BLOG TOUR: Just a Taste - Anise Starre

A Christmas romance featuring a personal chef who is snowed-in with her least favourite client – a sexy but miserable technopreneur.

The only thing personal chef Noelle Jones loves more than cooking is Christmas. She has a roster of extremely wealthy clients, including the elusive and stoic Alexander Hoxton.

When he asks her to cook a last-minute business meal he’s having, offering triple her pay for the short notice, Noelle jumps at the chance. It’s easy money, one of her favourite dishes and she'll still have plenty of time to get to her family’s annual Christmas reunion.

But, when a sudden blizzard leaves Noelle snowed-in with Alexander, she quickly realises he wants absolutely nothing to do with anything festive. Stuck with a veritable grinch, she’s sure this Christmas is about to become one of her worst . . .

 

What did I think?

Wrap up warm when you pick up Just a Taste; you're about to get snowed in with a sexy businessman and his personal chef.  The heating might go on the blink but Alex will get your blood flowing and Noelle will keep you well fed.

I loved both Noelle and Alex.  Noelle is a talented chef who is very family oriented and humble.  Alex is a brooding businessman who makes Mr Darcy look positively cheerful.  The story is written with a dual point of view so the reader knows what's going on in their heads despite their frosty actions towards each other.  

The forced proximity trope is in full force when Noelle gets snowed in with Alex a few days before Christmas.  Noelle just wants to get to her Gran's house to celebrate Christmas with her family and Alex just wants to be by himself to forget that it's even Christmas.  As his reasons for hating Christmas come out, I wanted to reach into the book and give Alex a huge hug but Noelle got there first!

The sexual tension sizzles throughout as neither character wants to cross the employee/employer line but the heart wants what the heart wants!  I definitely saved a few pence on the central heating while I was reading as there's so much heat that the book almost spontaneously combusted in my hands.

Just a Taste is a festive, fun and flirty feast.  It would make a fabulous Christmas movie and I'd love to see it on my screen in the future.  A highly recommended read for the festive season.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

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BLOG TOUR: The Slimming Foodie Easy Meals Every Day - Pip Payne

Say goodbye to dinner time dilemmas with more than 100 simple, healthy and tasty recipes from bestselling author The Slimming Foodie

Perfect for home cooks of all levels, this book will take the stress out of mealtimes, with recipes that are fuss-free and use everyday ingredients that won't break the bank. Including a chapter for each day of the week, plus four weekly meal plans and shopping lists, it has never been easier to eat well after a long day!

CONTENTS INCLUDE:

Meat-free Monday

Sweet potato & mozzarella sausage rolls; Gnocchi-topped veggie cottage pie; Cauliflower cheese & jalapeño soup

Trays-out Tuesday

Korean-style sweet chilli chicken; Miso-maple glazed salmon; Bacon, leek, potato & pea bake

Whip-it-up Wednesday

Creamy basil & sundried tomato chicken tagliatelle; Sausage & mushroom ragu; Philly cheesesteak-style orzo

Thrifty Thursday

Courgette pesto pasta; Crunchy Vietnamese-style chicken salad; Simple red lentil dal

Feasting Friday

Stir-fried char siu pork with udon noddles; Spiced lamb & aubergine rice with minty yogurt; Tamarind prawn curry

Sumptuous Saturday

Harissa & coconut braised chicken; Pork gyoza; Mac 'n' cheese lasagne

Staples Sunday

Eat-up Sunday curry; Slow-cooker mushroom bourguignon; Ultimate bolognese sauce

Something Sweet

Rustic profiteroles with caramelized biscuit topping; Watermelon fingers with honey-lime dip; Blueberry scones

Lucky Dip

Green beans with spring onions & garlic; Salt & vinegar roast potatoes; Everything seasoning

 

What did I think?

I'm so pleased that I joined this blog tour as I have now discovered the Slimming Foodie and after sampling a couple of the recipes, I definitely consider myself a fan.

I feel like I'm always on a diet but with The Slimming Foodie's recipes there's no need to go hungry and you can have delicious, tasty meals that will quickly become family favourites.  I love how the book is set out in sections and each recipe states the nutritional information as well as serving size, preparation and cooking time, introduction to the recipe and notes.

