Customer Reviews

Hot Dish

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love Connie Brockway's historical romances, and picked this book up expecting it to be her venture into the contemporary romance genre. Well, it is....but not in the way I expected. The romance is kept to a minimum (though still very well done). The focus of the book is Jenn's relationship with her 'hometown,' and Steve's growth into a man who can commit to a woman for a long-term relationship. The 'butter head' (a bust of Jenn carved in a large block of butter when she was in high school) is a recurring theme, and almost every reference to it made me laugh out loud (unfortunately for my seat mate on the plane). Ms. Brockway has such a deft touch in describing the Minnesota small town's inhabitants; I almost felt like I knew them.

One of the funniest books I've read in a long time.

Ok, I was really excited to read this as I love her historical romances. The premise on the back of the book even sounded like something I'd like to read (I'll refrain from doing a plot summary here, as it has been summarized by many other reviewers on this page).

For starters, this book never really "captured" my interest, as it had way to many chapters with too many points of view (from minor characters). That was the first thing that bugged me. I figured it would get better if I just gave it a chance, but, alas, it never did. Also, If you like 20/30 year old main characters, be forwarned that the girl is 40 and the guy is nearing fifty. That fact didn't bother me as much as it might bother some, but I figured I'd warn prospective readers.

I never really connected with this book or it's plot. I did make myself finish this book (because I really hate buying a book and not reading it), but I found it truly painful to finish. Think twice before picking up this book! I hope I can expect better from Connie Brockway in the future!

Oh, how I miss Connie Brockway's older books after having read this one. I have read every one of her previous books and have several on my keeper shelf, so I was anxious to give her contemporary romance (if that's what it was) a try.

It is the story of how a woman spends some twenty years of her life trying to reclaim the feeling of security she lost when her well-to-do parents lost everything they owned (except for a cabin in Minnesota) in Las Vegas.

It was a story full of too many irrelevant details about too many goofy secondary characters. The romance was barely given a chance to develop before the end of the book and the one sex scene was about as unromantic as they get. There were a couple of laugh out loud moments that reminded me of the old Connie Brockway books but they were few and far between. The plot was very silly and the book was very difficult to finish.

I have given the book 2 stars only out of respect for Connie, but I can only say that her contemporary fiction is not my cup of tea.

Robbed of her tiara and college scholarship due to a technicality 20 years earlier, Jenn Lind hates all things Minnesota. But she manages to parlay her time as an outcast in her small town to her advantage and becomes the ultimate Minnesotan - at least to the media. On the cusp of national stardom, she has to travel back her small Minnesota hometown to co-marshal a festival with sexy sculptor Steve who carved her likeness into a huge brick of butter. That butter head has survived all these years and is the key to where his first sculpture is, so Steve has a vested interest in traveling to the festival. Add to the mix a town of wary citizens, disgruntled city workers, a shrewish ex-wife, and a thief on a mission, and chaos ensues before the festival even starts- especially when the butter head suddenly goes missing.

At times Brockway's debut contemporary novel is funny, but overall, the story is flat, the Minnesotans are portrayed as bumpkins, and the novel travels at a snail's pace. The dialogue is kind of cheesy and there is no real chemistry between the two leads. For me, the novel was just pretty average, and I couldn't help but thinking that she should stick with writing historical romances.

Let me preface with the fact that I have loved Brockway's historical, passionate romances. This book, being her first contemporary romance, differed from those historicals on many levels. There was some positive aspects to the book. Brockway still had some engaging and witty dialogue which has always characterized her work. There were moments of humor, but overall, I was not engaged. I cannot even begin to pinpoint what exactly went wrong but from the onset, I had trouble reading the book and becoming involved with the characters. Usually, I can sit down with a Brockway book and finish it within a few hours to the exclusion of all else. This time, my house was clean a third of the way through, and then the garage was clean by the time I reached the halfway mark. I thought it significant that I chose housework over reading the book! It just plodded along too slowly and for supposedly intelligent characters, it seemed rather odd that they came to certain realizations so slowly and then others (like falling in love), too quickly. The dialogue between Jenny and Steve was great but sparse with all the buildup leading up to their seeing each other again after 20 years. It was just different. It was also hard to relate to Jenny's animosity for the small town even though she kept whining about all its problems. It was also hard to relate to Steve's apparent infatuation with the place after such a brief foray in the environment. Unfortunately nothing much clicked for me and I kept wondering and hoping that the Brockway I have enjoyed so thoroughly would suddenly surface. Alas, I will pick up her next book just hoping that she does better and I appreciate her efforts but this one just isn't a keeper.

I usually LOVE Connie Brockway. I have read all of her historical novels, and many of them are on the 'Must Keep' shelf of my book case. But this was the first novel of hers that I just did not enjoy. I finished it, but I it was like pulling teeth. I found it very choppy and disjointed, jumping from here, to there and with all these different points of view.

She is still on my list as a favorite author, but now instead of buying her books sight-unseen, I might pause a moment and read the first few chapters (at least with her contemporary novels).

The premise of this book sounds like it should be good for a laugh and a sweet romance, but I really couldn't get into it. I'm a fan of Connie Brockway's historical works, and the descritpion for this contemporary sounded promising.

Unfortunetly, I found myself turning pages half-heartedly. The idea of the butter head seemed funny at first, but in execution I wasn't really that entertained. Also, for some reason I didn't really click with these characters. The chemistry wasn't really evident to me, so it was hard to root for their relationship.

I'm also usually a big fan of a country girl returning to the small town, but this "girl" and the "town" didn't become particularly endearing until more than halfway through the book.

I think Brockway is a good writer, but her historicals are much better that this one.

This is my first Connie Brockway book, but it won't be my last. I truly enjoyed her contemporary romance debut. I was especially thrilled to find a heroine that was old enough to have made mistakes in life and learned from them as a result, and a hero that was imperfect as well. Their story is compelling, funny, and sticks with the reader. I also loved the secondary characters.

You can go home again, and Connie Brockway takes us all there in "Hot Dish".

I'm sick of chick lit, and I thought this was chick lit at first but it isn't. The heroine is older, in her thirties -- it's hilarious but at the same time there's a serious streak here.

And, I have to add, one incredible sex scenes. I loved Connie Brockway's historicals but I think I like this book even more!

I was excited to read Connie Brockway's foray into contemporary fiction and I was not at all disappointed by "Hot Dish."

When I moved to Minnesota in 1998, I visited the state fair with my family and was perplexed to find sculptures of the dairy princesses in the dairy building. What was perplexing was the busts were carved out of huge blocks of butter. I'd never seen anything like it and within two years my curiosity led me to interviewing the sculptress and writing an article about her work.

The butter sculptures are my favorite thing about the Minnesota state fair and I couldn't have been more delighted to find Ms. Brockway had prominently featured a butter head sculpture in her story. So prominent, it virtually becomes a secondary character with amusing subplots.

Jenn Lind has harbored resentment toward the Fawn Creek, the small town she was forced to live in when her parents lost all their savings in a gambling fiasco. As a teenager, Jenn attempts to use a beauty pageant (with a college scholarship as the prize) as her ticket out of the town. However, things don't go according to her plans. She eventually escapes Fawn Creek and works toward security and success. Twenty years later Jenn must make an obligatory visit to Fawn Creek to preside as Grand Marshall of the town parade in order to secure her position as a television star.

I won't give away the plot but settle in with a warm afghan and a mug of hot BUTTERED rum to enjoy this story of a woman's revenge on the small northern town that did her wrong.