I love Georgia Beers, I usually get lost in the stories she creates, but this one never really hooked me.

Let me start off by saying I was given a ARC of this book in exchange for a review about a year ago and have just now gotten around to it. I've tried a few of Georgia's books and have never really read more than a few pages of any but for some reason I stuck with this one. I think Christmas coming up and wanting to read about delicious food and desserts might have played a factor but I don't think I'd seek out the author's work again. Her writing is very repetitive, often telling us the same thing with only a few pages between the same point or description. Characters are very flat, cliched and unrealistic with most of the side ones not really having a personality apart from perpetually chipper and there to lavish praise on our main characters. I didn't see much chemistry between our two leads who were similarly flat and kind of generic stereotypes like your usual slightly uptight, workaholic chef.

For a story about exes reuniting, the book took far too long to explain why they had broken up to begin with despite one character acting like it had been some horrible betrayal and alluding that it had resulted in her needing years of therapy only, but the actual story was pretty anticlimactic. We weren't exactly let on details about their relationship and what things were like before they went sour either. No writer can be an expert on everything but the food portions of the novel seemed very surface level and poorly researched. I didn't believe either of these characters were experts in their field or as knowledgeable as the author wanted to imply. I skimmed to get to the end as I wasn't invested in them at all, but did kind of like the subplot between the two older characters, the owner of the bakery and the customer.

I really enjoyed this book .Charlie and Emma have history, Emma a broken heart due to Charlies behaviour years earlier and Charlie because the women she left Emma for has finally kicked her to the curb and moved on with a younger model. When Charlie returns home she finds Emma already established and busy with her restaurant business, The two try to ignore each other and the history they share. However little by little they are drawn together, fate it seems has other ideas. The only disappointing thing was the ending, it seemed swift and finished before you have chance to soak it all in and try to understand where things will go. It was a chapter short of perfection.

Another quality book from Georgia Beers. Just the right amount of angst and well developed characters. You won’t be disappointed with this book.

This was a lovely story - as always by Georgia Beers, it was very well written. The detailed descriptions of pies left me longing for a chocolate peanut butter pie (wish the author had shared a recipe!). The chemistry between Emma and Charlie was visible, and I liked that the author avoided the temptation to throw endless flashbacks at the reader which can often be the case in second chance romances. The supporting characters were well written and made the small town the story was set in feel welcoming and homey. The scenes with Emma's dad's family were really moving. The ending felt a little rushed and there were some issues (like Emma's mum's alcoholism and her involvement in keeping Emma away from her dad) that were left unresolved, an epilogue touching on these would have been good. Still, it's an enjoyable, low-angst novel.

Netgalley Review:

Great 2nd chance plotline, great push and pull, very angsty. There were a few parts that went a bit too quickly through the plot but all and all this was a very fun and easy read. 4 stars!

A nice cute romance story but deals with some heavier subjects as well!
I enjoyed the main characters and enjoyed the double POV and thought it was executed well.

A little plus was the usage of the title of the book: Flavor of the Month
I really loved how it was used in the novel so early on and made so much sense to the story.

Overall I smiled a lot during this and I definitly will check out more from the author and F/F Romance Books.

The chef and the baker? Second chances? Career aspirations vs love? It is all here in Flavor of the month from Georgia Beers.

When two women who both left their small town life behind find themselves running into each other years later - back in the place they first fell in love, sparks fly. One feels defeated and cast out by the life they chose, the other is hesitant from the heartbreak they were caused. Are second chances worth it when it comes to love?

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I can't seem to get enough of the depth of character, and growth, that Georgia Beers is able to put into her stories. Our two leads are well rounded and the chemistry is palpable. The food referenced throughout also had my mouth watering - ready to get into some baking. One not to miss.

Give me more detail

Good execution. The writing is very neat and tidy, the characters are nice, the plot is ok, but I craved more detail to almost everything, to allow me connect more thoroughly, rather than the gentle window view I felt I had.

Beers always delivers something, and I definitely felt 'emotions'. I just thought there could and should be more.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. I started this book awhile ago and put it back down after reading the prologue. I tired again today actually from the beginning and ended up loving it. Charlie for all of her past mistakes and not knowing what she wants was amazing. I loved every written line while she was baking her pies. The connection between Emma and Charlie was immediate and it was an amazing journey seeing them forgive each other and start to find themselves. This was a great read!

Though it hasn’t been quite in the way I imagined, quarantine has helped me catch up on the back log of my endless galley TBR, and though this one has been out since April, I was finally able to devour it this weekend, and what a treat, literally and figuratively.

Five years ago, Charlie broke Emma’s heart and headed for New York City with a job offer she couldn’t refuse. Now, jobless, dumped, and no place to go, she returns home to Shaker Heights, Vermont and when she takes a job at a local bakery, it puts her in the direct path of Emma, who owns a popular, local restaurant. Old wounds resurface, and so does an old spark. Charlie and Emma have both changed since their breakup, but perhaps they’ve changed enough to actually give it a go this time.

