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.

You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

When cracks start forming in an influencer’s curated life, she finds out that jealousy is just as viral as a video in this riveting suspense novel by bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.

Influencer Meredith Lee didn't teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite.

Then Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen's kids' iPads and swipes it. Now she has access to the family calendar and Aspen's social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen's place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer's only taking back what she deserves—what should have been hers.

Meanwhile, Aspen doesn't understand why her perfectly filtered life is falling apart. Sponsors are dropping her, fellow influencers are ghosting her, and even her own husband seems to find her repulsive. If she doesn't find out who's behind everything, she might just lose it all. But what everyone seems to forget is that Aspen didn't become one of TikTok's biggest momfluencers by being naive.

When Meredith suddenly goes missing, Aspen's world is upended and mysterious threats begin to arrive—but she won’t let anything get in the way of her perfect life again.

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published August 20, 2024

 by Berkley

3/5 stars

Going into You Will Never Be Me I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve had my fill of influencer-driven stories and wasn’t convinced there was much new to say. Still, I picked up the audiobook and ended up doing a hybrid read—and I’m glad I did.

The story follows Meredith Lee and Aspen Palmer - two former best friends whose relationship shattered six months ago. Now they’re more like bitter rivals. Told from alternating perspectives the book dives deep into the glossy, curated world of social media. It shows the pressure to maintain a perfect image and the unraveling that happens when real life doesn’t match the feed.

This was a twisty, suspenseful read. As Aspen’s carefully constructed online persona starts to fall apart, the tension steadily builds until a major twist completely caught me off guard. From that point on, I couldn’t stop reading.

The book doesn’t just explore the online drama but also reveals how the influencer lifestyle affects their personal lives, families and especially mental health. Some scenes felt a little over the top or cringe-worthy (was that intentional). Overall it did heightened the drama. The conclusion was satisfying and wrapped things up well.

You Will Never Be Me is a compelling, dark take on the influencer world. 

This book was part of my 2025 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge (#33)