Rating: ★ | Release Date: 03/16/15 | Contemporary | 277 Pages | Riptide Publishing
Tom Fearness and Cass Pearson are a young power couple taking over London’s urban food scene. With Tom on the business end and Cass as the chef, they’ve opened five successful boutique restaurants and are gearing up for their sixth when Tom becomes infatuated with Jake Thompson, a 24-year-old down on his luck waiter with Tourette Syndrome. Cass and Tom have always had an open relationship, but Tom wants Jake for more than one night and has to figure out how to fit him into he and Cass’s hectic life.
I picked this book up because it was rec’d in this Twitter request from romance editor Angela James looking for an ugly cry book. Now, I rarely DNF romance novels, but this one came pretty close.
I really like the concept of this book but Leigh’s execution was just not for me. It was just pages and pages of generalized restaurant logistics and emotional angst with no plot or conflict in sight until 80%. The characters never felt fully fleshed out and lacked any interiority, I had a hard time distinguishing their motivations for doing anything.
This would maybe be a three-star review from me but I have to knock it down because there are just some weird microaggressions in this book. Like, a Spanish character is described as exotic and at one point Jake refers to himself by the r-word. I could maybe let those slide but then towards the end we get told Cass’ grandmother (who is supposed to be a sympathetic character ) refers to the Indians living in her building by a particular slur. It boggles my mind why that had to be in the book. The grandmother doesn’t even show up on the page. Like, did she want to show the grandmother is racist? I just don’t get it. It’s almost like she just really wanted to use that word.
Anyway, Misfits was a miss for me.
