A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson

Sometimes two cooks in the kitchen are better than one in this swoony romantic comedy from the author of I'm So (Not) Over You.

Xavier Reynolds is doing less than stellar. He just got dumped, was passed over for a prestigious fellowship, and to top it all off he's right back home in Harper's Cove, Maine (population: 9,000). The last thing he wants to do is to work as a prep chef in the kitchen of the hip new restaurant in town, The Wharf. Especially since the hot, single-father chef who owns it can't delegate to save his life.

Logan O'Hare doesn't understand Xavier or why every word out of his mouth is dipped in sarcasm. Unfortunately, he has no choice but to hire him--he needs more help in the kitchen and his tween daughter, Anne, can only mince so many onions. It might be a recipe for disaster, but Logan doesn't have many options besides Xavier.

Stuck between a stove and a hot place, Logan and Xavier discover an unexpected connection. But when the heat between them threatens to top the Scoville scale, they'll have to d

This is a 3.5 really, because I thought the main character was mostly fantastic- my only issue was that his internal narrative needed an editor's red pen. Those passages were too wordy- I even found myself skimming a few which is very unlike me. I loved his humor and his love of The Devil Wears Prada but again- an edit was needed. I adored his love interest but any of you not comfortable with LGBTQ relationships -this one is not for you. This was my first LGBTQ rom-com book and I enjoyed it.

This book is overall charming and fun, but really only 3.5 ⭐️. The setting in Maine caused me some annoyance in how the author got things wrong about Maine/New England. There's a point where the narrator says driving across town takes 45 minutes, point a to point b in most any New England town cannot take 45 minutes driving, towns just aren't that big. Then the narrator (supposedly a Maine native) talks about how New England states are close together (true) and how Maine is a small state. Maine is the largest state in New England, and those from New England won't say that Maine is small because it's about the size of the other 5 states combined and Rhode Island exists. The weather described for the timeline of the book also didn't really fit, but this misunderstanding may have occurred because I read this book as an audiobook. Early on our main character compares his coastal Maine small town to Stars Hollow, it's lazy world building, stars hollow is a fictional town in Connecticut that is ~not~ full of fishermen. Lastly, the characters visited a store in Portland, and the store was named that has a location in Connecticut but not in southern Maine, maybe purely coincidental but it was truly jarring to read.
The humor and story ultimately save this book from an immature narrator and setting foibles that needed a stronger edit.
Tl;dr if you are a cranky yankee and will be annoyed at someone writing something set in New England without understanding New England don't read. If you couldn't care less go ahead.