When in Doubt, Add Butter

by Beth Harbison

From the New York Times bestselling author of Shoe Addicts Anonymous and Always Something There to Remind Me comes a delicious new novel about the search for true love and all the ingredients that go into it.

As far as Gemma is concerned, her days of dating are over. In fact, it's her job to cater other peoples' dates, and that's just fine by her. At thirty-seven, she has her own business, working as a private chef, and her life feels full and secure. She's got six steady clients that keep her hands full.

There's Lex, the fussy but fabulous department store owner who loves Oysters Rockefeller and 1950s comfort food; Willa, who needs to lose weight under doctor's orders but still believes butter makes everything better; a colorful family who may or may not be part of the Russian mob; an uberwealthy Georgetown family; the picture-perfect Van Houghtens, whose matriarch is allergic to everything; and finally, a man she calls "Mr. Tuesday," whom she has never met but who she is strangely drawn to.

For Gemma, cooking is predictable. Recipes are certain. Use good ingredients, follow the directions, and you are assured success. Life, on the other hand, is full of variables. So when Gemma's takes an unexpected turn on a road she always thought was straight and narrow, she must face her past and move on in ways she never would have imagined. Because sometimes in life, all you need is a little hope, a lot of courage, and---oh yes---butter.

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance, Audiobook, Contemporary, Food, Adult

338 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 2012

About the author

Beth Harbison grew up in Potomac, Maryland, in the shadow of Washington, D.C. Apart from the occasional irritation at being held up in traffic by a presidential motorcade, she has remained fairly uninvolved in the politics that define her home town. Her latest book is CONFESSIONS OF THE OTHER SISTER, William Morrow 10/11/22

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I hope to find (and what will get me to spend my money quicker and invest hours upon hours of my own time) when I pick up a book is one that doesn’t sound like 95 out of 100 books that I pick up and read the first few pages of, a voice that grabs my nose and yanks harder than a semi-truck in the middle of I-95.

WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD BUTTER is such a book, and it managed this feat admirably from the very first sentence of the very first page. “When I was twelve, a fortune-teller at the Herbert Hoover Junior High School carnival said to me: ‘Gemma Craig, you listen to me. Do not get married. Ever. If you do, you’ll end up cooking for a man who’d rather eat at McDonald’s; doing laundry for a man who sweats like a rabid pig, then criticizes you for not turning his T-shirts right side out; and cleaning the bathroom floor after a man whose aim is so bad, he can’t hit a hole the size of a watermelon--’ ” I could go on, but you get the general idea. This is a book that I’m invested in; where I want to know what happens; and that I can’t wait to get to the ending, because like Beth Harbison, the author, I’m going all in. And then it becomes a mad rush to get to the finish line.

For me, this was such a book. The characters and the story line certainly kept my attention, but it was the voice, that voice kept me turning pages as fast as frying butter in a saucepan, and when I reached the end, I felt completely satiated. While this was the first Beth Harbison book I read, I’ll certainly keep my eye out for another one with a voice as fulfilling and unique as this one.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Cross-posted at Robert's Reads

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

**review includes mild spoilers**

If I could, I'd give this book 2.5 stars. It was OK, not terrible, but not great either. Gemma is a 37 year old private chef in DC and the book covers her relationships with her clients (one for every night of the week) as well as her relationships outside of work (her cousin Penny, friend Lynn, and her dating interests.)

This is obviously chick-lit, so I tend to have lower expectations for these kinds of books - nothing heavy, just light and engaging. I did zip right through this book, and as a DC area resident enjoyed the references to the city and its neighborhoods, but I thought the characters were routine (the controlling wife, the obese shut-in), not terribly original and for me that made it difficult to engage with.

The twist was a mild surprise - I expected it about 50 pages before, and the ending irritated me in the sense that Gemma makes the safe, but "romantic" choice that ties the book up in a nice little bow. I thought this would be an Emily Giffin-like book, but it did not meet that standard.

I received an ARC through a Goodreads giveaway.

[Love Fool · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as Gemma is concerned, her days of dating are over. In fact, it’s her job to cater other peoples’ dates, and that’s just fine by her. At thirty-seven, she has her own business, working as a private chef, and her life feels full and secure. She’s got six steady clients that keep her hands full.
For Gemma, cooking is predictable. Recipes are certain. Use good ingredients, follow the directions, and you are assured success. Life, on the other hand, is full of variables. So when Gemma’s takes an unexpected turn on a road she always thought was straight and narrow, she must face her past and move on in ways she never would have imagined. Because sometimes in life, all you need is a little hope, a lot of courage, and---oh yes---butter.

This was a fast read, which I appreciate. It was cute and just a nice fun chick-lit. Also, did I mention how I love the title and all I wanted to do was cook and eat while reading this?

However, I did roll my eyes a little (spoiler) with the unplanned pregnancy but besides that, everything else was fine. I recommend this if you just want an easy book to read on a plane.

[Aditi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cheesy-breezy chick-lit novel. Its fun, light, witty and no doubt, mind-blowingly delicious(literally, from its cover to its tid-bits). "When in Doubt, Add Butter" will remind you more of Catherine Zeta-Jones movie "No Reservations".

Its about Gemma, who's in her late 30s, having no life of her own, works as a personal chef for five different clients. She enjoys catering for parties in the weekends at a country club. One day she gets fired by one of her clients, as a result getting a rare night-off. She parties hard with her girlfriend and ends up with a one-night stand with a guy, which changes her life forever.

