with CLP Blog Tours
Getting Skinny by Monique Domovitch
A Chef Landry Mystery #1
Published February 4th, 2013 by Carina Press
Women Fiction Contemporary (Chick-Lit)
Premise:Owning a restaurant is as crazy for Nicky Landry as an alcoholic owning a bar. But despite having to cram herself into a body shaper to look decent in a dress, life is pretty good. She's throwing the party of the year for her graduating doctor boyfriend, Rob, who she's sure is going to propose—until his new girlfriend shows up at the party.
After ordering Rob to get his stuff out of her house and get lost, Nicky finds him faceup with her expensive Chroma knife sticking right out of his cheating heart.
As the prime suspect, Nicky is in hot water. And no matter how hard she tries to clear her name, her problems only mount. She's convinced she can solve the murder—if only she can figure out the identity of the skinny person seen walking away with Rob after the party.
Getting "Skinny" won't be easy for Nicky, but she never imagined it would be life or death…
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Review
My thoughts:
For over a year now, I've been reading only YA or NA titles, so it's been a while since the last time I read a proper Adult Chick-lit and I was really fearing this moment because I didn't know if I was going to like it or discover that chick-lit is no longer my thing.
Fortunately I think it's safe to say that Chick-lit is still one of my favorite genres out there and I'm really happy I got to read a fantastic book for this defining moment, because otherwise the outcome might have not been the same.
Getting Skinny is a really fun and intriguing story about a chef who think she has it all. Good friends, a new restaurant, the perfect boyfriend... Until, inconviniently what was supposed to be the best night of her life turns out to be the worst.
First, her perfect dessert is not going as planned, then she finds out her perfect boyfriend, Rob, is a duch-bag who's been cheating on her with a skinnier, prettier and younger girl and then -as if that wasn't bad enough- she finds her boyfriend's body in her backyard with her favorite knife protruding out of his chest. Just peachy! Now she's the prime suspect of a murder she didn't commit and since the police won't look for the real killer, she will have to do it herself, the problem is... she barely knows anything about this skinny person she saw with Rob that night...
The beginning of the book was a little bit slow, because we have the whole introduction to our heroine's world and the party she's giving to her boyfriend and a few cooking details and things like that. But when I got deeper into the story, I realize it was necessary, because I could understand how Nicky's mind worked thanks to that initial part.
I really enjoyed the mystery aspect in this novel. Going through the suspects and trying to figure out who was "Skinny" was so much fun! I went all Sherlock on every single detail... I won't spoil it for you, but the killer... wow! I didn't see that one coming, even if there are little hints all over...
I loved Nicky. She's so authentic, with her self-steem issues and her rambling mind. She's adorable and I really felt for her. I also really liked her best-friend Tony, she was awesome and funny and I think she was my favorite character in the whole book.
Also, I really liked the way Rob's character was built. Even when he was dead, we still could find layer after layer of who he really was and that was really interesting.
To summarize, I really enjoyed this book and I strongly recommend it if you like the genre. This is the first book in a series, so I'm really looking forward to book two!
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Guest Post: Monique Domovitch on Food and Getting Skinny
Dear readers,
What many of you might not know is that I blog about food and cooking on a regular basis, and have for the last four years. If you visit SkinnyRecipes.com—my site—you will find a variety of recipes. Having said that, I should mention that the site has just undergone a major restructuring after I was recently diagnosed with Celiac. Since then, I’ve eliminated the many hundreds of recipes I had previously posted, and I now concentrate strictly on gluten-free cooking. Getting rid of the old site was a difficult decision but in the end I decided I could not post recipes I could test myself.
Like a lot of ex fashion models, I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with staying thin. I’ve been on more diets than anybody has a right to be, and I’ve lost so many pounds (the same ones over and over again) that, even though I don’t have one, I can totally relate with a character with a weight problem. For these reasons, making food an important part of my novel was logical. I also felt that giving a character a few flaw would make her more likable, and would help readers relate to her. And just between you and me, how many girls do you know who are not obsessing about their weight? Not too many, right?
Nicky Landry, the main character, is a young chef with a weight problem. For her, working in a kitchen is as frustrating as an alcoholic working in a bar. But she loves her career and is a master chef. What Nicky decides, half way through the first book is to turn the restaurant, Skinny’s on Queen, into a low-cal restaurant, thus distinguishing her eatery from the thousands of other restaurants in the city.
You will love the added bonus in Getting Skinny. The last pages are devoted to a collection of wonderful low-cal recipes. I worked on these before my gluten-free days, so they are not only delicious, but the ingredients are easy to find and the dishes are easy to make. For those who are interested in the gluten-free version of those recipes, I am gradually adapting them for the Celiac diet and posting then on SkinnyRecipes.com.
So for a read that will keep you turning the pages while you laugh out loud, and then leave you dying to test the recipes, try Getting Skinny. And please let me know what you think. I always love to hear from my readers.
All my best,
Monique Domovitch
What many of you might not know is that I blog about food and cooking on a regular basis, and have for the last four years. If you visit SkinnyRecipes.com—my site—you will find a variety of recipes. Having said that, I should mention that the site has just undergone a major restructuring after I was recently diagnosed with Celiac. Since then, I’ve eliminated the many hundreds of recipes I had previously posted, and I now concentrate strictly on gluten-free cooking. Getting rid of the old site was a difficult decision but in the end I decided I could not post recipes I could test myself.
Like a lot of ex fashion models, I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with staying thin. I’ve been on more diets than anybody has a right to be, and I’ve lost so many pounds (the same ones over and over again) that, even though I don’t have one, I can totally relate with a character with a weight problem. For these reasons, making food an important part of my novel was logical. I also felt that giving a character a few flaw would make her more likable, and would help readers relate to her. And just between you and me, how many girls do you know who are not obsessing about their weight? Not too many, right?
Nicky Landry, the main character, is a young chef with a weight problem. For her, working in a kitchen is as frustrating as an alcoholic working in a bar. But she loves her career and is a master chef. What Nicky decides, half way through the first book is to turn the restaurant, Skinny’s on Queen, into a low-cal restaurant, thus distinguishing her eatery from the thousands of other restaurants in the city.
You will love the added bonus in Getting Skinny. The last pages are devoted to a collection of wonderful low-cal recipes. I worked on these before my gluten-free days, so they are not only delicious, but the ingredients are easy to find and the dishes are easy to make. For those who are interested in the gluten-free version of those recipes, I am gradually adapting them for the Celiac diet and posting then on SkinnyRecipes.com.
So for a read that will keep you turning the pages while you laugh out loud, and then leave you dying to test the recipes, try Getting Skinny. And please let me know what you think. I always love to hear from my readers.
All my best,
Monique Domovitch
About the author
Monique Domovitch lives with her husband and an ever expanding family of dogs. They travel extensively and she is never seen without her laptop. When is not writing or traveling, Monique is an avid baker.
Check out the rest of the tour for more reviews and amazing content!
Giveaway
**Everyone who leaves a comment on Monique’s tour page will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Getting Skinny before July 15 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**
Love,