There are a lot of recipes I want to try in the book but I chose two to try for my review and I can't believe how well they turned out.  In the 'Trays-out Tuesday' section, I made the black bean & corn-loaded quesadillas and the sweet potato & black bean layer bake.

Black bean & corn-
loaded quesadillas

I have to say that I used to make quesadillas but they were just a bit too faffy and I always lost half the filling when I turned them over in the frying pan.  That didn't happen with The Slimming Foodie's black bean & corn-loaded quesadillas as you make them in the oven after folding the tortilla over.  This makes them so much easier to flip over and although an odd bean or sweetcorn tried to fall out, it was definitely less messy than flipping in the pan.  This recipe has already been made again. Thank you, Pip Payne!

Sweet potato & black
bean layer bake

I had never had black beans before I made the quesadillas but I liked them so much that I made the sweet potato & black bean layer bake next.  This was so easy to do and although it needs a good hour in the oven to cook, preparation time is only about 15 minutes and that's includes chopping onions and peeling sweet potatoes.  Pip's note on the bottom suggested adding jalapeños so I customised the recipe to include some extra spice.  The taste is amazing; it's so richly flavoured and smoky (thanks to the large helping of paprika) and the sweet potatoes work really well with all of the spices.  This recipe is already a firm favourite in my house and I can't wait to make it again.

So that was two recipes I tried and each one turned out perfectly, giving me the confidence to try a lot more of the recipes in the book.  The recipes are so easy to follow and every one I looked at had easy to source ingredients.  I love the notes at the bottom of a lot of the recipes with hints, tips, ingredient substitutions or customisation ideas - with Pip Payne's support, you don't have to be afraid to experiment a little.

Filled with tasty, filling and easy-to-follow recipes, The Slimming Foodie Easy Meals Every Day is already one of my favourite cookbooks and the first one I reach for when planning my next healthy and nutritious meal.  Very highly recommended.

I received an ARC to review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

About the author:

The Slimming Foodie is a firm believer that you don’t have to completely change your eating habits to lose weight. With Pip’s clever swaps and cooking techniques, you can slim down while still enjoying all your favourite foods – it’s a modern weight-loss method that puts flavour first.

Keeping a love of food at the fore, Pip’s approach is about bringing back convenient home cooking by making healthy and tasty recipes that are accessible to a new wave of home cooks. Creating great-tasting meals that are cooked from scratch and cut down on fat and sugar while following science-led nutrition advice.

Pip’s previous books, The Slimming Foodie, The Slimming Foodie in One and The Slimming Foodie in Minutes, all published by Octopus, were all Sunday Times bestsellers and together have sold more than 110,000 copies via Nielsen BookScan.

The Slimming Foodie has a combined social media reach of more than 450,000 followers.

Theslimmingfoodie.com

Facebook.com/slimmingfoodie

Instagram.com/the_slimming_foodie

Tiktok.com/@the_slimming_foodie

Pinterest.co.uk/theslimmingfoodie

X.com/slimmingfoodie (formerly Twitter)

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BLOG TOUR: Tilly's Tuscan Teashop - Daisy James

Welcome to Tilly's Tuscan Teashop, the first book in a brand new series from the author of the Hummingbird Hotel and the Cornish Confetti Agency series. 

 

When photographer Natalie Nicholson’s beach hut studio – and everything she’s spent the last two years working on – is destroyed in a fire, she doesn’t think things can get any worse. Until she sees her boyfriend Josh Clarke on Instagram frolicking on a palm-fringed Balinese beach with a fellow cabin crew member. 

 

Devastated and heartbroken, she heads to Italy to help out at her sister’s English teashop in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, where she encounters sun-dappled hilltop villages with attractive terracotta bell towers, cobbled piazzas housing world-famous art and architecture, and a national fixation with getting from A to B as quickly as possible whether in a glamourous Ferrari, a scarlet Vespa, or a snail-like ape. 

 

With handsome local filmmaker-cum-waiter Matteo Ferretti on hand to guide her, can Tilly learn to ditch her workaholic ways and embrace the Italian pursuit of la dolce vita? Or will she miss out on her chance at a happy-ever-after? 

 

What did I think?

I adore Daisy James' books so I couldn't wait to grab my virtual passport and head off to the vibrant landscape of Tuscany in Tilly's Tuscan Teashop.  The story inside is as vivid and colourful as the gorgeous cover as the sights, sounds and smells of Italy are described so beautifully.

