — Nat and Clara, Resse’s friends from home, were so wonderful. They were kind, caring, supportive, and funny. Their friendship was so real and their love for each other really leapt off the page. I really liked the majority of the “friends” from Friends of Flavor and the way that they really embraced Reese and Benny.
- Nuanced discussions of important topics — Love From Scratch tackles some really important topics such as gender discrimination, online bullying, and double standards and sexism in the work place. These topics were large themes in the story and they all were handled in a grounded and real way that didn’t feel preachy or too much.
Love from Scratch is a great debut novel from Kaitlyn Hill, and I can’t wait to read what else she has in store.
Links for Love from Scratch: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo
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Kaitlyn Hill is a writer, reader, and sweet tea enthusiast who believes that all the world is not, in fact, a stage, but a romance novel waiting to happen. Her debut novel Love from Scratch comes out 4/5/22 from Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House.
Kaitlyn has a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and German Studies, which means that she can tell you way too much about the Communist Manifesto in Karl Marx’s mother tongue. Before landing on writing, she worked in roles from city government intern in a small German town to Haunted Mansion Maid at Walt Disney World, and most recently, at her hometown public library.
Aside from books, Kaitlyn’s favorite things are giraffes, ABBA, and excessively long naps. She lives with her real life romance hero in Lexington, Kentucky.
This one is on my TBR! Great review, makes me even more excited to get to it!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it!