After getting fired from his Chef position at a ritzy Manhattan restaurant and having a public meltdown, Jack plans to re-brand his deceased mentor’s restaurant in Florida, which he has recently inherited, in order to prove his cooking skills. After a very public break-up at the same Manhattan restaurant, which her family owns, influencer Poppy devises a plan to rehab her reputation by using her social media skills to help promote Jack’s new restaurant in Florida. Jack agrees to let Poppy help with the restaurant, so long as she learns everything there is to know about the restaurant business, including how to prepare 5-star meals. Eventually, Poppy and Jack start to discover that they might just make the perfect pair in and out of the kitchen.
Yes, Chef is a spicy enemies to lovers, forced proximity, grumpy with sunshine, and workplace romance. It features themes and topics like ADHD and neurodiversity, death and grief, regret, reputation, fame, alcohol abuse, self esteem, social media, found family, fostering and adoption, and food allergies. Yes, Chef would be perfect for fans of Happy Ending by Chloe Liese, In Stormy Weather by Chelsea Curto, When Sparks Fly by Monica Murphy, A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert, No More Secrets by Lucy Score, or Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey.
I previously read (and loved) Grace Reilly’s Beyond the Play series of sports romances but I read a lot of sports romances so it was nice to see Reilly try something different. I loved Poppy’s colourful and sunshiny personality, especially in contrast to Jack’s grumpy demeanour, plus the beachy setting of Florida was enjoyable and made for a great summer read. Additionally, I really appreciated that Poppy and Jack were both neurodiverse characters diagnosed with ADHD as I don’t see that represented very often in romance novels (and I personally think that we need to see more of it!).
The majority of Yes, Chef was set in the kitchen, so a ton of cooking and eating takes place throughout the novel; if you enjoy cooking and cooking shows then you will love this but if you’re not a big foodie or you’re not really into cooking, then all of the talk of food and food prep might not be of interest to you. Additionally, I love it when authors include extra content (like recipes or playlists) at the end of novels so it seemed like a missed opportunity to me that none of Jack’s recipes were included at the end of Yes, Chef (I personally would have loved to try out Jack’s Pop-Tart recipe!). Perhaps some recipes may be shared later on social media or in special editions of the book.
Although this book wasn’t my favourite from Grace Reilly, I enjoyed this enemies to lovers romance and think it would be a great addition to romance readers’ summer TBR lists. I gave this book a rating of 8 out of 10.
Yes, Chef is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 21st 2026.