The author has cleverly mentioned all of Gemma's clients through their culinary choices and menus. Each and every client was peculiar in their own way. The characters are really very funny.

Foodies watch out, this is surely one hell of a mouth-watering book.

[Obsidian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's weird. I have seen Beth Harbison's books recommended via Amazon the past few years, but have never read her before now. I don't think based on this book I will read her in the future. I did like that the book took place in a setting I know (Maryland and DC), but the main character, Gemma actually started to bother me a lot while reading. When she gets into the weight of one of her clients I was just over it. She is very judgmental and I realized at the end of the book I had zero sense of her as a person. The whole book is focused on her "wacky" clients and their lives. She's just a ghost floating through their lives cooking for them. The romance didn't really work, but in the end I didn't much care because I was wrapping up the book.

"When In Doubt, Add Butter" follows 37 year old personal chef, Gemma. Gemma has changed up her plans in life throughout the years, but she has finally found personal satisfaction with cooking. Though she's single, Gemma always ends up losing interest in a man fairly quickly. However, after a hot one night stand, Gemma starts to wonder about trying to put herself out there again. Along with this though, Gemma is dealing with losing clients left and right and worrying about how can she possibly support herself in the long-run.

Gemma was okay at first. I smiled at the descriptions she had for her clients. However, after a while I just got bored by it. Gemma at times is dancing towards rude to her clients (Mr. Tuesday) or annoyed/judgy as all get out towards them (Van Houghtens, the Russian family, and the other family she initially worked for). Due to her being friendly with one of her clients (who she also judges and wonders if he is gay or not) he introduces her to his niece who also needs a personal chef since she is trying a weight loss regime.

As you can see above there is a lot of judginess with Gemma and it surprised me too based on what Harbison lets you know about Gemma's youth and the choices she made. You would think she would realize that you can't know what is going on in people's lives since you are not them and let it go at that. I found myself getting bored with her after a while since it becomes apparent without her clients, Gemma's life is just not that interesting. I think we hear about her home once and she is never really there in the course of this book. She's at clients' homes or her cousin's house. I also don't get why Gemma loved to cook so much. The book was so sparse on that. We do get a few scenes of her cooking and how she prepares dishes, but other than that I hard shrugged about it.

The other characters are not very developed. That's because we are only given glimpses into them. The romance didn't really work because I had a hard time even believing it and the coincidence thrown in just made me roll my eyes.

The writing was good. Harbison had to have spent time in the DC area since she has the destinations down pat and her asides about the traffic made me laugh and sigh. The flow was just okay. I think the book lingered a bit too far here and there.

The ending was just okay. I didn't buy any of it, but we get to the HEA part and for a romance you want to make sure you at least give your readers that.

[Lorretta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this through GoodReads Giveaways.

I read chick lit only occasionally, but I do enjoy it for quick reads on trips or in hotel rooms.

I wanted to really like this book because of the potential food descriptions and recipes. Alas, there was only miniscule description of food and zero recipes. How can a character boast that she makes the best meatloaf and then not provide a recipe?

The main character Gemma Craig starts off very likable and has an engaging way of describing her clients and their needs. Suddenly, she starts to fall apart and her reactions to a pretty bumpy section of life are just dumb. It is hard to even root for her at points.

This could have been a very interesting, fun book with more character development and more pages given to events occuring.

I was glad to have read this because I've read some pretty serious books lately and needed to "cleanse my mental palette". If you are not looking for deep thinking, recipes, or even intriguing plots, then this book will take you on a quick fluffy journey for an hour or two whle you bask in the sun or surf. And you will have no guilt leaving the book for someone else...

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a book shows up at my doorstep (a Goodreads ARC) with colorful cupcakes on the cover, it has a lot to live up to. When that cover also uses the word “Butter” in the title, whoa, that’s raising the bar even higher. As a chick-lit novel, this book does live up to both those cover points as a tasty confection to inhale curled up in bed.

The book focuses on Gemma Craig, personal chef, with all her personal foibles. She is a somewhat stereotypical late 30s single woman, bemoaning her lack of relationship but blaming it on a host of events in her past—including giving a baby up for adoption when she was a teen. I wasn’t too keen on the pregnancy bit because it seemed to add just one more excuse for her to lean on when times got tough. That said, I loved reading about her eccentric clients. It reminded me a bit of the Nanny Diaries—seeing into the lives of others from a position of almost-servitude. I would have liked to hear more about the food—and see some of those stunning cupcakes on the cover—but the personalities of the clients almost make up for a lack of food descriptions in the book.

All said, if you’re looking for a book that will shock you, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for a book that will make you think, keep looking. If you’re looking for a book to entertain you on a plane, on a beach, or in the bathtub, this is a gem!

[QNPoohBear · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confident and successful, Gemma is happy to be a career woman. She loves men, loves sex and romance, but she's Ok with being single. She has a fun career as a personal chef catering to the rich and famous of the Washington, DC area. Some clients are tougher than others, like the reality star wannabe who is "allergic" to everything. Far more interesting in the mysterious "Mr. Tuesday," a man whom Gemma never sees but knows everything about his eating preferences. Suddenly, her career starts to tank and she questions her choice. A fun night on the town leads to consequences that cause Gemma to consider what she really wants in life.

