Book Review: Didn't You Use to Be Queenie B?

Regina Benuzzi is Queenie B, a culinary goddess with Michelin Star restaurants, a bestselling cookbook empire, and multimillion-dollar TV deals. It doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous and curvaceous, with cascading black hair and signature red lips. She had it all. Until she didn’t.

After an epic fall from grace, Queenie B vanishes from the public eye, giving up everything: her husband, her son, and the fame that she’d fought to achieve. Her shows are in rerun, her restaurants still popular, but her disappearance remains a mystery to her legions of fans.

Local line cook Gale Carmichael also knows a thing or two about disaster. Newly sober and struggling, Gale’s future dreams don’t hold space for culinary stardom; only earning enough to get by. Broke at the end of the week, he finds himself at a local soup kitchen in one of the roughest parts of New Haven, Connecticut. But Gale quickly realizes that the food coming out of the kitchen is not your standard free meal; it is delicious and prepared with gourmet flair. Who is this Regina, the soup kitchen's cranky proprietor?

Didn't You Use to Be Queen B? by Terri-Lynne DeFino will be published April 15, 2025. William Morrow provided an early galley for review.

A couple years back I read my first of DeFino's novels and enjoyed it greatly. So, seeing her name pop up on a new title was enough for me to jump back in.

Once again, the author's love of food and cooking plays a part in the story. From the profession of the protagonists to the terminology at the start of each chapter, DeFino is sharing her knowledge with the reader. Educate while entertaining - a welcome combination.

Also present are her solid characters, created with many layers and complexities. From their backgrounds to their dialogue, they come across as real and relatable. That is a key in contemporary, realistic fiction.

One element that did not work for me was "Sean". I get what the author was going for with the mechanic used for "his voice", but I found it to be a tad bit clunky. I also found that the middle section of the book (what is often referred to in writing circles as "the middle 50%" dragged in some parts. I found myself drifting as I was reading. It might have benefitted from some tighter pacing.

Still, a good, entertaining novel with some relatable themes.