A Dash of Salt and Pepper

This is a 3.5 really, because I thought the main character was mostly fantastic- my only issue was that his internal narrative needed an editor's red pen. Those passages were too wordy- I even found myself skimming a few which is very unlike me. I loved his humor and his love of The Devil Wears Prada but again- an edit was needed. I adored his love interest but any of you not comfortable with LGBTQ relationships -this one is not for you. This was my first LGBTQ rom-com book and I enjoyed it.

This book is overall charming and fun, but really only 3.5 ⭐️. The setting in Maine caused me some annoyance in how the author got things wrong about Maine/New England. There's a point where the narrator says driving across town takes 45 minutes, point a to point b in most any New England town cannot take 45 minutes driving, towns just aren't that big. Then the narrator (supposedly a Maine native) talks about how New England states are close together (true) and how Maine is a small state. Maine is the largest state in New England, and those from New England won't say that Maine is small because it's about the size of the other 5 states combined and Rhode Island exists. The weather described for the timeline of the book also didn't really fit, but this misunderstanding may have occurred because I read this book as an audiobook. Early on our main character compares his coastal Maine small town to Stars Hollow, it's lazy world building, stars hollow is a fictional town in Connecticut that is ~not~ full of fishermen. Lastly, the characters visited a store in Portland, and the store was named that has a location in Connecticut but not in southern Maine, maybe purely coincidental but it was truly jarring to read.
The humor and story ultimately save this book from an immature narrator and setting foibles that needed a stronger edit.
Tl;dr if you are a cranky yankee and will be annoyed at someone writing something set in New England without understanding New England don't read. If you couldn't care less go ahead.