State of the Onion (White House Chef Mystery #1)

State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy Rating: ★★★ isbn: 9780425218693 Series: White House Chef Mystery #1 Publication Date: January 2, 0200 Pages: 325 Genre: Mystery Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Never let them see you sweat-that’s White House Assistant Chef Olivia Paras’s motto, which is pretty hard to honor in the most important kitchen in the world. She’s hell-bent on earning her dream job, Executive Chef. There’s just one thing: her nemesis is vying for it, too. Well, that and the fact that an elusive assassin wants to see her fry.

2022:  I suddenly felt like binging on re-reads, and I started with this series.  The first book actually improved upon my memory of the first read, if only because I know where the series is going now.

2012:  Overall, a very good story. I was positive I knew who the killer was until the very end, when I was proved very wrong.

All the characters in the white house kitchen were likeable and I enjoyed reading about them. There were a couple of times when the main character waxed lyrical about the honor of working in the white house, and while I understood the feelings the author was trying to convey, it felt a bit over-the-top.

The only place I felt the author failed was the relationship between Ollie and Tom. His treatment of her throughout the story felt wrong for someone who was supposed to love her and didn’t endear me to him at all. And his complete 180 wasn’t explained at all – one minute he was so mad at her he couldn’t even talk to her, and the next, they’re hugging and he’s grinning and talking about never letting her go. huh?

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book and I’ll gladly pick up the next in the series.