Italy is more famous for cappuccino and espresso so you might not expect to find a teashop in Tuscany, but that's where Tilly's sister Oliva has set up her business.  Just when Tilly thinks her life in Devon couldn't get much worse, Olivia asks her to look after the teashop and it's just the break that she needs.

It's an absolute delight to read Tilly's Tuscan Teashop as Daisy James takes the reader on a sensory adventure to experience the mouthwatering food and the breathtaking sights of Italy.  I've never been to Italy but I felt as if I was actually there, taking in the sights of Florence and Pisa with Tilly.

It's not all sunshine and merriment though and I love how the story is multi-layered with challenges for the main character; from Tilly's cheating boyfriend and her grief for her parents to a mystery saboteur who is determined to see the teashop close for good.

Filled with fun and entertainment, Tilly's Tuscan Teashop is beautifully written and I think it's one of my favourite Daisy James books to date.  I loved it - it's a sunny hug in a book that warmed my heart and gave me a huge smile on my face.  Highly recommended.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Purchase Links: 

Amazon US 

Amazon UK 

About the author:

Daisy James loves writing stories with strong heroines and swift-flowing plotlines. She especially likes to create sunshine-filled settings in exotic locations - the Caribbean, Tuscany, Cornwall, Provence - so she can spend her time envisioning her characters enjoying the fabulous scenery and sampling the local food and drink. 

When not scribbling away in her peppermint-and-green summerhouse (garden shed), she spends her time sifting flour and sprinkling sugar and edible glitter. She loves gossiping with friends over a glass of something fizzy or indulging in a spot of afternoon tea - china plates and teacups are a must. 

Daisy would love to hear from readers via her Facebook page or you can follow her on Twitter @daisyjamesbooks, or on Instagram @daisyjamesstories. 

Social Media Links:

Twitter    

Instagram

Facebook

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BLOG TOUR: Confetti at the Hummingbird Hotel - Daisy James

Welcome back to the Hummingbird Hotel!

When Abbie Coleman is asked to organise a Dance & Desserts retreat for a group of exhausted schoolteachers, she decides to pull out all the stops. With line dancing, flamenco and the Charleston on the agenda, along with a whole host of delicious themed desserts, it’s her chance to prove to everyone that she has – at last – gained the skills needed to be an accomplished hotelier. This time she’s determined there will be no “unfortunate incidents” that make the Hummingbird Hotel look like Corfu’s Comedy Central.

With her big fat Greek wedding to the gorgeous Nikos Angelopoulos only three weeks away, will she finally be able to deliver a retreat without the habitual chaos and calamity the hotel has become famous for? Can she turn a clunky chicken dance into a classy Charleston and a boogie-woogie into a beautiful ballet? Or will she be boot scootin’ it back to London and life as a floundering florist?

Let Daisy James whisk you away to gorgeous Corfu with a feel-good holiday read filled with sun, sea and a sprinkle of romance. Perfect for fans of Mandy Baggot, Sue Roberts & Sandy Barker

 

What did I think?

Confetti at the Hummingbird Hotel is the sixth and final book in The Hummingbird Hotel series but you can definitely read it as a standalone.  Before jumping in at book six, I had only read the first book in the series so I was already familiar with the main characters, but enough of their background story is covered so that any new readers are not disadvantaged.

It was an absolute delight to escape to the Hummingbird Hotel once again.  This time, Abbie and her team are running a Dance & Desserts retreat for some school teachers.  The dancing and the desserts are described so exquisitely by Daisy James that I wanted to try the moves out for myself (and I always want to try the desserts).  It had my foot tapping and my stomach rumbling, that's for sure!  

There is some tension in the group of teachers and some mysterious goings-on but the very future of the Hummingbird Hotel is at stake unless Abbie can get to the bottom of it.  As if Abbie doesn't have enough on her plate, with her upcoming wedding to vineyard owner Nikos.  Abbie has so much going on and so many things going wrong that it's a wonder she doesn't feel dizzy, but with a little help from her friends I had every confidence that things would turn out alright in the end.  

