If you’ve followed my blog for awhile you have may have noticed that I took part in a blog tour for Stella Newman’s novel The Dish where Stella ‘dished’ on some of the disastrous dates she’s had. 

I enjoyed being a part of the blog tour that when I saw Headline had ARCs for the book on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance. So, thank you to lovely Frances Gough at Headline for letting me be a part of the blog tour and thank you to all the people for Headline at NetGalley for granting me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

And let me be honest, The Dish didn’t disappoint.

BUY BOOK (Out May 21st 2015!) |ADD TO GOODREADS

Laura Parker has had a mini setback in life, but she’s found her feet and is currently working for magazine The Voice and writing anonymously as the critic for The Dish.

After a disastrous fourth date, Laura heads off to get a bacon sandwich and a custard doughnut, only to discovered the last of both has been taken by Adam Bayley, a man currently sitting at the table behind her.

Upon inspection she discovers he is handsome and smart and outdoes all the previous men she has dated. Although perfect, Laura has a problem, she must keep her job as restaurant critic a secret; tricky when Laura is an honest person. And how can she expect Adam to be honest when she isn’t quite telling the truth herself?

REVIEW

I want to start by saying that I enjoyed The Dish more than I initially thought I would. It was a delightful read that was, if you’ll forgive the pun, full of flavour.

I found myself really relating with Laura. Her humour, her way of thinking and I felt like I was living my old childhood dreams of working at a magazine vicariously through her. As a lifelong member of the Lonely Hearts Club, I could sympathise with how utterly unlucky Laura has been in the romance department. Honestly, when she wasn’t resonating with personality traits I have, she reminded me a lot of one of my favourite fictional ladies Bridget Jones. I guess this means that Adam’s Mark Darcy?

Laura’s down-to-earth character and her life add to how real the story of the book feels. From the tragedies that Laura has encountered to her day-to-day working life, The Dish felt wholly believable as if someone out there could be living Laura’s life sans Adam and custard doughnut, bacon sandwich debacle. Or maybe there are people out there who are just that lucky in love?

The Dish has a brilliant array of characters ranging from Laura’s lovely family to her cool work colleagues who provide entertaining e-mail exchanges gossiping about pretty much everything. Each character is distinctive and entirely likable (except for you Sandra!) While we’re on the topic of the rather sulky Sandra, I want to commend Laura for biting her tongue around that god-awful woman for as long as she did. Not even I could control my anger and dislike towards this thankfully fictional woman.

Cleverly written from start to finish, I had no problems losing myself in The Dish. While the story could sometimes be predictable on a few occasions, that didn’t spoil my enjoyment or make me want to give up because Stella’s writing pulls you in. You become so involved with these characters that you simply must know what happens to them.

I urge everyone to pre-order this today because you really won’t regret. Thank you to Headline for providing me a copy in exchange for a review.

RATING
★★★★★