Narrated by Cooper North

Miller Sykes is a Michelin-starred chef with a restaurant in Napa Valley. Unfortunately, his restaurant is closing down. He is getting a divorce and he’s just been diagnosed with throat cancer. The treatment may not be successful and even if it is, there is a 50/50 chance he will be left without the ability to taste and for Miller, this is unbearable to contemplate. Planning to decline all treatment and just let nature take its course, he advertises for a companion to travel on a two-week food odyssey which will take them to his favourite restaurants and eateries across the USA – the tagline for the ad is the same as the book’s title: Dine with Me.

Miller doesn’t tell applicants he has
cancer of course. In fact, he doesn’t even screen the candidates himself – he
leaves that to his ex-wife, Sloane. The divorce is the end of an era but not
really a cause for sadness. Miller is gay and his marriage to Sloane, who has
been and remains his best friend, was a companionate one. Sloane has met the
love of her life and is pregnant. Miller is happy for Sloane.

Sloane is not happy with Miller’s
decision to decline treatment and she’s worried about what may happen on the
foodie trip if he ends up going alone – because one way or another, Miller is
going on the trip. She finds the best candidate and presses Miller to interview
him.

Dr. Clancy Rhodes has just finished his
residency as a plastic surgeon and the trip is a gift from his very wealthy
parents to celebrate his achievement before Clancy joins his father’s private
practice. Clancy’s heart lies in oncology but the death of a patient early in
his training had him transferring to plastic surgery instead. Now he’s
second-guessing that decision but desperate not to disappoint his dad.

The setup is a little odd. I had to suspend
a fair bit of disbelief about it really because it seemed super unusual for a
famous chef to go on a two-week holiday with a stranger – over the Christmas
period no less. Obviously because this is a romance, Clancy and Miller spend
more time together than is originally anticipated and fall in love but the
whole concept seemed a bit out there. That said, once I got past it (and I’ve
certainly accepted stranger premises in fiction so it wasn’t too hard to
do) the rest of the story was great.

Miller likes Clancy as a dining companion
because he is a genuine foodie and, for bonus points, Clancy has no dietary
restrictions – so Miller can take him anywhere.

It helps that Clancy’s mother runs a
concierge service for the uber-rich and has private planes ferrying them around
and that Clancy’s parents end up funding the entire trip – including Miller’s
expenses. It’s a bit fairytale-esque but once I thought of it that way, I
relaxed right in.

I’m not a foodie really – I’m too picky for
that! – and I expect that true foodies will find more to enjoy than I did, but
even so, I enjoyed the descriptions of food, wine and eateries in the book.
There was a broad variety– from burger joints to fine dining and Miller and
Clancy enjoyed them all. The attention to detail of the gastronomy felt like
solid world-building. It was clear that both men share a passion for food and
wine and this created the beginnings of their more intimate connection.

Clancy’s parents are divorced but remained
best friends (his mother is remarried, and he gets along great with his stepdad
too) so he’s unfazed by Miller and Sloane. I really liked the family dynamics
in this book. There were no evil-exes, all the parents were good people and
loved their children. It was kind of refreshing actually.

Clancy, at age 30, is 10 years Miller’s
junior (but the age difference between them is not a significant issue in the
book). Clancy is bisexual and Miller is gay. I appreciated the representation.
And I appreciated that their sexuality was not in any way an issue for their
families. Another thing which was refreshing.

The bulk of the book takes place in about a
two-week period and of necessity there is a lot of Clancy and Miller together
as they go on their fancy road trip. I didn’t have any trouble buying their
growing connection. They spent so much time together and clicked from their
first meeting just about. That said, given what Miller is facing, it’s a huge
commitment for Clancy to be all-in so quickly.

Because Miller believes himself to be
running on borrowed time – maybe 6-12 months at most – he does not want to
start anything with Clancy. So, he puts the brakes on and refuses to act on
their mutual attraction. Clancy is a clever man. He begins to put 2 and 2
together and quickly comes up with the right answer. After the truth comes out,
Clancy urges Miller to seek treatment and fight for life no matter what, even
if he does end up with no working taste buds.

Because this is a romance, I don’t think
there are any prizes for guessing what Miller’s eventual decision is. But
romance is all about the journey and I heard Miller’s mind change slowly
as Clancy inspired him in any number of ways.

The heat level of the book is a little
lower than I was expecting. The sex is explicit when it happens but there are
only two scenes in the whole book. This makes sense in context. No more was
needed in the story (in fact, it could be argued that the second one was
unnecessary). I was really happy that sex wasn’t shoe-horned in for the sake of
it and the book stayed true to the characters and their journey.

The narration, by Cooper North, was very
very good. He has a broad range of character voices and accents which he
showcases to good effect in Dine with Me. Miller is from South Carolina
and so has a southern twang to his voice. Clancy is a California boy and sounds
younger – which fit as well. Miller’s best friend, Greg, is a growly bear and
Sloane is feminine and authentic-sounding.

The emotion of the story, the connection
between the two men and their shared love of food is all obvious in the
narration too.

There were a few small errors where the
emphasis was put on the wrong word in a sentence but these were rare and didn’t
detract in any significant way from my enjoyment of the audiobook.

Cooper North is becoming one of my go-to
narrators. To my ear, his female character voices have vastly improved since I
first started listening to him. I feel like he shines in MM romance for some
reason. Though perhaps it’s just that the books I’ve enjoyed the most that he’s
narrated are MM romances and nothing more than that.