This is a sweet and fast and very predictable read. It has deeper topics but it's also a low angst romance.

The cover was a bit misleading; at least I was disappointed that we didn't get to see as much of the lobsterwoman's work as the chef's and that the setting was mostly indoors.

But I really liked the characters. They were complex in personality and appearence. Although they started their relationship with actions that were kind of childish, they did stay in my head. The MCs were equally flawed and overwhelmed by the romance and just freaking out through all of the story which was cute. So it was entertaining to read, if not super realistic plot-wise. And I liked the themes about addiction and a past abusive work relationship.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel all of the character's emotions and their chemistry. The book was clearly written with a passion for sapphic romances but there were a few flaws in the writing where I thought a more polished prose would've helped. It's a very literal writing style with lots of extra information and repetition (especially in the beginning). The story was told in past tense, but with an added layer of retrospective narration I didn't like, because some scenes seemed to have unnecessarily skipped a few days, just to tell it in retrospection. What bugged me the most was that a lot of scenes were cut short to change pov which is fine, but then the second pov started with a recap of what had already happened on-page.

All of that leads to a story that is actually quite short because of the telling, but at the same time unnaturally made longer. It could've also needed a bit more conflict between the love interests.

Overall, the characters made the story worth the read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.