Under the Knife edition by Laurin Kelly Romance eBooks
Download As PDF : Under the Knife edition by Laurin Kelly Romance eBooks 
Season three of TV's hottest cooking competition, Under the Knife, is gearing up, and Nate is equal parts excited and terrified that he's one of the twelve competitors. But the prize is a quarter of a million dollars, and that's worth a few weeks of being stressed and afraid.
It may not, however, be worth weeks of putting up with Zachary, the cold, snotty competitor who definitely thinks he's better than everyone else. The man can cook, and he's the hottest man Nate has ever seen, but every time he opens his mouth Nate hates him all over again.
He came here to be driven crazy trying to prove he's the best chef in the world, but if Nate can't learn to block Zachary out it won't be the competition that pushes him to the breaking point.
Under the Knife edition by Laurin Kelly Romance eBooks
I had the privilege to read Under the Knife when it was free on LiveJournal, and I always loved Kelly's mature characters and obvious obsession with food (please do not read this book when you're hungry...) so I bought this book in hopes of supporting her future work. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see Zachary's POV like we had in the free LJ version. I understand it was probably cut to slim the novel down, but we lost so much background on Zachary. For example, the challenge where they had to cook "ethnic" foods for the rich married couple meant that Zachary had to cook Bosnian food, which in the LJ version he really resisted because of all the negative connotations with it that he felt living under the thumb of his father. It was a great way to see why Zachary was so attached to French cooking instead of the cooking he grew up with, but from Nate's POV, we didn't get any of that character development. We also got very little of his relationship with his sister, Lejla.However, if I'd just read this version, I'd probably not notice that so much was cut, because it flows pretty well without Zachary's POV-- which is probably why it WAS cut. Still, I liked Zachary more when I knew more about his motivations.
Anyway, I look forward to Kelly's future work and hopes that she keeps up the food obsession, because food porn is always welcome. I also appreciate the maturity and decency of her characters. I always love it when characters in romance novels act like well-adjusted adults instead of teenagers working through their first crush.
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Under the Knife edition by Laurin Kelly Romance eBooks Reviews
If you’re like me and enjoy watching reality-TV cooking competitions, Laurin Kelly’s debut novel, Under the Knife, will be right up your alley. If, on the other hand, you’re in the group of people who really hate reality-TV competitions, the relatively simple and low-angst romance underneath it may not satisfactorily overcome your dislike of the book’s setting.
Nate Pasternak is one of the twelve competitors for the third season of the popular TV show, Under the Knife, the winner of which will go home with a quarter of a million dollars. Excitement, nervousness, and sheer terror are all emotions he expected to have when he arrived in Los Angeles for the show. Lust, on the other hand, was not an expectation, but that’s exactly what he feels at the welcoming mixer when another competitor walks in who is exactly Nate’s type. It doesn’t take long, however, for Nate to realize that Zachary Kasun is a conceited and standoffish snob. While that should have been enough to keep Nate from losing his focus on the competition, he can’t help being drawn to the man, especially since it turns out Zachary’s attitude is justified the man is a phenomenal chef. He expected the pressure of the competition to drive him to the breaking point, but what if it’s Zachary that does it?
Based loosely (okay, maybe not so loosely) on Top Chef, at least three quarters of the page time in this novel is directly related to the cooking competition and the interactions among the contestants. Actually, it’s probably closer to 80 or 85%. It reads very much like a condensed version of watching an entire season, right down to talking about what the competitors made for each challenge and what the judges say about the dishes. Cooking shows are the only category of reality TV I like, so this format really worked for me. But I can’t stress this hard enough if you aren’t interested in this concept, you may not enjoy the book. Another necessary caveat in order to keep the story realistic, the author is not a bit sparing in her use of cooking terminology and in naming fancy dishes, and for the most part, it is assumed that the reader knows what these things are. This novel is on the long side already, so while it’s probably good that she made that decision to keep the book from being even longer—and for those of us who enjoy cooking and/or cooking shows, this isn’t a problem—be forewarned if you aren’t a food junkie, this too may hinder your enjoyment.
With all that in mind, the novel is fortunately about more than just the competition and food; after all, this is billed as a romance novel. To that end, we do get many behind-the-scenes interactions between the competitors. Everything is related through the point of view of Nate, so this allows us to get to know a few of the other competitors and see how Nate feels about Zachary throughout the competition. Their attraction is definitely a slow burn, partly because of Nate’s initial impression of Zachary’s personality but more because of the restrictions of having nearly every waking moment of their lives on camera, not just those during the competition. I’m a big fan of slow burn, so this also works for me, but I do need to state that if your preference in romance is for ample sexual interactions, you might be let down in this respect. That being said, the handful of one-on-one scenes between Nate and Zachary live up to the promise that a good slow burn should.
