Review: Love You A Latke

Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot

#Jewish #HolidayRomance #NewAdult #Contemporary

CW: Gaslighting, Drinking, Hangover, Swearing, Mental Abuse, Money Problems, Classism, Antisemitism, Microaggressions, Anxiety, Described Panic Attack, Cultural Appropriation, Child Abuse, Body Shaming (Sometimes Internalized), Sexual Content

5/5

All I needed was the title for me to read this book, I Love You A Latke. Amanda Elliot's book went right into my holds. As it should with a holiday about miracles, I received the book and finished it all during Hannukka! I was expecting a simple Hallmark-esque holiday romcom. While it did use some of those elements, the tone didn't match. It was also far more developed than a cute/cheesy romcom. Mental health, personal growth, and falling back in love with Judaism all play important parts in this book. 

As if the grumpy barista, Abby Cohen's day wasn't weird enough, with her most annoying customer fixing her lightbulb unprompted, she gets saddled with planning a Hannukka festival! Love You A Latke takes place in a small Vermont town that wants to stand out and boost its economy. The tourism board decides that a Hannukka festival is the key and that it must be planned by the only Jew on the board, Abby. Disappointed in trying to be strong-armed into non-Jewish content by folks that believe Hannukka is the Jewish Christmas, Abby looks for help from her own community. Seth, her most annoying customer, is willing to use his connections from NYC if she does him a favor. His mom has been begging him to bring home a "nice Jewish girl", someone Abby could pretend to be. They'll both need a miracle to pull off their goals!

Elliot did a great job of weaving mental health issues into Love You A Latke. Seth has anxiety, which is declared on-page. Sometimes books will portray a disorder so clearly, but then refuse to label it. Seth's anxiety often manifested in him having trouble sticking up for himself or speaking his mind. He also mentions that he goes to therapy. Abby is suffering from trauma due to her bad childhood. She clearly has a hard time opening up to people and valuing herself. What she has trauma from gets revealed slowly, a parallel to how Abby opens up to people. As someone with anxiety and in therapy, I greatly appreciate representation like this. The story is a sweet holiday romance but it also takes the time to treat mental illness seriously, appropriately, and realistically. 

My favorite plot arc in this book was Abby falling back in love with Judaism. After moving to her small town in Vermont, she found that she didn't know of any other Jews. Even when she discovered that Seth was Jewish, that's only 1 other Jewish person around. Then he invites her back to NYC with him for Hannukka. She gets to be around his parents, go to temple, eat New York Jewish food, and more. She starts to remember what it was like and it helps her with planning the festival. Love You A Latke shows antisemitism through microaggressions and fear, but it also shows how important it is to have a community one connects with. Being happy with who you are is worth the risks.

Due to being a Hannukka story, the majority of Love You A Latke needs to happen within 8 days. There is some story that occurs before and some after, but essentially, the audience gets an 8-day story. I'm not a big fan of characters falling for each other quickly, but Elliot sidesteps this by having Seth be a long-term customer of Abby's who is simply now allowing their interactions to move beyond the café. In general, Elliot does an amazing job of writing the relationships between characters -- the good, the bad, and the complex. It's especially sweet to see Abby make a new friend when she isn't used to letting anyone in. All of this is bolstered by strong character development, especially when writing their backstories. 

With the growing market of Hannukka romance novels, you might find it hard to choose which ones to read during those 8 short nights. I believe that Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot would be a wonderful book to include. Interesting food combos, fun competitions, and Jewish humor await you as bonuses to everything I've mentioned above. I know Hannukka is over now, but why not keep that holiday spirit going?