Review: Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

In this new novel based on the #1 bestselling Skinny Bitch books, a twenty-something chef loses her dream job—only to find happiness after she launches a vegan cooking school and falls for a sexy carnivore.
Twenty-six-year-old Clementine Cooper is an ambitious sous chef at a hot vegan restaurant in Santa Monica. When an important food critic visits the restaurant, a backstabbing coworker sabotages her vegan dish by adding butter. Fired from her job and blackballed in L.A., Clementine has hit rock bottom. Not one to wallow, she decides to launch her own cooking school and personal chef business called Skinny Bitch.
Every day, Clementine passes a space for lease in her neighborhood and fantasizes about opening her own restaurant. Fifteen tables. A juice bar. Cali-meets-Moroccan décor. She plans to work hard, save money, and buy the space. But on the first day of her cooking classes, she discovers that millionaire restaurateur Zach Jeffries is opening a steakhouse in the same space!
Zach is the antithesis of everything she stands for, but she’s incredibly attracted to him. And it seems like he might be attracted to her too, since he immediately enrolls in her cooking school. Can two people who are so fundamentally different actually find love? As Clementine rebuilds her life with new friendships, romance, and recipes, she finds that there are healthy choices to make both in and out of the kitchen.

MY TAKE:
Before reading this book, I only knew of Skinny Bitch from the cookbooks.

In Skinny Bitch in Love, vegan chef Clementine must pick up the pieces after she is sabotaged during an important critic's visit and subsequently fired. To make ends meet and work towards her dream of opening her own cafe, she decides to offer vegan cooking classes and her services as a personal chef.

I found Skinny Bitch in Love to be quite an enjoyable book. The descriptions of the food made me want to try everything Clementine cooked or described, and her obvious love of cooking makes me want to start baking again.

The plot itself is what you would expect from other chick lit books. It will keep you entertained, but it's not hard to predict what will happen. Clementine is an okay character and even though she did some things I didn't like, I didn't find her annoying. Her friends are also likable.

The only person I didn't like was Clementine's main love interest. I don't like arrogant guys. Clementine and the guy's relationship also didn't seem healthy to me at all. Chemistry is well and good, but that's not gonna sustain you years after you're married. There has to be something more, especially if you guys fight as much as Clementine and the guy did.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the e-ARC. Publication date of Skinny Bitch in Love is on June 4, 2013.

THE GOOD:

1. The food sounds delicious.
2. The plot is entertaining.
3. It may encourage you to eat healthier.

THE BAD:

1. You might not like the guy Clementine ends up with.

FAVORITE QUOTE/S:

An hour later, I had an incredible-sounding portobello burger with avocado slices and roasted red peppers and a basic but kick-ass tofu stiry-fry.

READ IT IF:

1. You like chick lit.
2. You're thinking about becoming a vegetarian or a vegan.
3. You like books wherein the heroine and her love interest are opposites.

RATING:


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