This book starts on a very positive note - Piglet and her fiancé have moved into their first home and are hosting a dinner party. All seems happy.

But soon secrets come out - all is not as it seems.

Sadly, I did not enjoy this book very much. The characters didn't quite work for me and I just found it unsatisfactory and rather depressing.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book. I understand the premise of a girl with food issues after covering for her sister’s anorexia and the impact it has had on her life. Coming up to her wedding “Piglet” a name given to her in her childhood as she ate everything (see reason above) and loving cooking for friends and family but has massive issues of her own. In the run up to her own wedding her fiancé tells her he has done something unforgivable and we watch the downward spiral of “Piglet”.

I feel let down that we were never told what Kit had done as I don’t feel it would have impacted the story at all.

We see the fallout to his confession and the effect on “Piglet” and what happens in the days before and the day of the wedding.

I actually feel cheated that there was no “end” to the story and it was left to the reader to decide what had happened, what the secret was and what happened afterwards. I did like the added touch of Kit calling “Piglet” by her actual name as he left their house for the final time.

The story was very well written and constructed, I just felt it was lacking in certain areas.

There seems to be a lot of great writing this year with young female leads in dysfunctional relationships and Piglet is one such novel. Piglet isn't her real name, but the nickname she acquired in childhood that has stuck with her - and EVERYONE calls her it. Piglet has moved down to Oxford / London - away from the family that embarrasses her, for no other real reason than they don't represent the life she wants to lead. Her new fiance and his family do - they have money, prestige, class. All the things that Piglet thinks she needs.
But 2 weeks before her wedding her fiance Kit drops a bombshell and everything changes......

A story of food, of cooking, of relationships, of friendships, of reassessing your life, your goals, what is truly important. Piglet, you've got this.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I initially really liked it and I did appreciate the ending but the middle felt very awkward! I guess that was part of the point of the book, and I imagine that this was a metaphor for the emptiness of modern existence and the attempt to fill that with meaningless things - a relationship that looks good on paper but lacks a depth of intimacy; being ashamed of your roots because they're not sophisticated enough; etc.
I think the book wouldn't have lost anything by actually revealing what it WAS that broke the relationship (we assume affair??) or why the protaganist was called Piglet. I'm sure there are very clever reasons but it just didn't feel satisfying for me. 2.5 rounded to 3 for the descriptions of the delicious food!
Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks, Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A very interesting story which in a way ended the way I would've thought it would end but at the same time was I was hoping for more.

I did enjoy the way the food was described, but overall, it felt a bit too much and maybe at the same time too real?!

This book was emotional and I did feel a bit for Piglet, but I wanted this book to give me more, not like a happy ending, which in a way I got, but something more for the main character, Piglet.

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

A really fun read that you can devour in one sitting.
Looking forward to more from Lottie Hazell.
4 stars.

Weird, creepy and obsessive main character, but do intensely and beautifully written!
An emotionally intense novel about aspiration, control and appetite; you'll go from disliking our judgmental, privileged protagonist to feeling intense sadness for her and wanting to embrace her and tell her everything is going to be OK.

This was a real struggle.

None of the characters were particularly likeable.

I did enjoy the food descriptions but as a whole this book was not for me.

A story about a person called Piglet from early childhood because they appeared to eat a lot. How cruel. And Piglet is still keeping secrets and trying to keep everyone happy in the run up to her wedding. As her appetite increases she finds it all out of her control but will she find the way to happiness. Brave Piglet.

I did enjoy this but I found it a little confusing in places and a lot was given to your own imagination. Why was the lead called that name - and how did it apply to her now? What exactly had her partner done? What was her job exactly - how did she have all of this cooking knowledge? So a lot was left unexplained and perhaps that was the idea, so you had to come to your own conclusions. But I think it could perhaps have been padded out with a few more details of the story, and not quite as many ingredients. Having said that, I did enjoy it and it was well written.

This book left me torn. Did I want to know more about the events that led to the unravelling of the relationship, or was it enough to know that for Piglet there was no coming back from there? I think I probably have to plump for the former, though this didn't stop me enjoying the book as a whole. The descriptions of food are fantastic (and led to many a craving)

The countdown to Piglet's wedding is on and everything will be perfect, including the cake which she will make herself on the morning of the wedding.

She is living a charmed life, as an editor of cookbooks, the perfect fiance, her new home and well to do in-laws paying for everything. But is it really the perfect life and what if your fiance tells you a secret that might just rock that perfection?

The writing is good and you begin to a invest in Piglet but it all comes a little too late. I spent much of the story, feeling annoyed. The name 'Piglet' was jarring which is no doubt the author's intention and a good way of dealing with emotional eating disorders, binge eating and family judgements.