This book was exactly what I needed. There was plenty of food and baked goods (which inspired me to pull my own supplies down from the top of the pantry and bake this weekend). The love story was sweet and well-paced with just enough heat to make things interesting. I really enjoyed both Charlie and Emma’s personalities and the way the tension built between them. If you need a break from the dumpster fire that is 2020, this will make you smile for a few hours without needing too much brain power to process.

Meh, this was an okay, non painful read. The food descriptions were nice, the tension was okay and the angst predictable and doled out in measured doses.

This is told in third person, flip-flopping between the mains and I liked Emma a lot more than Charlie, although both of them come across as somewhat shallow and boring. Charlie especially bothers me, she seems very immature for a late-twenties person but manages to shine when the story demands she is capable. She spends most of the story hung up on her ex, who seems to be an older ice-queen and inevitably more interesting than whatever she’s not going on in her old hometown.

I didn’t really understand her sister’s animosity.
The timeline was odd from the beginning. If she
Cut ties with everyone the moment when she was hired by then big firm in NYC. I could understand, but the ties seemed to come off much later even two years into her new job and life. That’s normal!

And Sandy seemed to be far older than in her 40’s. She seemed at least 60 with her older persons wisdom
plus the “Silver Fox” she gets involved with later on in the story. FFS, Im in my mid 40s and I don’t have that serene older wisdom down yet. It’s not a thing.

Also, why every action had to be met by an equal
And opposite reaction of unanswered text messages and whatever was just dumb. Okay, yes, we’re hip young now and all about the phone but if my BFF meets everything I do with a shit ton of texts and voicemails (wtf??) that person is done. The story never had the person answering those texts so I guess it’s just for decoration.


My ranking: three stars

This is another good book by Ms. Beers. I love a nice second chance romance and this storyline hit the spot. A well established history and yummy baked goods create a lovely read.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Georgia Beers does it again, she wins our hearts with delightful leading ladies, witty dialogue and a story that keeps us invested till the last page. Really what more could you ask for? Beers delivers every time and I love to settle in with one of her books for a relaxing evening of fun and damn good storytelling.

Emma and Charlie were besties growing up. As they grew, so did their relationship. They became each other's first everything. After graduating high school each of them chose their own school and while they tried their best to keep the relationship going, it fell apart because of the distance. Charlie followed her dreams, graduated, and headed off to New York. She fell for her boss, a gorgeous older businesswoman who oozed sophistication, power, and money. She becomes the older woman’s lover for a few years, giving up her career to tend to her girlfriend’s needs until she is replaced by someone else. Heartbroken, penniless, and full of shame and guilt, Charlie heads home to her small town to lick her wounds in her parent’s basement.

Emma has never really gotten over Charlie. She wants to bury her broken heart and throw everything into her restaurant. Charlie was the love of her life, now Emma only takes time for superficial hookups. There is no way anyone can destroy her the way the breakup dis. You can only imagine how mad Emma is when her childhood sweetheart shows back up in Shaker Falls as the new resident.

This book is full of regrets, angst, forgiveness, and understanding. This second chance at love is a sweet tale that a great escape. I promise you will adore Emma and Charlie’s story.

While reading this book "lighten up" passed my mind many times. For me, this second chance romance was a little too heavy-handed on the issue of Charlie leaving for the big city and leaving Emma in Shaker Falls. But that's what you do when you're young: you make decisions, good ones and less so. And that makes you into you. But it seemed like Charlie had committed a crime. Her sister even gave her shit without being upfront about it at first. I'm not sure after reading if Charlie broke up with Emma or that they drifted apart in a way that you just fade out and not being able to end things in a good way.

While Charlie was in Manhattan, Emma also left town and came back earlier to Shaker Falls to start a restaurant. And a pretty good one too! Because Charlie is baking pies, and Emma needs them for her dessert menu, they meet again.

In the beginning, Emma is being kind of shitty towards Charlie. She seems to think she deserves this and because of that Charlie is very uncomfortable bringing over pies to the restaurant. Of course, things develop and at one point they make a trip together that strengthens their bond.

Other themes besides the romance are a liquor induced mother and an unknown father for Emma. The bakery and what happens in there made it all a little more sunny and light.

Maybe it was the moment of reading that this book didn't do it for me. This has never happened before with a book of Beers and luckily I see a lot of reviews from people who immensely enjoyed the book. So don't hold back on my account and give it a go. Because it still is an oke read and good feelings linger.

Adorable

This was not my first Georgia Beers book and there's a reason for that. They just make me smile. I love the way the stories jump off the pages and feel like they're just Beers telling you about friends of hers instead of writing fiction.

Flavor of the Month tells the story of Charlie coming home to lick her wounds and running into her first love. She didn't have any plans at home other than to get herself back in working order and then go back to big city living. She didn't expect to work part-time for a bakery making pies (like she used to do before moving away) and she definitely didn't expect her best friend and ex-girlfriend to be running the restaurant across the street.

