didn’t you use to be queenie b? by terri-lynne de fino

This was a miss for me. The book is about Regina, who serves soup at a local soup kitchen, and she used to be a celebrity chef. Queenie B lost everything, went into rehab, apparently got sober, fell off the face of the earth. Gale is a newly sober chef in a reality show competition, Regina helps him and he doesn’t understand that she used to be a celebrity chef. 

I thought this seemed like a really fun premise, but it lost something in execution. I did like how each chapter gives you a food term like “al dente” or “flambe” or “blanche” and then describes what it means. I didn’t connect to any character in the book, I found myself drifting off, I had a hard time getting through the narrative. As intriguing as the blurb was, it is almost like the book had no plot at all. Maybe it was the disjointed narrative. 

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. I was given an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. Book to be published April 15, 2025.