Love & Other Disasters book review

Every season, I look forward to those baking shows. You know the ones where it's like, what are you gonna make out of this? Could you do that? Can you make a croquembouche? Can you do all the stuff? Child, have you ever known that some of the contestants are dating each other, or that some of them hate each other, or that some of them have issues, such as misgendering people? Keep reading to find out what book I'm talking about today. 

Hey y'all, it's Kyla Denanyoh, and we are talking all about food challenges, cooking, baking, and the personalities of the people behind the characters on the show. Today, we're discussing the book "Love and Other Disasters." The author of the book is Anita Kelly. The theme of the book is romance, and the genre is contemporary romance.

Y'all, I gotta say, I gotta say, don't like the title. I'm sorry Anita. It should have been like baking and other disasters, or like love and burnt ends, or something, because I picked it up based on the cover. You know I love a good cover. I'm like, okay, you got him, you got her, you got oh, this is great, look at her big hair.

Well, this was my first non-binary love story. You have London and Dahlia, and they are non-binary. As you read the book, you see Dahlia's perspective and London's perspective. And London is like, 'Oh my goodness, the thick hair and this and that,' and look at Dahlia. And then Dahlia is like, 'Okay, they're cute, but I just want to win the money on the show.' Dahlia is not thinking about it, whatever. London is completely infatuated. They look forward to seeing Dahlia every day, and then there's this really cute part in the book where they go and they crash this wedding, and you get to see a lot of the vulnerability of both characters. 

I'm reading it, and I'm thinking, 'Love is so beautiful.' They're flirting. They're cute. They're dating. And I'm like, this is everything that I would read in a book with heterosexual characters. However, in this book, you have a non-binary character and a queer character, which is how Dahlia describes herself. And so fascinating, absolutely fascinating. 

But my favorite part is that they met on a cooking show. Okay, like a typical 'open the basket, what's inside, what are you going to make?' cooking show. And I never thought they would hook up outside when the cameras are off. I was like, 'Wait, now I have to re-watch these shows.' Do they have chemistry? Hold on, who's going? 

And so there are parts in the book which are really, really, really obvious, right? There's a scene where Dahlia is feeding London from a spoon. And then London's like, crap, crap, crap. I should not have eaten that from the spoon. You know, when they're out milking cows and they're just, their chemistry is just so electric. And you're reading the book, and I'm like, ' Oh, they're so cute. ' London and Dahlia forever. 

And the book was amazing. I'm not sure if there are many books with non-binary love connections, but this one was phenomenal. And what I love the most about it is that London has this conversation with their dad, where they say, 'When you misgender me, you are not accepting me for who I am.' And so, I know this sounds like a lot: a love story, cooking, dating, and then this, but their life is a lot. London deals with a lot of things. London may look androgynous to some people, but they, they is their pronoun. And if you deliberately and consistently continue to refer to me as a woman, continue to say she or her, you are misgendering me. And it is intentional. It is not that you saw me, and you're just a grocery store clerk. Oh, here, ma'am, do you want this? You know me. You are intentionally misgendering me. It is a big deal.

And also, it was a huge deal that London was on the show and they were being themselves, and they were having the other contestants use their pronouns, although some of them were not. Read the book.

Okay, so if you are interested in all things cooking, baking, and love stories, I love to read about flirting; it's just so cute. You should pick this up. The title, I mean. I know if I talked to Anita, she'd be like, ' Oh, there were eight other titles. ' This is the one the publisher went with, but I loved it. I loved it. 

Until the next book review, Kyla