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, nothing makes me happier than reading a Daisy James book.  Filled with sunshine, smiles, delicious food and a sprinkling of lighthearted mystery, Confetti at the Hummingbird Hotel is pure escapism.  So, grab your sunglasses and head out into the garden with your kindle; you don't need your passport to escape to Corfu courtesy of Daisy James.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the author:

Daisy James loves writing stories with strong heroines and swift-flowing plotlines. She especially likes to create sunshine-filled settings in exotic locations - the Caribbean, Tuscany, Cornwall, Provence - so she can spend her time envisioning her characters enjoying the fabulous scenery and sampling the local food and drink.

When not scribbling away in her peppermint-and-green summerhouse (garden shed), she spends her time sifting flour and sprinkling sugar and edible glitter. She loves gossiping with friends over a glass of something fizzy or indulging in a spot of afternoon tea - china plates and teacups are a must.

Daisy would love to hear from readers via her Facebook page or you can follow her on Twitter @daisyjamesbooks, or on Instagram @daisyjamesstories.

Social Media Links – 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009889775019

Twitter: https://twitter.com/daisyjamesbooks 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisyjamesstories/ 

Website: https://daisyjames.co.uk/ 

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Deliciously Vegan Everyday Kitchen (Deliciously Vegan Kitchen Book 2) - Sibel Hodge

Whether you're already following a plant-based diet or you just want to add more meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free dishes into your life, Deliciously Vegan Everyday Kitchen is for you!

Low on fussy preparation and high on flavour, this everyday meal bible uses budget-friendly ingredients and has tasty vegan ideas for everyone. All dishes are packed with plant power and are easily made gluten-free.

Taking inspiration from her Mediterranean roots, Sibel takes you on a culinary journey through the Med, Asia, India, and around the world. With over 80 recipes, broken down into meze and dips, sides and sundries, sumptuous salads, and light bites and main meals, Deliciously Vegan Everyday Kitchen is full of twists on old favourites and tasty new dishes, all easily prepared, including: vegan "egg" mayonnaise, Southern fried tofu nuggets, mango and sweet potato masala, spicy buffalo cauliflower bites, caramelised roast vegetables, salt-and-pepper tofu, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, onion bhaji, no-fuss paella, Greek-style shepherd's pie, Middle Eastern potatoes, sweet and sour tofu, sexy cabbage, Indian mushroom rice, potato-crust pizza, moussaka, rich spaghetti Bolognese, kung pao tofu, hummus, creamy stroganoff, coriander roasted carrots, Turkish potato salad, Spanish frittata, cheesy potato bake, Sicilian aubergine pasta, sticky BBQ tofu, Turkish pizza, maple sprouts, Chinese curry, Moroccan cauliflower steaks, braised mince bourguignonne, onion gravy, plus much, much more!

Crammed with wholesome, satisfying, healthy, and nutritious ingredients, cooking vegan never tasted so good!

What did I think?

I had no idea that Sibel Hodge, an author whose amazing thrillers I have previously read, had also published not just one but two vegan cookbooks.  I admit to having a bit of an addiction to buying cookbooks but then never cooking anything from them so I was determined to actually try my hand in the kitchen in order to review Deliciously Vegan Everyday Kitchen.

I had a good flick through first to see what caught my eye and selected a few recipes I wanted to try.  Then the virus that shall not be named hit the UK; food stockpiling left supermarket shelves empty and I couldn't get a single green pepper for love nor money.  So I ended up only making two of the dishes but not only would I make them both again, the spaghetti bolognese has already been made again and has become a firm favourite.

I've been a pescatarian for more than half of my life so I'm no stranger to a meat-free diet and with more people turning to a plant based diet, veganism is no longer something to be scared of.  For anyone new to a vegan diet, Sibel Hodge includes an absolutely invaluable 'Quick Tips' section at the start of the book.  Hands up if you're afraid of tofu?  <Raises hand>  I never had any idea how to prepare or cook these little white chunks that so many people rave on about and although I haven't yet worked up the courage to try it, thanks to Sibel Hodge's quick tips, I will definitely give it a go in the future.  The tip about buying fresh root ginger is absolute genius too!

The recipes are split into four sections: Meze and dips, Sumptuous Salads, Sides & Sundries and Light Bites & Main Meals.  I made two recipes from the Light Bites & Main Meals section: Quick Pita Pizza and Rich Spaghetti Bolognese.  The recipes are so clear and simple, perfect for the novice cook (i.e. me) and they don't have any weird and wonderful ingredients for which you have to search high and low, unless you're looking for a simple green pepper during lockdown of course.

