Escape To The Country Kitchen is an uplifting, feel good romance novel by Hannah Langdon.
This book was ok. It was easy to follow and had a good cast of characters. But I found it a bit bland and slow in places. Other romance readers may enjoy it more than I did. It wasn't bad, just average as nothing stood out for me.
💝 Thank you to storm publishing, netgalley and the author for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book. The cover is adorable, the description sounds great. Unfortunately I found the book a bit slow going. I found myself struggling to stay focused at some points. I got a feeling that maybe Juliet's sisters will have their own books going forward. If so, I hope that things are explained more in depth, like why Juliet's mother was so terrible to her. I did really like all the characters in the story. Léo was great, although the chemistry between he and Juliet didn't quite hit the mark. The book was enjoyable overall.

Oh how I wanted to love this book but it was just alright for me. At times I found it hard to stay engaged.

This book started out stronger than it finished. It had all the elements of a great feel good romance book but, it didn’t quite deliver. I didn’t feel a believable connection to the two main characters, Leo and Juliette. With all their baggage and lack of communication skills, I think they should have ended up as just friends and worked on themselves for a bit.
I am intrigued by Juliet’s sisters’ storylines and assume they will become their own books. I think I’ll enjoy them more than this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great start to what is hopefully a series featuring Feywood House.
Juliet has always been in awe of Feywood and what it means to her. Her sisters love the place but she has a difficult relationship with the house which she associates with her mother.
She has never felt good enough thanks to her mother’s constant put downs but she is convinced into returning to help with the cookery school her aunt is starting. Leo has a past in France which he is running from and together they both find out that being in ,I’ve isn’t always easy.
Hoping to return to Feywood house soon.

Having loved Hannah Langdon’s previous book, I was keen to read this one. Artist Juliet and French chef Leo were interesting characters and I was glad they achieved their happy ever after. I enjoyed the descriptions of the foods and the settings, which were very well written.
Some of the scenes between Leo and Juliet were lovely, but overall this story wasn’t as uplifting and cheerful as the author’s Christmas book. It felt much more serious in tone, and dealt with some big issues around family life and abusive relationships.
There was a lot of internal monologue in this book, as both main characters had a lot of previous experiences to process and heal from. I found this often insightful and I liked the character of Sylvia who was a bit of a mentor to them both.
I was less keen on the way some aspects were left unresolved and others were introduced with little apparent reason - eg the dad’s new girlfriend, the reason why Juliet’s mother was so horrid to her, and the sisters’ romantic relationships, as well as dealing with the narcissistic/slanderous exes. This is possibly going to be dealt with in future books, as I note this seems to be the first in a series about the sisters. Still, I was left feeling a bit dissatisfied at the end of this one. 3.5 stars for me.

More like 2.5 stars- this book had some good stuff in it, and I never wanted to DNF, but...

The way the two main characters were written at times really just annoyed me. The inner dialogue of both created conflict, but not well. A simple, honest conversation would have resolved these conflicts and made room for more interesting scenarios rather than make me want to roll my eyes so hard that I got a headache.

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

There was so much that was good in this book, but also so much that did not ring true to me. I think the author is a good writer and has a strong voice, but sadly I didn't’’t enjoy this story. Too many really unpleasant characters. Juliet’s ex Toby is nauseatingly horrible and I cannot understand how Juliet allowed him to control her as he did. I know this is a problem for many women but I think the reader has to be shown how this can happen and I didn’t feel the author succeeding in doing so.

Poor Leo suffered with a vicious ex too - the horrendous Veronique. It just seemed to me that the ‘villains’ were one dimensionally horrible like cartoon caricatures.

The ending was too fast and hurried and after the angst of previous events - it lacked credibility for me.

There was lots to like about this.

2.5 Stars 🌟

Juliet is a political cartoonist from a family of fine artist who returns to her family's home in the English Countryside, Feywood, to help save the property from dire financial straits. Here Juliet mets Leo a charming French chef who has been brought into to help her Aunt run a cooking school out of the old stables on the property. Leo and Juliet have both been burned by bad relationship in the past but overcome their trauma to find love with each other.

Overall the book feels quite rushed and the characters are not given much time to develop. This causes their relationship to feel very abrupt and lack any potential stakes. On their own, the characters are also fairly unlikealbe and often feel one-dimensional. This is true for the entire cast not just Leo and Juilet. For example, Juilet's sister Martha is presented as a kind, meek, and romantic girl but is not given any more development beyond that.

The setting of Feywoods does provide readers with a charming backdrop and hopefully the characters will be further explored and developed in future books in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and Hannah Langdon for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

An uplifting and fun book about sisterhood, following your dreams and love after heartbreak.
Whilst I did struggle at times with the pacing and how many characters there were with unexplored subplots (I presume for future books) this was a good book for just picking up and escaping into.

Plenty of family drama drives this book. Didn’t really care for any of the characters though as they just didn’t ring true for me. I loved the premise of opening a Cooking School to help with the financial issues but how did they afford to do that when they can’t even replace a roof? Also the relationship was defined at lightning speed. There is the usual misunderstanding but then BAM she sees the light and everything is instantly resolved, jump 10 months to finish the wrap up and the book is over. Thank you to the publisher for a free NetGalley copy of the book in return for an honest opinion.

