Saying “I Do” has never been such a mess. Marlee Medford just got dumped. Yes, things have become ho-hum in her longtime relationship, but she was two days away from walking down the aisle with the man she thought was her forever when he called it off. Convincing herself that they’d be able to reignite their spark once the wedding craziness settled? That was easy. Suddenly finding herself without … finding herself without a fiancé? Not so much. Marlee needs to regain control of her life, and a weekend away with her friends is a solid first step.
One of Denver’s best up-and-coming chefs, perpetual bachelor Eli Howard, isn’t into serious relationships—especially the kind that ends in marriage. As if to prove his point that they aren’t worth the trouble, the wedding he was supposed to be catering just fell apart. Feeling oddly protective of the jilted bride—his little sister’s best friend—his weekend plans now involve a trip to Sin City with her group of friends. But it looks like he had a bit too much fun in Vegas when he wakes up married…wedding night included.
Marlee’s attempts at getting her life back together are failing miserably. Her ex-fiancé is taking the house, her chihuahua is intent on a love affair with Eli’s sneakers, and she’s now accidentally hitched to the guy who can’t even say the word marriage. With their quickie annulment denied, Eli and Marlee just have to hang tight until the divorce goes through. It’s just a little divorce amongst friends, what’s the worst that could happen?
Take It Off the Menu is book three of the Mile High Matched series, but stands alone and can be read in any order. If you love a hunky caterer and an accidental marriage then this book is for you! Buy now for a fun, friends-to-lovers romance!
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Wow! This book jumped right into the drama! I felt so bad for Marlee, but I was glad at the same time because Scotty left me with the impression that he was using her. Yes, they were together for ten years, but he just came off a bit slimy! Her parents ticked me off to no end! WTH kind of parents do what they did after such an event! If you haven’t figured it out from my review by now, this book conjures up all kinds of feelings and emotions!
I really like Marlee, and adored Eli, mostly. There was that bit just after the climax in the story where Marlee let’s it all out, and it left me devastated for her! Glad I wasn’t in public, because I couldn’t contain my tears.
I absolutely, 100% fell in love with the characters and this story! Babushka is insane, and insanely hysterical!
I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.
Another great book in this series. You can read this book as a stand alone but why would you as the other books were so great too. Eli has meet his match in Mar. Mar is a wild on to Eli’s tame ways. Well he ties to tame her ways, haha. You can imagine how that went. You will laugh, you will cry and you will fan yourself from the steamy bits. Let me just say that Babushka needs to be in every book from now on no matter what. I want her to be my grandmother and I want to be her all at the same time!!!
*I received a free copy of this book via the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.*
I absolutely loved this book and was honored to have been able to read and review. It was such a phenomenal read and had amazing characters as well as an amazing story line. I just could not get enough of it and once I started reading it I could not put it down. I recommend that you read it.
I have to start by saying that Christina Hovland is becoming one of my favorite authors. Every book I have read by her is as good as the first one I read. She has a great sense of humor (Lothario), there are enough sex scenes to make it “hot” but not trashy! Enough angst yet still light and fun to read. I only found one grammar error- and that was probably the teacher in me.
I did receive an ARC copy; however, I also pre-ordered a copy on Amazon for my kindle so I would have it with my other books. It is seriously that good!
Another perfect rom com from one of my fave authors Christina Hovland. Marlee just got dumped two days before her wedding by her decade old boyfriend Scott. Marlee decides to go to Vegas with friends and leave Scott and the wedding planner to cancel the wedding since it was his idea.
Eli, an up and coming chef is an old friend and the brother of one of her best girl friends decides he better go along on the Vegas trip to keep the girls out of trouble. Well you know how things go in Vegas, after too much to drink and games of dares Eli and Marlee wake the next morning married.
Their romance is full of fun, lovable characters and misadventures that all work out for a very happy and surprising HEA ending.
This book is the third book in the “Mile High Matched” series. Each book just keeps getting better then the last.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy gifted to me by the author.
I love this book! Marlee and Eli are such fantastic characters. Marlee is dumped by her fiancée two days before the wedding. She goes to Vegas with her best friends and one best friend’s brother, Eli. She wakes up to find she has married Eli. There are some ups and downs. Some very funny scenes with some elderly ladies. This is the first book that I have read by Christina Hovland. I received it as an ARC. I am very lucky that I did. I can’t wait to read more of her books.
loved it. What is not to like when the hero has tattoos and cooks! And a bunch of fun supportive girlfriends,what more can u ask for. Oh yea,Vegas baby!
Another hit from Christina Hovland’s Mile High Matched series. This book is sweet, spicy, and saucy! A very good, entertaining weekend read.
After the tease of what was to come at the end of Blow Me Away, I couldn’t wait for Eli and Marlee’s story! Take It Off the Menu definitely does not disappoint.
Equal parts romance, humor, and heart, the story begins with Marlee’s fiance breaking up with her just days before the wedding. She and Eli’s sister are part of a close-knit group of friends. When her friends take Marlee on a post break-up trip to Las Vegas, Eli tags along and they wind up married. That’s just the beginning of the story, though!
