Flavor of the Month by Georgia Beers
- Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, 2020
- Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
- Format: Paperback (eARC)
- Page Count: 240 pages
- My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Charlie Stetko and Emma Grier were best friends since they were eight. Later, they were each other’s first love and first everything. As Charlie graduated from college, leaving for Manhattan with a successful businesswoman who then became her girlfriend, she subsequently broke off contact with Emma for years, leaving the latter’s heart in pieces. Now that Charlie was dumped and broke, she headed back to her hometown Shaker Falls as a last resort. With Charlie working at a bakery baking pies across from Emma’s restaurant, the pair needed to figure out their own feelings, thoughts, and priorities.
While I wasn’t thrilled about some of the questionable and untimely decisions the pair were making, I have to say that Beers sure knew how to build up a solid story. If we free ourselves of judgements on both Charlie and Emma and really experience what they were feeling, it wasn’t hard to relate to them. Yes, Charlie made horrible decisions in her early-20s, and yes, Emma had worked so hard to move on with life. But when we follow Beers’s words and understand Charlie’s rapid growth as well as comb through Emma’s conflicting emotions, we can see the complexities of their characters and the plot line. I happen to find the rich taste of a wonderful pie a great analogy for the book.
The stylistic choice of the sex scene was very on point. With long sentences and many commas, Beers delivered brimming feelings while showing desperateness that was almost like gasping. Despite the choice of stylistics being good, the words were not. I have to point out that there was one occurrence of the word ‘Eskimo’, even though everyone in 2020 should agree not to use it.
Flavor of the Month is a bittersweet book on loss and re-trust. It has mirroring storylines focusing on redemption and facing your past on your own terms. And through this journey, we ultimately see if Charlie’s sincerity is enough to redeem herself. [20 Mar 2020]
I received an e-ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