I enjoyed this although I wasn't overly fond of Juliette initially. Her erratic behaviour made my head spin! To be fair, she arrives at her family home of Feywood not knowing who she's supposed to be anymore. Her late mother was very critical to her when she was a child and her ex was a manipulative, cruel idiot (I'm being polite!). However, she finally starts to work out her own path in life finding love with Leo along the way. Even though they both misunderstand each other's behaviour at times, all's well that ends well! An easy read, filled with beautiful descriptions of Feywood and lots of mouth-watering food.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Hannah Langdon for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

This the first time I’ve read a book by this author. There was a lot to like about it, including cute dogs, sisters, family issues, sensitive treatment of coercive behaviour, media sensations and manipulation and food in a delightful setting. Where I got frustrated was the way the relationship developed between Juliet and Leonie and their constant misunderstandings about each other. Clearly from the get go they were going to end up together, so it was a bit tedious going through some of their problems. Also, the threads that weren’t finished, like what happened to the other two sisters, why was Juliet's relationship with mother so fraught, what was wrong with Aunt Sylvia and why was Sindhu introduced into the book. Overall, it was a nice escapist read, but not a book that will stay with me. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy to review.

Juliet, Martha and Frankie Carlisle live in Feywood, which is lovely house lately dilapidated. The relationship with house comes with different perspectives depending on the relationship each had with their parents, specially the mother. This book is about Juliet, the sister with the most complicated relationship with the deceased mother. She need to decide between family duty, personal duty while working on years of emotional abuse from her mother and ex boyfriend. Hopefully this new French celebrity chef, Leo, will help Juliet through her process while also fixing his as well. The description of the food prepared was mouthwatering. I enjoyed the experience wish it was actually something we could go to.

This books bring topics about:
Family struggles
Family duties
Self’s teem problems
Abusive relationships
Narcissistic roles
Food lovers
Wished there were real recipes at the end.

Lo disfrute, pero algunas por no decir la mayoría de las actitudes de los protagonistas eran muy inmaduras y muchas de sus discusiones/desacuerdos pudieron resolverse simplemente con hablar, cada uno actuaba como si estuvieran saliendo con sus ex, es decir, a ambos sus ex parejas los dejaron traumados y hacían todo para que su relación(la actual) no repitiera los mismo errores, pero se los olvido que eran diferentes personas y que la clave de todo era la comunicación.

Super cute light hearted romance. I've been reading dark romance lately so this was a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the writing style of the author, it didn't feel cutesy or forced

Hannah Langdon wrote an excellent Christmas romance, Christmas with the Lords, which was one of my favorite holiday reads of 2023. So I was disappointed to find that I wasn't nearly as invested in her second novel, Escape to the Country Kitchen.

Juliet, the female protagonist, has a successful career writing and drawing satirical cartoons, and she also paints flowers and is writing a children's book. She is in a family of artists, but her recently deceased mother always put her down and made her feel inferior. Juliet has come home from London largely to escape her manipulative and denigrating ex, who is still trying to interfere in her life. The male protagonist is Leo, a celebrated French chef who opens a cooking school with Juliet's aunt, He has broken up with his ex-girlfriend after learning she is married, and now she is out to ruin him in the media.

It's a promising setup, but--strangely for a romance--I didn't feel any real emotion from either character, so their sudden "falling in love" with each other didn't ring true to me at all. Juliet's two sisters and aunt are prominent in the plot, but their stories are never resolved, and the ending is so abrupt that I thought I was missing pages. I know that the author is talented, so I'm hoping future books will revive the delight I felt with her debut novel.

My thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I enjoyed Escape to the Country Kitchen for many reasons. The main female character, Juliet, returns to the run-down family manse, about an hour outside of London, to help with the family’s financial troubles. I liked the setting and the description of the family dynamics. I also enjoy stories of do overs or second chances, and Juliet is able to thrive again at home.

I also enjoyed the enemies to lovers romance between Juliet and a French chef who is helping to tun a cooking school in the manor to generate income. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought the romance developed at a believable pace and the reader could see a strong connection between the two.

I did, however, get a little tired of both romantic leads sabotaging their relationship because of their baggage from prior partners. Still, a very entertaining read.

Although the main storyline was good, the lead characters were irritating, often. In general, the story was enjoyable but I found Juliet annoying and her inner monologue tiresome at times.

TW: abusive relationship, gaslighting

Juliet comes home to help her family with their large crumbling estate. She meets Leo, a French cook who is hired by her family to make some revenue to help resolve their money problems. They both have secrets in their past that they're trying to move on from. Almost immediately, Juliet and Leo make judgments about each other, but when they are forced to work together, they start to open their hearts and minds to each other.

Tropes:
enemies to lovers
forced proximity
reverse grumpy/sunshine
slow burn
one bed

I thought that some of the dialogue was hard to follow, and at times, it seemed too formal and stilted. The transition from Leo and Juliet's initial aloofness to friendship to relationship was very abrupt. In the beginning, Leo seemed to be determined to remain friendly with Juliet, but it all goes out the window at some point and suddenly, they are in a relationship. And imho, I'm not sure Juliet is ready to be in a relationship. She is still reeling from her previous traumatic relationship, which makes her doubt herself and Leo's motivations so that no matter what Leo said, she never really trusted that it wasn't a manipulation and that he had her best interests at heart. Which is totally understandable, given what she went through, but I felt like she needed some time to heal, which she didn't get. This all came to a head with a third-act miscommunication (or lack of communication, I should say) that I'm usually not a fan of in romance books. But even after, I thought that the reunion between Leo and Juliet was too soon (literally a WEEK after), and I'm not sure if either of them had enough self-development to embark on their relationship again. In addition, I felt like the book ended abruptly, with no resolution for any of the side characters (namely, Juliet's sisters, Martha and Frankie, and Sylvia, who had their own side plots going on that were never dealt with).

There were some sweet moments between Leo and Juliet that I adored, but overall, I felt like the book was lacking the proper healing and development that both Leo and Juliet needed, and I felt like many of the plots were rushed through to get to the end. I felt like the interpersonal problems could have been flushed out more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC!