Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto

A nearly divorced housewife enrolls in culinary school to win back her husband, only to start questioning the strange antics of her classmates in this new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

Retirement should mean long-awaited trips to the sapphire waters of Santorini or careening down a sand dune in Dubai. For sixty-three-year-old Mebel, retirement means her husband of more than forty years announcing that he's leaving her for their private chef. Mebel isn’t sure who's the bigger loss.

Not to worry, Mebel has the perfect plan: she’s going to win back her husband. No one knows what he needs better than her—after all, she's been anticipating his needs their whole marriage. And if he wants a wife who can cook (why else would he leave her for a chef?), she will simply go to cooking school. Luckily, class at the renowned Saint Honoré School of Culinary Arts in France starts in just four days!

However, Mebel quickly realizes that her culinary school is not in illustrious Paris but rather in England—and some small village outside of Oxford no less. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel manages to befriend Gemma, the breakout star of the program, who offers to help Mebel on their first day. When Gemma stops showing up to class, Mebel knows she must figure out what—or who—caused her friend’s sudden disappearance. After all, Mebel may not know the first thing about how to cut a potato, but she certainly knows how to identify a fraud, and there’s definitely something fishy going on.

Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Expected publication April 28, 2026

 by Berkley

4/5 stars

This is my 2nd Jeese Q. Sutanto book, my previous read leaned more towards mystery, so this was something lighter with some humour sprinkled in.

After 40 years of marriage, 63 year old Mebel is stunned when her husband leaves her for a 24 year old chef.  Having been raised to be a trophy wife...well that's all she really knows.  But now she is forced to rethink things.

Determined to win her husband back through his stomach, Mebel enrolls in culinary school, which is funny in itself since she has never cook anything.  Trophy wives have people to do that for them.  Even though the story started a tad slowly, once it picked up I really enjoyed watching Ms. Mebel's journey.  Making new friends and gaining confidence.

Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block, yea that is a mouthful, is a heartwarming story about friendship, reinvention and discovering life somethings takes you in different directions and that isn't always a bad thing.

My thanks to Berkley for a digital arc in exchange for a honest review.