REVIEW: Simmer Down by Sarah Smith
In this finger-licking good rom-com, two is the perfect number of cooks in the kitchen.
Nikki DiMarco knew life wouldn’t be all sunshine and coconuts when she quit her dream job to help her mom serve up mouthwatering Filipino dishes to hungry beach goers, but she didn’t expect the Maui food truck scene to be so eat-or-be-eaten—or the competition to be so smoking hot.
But Tiva’s Filipina Kusina has faced bigger road bumps than the arrival of Callum James. Nikki doesn’t care how delectable the British food truck owner is—he rudely set up shop next to her coveted beach parking spot. He’s stealing her customers and fanning the flames of a public feud that makes her see sparks.
The solution? Let the upcoming Maui Food Festival decide their fate. Winner keeps the spot. Loser pounds sand. But the longer their rivalry simmers, the more Nikki starts to see a different side of Callum…a sweet, protective side. Is she brave enough to call a truce? Or will trusting Callum with her heart mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire?
Dear Ms. Smith,
I love the cover for this book. The blurb sounded like it would be lots of fun. I thought I would adore it. I wanted to adore it. I didn’t adore it for a number of reasons.
Food trucks seem to be the new cupcake bakeries of the romance book world. Nikki and her mother have been struggling with theirs – “Tiva’s Filipina Kusina.” It’s not because the food isn’t good or they don’t have good reviews, it’s because they started with little capital due to the medical bills from Nikki’s father’s terminal illness. Now they’ve found a spot to park and operate and have a good following every day. Then another truck parks near them which apparently contravenes the unspoken food truck law of not setting up business too near another operator.
Nikki tries to politely tell the handsome Brit guy this but he reacts with frosty anger, blowing her off and refusing to move. His argument that he’s not breaking any law cuts no mustard with Nikki who begins a prank war with him. He retaliates and soon this has gone viral. The resulting publicity drives up business for them both but Nikki and Callem continue to behave like toddlers having tantrums. Then one well known vlogger challenges them: whichever of them comes in ahead of the other in a local food festival will win the “rights” (though Callem is correct in that there’s no law about this) to stay in the coveted spot. The other truck will have to leave and search for another spot to set up.
At first I’m with Nikki in thinking that Callem is an arrogant arsehole. From a chance meeting Nikki has with Callem’s nicer brother, she learns that Callem doesn’t hate her after all. An “only in a romance novel” encounter with Callem breaks the ice and soon they’re negotiating a hot and heavy “fuck buddies” relationship which must stay secret because of the contest. Will their feelings change and if so, what happens then?
I went from enjoying this book to slogging through just to finish it. Nikki is very determined, very protective of her widowed mother, and not afraid to speak her mind. Initially I cheered her on when she told Callem off but as the silly pranks (which all get videotaped via the customers’ all having cell phones and posted online) continued, I wondered “how old are these people?” They’re supposed to be around age 30 but foul mouthed children having snits is a better description of how they actually act. But okay, it’s part of the book set-up.
Then they begin their romantic relationship and it’s obvious that Callem is actually a nice guy, trying to help his brother who has never gotten support from their parents. From this point on, IMO Callem shifts to an almost uber nice guy who deserves to find someone who cares as much about him as he does about them. Unfortunately IMO, Nikki pretty much fails to be that person.
The story is told in first person so there’s a lot of Nikki wailing and complaining and gnashing her teeth about everything that goes wrong in her life. She knows that she and Callem need to avoid being seen together because of the contest but of course, they (actually mainly she) do all sorts of things that will risk this. Okay again as this is the plot and some risk must be there.
But Nikki turns out not to be a very likeable character for me. She’s high maintenance, demanding that things go her way, pushing Callem away because she can’t risk falling in love and the pain that losing love would cause her (because of the pain she suffered when her beloved father died). She also ghosts her friends for over a year – at first okay because she had dropped everything to rush to her father’s side during his illness but in the many months after when she could have called them (the numbers were on her phone) she just sighed, was sad about it, and basically … that was it.
