Ms Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block – Jesse Sutanto

Published By: Corvus
Pages: 304
Released On: 07/05/2026

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, but she has the perfect plan to win him back: she’ll finally learn to cook.

However, Mebel quickly realizes she’s accidentally booked herself into a culinary school not in Paris but rather in a small English village. Despite the frosty welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel manages to befriend Gemma, the breakout star of the program. 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…

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Corvus for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I own about half a dozen of Jesse’s books but for some reason, this is the first I’m reading.

I really wanted to love Mebel right from the odd but she was hard work. I know she’s the victim in this story but she was a hard woman to like. I didn’t like her obsession with winning her husband back, like she was only worth being a trophy wife and not her own woman. I know she’s spent her life being this trophy wife, but she felt like a child in a 60+ woman’s body. I think the way she acted was meant to be humorous but I found it irritating.

I was expecting a comedy, something light to read, and it did have comedic moments but I felt the start of it at least, the first quarter was really morose and it meant overall the story felt so slow and miserable.

I did like the character arcs and the message of female empowerment, and it definitely got better as it went along. I enjoyed the generational and cultural shifts between the characters, that really helped flesh the story out.

But I just couldn’t take to Mebel at all. She was better by the end but I found her so insufferable for the most part that it was hard to enjoy her story. I can’t say any of the other characters were stand out either.

I’ve looked at other reviews and it seems people are split between it being a five-star read, and being a bit disappointed and I am definitely in the latter. It had such promise and I will definitely still read her other books, but I personally think an interesting premise and potential story was let down by such an unlikeable protagonist.