My Quick Pita Pizza attempt almost fell at the first hurdle: cutting a wafer thin pita bread in half.  Not one to give up easily, I stuck it in the toaster for a minute so that it filled with air and gave me a fighting chance.  I was concerned that this might make it too crispy, so I found that you can also put it in the microwave for a few seconds.  So with pita bread successfully separated into two halves, I then made my pizza as per the recipe INCLUDING green peppers (painstakingly picked out of a bag of frozen mixed peppers with frost bitten fingers).  They taste delicious and really are very simple to make; the hardest part is halving the pita bread!

My Quick Pita Pizza

The Rich Spaghetti Bolognese is DELICIOUS!  I may have misinterpreted the recipe at the first attempt as 200g of spaghetti was a lot of pasta for two people.  I think it maybe refers to cooked rather than dry pasta so I amended this when I made it again.  There is a huge quantity of bolognese to share between two people so I think this would easily stretch to three.  I also made a slight adjustment as we like our meals with a bit of heat, so I added 2 teaspoons of chilli powder and it was AMAZING!  I was very pleased with my effort, thank you Sibel Hodge.

My Rich Spaghetti Bolognese

With over 80 recipes to choose from, each one with a colour photograph, you're sure to find a new favourite dish among this great selection.  I loved that a lot of the recipes are for 2 people so I didn't have to amend the quantities or make the full amount and freeze any leftovers.  Simple, quick and tasty, Deliciously Vegan Everyday Kitchen is THE vegan cookbook to have on your shelf (or even your virtual shelf as it transfers perfectly to ebook).

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

BLOG TOUR: The Butcher (Rub-a-Dub-Dub Book 1) - Nathan Burrows

I have an amazing damppebbles blog tour for you today!  It's time for a bit of dark comedy courtesy of The Butcher by Nathan Burrows.  Scroll down to read my review as part of the blog tour.

She thought it was pork. She was wrong.

The first time hapless food inspector Emily Underwood meets butcher Frank Pinch, he’s not got much at all in his display counters. But what he does have is a rather unusual plan to restock his shelves. The next time they bump into each other, he’s won an award for his sausages but is running out of meat.

Can Frank keep up production of his unusually tasty sausages? Will Emily discover the source of Frank’s award-winning meat? And what will happen the next time she tries to inspect his butcher’s shop?

Book 1 in the Rub-a-Dub-Dub trilogy, this deliciously British dark comedy will change the way you look at sausages forever.

What did I think?

As a non-meat eater and much to the chagrin of my family and friends, I have always referred to sausages as being made of hooves and @rseholes and containing no meat at all, so I was really intrigued when I read the synopsis of The Butcher by Nathan Burrows.  It had me at 'She thought it was pork. She was wrong.'  That has to be the best strapline ever!

In a not too distant future, The Butcher is set in Norwich post-Brexit where we Brits can barely afford to eat as everything is so expensive.  The local butcher, Frank Pinch, and his farmer brother, Tom, are struggling to make a living until the pair stumble upon a recipe for some prize winning sausages.  Suddenly Frank goes from having half-empty shelves to having a queue out of the door; news of his amazing sausages spreads far and wide and he even gets a visit from a red-headed celebrity.  Frank and Tom also get a less welcome visit from recently qualified Food Standards Agency inspector, Emily.  Will they pass the inspection or will Emily find out what is really in Frank's sausages?

The humour is very dark and dry which had me laughing along as I read; I was over three quarters of the way through and just thinking that it wasn't laugh out loud funny when I had a huge laugh out loud moment and had to share what I was laughing at.  As much as it is funny, it's actually a very thought-provoking book as you can never really know exactly what you're eating and it always surprises me when people eat pies simply labelled as 'meat'.  What kind of meat is it?  Cow? Horse? Cat? Man?

With the most unlikely serial killers you will ever come across, The Butcher contains more humour than there is meat in a sausage to make a unique comedy crime novel.  If you have a sense of humour, you will LOVE this book; I can't wait to read book 2, The Baker, especially after the little teaser in the back of The Butcher.  I think this is going to be a brilliant trilogy.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it for only 99p/99c for a limited time from:
Amazon UK 
Amazon US 
Google Books
Kobo



About the author:

Nathan Burrows is a writer based in Norfolk in the United Kingdom. His debut novel, a legal thriller called 'Blind Justice', was published in March 2018.

