Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
Do you ever read a book, and as you are reading you want to yell at the characters for being blockheads? And so you actually yell at the book but then have to explain to your partner who is sitting with you what is happening so he doesn’t think you are crazy? Just me? Okay then. When I read the synopsis of this book I got major Romeo & Juliet vibes (we have the Castorinis & Montgomerys aka the Capulets & Montagues), which I always love to see twists of, and add to it a fake marriage trope COMBINED with enemies to lovers? Yep, sign me up.
This book follows Tessa and Leo as they set out to resolve their families longstanding feud and save the family businesses. We have Italian vs. French in a battle for food dominance where hearts are on the line, not just peoples pocketbooks. Leo and Tessa have been competing for years, as they grew up together (yes, lets add in the boy next door/girl next door trope too!) and they both long for things to improve for their family, willing to do whatever it takes for them to thrive. The end result is for them to get married, with a legally binding contract, so that things could improve. This book has hijinks, lots of familial bonding & love, a cat named Cosette, and a surprisingly slow burn considering all that this book puts in place for the main couple. I finished this book a few hours after getting it because once I started reading I had a hard time stopping.
My only cons to this book are minor and really not even that negative – yet they can be borderline spoilery (though really you can get the context from the synopsis). 1) There was NO REASON they had to actually be married! This is more of a commentary on the trope in general – why sign the paperwork and make it a legally binding marriage when you can just get a fake license and hold out as if you are married!? Do you know how much work a divorce is?! That just means there are so many extra people to lie to! Jeez. I mean I get it, it works for the trope – it worked GREAT in this book – but it is a thing I always wonder about when reading this trope, thus the yelling at the book. 2) This isn’t a negative, more a funny thing my partner noticed. Leo’s initials spell out LLC (at least in the ARC that I have – could change by print) – which is HILARIOUS to us since he is a business person and has a MBA degree. Miranda – I have no idea if you did this intentionally or not but PLEASE don’t change it, it made me so happy. We couldn’t find anything with Tessa’s name but Leo’s name made my day.
In the end, I really enjoyed this book and I would love to read more books set in this world/about these characters. 5/5