Hot Mess

Belden’s breezy but shallow behind-the-scenes debut novel set in Chicago’s high-end restaurant biz revolves around the escapades of 25-year-old Allie Simon. She’s hooked up with charismatic Benji Zane, a chef renowned for his pop-up dinner parties and a former drug addict who’s hyped up about the opportunity to run his own restaurant. Allie, blinded by wild sex with her lover, is oblivious to the myriad signs that he is still using and sinks her life savings into the project, believing in him, his sobriety, and their future. When Benji goes AWOL, Allie leaves her job as social media manager for an organic cotton swab company and plunges into the fast-paced restaurant world to save her investment while keeping it a secret that Benji has disappeared. Angela Blackstone, the restaurant’s veteran general manager, does great work whipping Allie into shape for the launch upon which their lives depend. All too predictably, romance, phenomenal success, financial independence and self-revelation provide a tidy ending. The territory the author plumbs in this book is familiar from her memoir, Eightysixed: the vagaries of dating, social media, and how one’s security can turn on a dime.[em] (Mar.) [/em]