He's also the author of a dark comedy trilogy set in Norfolk. The first in the series is 'The Butcher', a deliciously funny story about - amongst other things - sausages. The second in the series is 'The Baker', which features Norfolk's most useless cult. And finally, 'The Candlestick Maker' is about a fitness instructor with a difference.

The next book to be released will be 'Man Down', a return to more traditional thrillers. It's a military story set in Afghanistan which will be released in the Autumn, 2019. Also releasing later in the year is 'Finding Milly', which explores just how far a man will go to find his missing daughter.

Nathan's a keen reader as well as a writer. He occasionally runs marathons, has a Norwich City football club season ticket, and is the proud part-owner of a Daschund puppy called Bertie. 

For more information, visit www.nathanburrows.com


Find Nathan on Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NathanBurrowsUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NathanBurrowsUK/
Website: https://nathanburrows.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nathan-Burrows/e/B079KS96CQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

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BLOG TOUR: Artful Eating - Karina Melvin

This book can change your life forever!

Rediscover the magic of eating for pleasure and enjoy a life of balance with the freedom to eat the foods you want without dieting.

Artful Eating will take you on a journey filled with stories, life lessons, practical tools and strategies all rooted in the most up to date scientific and psychological research. Learn how to reprogram your mind to lose weight and achieve the body you desire, by changing your thoughts, behaviours and approach to pleasure.

Successful weight loss is not about what you eat, it's about why and how you eat. We are missing the most vital ingredient in the weight loss battle: the mind. It is our mind that fuels every decision we make about food and by focusing solely on the symptom, the excess weight, we have lost sight of the cause.

There is no strenuous exercise regime, no food elimination, no strict meal plan, just powerful psychological tools and strategies which will create lasting change. You will be amazed at how easy it is to achieve the body you desire and truly deserve.

What did I think?

As a life long dieter, I am always looking for the next amazing diet book to be published.  I do always follow the plan and get varying results but one thing is constant: I always morph back into Miss Blobby as cutting out all my favourite food and drink just makes me want them more, resulting in the inevitable binge when I fall off the diet wagon.

So I opened Artful Eating feeling motivated and ready to try anything.  It wasn't long before I was nodding my head as everything Karina Melvin has written makes perfect sense.  Just making a simple conscious effort to eat half of everything is sure to make the pounds drop off.  As Karina says, the flavour and enjoyment is in the first few bites so if your body is crying out for a doughnut, simply have half of one and share the other half with a friend.  Your body will be satisfied and you'll feel good sharing too.

Any dieter will know that you have good days and bad days.  It's almost its own worst enemy; you have a good day so you reward yourself with a treat, meaning that you have a bad day.  This can sometimes result in falling off the wagon completely as you feel so bad that your diet has failed.  Karina doesn't encourage us to be good all the time, just good enough.  This completely removes the guilt out of eating so you can keep following the Artful Eating plan even when you have what traditional diets call a bad day.

I read Artful Eating with the purpose of reviewing it, so I didn't manage to complete all of the exercises which I think are pivotal to embedding this way of eating in your life.  I am definitely going to go back through the book to complete the exercises as Karina Melvin has completely inspired me to become an artful eater.  I have already begun trying to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry - it's actually a lot harder than you think!

The hardest thing for me will be leaving food on my plate.  I think back to when we are young: as a baby being a 'good girl' or 'good boy' for eating everything and as a young child being rewarded with a pudding for clearing our plate.  We are taught from an early age to eat all of our food in order to get a treat, so no wonder so many people hoover up their meals as if it's a race.  This is going to be the hardest habit for me to break but I am absolutely determined to do it.

I love the way the book is set out in sections representing parts of a meal: starter, main course, dessert and digestif.  It really helped to instil the mindset that food is there to be enjoyed and therefore eating something you enjoy isn't bad.  Although she doesn't profess to be the greatest cook, Karina Melvin has included some amazing recipes in her book that I can't wait to try.  Some that caught my eye: four-bean chilli (I love beans and anything spicy), courgette cake (to satisfy my sweet tooth), kitchen sink brown bread (there's nothing better than fresh homemade bread) and mini scones (the perfect treat and super-quick to make).