There’s a scene late in the book where Nikki discovers something her mom has been keeping from her and blows up, lecturing mom about “being open.” All this while she’s lying to her mom about her relationship with Callem that might put her winning the contest and the much needed money at risk. Then something happens and she brushes Callem off, loudly and in public. By this point I had lost patience with Nikki. She comes to her senses and mends fences and builds bridges and makes a grand romantic gesture but it was too late for me even if Callem rushes to take her back.
The Filipino food sounded divine, I did like how protective Nikki was of her mother and how determined she was to keep her mom’s dream of a food truck alive, Nikki did save a pregnant cat (yay!) but at the end, I couldn’t buy into the romance. And despite the cutesy cover, this is not a rom-com. C-
~Jayne
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I was so looking forward to this one and now I’m not sure it’s a book for me. It’s very likely that I would have all the same issues with it. :(
@Stella: I was very sorry that it didn’t work better for me. Have you read her first book? From the blurb it appears to also have an enemies-to-lovers theme.
What a joyous cover image. I love it.
@Stella, same. I’m glad I read this review, otherwise I probably would have bought it and probably been disappointed.
@Jayne: No, I wasn’t aware that this was book 2.
@Stella: This is her second book but I don’t think it’s part of a series.
I’m reading this now, and feeling many of the same frustrations. Plus I have several real world logic questions:
-how are Finn and Callem even working in the US?
-what is going on with the event Nikki and Callem cater and how on earth do they think in a community as small and as gossipy as the cooking one that NO ONE will figure out what’s going on?
-does the timeline even work–I didn’t count, but the dates seem way off in re when the contest takes place
-Nikki’s refusal to want to be in a relationship because of her grief over her dad’s death doesn’t quite line up for me
-if I’m already suspending so much of my disbelief, why can’t we just go the extra step and have them sit down for five minutes and talk about their relationship?
@Floating Lush: It’s been a little while since I read the book so bear with me since I’ve forgotten some of the details but –
IIRC Callem was already working in the US (Chicago? in finance?). I don’t think it was ever explained how Finn wrangled a visa beyond the fact that working in Hawaii was his dream.
Yeah that catered event with *all* the top foodie people there that Nikki *just had to* sneak out of the kitchen and poke her head around the dining room door to see how they liked the food was silly. But it set up the food vlogger who basically saved Nikki’s bacon after it’s discovered that she and Callem had been having a relationship.
I’m not sure about the time-line. I think I had stopped caring about things like that by then.
Nikki’s reason for not wanting to be in a relationship was at least different from the standard “My fiance(e)/spouse cheated on me/died and now I don’t trust anyone/will never love again” refrain that we see too much of in romance novels. But I think I rolled my eyes a bit when Nikki reveals this excuse.
Talk about anything?? Nikki?
Which reminded me of something that occurred to me after I posted the review. Nikki’s actions lost her the prize money but the vlogger got her the spot on another show. Nikki ghosted her friends but it was the friend who saw Nikki had won a spot on TV and reached out to get back in contact Nikki. So Nikki screws things up and others fix them for her.
@Jayne: tbf there are things about I like as well: the writing style is engaging, the cat is not a plot moppet, and I think the characters are generally well fleshed out.
It’s just some of the storyline choices I’m sighing over. And that I wish the publisher hadn’t tried to sell this as a romcom.
While I have noticed a lot of books set in the professional food world being published, I haven’t read very many of them, so I’m not over a particular niche (like food trucks or cupcake bakeries) yet, so that particular thing didn’t bug me, it was more a “that’s not how the food industry works.” And if I know that after only having watched Top Chef? I feel like maybe a little more research should have been done.
But it’s not a bad book! I don’t hate it! If she does something different for her next book (ie gets away from the enemies to lovers trope), I may even give it a whirl.
@Floating Lush: Yes about the writing style and the cat. But then I’m a cat lover. I’ve been reading a lot of people complaining that current books sold as rom-coms are turning out to all have dark drama added to them which is part of what happened here. Some people seem to like it while others ask what happened to my cute rom-com?
I haven’t read it but her first book was also enemies to lovers so yes, I’d like to see what else she can do. It didn’t help that I started another book shortly after this one that also had food, pranks, and an enemies to lovers theme. That one I DNF’d after a few chapters so I’m not feeling food books right now.