Marlee and Eli both grow so much as the plot progresses and I liked getting to see things from both their perspectives. It was especially nice to see Marlee to come into her own and find a job and friends she loved that weren’t influenced by her parents/her wealth.
There are also appearances by characters from the first two books in the series including Jase’s hilarious grandma Babushka. While you don’t have to read the first two Mile High Matched books, I definitely recommend you do!
Thank you to the author for providing an ARC for an honest review.
This story made me laugh out loud several times! It also just made me happy to read it. I haven’t read the other books in this series, but I now want to. Eli is a perfect big brother that takes care of everyone else. He’s got a tough exterior but is full of marshmallow fluff! My favorite kind of hero. Marlee has been a little spoiled throughout her life, but she is genuinely nice person. I would love to be friends with her! And the other characters too! We could all use friends like them. While they didn’t intend to become a couple, Eli and Marlee seemed to be destined to be one. Completely loved this story! I received an advance copy of the book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I truly enjoyed this book! To get dumped just before the wedding your parents a kind of on your ex groom side and all your friends decide you should go on your honeymoon with them! This was hilarious her dog was such a little lover. As far as the series goes this is a nice add-on hope there’s going to come!
Christina Hovland is a RomCom queen and I’m one of her biggest fans. She is at the top of my go-to authors for LOL, feel-good books with delightfully quirky, good-hearted characters you will love.
Marlee is a Denver socialite and heiress with a heart of gold. Having been dumped by her fiancé just two days before their scheduled wedding, she is whisked off to Las Vegas by her bff’s Sadie, Becca and Kellie for a girls weekend. Along for the ride is Sadie’s brother, Eli, who has been looking out for these loose cannons since they were kids. An up and coming chef in Denver, he is there to keep them out of trouble. Much to Eli’s chagrin, Vegas involves antics including pole dancing, tattoos, much imbibing, tuxedo condoms and waking up next to Marlee after being married in a Vegas chapel in front of someone in a Liberace costume. The aftermath includes an unsuccessful wedding annulment court hearing that will have you snort laughing. The book winds its way through their return to Denver and hysterically funny misadventures that include Marlee’s dog, Lothario, a chihuahua fond of humping Eli’s shoes and random flower vases and store displays. Making a return to this series is Babushka and her brigade of senior citizens wielding dildo nunchucks. Do yourself a favor and get this book. You will laugh, you will cry (from laughing so much) and your heart will melt with Marlee and Eli’s love story.
I received an ARC for an honest review.
When crusty, loner, Eli showed up suddenly at his friends’ party with a wife, I just knew that story was going to be a fun one. This author excels at fun, feel-good romantic comedies among a set of friends who are small business owners in the Denver area. I look forward to each new release to get the next fun and flirty story.
Take It Off the Menu is book three in the Mile High Matched series. It’s a standalone connected to the previous books because of a group of single friends who slowly are finding their own romances.
Marlee was getting married in two days. It was to be the biggest wedding of Denver’s social calendar, but now her fiance’ is calling it off. He doesn’t need time; he needs it to be over. She should have felt grief or heartbreak at such news. So, what did it say that she felt only relief and some anger at how long he held off. She was with Scotty for ten years and knew that they were both settling. He was right to call it off, but then the hits kept coming. He expected to keep his job in her dad’s office and keep their house, and heck, keep the honeymoon trip because no hard feelings, right? That was when her besties and Eli, the brother of one of her besties, step in support her. A trip to Vegas to fling away her sorrows is in order, but a Vegas wedding and a honeymoon night with ‘marriage’ is a dirty word Eli was not how it was supposed to end.
Eli knew Vegas, a night of boozing and partying with Marlee, his sister and their friends was a bad idea. His mistake was going along. Now, he’s married, bewildered by how little he panicked, and not nearly as upset to be stuck with Marlee for the 90-Day divorce period. He gives her a roof over her head when her parents pick her ex and she settles in easily among his friends and even Jase’s crazy Babushka. He wants to prepare his best dishes for her, have her in his kitchen even though she’s a disaster, and he shares his big dream with her. He doesn’t even mind her chihuahua service dog and he strangely feels jealousy at times. But, he doesn’t do relationships so he should be relieved that this is short-term, right?
I settled in for the fun from the very first page. I should have felt badly that Marlee was jilted almost at the altar and that her parents were being such jerks about it all. But as soon as her three best friends and Eli came to the rescue, I thought it was the best thing that could have ever happened. It paced nicely and I enjoyed seeing the romance pair start to develop as a couple and the times when the group of friends got together.
The main characters were both engaging and the angst was light.
Eli is curmudgeonly and more the organized ‘stay out of my space’ type. He is a talented chef and his catering business is doing great and working him toward his dream of opening a restaurant. He really is a sweetie on the inside and a giver rather than the irascible person he likes people to think he is.
Marlee is a dash about who finds trouble without even trying and can’t cook to save her life. She has a generous, good heart and Eli saw that all along. He never thought of her as the poor little rich girl and never doubted she could stand strong when her parents pulled her credit cards and gave her apartment away. I loved seeing her having fun sharing Eli’s world and working out her life even while helping Eli open up to the possibility of a lasting relationship.
