Too Many Cooks
By: Dana Bate
Rating: 4 of 5
“Too Many Cooks” by Dana Bate is a very funny book with some questionable moral decisions by the heroine of the story. Kelly Madigan is a ghost-writer for cookbooks. While she has had a troubled relationship with her mother, when her mother passes away, she is left in an emotional turmoil.
She ends up leaving her long term relationship boyfriend and moving to England without giving a whole lot of thought to her future. She justifies this because her mother’s parting thoughts for her were that she live a little more on the edge. The thing about living on the edge is that sometimes you can fall off and get hurt. Kelly learns about this the hard way when she gets involved in a relationship that is fraught when problems.
While the story is very funny, the aspect of adultery entered into so readily is not. While I enjoyed the book, I could have wished that Kelly would have given more thought to how her actions would play out. In the end, it seems like she has learned a bit, lived a bit, and is ready to find a happy medium between where she was originally and where she ended up when she followed just her heart and not her mind. There seems to be a possible good-ending for Kelly and she looks to be headed towards it but the story leaves it all a little bit open-ended.
What was really outstanding in the book was the description foods that Kelly develops in her ghost-writing. I really love that the recipes for all but the notorious kale burgers were included in the book. This is the first book I have read by this author and will certainly be looking for her future novels.
I received a digital ARC copy of this book from the publisher, Kensington, via Netgalley.
“Too Many Cooks” by Dana Bate is a very funny book with some questionable moral decisions by the heroine of the story. Kelly Madigan is a ghost-writer for cookbooks. While she has had a troubled relationship with her mother, when her mother passes away, she is left in an emotional turmoil.