More to Love by Alison Bliss
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The latest in the Perfect Fit series features Max, the instigator friend of the heroes and heroines of the last two books, and Jess, a chef who runs her own food truck. She’s just moved to Granite and she’s taken the town by storm. Unfortunately, another restaurant is suffering and as a consequence, Max leaps before he looks and decides to lie to Jess by telling her that he’s a food inspector and puts her through some hoops. And yes, along the way, some romance happens.
The Good. In this case, I really liked that Max is the one with the food issues, having been the chubby kid who was picked on and determined to beat his food addiction. I loved Jess, who picked up and decided to follow her dream and move to a new town and start a new business. I loved seeing my fave couple from the previous book. When the focus is on Max and Jess’s romance, I enjoyed their interaction and I wanted more. However….
The Bad. That blurb above? It was painful to type, because I thought the “lie” was pointless and really detracted from the story. There was so much to unpack with Max’s strict diet, just falling for a BBW who isn’t that strict with her diet and cooks so many delicious and rich foods was a big theme that isn’t typically explored in romances, especially from the male POV. THAT was the story that I wanted to read and that I felt would come organically from these characters. The food inspector lie was annoying, made Max look worse than he needed to (and I was excited for his story), and made the big beats that were going to play out pretty obvious. And yes, the “surprise” twist at the end? How much better could it have been if it was woven through the story from the beginning. That lie was such a waste of a story.
Everything in Between. There was some good moments with past characters (shoutout to Logan and Valerie, how I loved you two). I liked the detail in the food truck scenes, which felt genuine. Basically, I enjoyed anything that wasn’t tied to the big lie, because I could see the story it could have been, not the story it ended up being.
I really, really wished I liked this story more than I did. Max was the one I was looking forward to, but the central plot point regarding the lie was just pointless and didn’t work for me.
If you want to check out this series, I’d recommend On the Plus Side and pass on this one. *shrugs* Oh well.
**ARC provided by publisher via netgalley for review**
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