3 and 1/2 stars (damn, GR, get a half star rating system, would you?) *possible spoilers*I don't know why I picked this book up knowing that cooking and recipes were going to be a big part ... I don't cook. At all. So the recipes and the prep and the dishes distracted me. I skipped over those parts. If you love to cook though, I believe you would enjoy this.Dinner at Home took too long to get down to business. I'm all for back story but it felt like forever before the MC's even meet! Ollie is starting his life over after a bad break up. Hank is trying to get his life back on track after drug addiction. Through a twist of fate and a precocious (and foul-mouthed) little girl, these two finally meet. Now this part of the story I liked. However, Ollie and Hank's chemistry just didn't do it for me and I found the romance just meh ... But the last quarter of this book is heart-wrenching hence three and 1/2 stars instead of two and half. It had me twisted up in knots wanting to know how it would all end ... and BTW it did not end the way I wanted. And I was okay with that ... I'm usually pissed but with this ending I realized it was the way things were meant to be. I received my copy from the publisher through Love Romances and More and rated it 3.5 stars.This was a sweet love story and that was both its selling point and its weakness. For me this book was a bit too sweet, Ollie a bit too nice and trusting, Hank a bit too comfortable despite his shitty past and solutions to problems a bit too easily achieved. This is going to sound funny from somebody who up until recently claimed not to like angst, but I really feel this book could have done with more of it. Ollie seemed to suffer very little after the boyfriend he’d bought a ring for breaks up with him. Losing his job just a day later doesn’t seem to bother him either. By the same token, while we get the details of Hank’s horrible past, I never really felt his pain or the trouble he might still be having dealing with it. And when tragedy does strike it doesn’t come as a surprise and, once again, seems to be accepted by the characters almost before the reader realises what exactly has happened. For me the shifts from pain to happiness were too abrupt. A chapter filled with inner turmoil would be followed with a chapter filled with bliss. It was too black and white, the changes in feelings too extreme. Shouldn’t doubts linger, pain ease only slowly and solutions come gradually? I constantly found myself wanting to like the story more than I actually did. The storyline felt like something that should work perfectly for me and yet it didn’t, which made this a somewhat frustrating reading experience.I did like the obvious love of food and its preparation in this book. Every chapter starts with a recipe and every single one of them was enticing and at least one or two may have to be tried out at some point in the future. Having said that, I almost wish I had a paper copy of this book available. On my Kindle the recipes seemed to take up a lot of – dare I say it, too much - room. I’ve got a feeling though it wouldn’t feel that way if the pages had been bigger.Even now, after I’ve finished the book and have written most of my review I still find myself wanting to say I liked the story more than I actually did. The characters managed to charm me, the story line had an almost fairytale-like quality and it was a smooth read. If I had to describe this book in one sentence I’d say this was a feel good book that could and should have been a feel great book.
What do You think about Dinner At Home (2014)?
Good read, but nothing spectacular. I liked it though and the recipes were nice.
—Riri