I had such a hard time with this book, I ended up bailing about a third of the way in and skipping to the end. The concept was great. I was excited to read about a career woman not dying for romance and one who eats like a normal person. Unfortunately, Gemma is a terrible heroine. She narrates the story without any passion or emotion and she makes terrible choices. She also uses the f-word a lot and spends a lot of time wondering whether her neighbor Lex is gay and whether another character is male or female. Her attitude towards them is a little off-putting in a not quite up-to-date politically correct way. Lex is flamboyant-got it. That's enough. Who cares since it's not even part of the plot!

None of the other characters are all that likeable either. The only one who seemed likeable was Gemma's cousin Penny.

The writing is pretty bad in and of itself. If the writing had been better and the story more interesting, I would have kept reading. The ending is a complete fantasy and one the character didn't deserve.

Content warnings:
Gemma goes off and gets totally drunk, gets in a car with a stranger who has also been drinking and has a graphic one night stand. She ends up pregnant because she wasn't responsible enough to get her own condoms in advance and relied on her friend's stash which turns out to be outdated. She already got pregnant at 17 and gave up her baby for adoption.

[Allie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, a 3.5. I thought this was an interesting book. I bought it because Beth Harbison wrote it (I LOVED Always Something There to Remind Me) and let’ face, the cover is gorgeous! My kids thought it was a cookbook and kept asking me when I was going to bake them cupcakes. The heroine, Gemma, is a chef, so there’s quite a bit of food and cooking throughout the book - don’t read it when you’re hungry. Foodies, who love a good story, will be thrilled.

Gemma is a personal chef for five different households, one for each evening of the week. On the weekends, she caters parties at a country club. Basically she has no life, and that’s the way she wants it. I wasn’t sure where the author was going to go since there’s so much focus on Gemma’s work. Much of the beginning of the book is about the families whom she cooks for. Harbison cleverly manages to describe each family through their menu choices, each one being peculiar in their own way.

Pretty early in the story, Gemma gets fired by one of the families, which ends up giving her a rare night off. She goes out with a girlfriend, has too much to drink, meets a guy, one thing leads to another…and a mystery man is born.

Through a series of slightly unbelievable mishaps, Gemma and her mystery man are unable to reconnect. Their encounter leaves her realizing she wants more out of her life, just about the time her professional life starts to fall apart. Then her two worlds collide. In all honestly, I figured out who the mystery man was pretty early, but it really didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. Gemma is an interesting, albeit lonely person. Events in Gemma’s past have left her with some serious scars, so she’s always turned to her work for escape. When she can no longer hide behind her work, Gemma's finally able to take the steps she needs to heal.

The supporting characters in the story are unique and interesting (to say the least). I liked learning about the families she worked for, even if I really couldn’t understand how she could work for some of them! But I guess a paycheck is a paycheck.

Fun book, with a come-full-circle ending .

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

When in Doubt, Add Butter is an airy, happy story where the bad things are uncomfortable but not too bad, and the good things are easy and happy. I think this book is less of a beach read, but a better choice for a rainy day or when you need something to cheer you up.

When in Doubt, Add Butter follows the life of Gemma, a personal chef, for a few months. Having tried other careers, Gemma has found happiness in her passion for cooking and running her own business. Unfortunately, many of the people that can afford a private cook aren't the easiest to work for, and running a small business has left Gemma cash poor. Suddenly free on a Friday night after being fired by a client, Gemma goes to a bar with a friend and meets a guy she finds very attractive and somehow familiar, although she has never met him before.

The plot of the book then follows Gemma's pleasant and difficult relationships with her customers, her ambivalence about wanting and fearing love, and her desire to not only cook, but nurture the clients that will allow her to do so. Gemma faces professional and personal challenges, but she's also been told by a client / psychic that everything will be OK, and somehow, both Gemma and the reader believes this.

When in Doubt, Add Butter is a happy story that shines softly, recommended to anyone looking for a few hours of escape and a lovely ending.

[Roberta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Send Back this Chicken Soup
(note: contains mild spoilers)

America, land of many appetites: Americans do love their food, and when they’re not eating, they love looking at cooking shows or reading about food. I am no exception, and as a chronic dieter, seek vicarious living through scrumptious food writing, so I considered myself fortunate to receive an Advance Reading Copy of Harbison’s book. (After all, who with a pulse doesn’t love butter?) I was anticipating something along the lines of Chocolat and Julie & Julia… it’s hard not to sell me on the relatively glamorous work lives of personal chefs: even though their clients are finicky and fussy in their own particular ways, most of us have a desire to make a living creating masterpieces, whether with words (as I aspire to) or with ingredients. This book looks at Gemma Craig’s (yep, that’s her real name) ups and downs (but mostly ups) in following her culinary passions instead of the more secure, and, we’re told, “loathsome” desk job the rest of us have to settle for.

The stench of marketing is all over this book and its nauseatingly chatty, over-familiar prose. This is what happens when books are overly influenced by blogging and its nouveau-confessional “style” (which is better characterized by a lack of style, a lack of cohesion). In the first hundred or so pages in particular, instead of ‘show, don’t tell,’ this book is, disappointingly, all ‘tell.’ It’s sad because there are nice quirks of phrase, but they have to be mined for like coins on the beach with a metal detector.

