The Bear meets It Happened One Summer in this delicious new romance from USA Today bestselling author Grace Reilly, in which a down-on-his-luck chef and a determined social media maven strike a reluctant deal to bring a beloved restaurant back to life.
If you can’t take the heat…get out of the kitchen.
After a public meltdown in the dining room of one of Manhattan’s most elite restaurants, Chef Jack Hartman is back in his South Florida hometown. Angry, grieving, and saddled with the unwanted storefront his late mentor left him, his life is spinning out of control. And that’s before Poppy Winfield, the blond, bubbly, utterly infuriating daughter of his former boss, shows up at his dock.
Poppy needs to escape. From her disapproving family, her horrible ex-boyfriend, and her reputation as someone who has never taken anything seriously. But more than that, she wants to prove herself—and she has just the plan to do it. Unfortunately, that plan involves Jack Hartman, the most arrogant, prickly, intimidating man she’s ever had the pleasure of throwing a shrimp at.
She knows Jack is desperate to come back from his unceremonious firing, so she proposes a working together to open a revamped version of his mentor’s restaurant. He’ll handle the menu, and she’ll use her skill as a social media influencer to sell the hell out of its grand opening. If she and Jack can make the restaurant a success, it’ll be an accomplishment no one can deny—and a ticket for them both to return to New York.
Jack is intrigued, but only on his if Poppy’s going to work for him, she must learn the ropes of the entire business. Including how to cook. From him.
As sparks fly both in and out of the kitchen and tensions reach a boiling point, Poppy and Jack are left wondering--could they be a perfect pairing? Or is this whole experiment a recipe for disaster?
TROPES
Grumpy-sunshine
Forced proximity
Friends with benefits
Opposites attract
Found family
If you can’t take the heat…get out of the kitchen.
After a public meltdown in the dining room of one of Manhattan’s most elite restaurants, Chef Jack Hartman is back in his South Florida hometown. Angry, grieving, and saddled with the unwanted storefront his late mentor left him, his life is spinning out of control. And that’s before Poppy Winfield, the blond, bubbly, utterly infuriating daughter of his former boss, shows up at his dock.
Poppy needs to escape. From her disapproving family, her horrible ex-boyfriend, and her reputation as someone who has never taken anything seriously. But more than that, she wants to prove herself—and she has just the plan to do it. Unfortunately, that plan involves Jack Hartman, the most arrogant, prickly, intimidating man she’s ever had the pleasure of throwing a shrimp at.
She knows Jack is desperate to come back from his unceremonious firing, so she proposes a working together to open a revamped version of his mentor’s restaurant. He’ll handle the menu, and she’ll use her skill as a social media influencer to sell the hell out of its grand opening. If she and Jack can make the restaurant a success, it’ll be an accomplishment no one can deny—and a ticket for them both to return to New York.
Jack is intrigued, but only on his if Poppy’s going to work for him, she must learn the ropes of the entire business. Including how to cook. From him.
As sparks fly both in and out of the kitchen and tensions reach a boiling point, Poppy and Jack are left wondering--could they be a perfect pairing? Or is this whole experiment a recipe for disaster?
TROPES
Grumpy-sunshine
Forced proximity
Friends with benefits
Opposites attract
Found family
Title: Yes, Chef
Author: Grace Reilly
Publisher: Harper Audio Adult/Avon/Avon Harper Voyager
Publication Date: July 21, 2026
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Adult Audio/Avon/Avon Harper Voyager for providing me with a copy of this title to read/listen to and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I will be honest and what drew me to this title was the cover. It is just stunning. And once you get into the story a bit, you start to understand the symbolism of it. This is my first Reilly title and I was excited to give her a try.
I'll start by talking a bit about the narration portion of this title. I didn't love it. While I liked the narrators enough, it was super hard to hear the male narrator much of the time as his voice was super low. I kept having to turn the volume way up and then rewind over and over again to catch what he said. I got about 10% into the audio before I gave up and decided to switch to print. I will say the print read much better than the audio for me so if I were to suggest this book to anyone, it would not be to read it in the audio format.
