“It makes me feel like you could only belong to one place and that our bodies are rooted in a location instead of being transient and fluid.”

Xavier Reynolds isn’t particularly well on his return to Harper’s Cover, Maine. He’s just been dumped, passed over for a prestigious fellowship, and had to move back in with his parents. The last thing he wanted to do was to work at restaurant in town to earn some money. Especially since the hot, single-father chef who owns it drives him crazy. Logan O’Hare, on the other hand, doesn’t understand Xavier or why every word out of his mouth is dripping in sarcasm. Unfortunately, he has no choice but to hire him. Not only does he need more help in the kitchen, but Xavier has a great palate. Slowly they start to understand each other a little more until the heat between them threatens to top the Scoville scale. Then they’ll have to decide if they can make their new relationship work or if life has different plans.

I like food books. I like food books. This book has food. I have to remember to be objective about books where food plays a prominent role. It’s difficult sometimes. So, while I generally enjoyed this, there were a few things that stopped it from being a stellar read. I liked all the talk of food and working in the kitchen, I enjoyed the characters overall, and even the plot generally speaking. It didn’t bother me that this was slower paced and that the spice scale was quite low. However, I think in order to give it more layers and depth, that it would have benefited from having dual POV.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I really enjoy listening to people talk about food and reading food related books. Basically, you tell me that it is a romance with food elements and I am there. I love hearing the different ideas for food that people come up with for their fictional restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, and catering companies. Some of them I think sound amazing, but generally they never fail to make me hungry, which can be good or bad depending on the day and the time. This one didn’t discuss ideas that were too revolutionary in their recipes. However, I really enjoyed the discussion around food as family history.

Xavier discusses his family passing down recipes to each other and I agree that food can play a central role in family history. Often, when we see our family, we’re celebrating a holiday or a special occasion and we dig out recipes we save for these events. For example, my mother has a chocolate-cherry cake recipe from like the 1950s, that was my grandmother’s and she always bakes it for my birthday. I love that cake so much I would eat it year round, but she only bakes it for my birthday and that makes it so much more special. One day, if my children like it, I will bake it for their birthdays. In that way, a little piece of family history is passed down each time we eat it.

Something that other people have mentioned is that the pacing for this is a little strange. It feels like large sections of development are missing from the middle. The relationship moves at a very quick pace. And it is true. There is a time jump in the middle of the book of like six weeks, where we don’t really get to see their relationship truly develop. However, I think the reason for this is that the author felt that he had done a good enough job putting down the foundations of what their relationship would be like.

Another thing that others have mentioned, that I agree with, is that this would have benefited from having dual POV. Xavier is our sole POV through this whole thing and not to insult the man, but I would argue that Logan’s (39) POV would have provided some extra gravity to the book. He’s the character with more interesting things going on and that just could be because I’m getting old, but Xavier (26) is also just so young in comparison. There is a thirteen year age gap, which I can appreciate, but Xavier hasn’t quite finished himself out yet, and that’s fine. Since he was so sarcastic, Logan would have added a bit of levity to the book and I would have liked to hear how he viewed everything going on.

Something that people will wonder is if this book is “spicy”. There is some relatively spicy language and thoughts, but not much actually occurs on page. There is a sex scene, but it isn’t going to be pushing any boundaries on the smut meter. Tasteful? I guess that is a way I could phrase it. I mean, this isn’t a Roan Parrish book. There was still enough to make me blush on my bus commute.

Overall I enjoyed this book and I look forward to checking out more by Kosoko Jackson in the future. This was a cute romance, but fell just shy of being either a new favorite or a stellar read. I think if you’re a fan of either Boyfriend Material or Red, White, and Royal Blue, Xavier is a similar sarcastic type of narrator that you might enjoy. Also, if you like food books, age gap romance, a little steam, and quaint towns. Happy Reading!

Have you read A Dash of Salt and Pepper? What did you think? Have you read any other books by Kosoko Jackson? Let me know in the comments below!

Important Bits:
Length: 384 pages
Published: December 6th 2022 by Berkley Books
Representation: Black Gay MC, Black SCs, Older Bi LI
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, Biphobia, anger, abuse
Awards: None yet.
Also by: AA Place For Wolves (2019), Out Now: Queer We Go Again! (2020), Yesterday Is History (2021), Love All Year 2021 (2021), Black Love Matters (2022), I’m So (Not) Over You (2022), Survive the Dome (2022), A Dash of Salt and Pepper (2022), Night of the Living Queers (2023), The Forest Demands Its Due (2023)