There are some adolescent mumblings about the nature of fate, as one convenient coincidence after another marks the second half of the book, but Gemma’s life escapades are so improbable—even for fiction, where the suspension of disbelief is supposed to be the name of the game—that any meditations on the nature of fate (serious questions such as, how do we even know if we’re making the right decision, especially in who we choose to make our business or romantic partners ) never seriously get addressed, let alone teased out or deconstructed.

Nor does Gemma seem to be standing in for some sort of morality play figure: there really doesn’t seem to be a message here at all, apart from an experiment in how much mileage a catchy title will get you. The author’s bias toward positive psychology—i.e., don’t overthink things, a little faith will take you a long way—definitely shows, but could have been worse: there was an occasional effort to give Gemma some adversity, adversity that could have given her a nominal bit of depth, had that depth been earnestly attempted. But it’s hard to be sympathetic for our lady Gemma when she can’t get country-club clients, even though it’s totally because of one of her bitchy/insecure bosses: her food is just so utterly awesome that fame, fortune, and business can never be too far behind: nothing gets too dark in this world.
I suppose my major beef (pun intended) with the text is not how it slides into the “chick-lit” genre of which it obviously aspires to be in, but how sloppily it attempts to glide onto that shelf. Seekers of chick-lit could fare better elsewhere, with writing that’s less lazy. As a reviewer, I aim to be lavish with praise and blame both, but there’s precious little to praise here. The dialogue is not memorable, and even the food writing seems (pun intended) thin. There’s a lot of filler, but not a lot of substance.

Really, I think I have figured out why we seek out this literature: unable to cope with the shortcomings in our own lives, we wonder if these quasi-realistic characters do things differently, or give us some insight into how to solve our own problems. We seek catharsis through them, at best, and merely are voyeuristically looking into a shop window, at worst.

Harbison’s protagonist is both unrealistic and out-of-touch in the carefully manipulated purposely “down to earth” moments that fall flat, painted as they are in broad strokes: this book is fodder for airports, where I am sure it will do quite well, and I can already picture the major studio movie in the making due to all the perfunctorily “quirky” characters, few of which are deeply developed, some of whom dole the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” advice that’s perennially popular with most Americans. You can call me cynical, but I have a strong feeling a movie will be made out of this, but it’s not a great movie when the ensemble is more interesting than the protagonist.

The total lack of realism—even in an alleged work of escapism—demands little (and, insultingly, expects even less) of its reader.
Even though I’m a female in my late 20s and supposedly either in or on the fringe of what must be the target demo of this book, it’s annoying to read of people in their late 30s (Gemma) wondering, page after page, if they’re ‘over the hill’ or destined to be a ‘spinster’ in terms of intimacy/ relationships/ romance/ family. Sorry, St. Martin’s, but I must be one of the few people in my generation who’s not a hipster, not “fabulous” or wrapped up in the pursuit of “fabulous,” and not worried about not establishing a family, because I know that families take many forms even after natural fertility has passed: Gemma, preoccupied about her biological clock, decides to keep her second pregnancy though it came, we’re led to believe, at “the worst time” careerwise; staying single for longer and perhaps eventually adopting (as she herself put her first teenage pregnancy up for adoption) is an option for other people, not her. Considering her allegedly ambivalent views on marriage and growing up with a single mother (she had no father around), you would think these questions, good ones, would take up more psychic real estate, but they don’t. It is important to note that I’m not moralizing on these issues themselves—as I’m openly not having children, I’m at best indifferent on other people’s reproductive dilemmas, real and imagined—but it’s interesting that, if these are supposedly the major emotional subtexts that underlie Gemma’s decisions, how little they’re explored—which affirms my position that the book is sloppily written. Gemma’s emotional investment in her own life seems limited, detached, and as a consequence I had very limited empathy for her faux predicaments.

If a camel is a horse designed by committee, this is what happens when a book is designed by a focus group. Nearly every chick-lit cliché is acknowledged in standard post-modern self-awareness style, then played out anyway, with predictable and unimaginative results. Feminist theorists will have some choice bits to latch onto and give an exegesis not permitted here, such as when Gemma says “As clichéd as it was—and as big a setback for feminist values—I really liked taking care of people and making things easier and nicer for them” (105-106). But even possibilities for analysis are slim, because this self-absorbed text so rarely acknowledges any world outside its own bubble.

Put another way: don’t worry, struggling, aspiring real-world ladies who might be reading this: our protagonist gets everything she wants at the end, all the mess (not that there was all that much mess) is cleaned up—with no sense of irony to boot— and her motley crew of clients all do well too. The neat, happily-ever-after ending, is, of course, also as false and inauthentic as it gets, making investing time in the book unsatisfying.

For those of us who want a little meaning in with our escapism, though, who want to be indulged without having our intelligence slammed, this book is a deep disappointment.

In ten words or less: too heavy on the estrogen, too light on the butter.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When in Doubt, Add Butter

The Characters:

Gemma


The Story:

I need Ms. Harbison to write more books and faster. Also I need the publisher to hop to it as far as getting audiobooks produced. These books always seem to have the perfect narrator to bring these stories to life. And once you get hooked you’re in for the long haul. I’ve never been so happy to not be able to read a physical or eBook. This story took me through a very long wait at the hospital and I was quite sad when it was over. I could have listened about Gemma’s life forever. Especially her life with Paul.

The Random Thoughts:



4 Stars

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

When in doubt, don't read this book.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun enjoyable story.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually enjoy Beth Harbison, but this one was a misfire. The plot was cliched and driven by convenient, obvious, coincidences, and the whole thing was full of mistakes that should have been very easy to catch by any editor, beta reader, or even Koko the gorilla after a three day bender had Harbison bothered to consult any of them.