The story itself is adorable. There were numerous times that I would put my hand to my mouth or have to wipe a small tear from my eye. It was just that cute. Beers' storytelling is top notch and definitely keeps you interesting. You want to know exactly where the story is going to end up. You're pretty sure you know that everything is going to be okay, but you want to know how it will get there.

Overall, a great story with a great performance by one of the best narrators in the LesFic genre (I only say that because that's the only place I've heard her). Lori Prince knocks this one out of the park and every time I see her name attached to a Romance title I jump on it.

Like most who read lesbian fiction, I am a fan of Georgia Beers. I have read nearly all of her books and loved the majority. For me, this one was kind of middle of the road. It had some good elements like a small town, solid secondary characters, good backstory... yet it just felt a bit flat. I like small town romances, and usually, I will even get behind second chance romances. I wasn't a huge fan of Charlie. Especially in the beginning. I am unsure if I were Emma if I could move forward after the way Charlie left their previous relationship. I overlooked a lot because they were (and still are) quite young in this book. Emma seemed too fast to forgive and forget. Some are better at that than others, so we will give that a pass as well. Overall, I didn't dislike the book, but it isn't near the top when it is compared to other Beers books. If you love second chance romances with no massive conflict or drama, this could be the perfect book for you. 3.5 stars rounded up for me.

3.5 stars

Quick impression: Overall a good read. The characters felt useful for their age (this could be me being double their age). The setting and secondary characters were more developed than some in this genre. Everything wasn't quite tied up at the end.

Even though this is told in alternating perspectives of the two main characters, it is more Charlie's story. We follow her as she realized the effects of her youthful decision to go to the big city, leaving her hometown, her parents and her girlfriend behind. She reconsiders these consequences, realizes her mistake begins to regret it and also discovers what she really wants.

Personally, I'm in my 40s and this book felt young to me. Five years in the city and two without visiting home. From my perspective this doesn't feel like a long time. There were a lot of descriptions of eyes or people "feeling like home" - too many really. I would've liked to see more examples of why Charlie and Emma were perfect for each other. Feeling familiar/comfortable isn't quite enough for me now.

The pacing and setting were good, although at the end I got confused when Charlie shared her story with the third person and felt like she was "finally" letting it all out.

I always love me a Georgia Beers book, but this one fell a bit flat for me.
A book about romance and pie, what can go wrong? The only thing it did for me was leaving me craving a pie or two.

Charlie comes back to her small home town after her break up from with her boss/ girlfriend in New York. Tail between her legs, shattered ego and self esteem and no idea what to do with their life she moves back in with her parents. Her parents are doing all they can to make her feel at home and maybe make her stay after not seeing her for 2 years. Charlie’s first love, Emma, is also back in their small town and runs her ow restaurant. Charlie crushed Emma’s heart when she went they were off at two different colleges. When Charlie starts baking pies at he local bakery and delivering them to Emma’s restaurant things change a bit, they change more when they have some time alone. When all of a sudden a different story line begins, and what you have been expecting happens.

I found I didn’t like Charlie, her character is too flimsy and feels much younger than the 27-28 she is supposed to be. I liked Emma a bit better, but not by much. The book touches on some real issues, but they are shoved off to the sidelines pretty quickly. While real issues are shoved off some other insignificant things stay on the forefront of the book and are repeated way too much. The highlight is all the pie and other food. And I always like Beers’ writing style.
I usually really enjoy reading a Georgia Beers book, but this one didn’t do it for me.

Whenever I see a book by Georgia Beers, I immediately know I will be enjoying a good romance. I have read everyone of her books and have relished all of them.

For this romance, Ms. Beers has the setting in the food industry. After college Charlie Stetko worked in New York City. After her girlfriend dropped her, unfortunately Charlie became unemployed and is forced to return to her hometown of Shaker Falls, Vermont. She has moved into her parents’ basement to recover and sort out her life. In the meantime, Charlie takes a temporary job at her mother’s friend’s bakery. Baking is very therapeutic for Charlie and she remembers how much she enjoyed making pies.

The other main character is Emma Grier. She and Charlie were girlfriends until Charlie left her after they graduated from college. Emma also returned home and opened a successful restaurant after working for a top chef.

Shaker Falls is a small town. Eventually Charlie and Emma bump into each other. Emma does not want anything to do with Charlie. She was devastated when Charlie broke up with her and swore off any relationships—only brief encounters with women would do. Both women realize they are still attracted to each other, but Emma has built up walls to protect herself and does not wish to take them down. Charlie is also not looking for another permanent relationship since she plans to get back on her feet and find a job back in New York.

Ms. Beers always does an excellent job with creating the characters in her books. They are personable and realistic. The tempo of the book is smooth and builds up as the emotional development is strengthening between Emma and Charlie. The many secondary characters are also well developed.

If you are looking for an excellent romance to read, Flavor of the Month is the book for you. I give this 5 out of 5 stars.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.