Love From Scratch

Love From Scratch follows Reese Camden, an aspiring food content creator who lands a summer internship at Friends of Flavor, a cooking channel in Seattle. She works alongside fellow intern Benny Beneventi, her workplace rival who competes with her for a permanent position. The pair create cooking videos while navigating professional challenges and online harassment. Their competitive dynamic shifts as they spend time together testing recipes and sharing their passion for food, despite the stakes of their career aspirations. The novel explores themes of workplace relationships, social media culture, and finding one's professional path. Through the lens of food and content creation, the story examines how career goals intersect with personal connections and authenticity.

Readers describe this as a light summer romance with a Food Network-style cooking competition backdrop. Most found it to be a quick, predictable read that follows standard romance tropes. Readers appreciated: - Authentic portrayal of social media management and food content creation - Chemistry between main characters - Food descriptions and recipes - Discussion of workplace sexism - Pacific Northwest setting details Common criticisms: - Slow pacing in middle sections - Underdeveloped secondary characters - Predictable plot points - Some found the conflict forced or unrealistic Ratings: Goodreads: 3.7/5 (2,800+ ratings) Amazon: 4.2/5 (150+ ratings) StoryGraph: 3.7/5 Several readers noted it reads "more like YA than adult romance" despite being marketed as adult fiction. Multiple reviews mentioned similarities to the movie Julie & Julia. One frequent comment was that the cooking competition aspect could have been developed further.

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🌟 Like the novel's main character, author Kaitlyn Hill has worked in food media, giving her firsthand experience with the industry she writes about. 🍳 The book's cooking competition storyline was inspired by popular Food Network shows like "Food Network Star" and "Guy's Grocery Games." 💕 The story takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, which has a thriving food scene and was chosen specifically for its beautiful mountain backdrop and seasonal weather changes. 📺 The fictional cooking channel featured in the book, "Chef News Network," draws parallels to real-life food media companies that combine culinary content with social media presence. 🌿 The author incorporated her own experiences with anxiety into the main character's story, adding authenticity to Reese's personal growth throughout the novel.