Highlights included (yeah, there be spoilers ahead...I read it so you don't have to):

* Gemma Craig introducing herself to a delivery boy who notices the similarity of her name to a certain diet guru. She comments that it's the second time in a week that this has happened after a lifetime of not hearing this. But wait, the reader thinks, when was the first? She makes such a big damn deal about it, it would have been something we remembered, right? A little while later, it happens again, and she says something along the lines of "I'd never heard that before a delivery guy said it to me last week."

* The whole premise is built on the fact that she's never seen the face of a client she refers to as "Mr. Tuesday." Except that she has an entire chapter devoted to the fact she always interviews her potential clients in person in their homes to see if they're a fit...and this exception is never, ever addressed.

* She talks about things she does with her mum at 26...after mentioning that her mother died when she was 22. (Admittedly, I believe in ghosts, but this was not that type of book!)

* We are supposed to believe that the hero (Mr. Tuesday) is such a sparse decorator that the only personal photo in his entire house is a photograph of a brother he doesn't even seem to like.

* She mentions putting the phone on mute, and then the person on the other end starts reacting to what he heard.

This one was a dead peacock total dog.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure if I am happy that I waited this long to enjoy this book or sad that I didn't read it sooner. Either way, I found a really great gem in my to read stack!

[Melina Merrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, light read with all of the loose endings neatly wrapped up. Fun to read!

[Jennifer Blaske · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book and enjoyed it at first because I thought it was going to be a quirky, humorous story about the life of a personal chef, the experiences specific to that job, and the colorful cast of characters she works for.

When I finally began to realize that it was not quite that, I continued reading (often skimming, especially toward the end) because I was having fun finding the book's flaws and sort of "playing editor."

** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

1. First of all, am I the only person who really has a hard time liking a character (both male and female) who is over the age of 35 and has a one-night stand with someone they picked up at a bar? Just, ugh. That immediately makes me see the character as foolish, shallow, and kinda skanky. And I do NOT find it romantic.

2. Um ... does neither the author or her editor understand what a rhyme is? I'm sorry, but "Gemma" does not rhyme with "Jenny." Now, "Penny" would have rhymed with "Jenny." In fact, if she wanted to create the mild joke of having the main character's name rhyming with "Jenny," I have no idea why she didn't just switch the names.

3. Humor can be a tricky thing. I think humor always has to be a little bit grounded, a little based in reality and something you could sort of picture happening, to be effective, and the scenes where Gemma goes on interviews is an epic fail in that area.
A guy is wearing half a clown suit, for no explained reason, "wants geraniums," whatever that even means, doesn't realize this is a job interview (??), and hates people who don't like dogs (or something.) That doesn't even make sense.
Similarly, is there anyone on the planet who would hire a personal chef thinking they were hiring her to also have regular sex with them? Without ever saying that to the person before the interview? Even if such people existed, would they start suddenly undressing during the actual job interview?

4. Some of the wording was really clunky, stuff like, "she smiled appreciatively." Just. No.

5. The controlling wife character, in particular, was so over-the-top that it was almost impossible to picture her as a real person. You could probably say this about most of the characters, but it particularly grated me with her.

6. I got a little tired of hearing everybody fawn over how the main character was the best cook in the world, like she was some sort of amazing superhero or something. Please.

Why two stars instead of one? I did like the breezy, conversational tone (although it often got clunky), and it was mildly humorous in some spots.

(This review also appears on my blog at http://threekidsthreecatsandahusband....

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tend to have different expectations of books I read from the chick-lit genre. I like these books to be light and fluffy, expect to read about ridiculous and unrealistic situations, expect nothing truly bad to happen, and expect that everything will all turn out okay. Basically, I want to read them on the beach with a smile on my face and a willingness to set them down and do other vacation stuff. Based on these expectations I enjoyed When in Doubt, Add Butter.

Positives:
- I enjoyed reading about the cooking stuff (although I wish the cover had been different... it made me think she was a cupcake baker instead of a personal chef)
- I laughed frequently at the crazy descriptions of some of the families that Gemma cooked for.
- While I saw the love interest plot twist coming from very early on I still enjoyed reading about it.
- I felt warm and fuzzy while reading this book and smiled a lot.

Negatives:
- The book was hard to get into. The first several chapters seemed to drag on. The book did pick up about 1/4 of the way through and from there I found the reading to be really easy.
- The author tends to tell the reader stuff instead of showing the reader, particularly in the early chapters. The beginning just felt like such a back story lecture and sort of jumped around a little to much for me.
- The epilogue was ridiculous. I get that Harbison was trying to wrap up all the plot points by telling the reader what happened to everyone in the story but their outcomes were so unrealistic (particularly Angela's) that it really left me with a bad note when I had been enjoying the book.
- There is a teen pregnancy back story that I never understood the point of. I guess it was supposed to be character development and help explain Gemma's later decisions but it really didn't seem to serve a point to me. I think the book would have worked fine without this plot point and I think the writing would have felt a little less choppy with the teenage pregnancy story line removed.

Overall, I enjoyed When in Doubt, Add Butter and think it makes a nice beach read. I didn't love the book enough to seek out other books by the same author but I will certainly recommend the book to friends looking for a fun chick-lit read.