The comedy is laced through the story especially when Babushka makes her appearance and things go mad cap quick and Marlee’s nutty dog wasn’t getting amorous with Eli’s shoes, but it isn’t distracting and melds with the romance so well.
All in all these are sassy and just sparkle. Easy, quick reads that I devour so quickly and wish for the next. Those who enjoy flirty romantic comedies with some heart and a little heat should definitely pick this one up.
Days before her wedding, Scotty calls it off saying that he wants to end things before they start hating each other. What’s a girl to do? For Marlee she goes to Vegas with her friends and Eli being the man he is goes along to protect her. what he doesn’t expect is to end up marrying her but that’s what happens. This story is funny and ends with a happy ending in spite of all her drama. I voluntarily agreed to receive an ARC of this book for an honest review.
A feel good romance. I laughed, I cried. I really cared about what happened to these characters. Eli and Marlee are a great couple who start their great love story with a drunken Vegas wedding and the sparks are flying. All of my favorite characters from the other Mile High Matched books Going Down on One Knee and Blow Me Away are on hand to help the couple find their happily ever after. Babushka is an absolute riot! I hope there will be more books in this series.
I loved Marlee’s story. The characters are so real that I miss them now that I’ve finished the book. I’m off to read the other books in the series now. (I was unaware that this is part of a series but this is truly standalone).
***5 ‘Exactly The Same’ Stars***
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the previous books in the series and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one, especially after reading the blurb, and I was not disappointed! This was such a fun read. I loved every moment ~ even when I wanted to Gibbs smack and/or gut a few people with a spoon ~ and really wished there were more words to read because hanging out with this crew is all kinds of fun!
Eli. Okay I was already swooning over the guy because of the chef thing…totally swoon worthy! And I absolutely loved him and how protective he was of those he called his own, even when he didn’t necessarily want to be, but he had the whole ‘insert foot into mouth disease’ going on and had me wanting to Gibbs smack him many, many times.
I absolutely ADORED Marlee. She was sweet, sassy, and generous in such a selfless way that it drew me in and had me wishing she was my friend in real life. She had her moments of cluelessness that had me scratching my head and wondering how she couldn’t know certain things ~ even when I did get it.
To say that Jase and Marlee’s journey was a bit bumpy is an understatement, what with not only the whole ‘oops we were drunk and got married in vegas’ thing, but also the fact that Marlee is BFF’s with Jase’s sister…there was just a whole lot going on, but it all worked for me. I loved watching as the attraction grew between them and they started to realize that they were catching feelings ~ which was a bit awkward considering the divorce thing. The chemistry between them was HAWT and I loved their bantering, but more than that, I loved how they saw each other and saw how amazing each other was. Now for that BIG bump in the road. Let’s just say, I was totally #TeamMarlee, but I really enjoyed how it all worked out in the end.
This really was a fun read from the very beginning and I loved watching both Eli and Marlee evolve into better and stronger versions of themselves without losing what made them so unique. But of course, part of the changes were helped along by their friends and family. I loved catching up with Brek and Velma, Claire and Dean, Jase and Heather and getting to hang out with Sadie, Kellie and Becca and am looking forward to getting to know them all better as the series continues. But Babushka and Lothorio totally stole the show. I still want to be Babushka when I grow up and Lothario…well, you’ll just have to meet him to understand.
Note: The books in the series can be read as stand alones, but I do highly recommend that you start at the beginning so you can get the full impact of what these characters mean to each other.
~ Copy provided by the author & voluntarily reviewed ~
Honestly, if I could give this more than 5 stars, I would do that. I have seldom laughed as hard at a book, and, given that I was reading this in bed, that was slightly awkward! While the book opens with Marlee getting dumped just before her wedding (and her ex-fiance still heading off for “their” honeymoon, with her parents’ support), it moves on to a delightful exploration of friendship, the value of real friends, real love, and Eli – her best friend’s brother and the man to whom she wakes up married in Vegas. Marlee, cut off by her parents, finds her calling as a florist and finds herself falling in love. My favorite scene was probably the charity dinner – I laughed out loud. With fabulous characters and humorous dialogue, this is a book not to miss.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Be prepared to explain – if you can!!! I was reading “Take if Off the Menu” as a flew recently. Laughing out loud as Lothario starts out the book with his antics and continuing throughout escalating with Babushka and her friends appearance!! Christina Hovland has added another solid stand alone read while incorporating characters we had the opportunity to meet in previous books. Marlee tackles unforeseen obstacles with grit and determination revealing she is not just a party time girl. Eli’s strong silent façade cracks when he realizes he cannot do everything himself and does need his family and friends. I was totally entranced throughout this entire book. The dialogue, the descriptions of characters and events is outstanding. As I stated at the beginning – be prepared to explain when reading in public!!! This is a wonderfully written book!! Thanks Christina Hovland!!!
What a fun book! I really, really enjoyed it! Although I do have to say that I wanted to slap Eli a few times. The characters were wonderful and likeable and the story flowed great. I will definitely be reading more in this series.
Voluntary review of an ARC