This narrative delves into the complex and intricate relationship that the character 'Piglet' has with food. Piglet's portrayal is one that may elicit a range of emotions among readers. The author's descriptive writing style is distinctly unique and, at times, evokes a strong desire for food. However, there were moments when the vivid descriptions made me feel quite queasy.

The story is well-crafted, and I was captivated enough to finish reading it within a few days. As a first-time author, Hazell's writing is impressive, and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Nevertheless, as someone with a personal struggle with food, I found this book to be emotionally intense. Therefore, I would exercise caution in recommending it to individuals who may have an unhealthy relationship with food, as there are scenes in the book that may be difficult to read.

Overall, this book piqued my interest and kept me engaged throughout its entirety.

We meet Piglet a short time before she is due to be married to Kit, an achievement that will bring her the life to which she aspires or will it?
For me, this is a tale about true identity. Piglet's journey through wedding preparations, the interminable cooking and eating and the struggles of her working life, help her discover more about herself and who she is as a person.
I thought this book made some interesting points about the expectations of young women today and the mixed signals they get from society in general.
I am, perhaps not well placed to review this particular book as I am no longer a young woman - indeed I haven't been for a very long time, and I did find Piglet rather snobby and annoying! Having said that, I am sure that the right audience will get plenty of 'food for thought' from this novel.

Piglet is counting down the days to her wedding. She is comfortable: works in publishing, has a house with her long term boyfriend and about to get a foot up the class ladder. What Piglet doesn't know is that Lottie Hazell is calling the shots and things are about to get messy.

The information we get about Piglet is spare (what is her name? what has Kit done?). Compared to the long luxurious passages detailing the food Piglet encounters, Piglet's bio reveals itself like frightened mice in a night kitchen. As a reader, I was more than a little frustrated with the slow burn of the first third of the book, but I'm glad I changed gears. I found a better ride coasting in neutral through the rest of the book.

Lottie Hazell's cagey character writing is purposeful and gifts us a greater appreciation of Piglet's potential to grow into personhood. Her indulgent food writing with Nigella-level adjectives hints at Piglet's depths. Piglet's uncomfortable association with her family makes the denouement even more meaningful. The scenes involving the dress, the food and the aftermath is so well-written and choreographed with tension, it easily competes with any fight scene from a Guy Ritchie film. Themes include appetite, sisterhood, getting things wrong and the lasting power of friendship. There's humour, too, as Piglet morphs into a baseball bat wielding bridezilla for her final transformation.

Thanks to NetGalleyUK and Transworld/Penguin Random House for the eARC.

A well written story with some hard topics covered in it. It was very close to being a 5 star but never knowing the secret stopped it from rating that for me.

One of my five-star reads of 2023, Piglet is weird, mysterious and disturbing.

Read it if: you’re the kind of person who dreams of wasting an entire weekly’s food shop’s budget on overpriced ingredients for one meal from Whole Foods.

Don’t read it if: you’re avoiding disordered eating triggers.

If there’s one thing I adore in fiction, it’s a neurotic woman as a protagonist. Piglet has an enviable life with a beautiful home, interesting career, and a love of cooking and hosting. The novel takes us through the lead up to Piglet’s wedding and beyond, as she navigates her need to control everything and present a vision of perfection alongside a devastating confession from her partner Kit.

Piglet has working-class roots and feels embarrassed by her parents and their affectations, believing she belongs in the class in which she’s found herself in Oxford. This might make Piglet unlikeable but I felt a lot of sympathy towards her, she clearly doesn’t feel at home anywhere.

When Piglet faces stress, she defaults to food, often binge eating her way through difficult feelings. She also seeks comfort in preparing perfect meals for herself and others. Some of us can empathise with enjoying the calmness of time in the kitchen, but with Piglet it’s fraught with desperation to please.

Piglet is one of my favourite books of this year and I can’t wait to hear more from this author.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Piglet" wasn't an easy novel to read, but was it a good one! Lottie Hazell seems like a great explorer of the intricacies of human nature and motivations, which shines through her writing and narrative choices.

Without in-your-face rhetorics, Hazell explores the dichotomy of class and wealth, secrets buried within family systems, implied us-versus-them mentalities, as well as life-long disordered eating behaviours as a coping mechanism.

Deliciously dark and vague at times, "Piglet" kept me engaged and intrigued until the very last page.

This book was an interesting read and not at all what I expected. Well developed and cleverly written - Lots of focus on cuisine and I especially like the way the view of food evolves, based on the circumstances of events. Many unlikable characters and unsettling behaviour which often invoked a spectator's feeling of discomfort. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.