Note: I was provided with a free ARC of this book through the Goodreads' First Reads program but my opinions on the book are entirely my own.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get really frustrated by books like this, that seem so cobbled together that you wonder if anyone actually read the final product before releasing it. It wasn't terrible, but the lack of attention to detail, even in a lighter read, really bothered me. Early on, the main character mentions that she delighted her mother by taking a corporate job with benefits at age 26. A few chapters later she mentions that she lost her mother to a heart attack shortly after her 22nd birthday. Really? No one caught that?

The main character, Gemma, would have been likable if she wasn't so dumb. Someone sabotages her business and she has no clue that it's the woman who clearly suspects Gemma of having an affair with her husband. The biggest twist of the book was obvious so early on it was ridiculous.

There were also some odd scenes jammed in the middle, such as a really bizarre encounter where a man in a clown outfit seems to be propositioning Gemma instead of interviewing her for a job. Oh, and when a seemingly normal couple want to hire Gemma to be their "wife." I think all of these improbable bits are supposed to make the reader laugh, but they just made me feel like the author was forcing a kind of "zaniness" that fell flat.


This wasn't a bad book, but there wasn't much to grab on to, even for chick lit. Even the title phrase, when Gemma says it, is completely literal. She seriously overhears one of her clients arguing and decides to add some butter to the dish she's making. Way to shoehorn the title of the book into the action in the least inspired way possible. Ugh. Not my favorite.

[Connie N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd rate this 4.5 stars, but because I have such a feel-good feeling about it, I'm rounding up to 5 stars for Goodreads. What a warm and charming chick-lit. Gemma is a private chef who has a different regular client each day of the week, and we get to know each of them as we get to know her. She's intelligent, funny, and a strong nurturer who does a great job of creating menus for the different lifestyles and preferences of each of her clients. We meet the Van Loudens--extremely picky and uppity, Mr. Tuesday--attractive even though they've never actually met in person, Lex--a charmingly dapper gentleman who really appreciates her as a person as well as a chef, the Alexi's--a wild and crazy Russian family with questionable backgrounds, and Willa--Lex's morbidly obese cousin who needs help designing her diet plan. Each of them becomes a part of Gemma's life and seems to fill a need in her, even while she's helping them. Her cousin Penny is a strong support character, and their interactions tell us more about Gemma's character and background too. I really liked Harbison's writing, which leaves a warm and friendly feeling. Her background as a cookbook writer shows through when she actually includes details about recipes that Gemma is making. Very nice book. I will look for more from this author. Very capably narrated by Orlagh Cassidy. She doesn't have totally varied voices for different characters, but her narration is very clear and smooth, and her reading voice is rich and enjoyable.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from a Goodreads first-reads giveaway.

When In Doubt, Add Butter is the story about a personal chef, Gemma Craig (not to be confused with Jenny Craig!) and the quirky people who she cooks for. When Gemma was 12 years old, she was told by a fortune teller to never marry because she would be miserable for the rest of her life. The fortune teller ended up being a disgruntled teacher dressed up, but when the story opens, Gemma is 37 years old and has never been married. She works for a different person or family Monday through Friday while doing the occasional catering event on the weekends, but has never been able to save any money. The people she works for range from fame whore wanna-bes, to a questionable Russian family to a bachelor she has never met, but who loves her cooking and leaves her quirky notes.

One night, Gemma and her friend Lynn go to a bar and Gemma meets a very handsome man playing pool. She ends up spending the night with him and her whole world changes.

This was an entertaining book and a very quick read. The characters were likable and although the book was very predictable, the ending tied up nicely.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this ARC copy through the First Reads program and couldn't have been happier to read it! I've read 2 other books by Beth Harbison that I was partial to due to the writing. But this one was a truly fun read. I was hooked after the first chapter...and that is due to the hilarity that ensued.

Gemma Craig (no relation to Jenny Craig) is a personal chef who works for an array of families in the DC area. One is a cast member of a reality show (similar to the RHO franchise), another has some of the weirdest dietary requests, another is a gay man who is talkative and friendly, and another is a man referred to as Mr. Tuesday.

Beth does a really neat job of pulling in pop culture to this book as well as winding in the typical chic lit fanfare. This could be considered a fluff read, but it is a little bit more just due to the better writing style than in other chic lit books. Gemma goes through some issues drudged from her past when history repeats itself and she has to make a fairly large decision.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Private Chef Gemma Craig has given up on dating. Instead, she focuses on her steady catering clients: The Russian family, the high-maintenance society wife, the food-allergy obsessed housewife, "Mr. Tuesday" and the asexual businessman. Each client has their own quirks, but each brings Gemma some degree of satisfaction. When that begins to fall apart, Gemma goes out with her friend and ends up with a one-night stand that will change her life.

The characters are engaging and well developed and the story flows well. Although the book is an easy read with some predictable plot points, there are enough interesting twists to keep you turning pages. "When in doubt..." is decidedly chick lit, but it's a fun and engaging book that's perfect for a weekend read.

Amy R. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this book! I almost NEVER read romances but this one was just absolutely perfect in every way and I enjoyed it so much. Gosh, I feel like such a gooey little girl with rose-colored glasses and too much sugar in her veins but it was just so good!

It's so refreshing to read a book written by someone who honest to god knows how to write and tell a good story. If you're looking for a read that you can trust to have a happy ending and will fulfill all your expectations, this is the book for you. It's enough to get anyone out of a downer mood, for sure.

