Skinny Bitch in Love

July 1, 2013
The Skinny Bitch brand is brought to life in novel form by Barnouin, starring a skinny, blonde vegan chef in Santa Monica named Clementine. The result is a functional if unremarkable piece of chick-lit; Clementine's rising career as LA's hottest vegan chef is sabotaged by a sulky coworker who slips a pat of butter into Clem's ravioli when a big restaurant critic stops by. Black-listed from every vegan restaurant in town, our heroine starts up a cooking school and personal chef service, and on the way meets two potential paramoursâsexy "millionaire", "leather-jacket wearing carnivore", and steakhouse-owner Zach Jeffries; and Alexander Orr, his polar opposite, a "very cute" British vegan chef who mentors at-risk youth and brings soup to grandmas, but whose kisses leave Clementine lukewarm. Hijinks and lots of vegan cooking ensue. Barnouin does above-average job of mapping out a very familiar plot, but it has all the subtlety and spontaneity of The Baby-sitters Club; the constant references to "dead cow" grow tiresome. Nevertheless, it does everything it sets out to do, and those looking for a lazy beach reach or die-hard fans of the Skinny Bitch Empire should find something here to enjoy.

May 1, 2013
Vegan sous chef Clementine Cooper finally has her big chance: The chef is ill, so it's her job to impress curmudgeonly food critic O. Ellery Rice. But after one bite of her divine butternut squash ravioli, Rice stalks out. Sabotaged in the kitchen by the saute chef with the butter, Clementine finds herself blackballed from every vegan kitchen in town. Never one to let crap ruin her life, Clementine launches her own business as a personal chef, but her first client turns out to be her ex-boyfriend--and his new, supermodel-beautiful fiancee. Plan B: open a private cooking school. During her very first class, in her very tiny apartment, a quirky collection of characters assembles. Clementine's roommate Sara is, of course, the first to arrive, eager to continue the effortless weight loss that a vegan diet has given her. Duncan the librarian arrives next, hung-up on his ex-girlfriend--a trauma Sara would be delighted to heal. In the midst of an upsetting divorce, Eva comes ready to work out her anger management issues by chopping vegetables. During a lecture on tofu, however, a loud interruption sends Clementine storming across the street to confront whoever just hung up a sign with a steer's head. She may intend to put a stop to the dead animal business, but one look at Zach Jeffries leaves Clementine speechless. Capitalizing on the success of her best-selling series of cookbooks, Barnouin's (Skinny Bitch: Home, Beauty & Style, 2011, etc.) debut novel asks: Can a vegan chef find love with a carnivore? It's lightweight fare, starring a sassy heroine.

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