For me the key things in Artful Eating are:

• Listen to your body and eat when you're hungry
• Respond to your body's cravings by eating what type of food you want
• Taste and savour all of the flavours in your food
• Halve anything you eat
• Always leave food on your plate
• Be 'good enough' and remove guilt from eating
• Think of quality over quantity when buying food

Artful Eating is not like any diet book I have ever read before; you really can have your cake and eat it.  It isn't so much a diet plan as a way of life that will change the way you eat forever.  Artful Eating is so inspirational and I have every confidence that this amazing book will change my life.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon



About the author:

Karina Melvin is a Psychologist, with an MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the UCD School of Medicine, an MA in Addiction Studies and over ten years of formal training within the field of mental health, she has dedicated her work to helping people feel more at ease in themselves. She lectures in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in University College Dublin and practices from her clinic in Sandymount. Her first book, Artful Eating: The Psychology of Lasting Weight Loss, became a bestseller in Ireland.

Karina currently runs an online program ‘Artful Eating: At The Table’ (www.artful-eating.com), and hosts the Artful Eating podcast which is available to download from itunes.

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Mixing It Up - Tracie Banister

Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Manhattan upper-cruster Cecily Sinclair now uses that pricey utensil to dish up fancy French fare on her cooking show, Serving Romance. When there’s an executive shake-up at the network, she’s not worried. Not much anyway. Her show’s a hit after all. Why would the new CEO want to mess with success? 

The driving force behind several buzzed-about networks, Devlin Hayes is considered to be a wunderkind in the television industry. Although his plans to rebrand CuisineTV and make Serving Romance more Millennial-friendly don’t thrill Cecily, her charming, blue-eyed boss is a hard man to say “no” to and she really wants to keep her job—even if that means sharing screen time with a loathsome blast from her past. Mercurial Italian chef Dante Marchetti a.k.a. “Il Duce” was once Cecily’s boss, and she has the PTSD to prove it. 

Now the owner of one of the hottest restaurants in town, Dante’s egomania knows no bounds and his constant attempts to provoke and upstage Cecily make her want to conk him on the head with a sauté pan. She thinks they’re toxic together, but viewers love their chemistry and clamor for more. 

As Cecily battles to maintain the integrity of her show, she finds herself scheming and manipulating right along with Dante and Devlin. Is she fighting a lost cause? Does she really belong on TV, or would her culinary talent be better served elsewhere? And could one of the men who makes Cecily’s blood boil ignite a passion in her for something other than food?

What did I think?

It took me a little while to get into Mixing It Up as I didn't instantly warm to the main character of Cecily Sinclair, but there are so many other colourful characters that it wasn't long before I found that I was really enjoying it.

Cecily doesn't really need to work as her family are super-rich, but Cecily has a passion and flair for cooking; something her Grandmother looks down her nose at.  Cecily is the star of a TV cooking show, Serving Romance, but when a new CEO joins the station he brings new ideas with him.  It isn't long before Cecily is forced to share the stage with guest chefs and that's not a problem at all until one of the guests is her ex-boss, Dante Marchetti.  Dante was Cecily's boss when she was training and he'd leave her quivering in fear like a jelly if her dishes didn't come up to his satisfaction.  Now Cecily is the star, will Dante cope with taking orders from her?

There is so much friction between Cecily and Dante that they become an overnight sensation and the station decides to make Dante a more permanent feature so a new show is born: Mixing It Up.  With such a fine line between love and hate, tempers flare and passions soar between Cecily and Dante.  There are some great scenes between the pair of them, and Dante often had me in kinks of laughter with his naughty Italian humour.

Putting the cooking show to one side for a moment, I have to say that I loved Cecily's crazy family particularly her quirky cousin, Dina. Dina is certainly a free spirit and isn't afraid to raise her grandmother's eyebrows - in fact with both Dina and Cecily refusing to conform to their privileged upbringing, granny Bernadine's eyebrows must be permanently raised.

Mixing It Up is difficult to read without your tummy rumbling and your mouth watering as each dish is described in delicious detail.  I really wish it had been a scratch and sniff book to see if the delectable cooking aromas I was imagining matched up to real life.  Anyone who loves The Great British Bake Off and other popular TV cookery shows, will love this book - it almost made me want to reach for my apron and whip something up in the kitchen...almost! 

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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