The wonderful descriptions of all the food made me really hungry, haha. And I felt like the characters were all people that I recognized from my own life. The story takes place around DC, too, which is just far enough away from where I am currently for me to be pleased with getting lost in it, but close enough to feel like I was reading a happy story of someone who actually lives nearby.

Go read this book! You'll like it!

[Josephine Sorrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know who recommended " When in Doubt, Add Butter," but I sure am glad I picked it up. Chick Lit, Feel Good books are not usually my forte. I prefer, action, adventure, suspense, you get it. Gemma Craig, (Jenny Craig),the name becomes important with one of her clients as you read, is a personal chef. She goes into people's homes and cooks for them. Gemma on a different day cooks for the Russians, The Snobs, a man she has never met whom she refers to as Mr. Tuesday and so on. On weekends she caters at The Club. All this is wrapped around her life, involving her friends and family taking the reader into mystery, humor, plain meanness, and of course love.. I highly recommend this book for a fun and feel good read.

[Mayda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gemma makes her livelihood by cooking for people in their homes and by catering larger events. And though she is 37 years old, she is still maturing. She doesn’t have much savings, so she has nothing for a rainy day. And yes, she soon finds herself in a downpour. She loses some of her steady jobs, though no fault of her own, just when she finds herself needing extra cash. She needs more than butter - she needs help, fast! This romantic novel has endearing and interesting characters in a delightful plot. Gemma is still finding herself and how to be grownup, and to watch her journey is wonderfully entertaining. This audio version is superbly performed by Orlagh Cassidy, which only adds to its enjoyment.

[Cyndi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok book. Could have used a murder. If he had killed his wife, instead of sleeping around, Gemma could have had Mr. Tuesday for her lawyer. Better "meet-cute" than a hallway.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've ever read by Beth Harbison and while I was ultimately left a little disappointed, I did enjoy her narrative voice enough that I'll be looking for more of her books in the future.

When in Doubt, Add Butter started out as a great book. I liked the main character/narrator, Gemma, and thought her job as a personal chef was cool and different. There are a million books out there about cops, PIs and CEOs but I've never read one about a personal chef before. The pace was good and I was happily devouring every page as we met Gemma's clients and family.....until about the halfway point. Unfortunately things kind of stalled out there and the rest of the book limped along at a much slower pace.

There were a couple of very weak "mysteries" going on in Gemma's life and the solutions were completely telegraphed from the moment they were introduced, but our heroine remained determinedly clueless for ages and ages. That made everything feel like it dragged on as the reader hung around waiting for Gemma to finally catch a clue. Also there were a lot of different plots going on regarding Gemma's various clients and I expected them to all tie in to the over-arching plot somehow by the end. They didn't. In fact, nothing about this book was really brought to a successful conclusion. The romance that started out so steamy completely fizzled after their first encounter. The pregnant cousin was virtually irrelevant to the plot and only seemed to be there so Gemma could have some dialogue with another person instead of just herself. And her sudden dream job prospects at the end came out of nowhere and then were totally abandoned immediately after they were introduced. In short, it all kind of fell apart at the end.


Okay so we've got Gemma a personal chef who makes a passable but not great living cooking dinner for a different rich family every night of the week. Half of her clients are cool, the other half are insanely high-maintenance. The one she likes best is "Mr. Tuesday." His real name is Paul Macknamera (or something like that) and the two of them have spent the last year leaving cute notes for each other and occasionally having sarcastically humorous phone calls but have never met in person. This was the first question mark on this book. According to Gemma's inner monologue, in order to get a new client she puts an expensive ad in a swanky magazine, then meets with the potentials to discuss their dietary needs, and finally settles on an arrangement. And yet she's never met Mr. Tuesday? How could that possibly be? How did she get him as a client? Is Harbison really asking us to believe that Gemma entered into this man's employ without ever vetting him to see if he was a serial killer luring her into a trap? And that Paul likewise hired a complete stranger, sight-unseen and gave her a key to his apartment so she could go in there completely unsupervised while he was at work?? Yeah I can't suspend my disbelief enough to buy that. It was a glaring example of plot contrivance.

Gemma accidentally runs over a client's pet peacock and gets fired which conveniently gives her a free Friday night. She goes to a club in Mr. Tuesday's neighborhood with a friend and meets a hot guy. He introduces himself as "Mack" and they end up having a one-night stand. They use Gemma's friend's apartment just in case he turns out to be a weirdo and make use of some 10-year-old condoms in the friend's drawer for birth control. Gemma wakes up hungover the next morning and knocks a bottle of water over on the note Mack left for her. The note is ruined so she's got no idea what it said and no way to contact him.

It was so obvious to the reader that "Mack" would turn out to be Mr. Tuesday that it got really frustrating to sit through the whole first 2/3 of the book before the big "reveal" finally happened. And while I was sitting there waiting for everyone in the book to catch up, I kept wondering why Mr. Tuesday had never noticed that his one-night stand and his chef had the same first name. Gemma isn't exactly a common name so any normal person would have said "hey that's my chef's name" when they met at the bar. It isn't until they finally do meet that we're told she never told him her name during their encounter. Again, I find this hard to believe. They spent the whole night hanging out and flirting at the bar before spending the night having sex and she never gave him even her first name?? And he never asked?? Yeah, thats just more plot contrivance. And why, if Paul/Mack/Mr. Tuesday was so interested in seeing her again, didn't he go back to the friend's apartment and ask for Gemma's number? The whole romance mystery was just one plot contrivance after another.