I mentioned earlier that Under the Knife is the debut novel for author Laurin Kelly. In some of my past reviews, I pointed out that I have a soft spot for new authors, but even if I didn’t, I could still happily say that not only is the story she presents one that I enjoyed, but the writing itself is also clear and solid, and the plot is without glaring holes and inconsistencies. While I liked Zachary and one of the secondary characters in particular, the story really centers around Nate, and the author did a fantastic job with him. He is the perfect character for this story in my opinion.
With the exception of the anxiety surrounding which competitor will be eliminated next in the competition, the story and the relationship between Nate and Zachary is about as low-angst as you can get. So this makes for an easy read overall. Granted, the setting for this story makes it somewhat easy to write as well—the research necessary has been on television for many seasons now. So while I enjoyed the similarity to watching such a show while I was reading this story, my only real complaint is that I wish she had spent a little more page space on the romantic aspect, not just the sexytimes but also on fleshing out some sort of conflict that would threaten to keep them apart in order to raise the intensity of the burn—there is a small something she talks about, but it amounts to almost nothing in the grand scheme of things. As such, if I hadn’t enjoyed the story behind the developing romance so much, these things may have affected my overall impression much more.
All in all, Under the Knife is a good first release from a new author. Even though it’s comparatively long in the romance genre, it’s an easy and fast read that I can recommend to most anyone. I look forward to seeing what Laurin Kelly comes up with for her sophomore effort.
Loved this book. I read it during a very difficult personal time and it was exactly the escape I needed. Looking forward to more from this author.
This was 100% written for me. I've been obsessed with m/m romance for some time as well as obsessed with Top Chef since season 1. I enjoyed every single aspect of this sweet and spicy read. Nate and Zachary are a great couple. Thanks to AAR for their review, otherwise I might not have found this gem. Loved it!
As a fan of “Master Chef” and m/m fiction, Laurin Kelly’s “Under The Knife” hits the bullseye of my targeted reading interests. My initial reaction? “What a brilliant idea!” Kelly follows through skillfully on the basic plot of cooking show contestants who slowly grow from antagonistic rivals to respectful competitors to love interests. It’s a slow building relationship as Kelly uses each level of the contest to draw Nathan and Zachary together and reveals more of the two men although Nathan is definitely the more likable and more fleshed out of the two.
Kelly’s evident culinary background enhances the creative food challenges. I’m not a “foodie” per se, so I was a little concerned if I would be able to keep up with the story in that aspect. Fortunately, the writing shines with enough description of the preparations of the dishes as well as the dishes themselves that foodies and non-foodies alike will be satisfied with the presentation.
The ending is very clever and satisfying and I love the way one of the last three contestants was eliminated. Very believable and acceptable. And the surprise twist to the final competition was delightful!
There are minor issues with “Under The Knife”. As others have pointed out, and I’ve noticed this in several other books published by Less Than Three Publishing, there are typos. The most notable being one scene where Nathan’s and Zachary’s names are switched. Very confusing.
The other minor problem for me is the point where Nathan and Zachary take their relationship to the next level didn’t work for me. The scene itself is fine, it just seemed a bit out of the blue and sudden considering what had just happened previously.
Overall, “Under The Knife” is a thoroughly enjoyable romance that moves along nicely and will keep you turning the page to find out what happens next.
I had the privilege to read Under the Knife when it was free on LiveJournal, and I always loved Kelly's mature characters and obvious obsession with food (please do not read this book when you're hungry...) so I bought this book in hopes of supporting her future work. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see Zachary's POV like we had in the free LJ version. I understand it was probably cut to slim the novel down, but we lost so much background on Zachary. For example, the challenge where they had to cook "ethnic" foods for the rich married couple meant that Zachary had to cook Bosnian food, which in the LJ version he really resisted because of all the negative connotations with it that he felt living under the thumb of his father. It was a great way to see why Zachary was so attached to French cooking instead of the cooking he grew up with, but from Nate's POV, we didn't get any of that character development. We also got very little of his relationship with his sister, Lejla.
However, if I'd just read this version, I'd probably not notice that so much was cut, because it flows pretty well without Zachary's POV-- which is probably why it WAS cut. Still, I liked Zachary more when I knew more about his motivations.
Anyway, I look forward to Kelly's future work and hopes that she keeps up the food obsession, because food porn is always welcome. I also appreciate the maturity and decency of her characters. I always love it when characters in romance novels act like well-adjusted adults instead of teenagers working through their first crush.
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