Books Read & Giveaway: Dana Bate - Too Many Cooks

Kelly Madigan seems to have it all: a fabulous boyfriend, a supportive – if eccentric – family, and a flourishing career as a cookbook ghostwriter. But after finding a letter from her recently-deceased mother, criticising her stable but unexciting life, Kelly knows she needs to make a change. When a mysterious new writing opportunity in London presents itself, she jumps at the chance to get away from it all.

Enter Natasha Spencer – Oscar-winning actress and health nut, not to mention a total nightmare. She’s working on a new cookbook and has asked for Kelly’s help. What Kelly didn’t factor in was meeting Natasha’s dishy MP husband, Hugh Ballantine.

Away from her family, friends, and the life she knows – will this fish out of water ever get back in the swim?

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Having previously read Dana Bate's first two books, The Secret Super Club and The Stall of Second Chances, I knew I was going to be in for a mouthwatering treat of a read and I can definitely say that this latest book from Dana certainly lived up to all of my expectations and more.

Our main protagonist Kelly is a cookbook ghostwriter who is stuck in a bit of a rut but on the whole was happy with her life.  Things come to a head after the death of her mother and she decides to take stock of her life and be more adventurous as her mother wanted.  She decides to call time on her relationship with boyfriend Sam and accept a new job in London to work with an award winning actress on a new cookbook.  But if she expected things to be plain sailing from now then then she's in for a shock...

I'm sure that like Kelly we have all had moments where we have taken stock of our lives and considered changes but for most of us it is just that as we don't take steps to make the drastic changes needed.  Although this major change was good for her in one way, Kelly certainly has her work cut out with her with the temperamental Natasha who doesn't really know what she wants or what she's doing, but Hugh, Natasha's MP husband, more than makes up for his wife's antics...

As I was reading I was getting frustrated on Kelly's behalf as to the demands expected of her from Natasha, I don't think I'd have been as patient or as understanding with all the changes that Natasha expected at the drop of a hat, considering all the time and effort that Kelly had spent creating the dishes from the vague descriptions of dishes from Natasha in the first place!

With each book I personally think Dana's writing is going from strength to strength as Too Many Cooks is definitely my favourite so far.  It has the perfect balance of comedic moments, an interesting mix of characters, some you'll love and others less so, tasty food mentions by the bucketload, although I think I'll give the Kale Burgers a wide berth, but also an element of unpredictability as I was expecting it to go down one direction which I'll openly admit I wasn't completely comfortable with only for it to go in a completely different direction.

I'd like to thank Grace at Little Brown for sending me a copy of this book to review and thanks to the lovely Grace I also have a copy of Too Many Cooks to give away to an existing European follower (either on the blog itself or via blog FB page or Twitter account.), NB. Any entries from anyone who is not currently a follower will be voided so please DO NOT put details of this giveaway on any competition sites as the entries will be pointless.

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