Once they finally do figure out who each other are.....nothing happens. I don't think they even slept together again for the whole rest of the book. They just sort of hang out a few times and that's it. It was weird and anticlimatic after listening to Gemma fantasize about him for the majority of the book.

Of course the big elephant in the room is that Gemma is pregnant from their brief encounter. This too took her ages to figure out when the reader knew about it right from the first bout of nausea. Once she and Mack find each other, she hesitates to tell him about the baby. I can understand why she didn't just blurt it out the first time she and Mack realized who they were, but it shouldn't have taken her as long as it did to finally spill the beans.

Mack has just taken a job as a partner in a law firm in Seattle and will be leaving in a few weeks so that complicates things quite a bit. When Gemma starts losing clients to one crazy mishap after another I kind of figured this was setting things up so that she'd be free from career encumbrances when Mr. Tuesday finally proposed to her and thus she'd be happy moving to Seattle with him. But instead, right at the end of the book Gemma is virtually handed the executive chef job at a restaurant in D.C. and a book deal at the same time, thereby giving her a strong motivation to NOT go to Seattle. So then I thought this conflict was going to serve as the climax at the end of the book. Gemma has to decide whether to stay in D.C. and pursue her dream job, but do so as a single parent, or go with Mack. Or the reverse, that Mack has to decide whether to give up his very lucrative job. But no, that doesn't happen. Gemma has a very mild medical scare with the pregnancy and the two declare that they'll "make it work" without ever even discussing the job thing. Then the book ends and the epilogue picks up a year later with a 1-sentence blip about how Gemma just quit all her jobs in D.C. and moved to Seattle where she's very happy. Erm...okay...I guess... Why bother introducing her dream jobs in D.C. if they weren't going to play a part in the plot?

And that feeling kind of summarizes the majority of the subplots in this book. What purpose did any of her clients serve in the over-arching plot? The crazy Russians with their arguing and psychics. Neat characters, but ultimately didn't contribute anything to the big picture. The off-the-charts anal retentive wife with the neglected husband who likes to diddle the hired help. That was interesting enough while we were reading it, but only because I thought it was going to tie in with the main plot at some point. It didn't. The morbidly obese shut-in who's trying to lose weight. Also an interesting character, but she didn't affect the plot at all either. Lex, the probably-gay client who runs a clothing store. His purpose seemed to be to facilitate her getting the dream job at the end, but since that job ultimately didn't affect the plot at all either, he was basically a waste too. The pregnant cousin served no purpose. The friend who took her to the bar totally disappeared halfway through the book and only seemed to have been included to facilitate getting her to the bar. Even Gemma's back story of having given a child up for adoption didn't really serve a purpose.

Basically this book read like a "day in the life" story. Instead of this being a planned out plot with a central conflict supported by subplots, it was just a random cross-section of Gemma's life. A jumble of unconnected stories tied together with string. This probably would have been fine if the main plot had been more compelling. If the romance with Mr. Tuesday had been stronger, or the conflict over the baby or over whether they'd try to make a go of it as a couple had been more dramatic. Then the subplots would have been nice flavor text around the main story. But unfortunately the main plot is just weak and kind of gets buried under all the subplots.

I also had trouble picturing Gemma. We never got a very good description of how she looked and whenever she described her clothing it was almost always ratty old sweats with food stains and no makeup or jewelry....and yet multiple people in the book refer to her as beautiful. I had trouble reconciling this.



All in all, this could have been a great book. The writing was smooth and I liked Gemma as a character. But it just didn't hang together.

[Mainon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added this book to my TBR all the way back in 2013, on the recommendation of a good friend who then worked at a local bakery (hi, Mariko!). I picked up a copy at a used bookstore, and have since carted it from Alaska to Puerto Rico to Washington, DC, all the while passing it over in favor of either newer/hotter literary fiction or library books that I justified giving precedence because they needed to be returned.

This past weekend, surveying the overflowing shelves in our new DC rowhouse, I decided that I should, at long last, pass this book on. Before I committed it to the giveaway box, I decided to quickly read the first chapter, on the assumption that I could conclude I wasn't really missing anything by not reading it, and could give it away with a smaller degree of guilt.

You can tell by the fact that I'm writing this review that my plan didn't work. I was quickly sucked in, and this book is one of the few "chick lit" books that I would recommend to people who don't often read that genre. Yes, the main character is a woman who cooks, and the pastel-colored cover and cutesy title make it seem like there's not much to it, but here's what it has going for it: (1) some pretty clear-eyed insight into the challenges of running one's own business, particularly (a) one that depends on word of mouth and reputation, (b) one that can involve a kind of forced intimacy with one's clients, and (c) one that doesn't necessarily have a built-in, recession-proof, all-seasons demand; (2) a great depiction of the challenges that come from trying to create a service that can cater to very different tastes (literally, since we're talking about food); (3) a fairly reasonable portrayal of the challenges of dating in middle age; and (4) some real talk about things like pregnancy happening at various phases of life.

I dug the love story that was clearly a secondary plot rather than the main one; this book would pass the Bechdel test if it were a film, but I still found myself rooting for the couple.

Anyway, nothing earth-shattering, but this was a very fun and fast read that didn't insult my intelligence or make me feel like I'd wasted my time reading pure fluff. #noguilt