Dine with Me by Layla Reyne

Dine with Me by Layla Reyne

Narrated by Cooper North

Miller Sykes is a Michelin-starred chef with a restaurant in Napa Valley. Unfortunately, his restaurant is closing down. He is getting a divorce and he’s just been diagnosed with throat cancer. The treatment may not be successful and even if it is, there is a 50/50 chance he will be left without the ability to taste and for Miller, this is unbearable to contemplate. Planning to decline all treatment and just let nature take its course, he advertises for a companion to travel on a two-week food odyssey which will take them to his favourite restaurants and eateries across the USA – the tagline for the ad is the same as the book’s title: Dine with Me.

Miller doesn’t tell applicants he has cancer of course. In fact, he doesn’t even screen the candidates himself – he leaves that to his ex-wife, Sloane. The divorce is the end of an era but not really a cause for sadness. Miller is gay and his marriage to Sloane, who has been and remains his best friend, was a companionate one. Sloane has met the love of her life and is pregnant. Miller is happy for Sloane.

Sloane is not happy with Miller’s decision to decline treatment and she’s worried about what may happen on the foodie trip if he ends up going alone – because one way or another, Miller is going on the trip. She finds the best candidate and presses Miller to interview him.

Dr. Clancy Rhodes has just finished his residency as a plastic surgeon and the trip is a gift from his very wealthy parents to celebrate his achievement before Clancy joins his father’s private practice. Clancy’s heart lies in oncology but the death of a patient early in his training had him transferring to plastic surgery instead. Now he’s second-guessing that decision but desperate not to disappoint his dad.

The setup is a little odd. I had to suspend a fair bit of disbelief about it really because it seemed super unusual for a famous chef to go on a two-week holiday with a stranger – over the Christmas period no less. Obviously because this is a romance, Clancy and Miller spend more time together than is originally anticipated and fall in love but the whole concept seemed a bit out there. That said, once I got past it (and I’ve certainly accepted stranger premises in fiction so it wasn’t too hard to do) the rest of the story was great.

Miller likes Clancy as a dining companion because he is a genuine foodie and, for bonus points, Clancy has no dietary restrictions – so Miller can take him anywhere.

It helps that Clancy’s mother runs a concierge service for the uber-rich and has private planes ferrying them around and that Clancy’s parents end up funding the entire trip – including Miller’s expenses. It’s a bit fairytale-esque but once I thought of it that way, I relaxed right in.

I’m not a foodie really – I’m too picky for that! – and I expect that true foodies will find more to enjoy than I did, but even so, I enjoyed the descriptions of food, wine and eateries in the book. There was a broad variety– from burger joints to fine dining and Miller and Clancy enjoyed them all. The attention to detail of the gastronomy felt like solid world-building. It was clear that both men share a passion for food and wine and this created the beginnings of their more intimate connection.

Clancy’s parents are divorced but remained best friends (his mother is remarried, and he gets along great with his stepdad too) so he’s unfazed by Miller and Sloane. I really liked the family dynamics in this book. There were no evil-exes, all the parents were good people and loved their children. It was kind of refreshing actually.

Clancy, at age 30, is 10 years Miller’s junior (but the age difference between them is not a significant issue in the book). Clancy is bisexual and Miller is gay. I appreciated the representation. And I appreciated that their sexuality was not in any way an issue for their families. Another thing which was refreshing.

The bulk of the book takes place in about a two-week period and of necessity there is a lot of Clancy and Miller together as they go on their fancy road trip. I didn’t have any trouble buying their growing connection. They spent so much time together and clicked from their first meeting just about. That said, given what Miller is facing, it’s a huge commitment for Clancy to be all-in so quickly.

Because Miller believes himself to be running on borrowed time – maybe 6-12 months at most – he does not want to start anything with Clancy. So, he puts the brakes on and refuses to act on their mutual attraction. Clancy is a clever man. He begins to put 2 and 2 together and quickly comes up with the right answer. After the truth comes out, Clancy urges Miller to seek treatment and fight for life no matter what, even if he does end up with no working taste buds.

Because this is a romance, I don’t think there are any prizes for guessing what Miller’s eventual decision is. But romance is all about the journey and I heard Miller’s mind change slowly as Clancy inspired him in any number of ways.

The heat level of the book is a little lower than I was expecting. The sex is explicit when it happens but there are only two scenes in the whole book. This makes sense in context. No more was needed in the story (in fact, it could be argued that the second one was unnecessary). I was really happy that sex wasn’t shoe-horned in for the sake of it and the book stayed true to the characters and their journey.

The narration, by Cooper North, was very very good. He has a broad range of character voices and accents which he showcases to good effect in Dine with Me. Miller is from South Carolina and so has a southern twang to his voice. Clancy is a California boy and sounds younger – which fit as well. Miller’s best friend, Greg, is a growly bear and Sloane is feminine and authentic-sounding.

The emotion of the story, the connection between the two men and their shared love of food is all obvious in the narration too.

There were a few small errors where the emphasis was put on the wrong word in a sentence but these were rare and didn’t detract in any significant way from my enjoyment of the audiobook.

Cooper North is becoming one of my go-to narrators. To my ear, his female character voices have vastly improved since I first started listening to him. I feel like he shines in MM romance for some reason. Though perhaps it’s just that the books I’ve enjoyed the most that he’s narrated are MM romances and nothing more than that.

Kaetrin


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