I loved the concept of this book. I don't know much about being a chef, but I've seen some shows that have caught my interest and I wanted to see how something like that would play out on paper. I enjoyed the food part, the preparation, etc. It was interesting and I learned a thing or two I had no idea about. But once the story got going, I had a really hard time staying focused enough to care about what was happening.
Poppy is a social media influencer whose family is in the restaurant business. When she has a blow out with her boyfriend for all to see, she steps back to try and figure out her life. Enter Jack Hartman, a chef at her father's well known restaurant, who also has a blow out at the same restaurant, at the same time, and loses his job over it. With nothing to lose, and a restaurant inherited from his father figure, Jack goes to Florida to try and revive the restaurant and Poppy ends up tagging along with him. As the two spend time together, they grow closer and eventually give in to their mutual attraction.
I can honestly say I didn't love either of these characters. Poppy is interesting enough but she just doesn't grow enough in the book for me to care about her development. She's definitely a spoiled brat who is learning a hard lesson but I didn't connect with her at all. Jack was just a jerk overall. and honestly quite mean. I understand he has trauma and he wasn't really dealing well with it, but there's a point where it just gets old and you want the character to start to learn some lessons. He needed to earn my trust and show me he could be better than he originally comes off and that just never happened for me. I didn't care for him at all. I thought I would warm up to him eventually, as he and Poppy got closer, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. I love a grumpy x sunshine book but it just wasn't fun to watch their interactions.
I also had issue with the romantic chemistry in this book. I see the author was trying to make it a slow burn but it really just came off as slow in general. There was no real foundation for their romantic interest in one another. The characters just kept telling us about how sexy the other character was or how pretty or muscular. While they actual romance didn't take place until half way through the book, I never really felt the build up before that. I wanted banter and push and pull but all I got was descriptions of how their close proximity while in the kitchen made them want each other.
I also had issue with the ADHD representation. This book could have been such a great opportunity to address this neurodivergence but it just felt like it was used to try and make the book interesting rather than showing the research I wanted to see the author put into it. For someone who has a neurodivergent child, it was totally unrealistic and misrepresented.
I do see a lot of great reviews for this book so even though it wasn't my cup of tea, I'm sure it will resonate with others. There were times it was good, and I thought I'd get into it and it would take off for me. But then that momentum would come to a grinding halt and I just didn't care what was going on.
2.5 rounded to 3 stars
Author:
Hi! I’m Grace.
I’m so glad you’re here! Originally from Long Island, I now live in Florida, where I pretend the lizards in my backyard are miniature dragons and soak up the sunshine. I can usually be found with a notebook in one hand and a paperback (or my Kindle!) in another. A storyteller at heart with a deep romantic streak, I write what I love to read: stories filled with swoon and steam, laughter and love, family and friendships, and authentic, earnest emotions and growth. I love drawing on my personal passions for my books, which is how my sports fanaticism resulted in the Beyond the Play series.
More about me: I collect earrings, the quirkier the better. I never turn down a good mint chocolate chip ice cream. I listen to way too much sports talk radio. And I adore writing about couples who are stronger together.
I’m so glad you’re here! Originally from Long Island, I now live in Florida, where I pretend the lizards in my backyard are miniature dragons and soak up the sunshine. I can usually be found with a notebook in one hand and a paperback (or my Kindle!) in another. A storyteller at heart with a deep romantic streak, I write what I love to read: stories filled with swoon and steam, laughter and love, family and friendships, and authentic, earnest emotions and growth. I love drawing on my personal passions for my books, which is how my sports fanaticism resulted in the Beyond the Play series.
More about me: I collect earrings, the quirkier the better. I never turn down a good mint chocolate chip ice cream. I listen to way too much sports talk radio. And I adore writing about couples who are stronger together.
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