Really enjoyed this book. Loved all the food/cooking/recipe referances. Enjoyed Cuevas writing style and found it an easy enjoyable read. It did take a little bit to get into but once past this just a joy to read. Loved the characters and they felt really believable. Would recommend as a Spring/Summer read for those who enjoy teen/coming of age fiction and anything to do with cooking/resturant experiences.

Salty, Bitter, Sweet is a young adult novel dedicated to food & family.
There is a lot of talk about grief and forgiveness in it, but also some romance.
I guess the title is perfect as it ties everything nicely together.

I liked how you can just tell that both food and family are very important to the author. It just pours from pages of this book. I loved her connection with her Abuela as I could relate to it. It is very familiar to me; healing through food. If you love YA contemporary, own voices books and cooking shows this book is perfect for you. Also, the cover of this book is beautiful.

Main issue why I will not rate this book a perfect score is a fact that I was a bit bored. It is weird to say but I didn't really care about Diego and his story.
As the author has an interesting background and has many similarities with Isabella, I would love it more if this were more...more non-fiction and more just focused on food and grandmother
This is between three and four stars.

Thanks to NetGalley & publisher for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The whole kitchen competition aspect made me salivate to read this book, with me being a huge fan of MasterChef: The Professionals. I got the cut-throat world of the kitchen, the ruthlessness, but it got to a point where this felt like too much... I also didn't see Isa growing in all this - it's mentioned at the end where she gives Lucia her right chance, but it was a lot of writing and drama to ultimately not come to so much, or to have it come to the well-wrapped/gift-wrapped quickie type ending where everything falls into place. Also, as a native French speaker, I had some hang ups with the names of the characters like Grattard and Troissant, which just felt weird and with a whole lot of negative connotations attached to them...
I think if this had just been a kitchen competition book, I would've liked it much better. The addition of all the family drama and also the hero, who makes a cringe-worthy intro that is really hard to forget and forgive, just didn't help matters. Isa also felt entitled and 'different' in a way that sounded pompous and not the sympathetic, we should like her, kind.

She lost her Lala and her family was in shambles, but Isa was going to make the most of the situation. She earned a spot in a prestigious summer cooking program, which could lead to a once-in-a-lifetime internship with a renowned chef, but would she be able to hold it together, and win the internship?

• Pro: This book was filled with fantastic female characters. Two stood out, Isa's abuela and Chef Troissant. Both women set the bar high for Isa, and she was better for it.

• Pro: It was sort of sad, that I only got to know abuela Lala via flashbacks, because I loved her more and more with every new detail revealed. The love she gave to Isa and the lessons she passed on to her were priceless, but her community service endeared her even more to me, because it showed how HUGE her heart was, and what a beautiful person she was.

• Pro: This was a rough couple of weeks for Isa. She was still dealing with grief and guilt surrounding her Lala's death, as well as her parents' divorce. Combine that with the high stress atmosphere of the summer cooking program, and it was easy to see why Isa was struggling so much. She was lucky to form a friendship with the two other women in the program, and then she met Diego, who helped her see things a bit differently. She grew so much, and I loved the direction Cuevas took her in.

• Pro: I loved the way Diego busted into Isa's world and knocked her off balance. Not only was he a handsome boy, there to win her heart, he also brought a lot of insight with him regarding chasing and evaluating your dreams.

• Pro: Isa thought she had it all figured out, but once she was there, in that professional kitchen, she had to step back and reevaluate her dream. I really appreciated this aspect of her story, because it took into account the sacrifice required, its toll on her, and if it was really her dream.

• Pro: Caveat reader - do not read on an empty stomach, because there is a LOT of cooking and eating going on in this book, and many of the scenes involving food are accompanied by very detailed and mouthwatering descriptions.

Overall: A story about redefining your dreams, family, friendship, and fantastic food, which I rather enjoyed.

I really loved the story idea and was excited to read this book. Once the story got going, it was incredibly predictable. If you enjoy stories that feature cooking (with a bit of Hell's Kitchen on the side) this is the book for you.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. This book isn't just a cooking competition, it's a story about love: between grandmother & granddaughter, father and daughter, boy and girl. The 2nd half was definitely more enjoyable as Isa gained footing in the competition at a high end restaurant in Lyon, France. This novel took me away from my humdrum existence to France, delicious foods, traditions and memories. Isabella has a strong connection to her lala, her Cuban abuela. The story starts after she has gotten to France from her native Chicago to live with her dad and his new wife. She feels like the only place she fits is in the kitchen. Terrific representation here and a sweet, surprising love story, as well as strong supporting characters Pippa and Lucia. Isabella carves out a path that makes sense for her cooking style. An interesting read, for sure. Now someone bring me coq au vin and pie.

I loved it! It was emotional and I loved seeing her sweet relationship with her late grandmother. The romance was cute and I enjoyed it a lot, though I would've preferred if the love interest hadn't been her new stepmom's ex-stepson. He could've easily been the son of an old family friend instead. Other than that, it was cute seeing her go from being annoyed with him to pining for him. I also loved the descriptions of food. This book made me hungry.

3.5/5. While this book was not without its problems (the mc had some ableist thoughts in regards to drug addicts and a few "I'm not like other girls" moments, among other things; much of it improved in the second half), I really enjoyed the concept of it. I don't know why chef media appeals to me so much, but it was mostly a fun, quick read and I appreciated the exploration of this character who didn't quite know where she fit in but was determined to carve out a space for herself in the world.

Who doesn't love a good cooking competition? (Okay, maybe some people...) I love food and cooking in general, and just reading the synopsis I knew I'd be salivating throughout the entire book. I was totally right. This book made me hungry soooo many times!

Quick Thoughts
-Most YA books set in France are mainly in Paris, but Salty, Bitter, Sweet is set in Lyon and the rural outskirts of that city. It was a lot of fun to visit this new-to-me location.
-Beluga the dog is freaking adorable.
-Cuevas' writing is breezy and fun, very easy to read. I read this book in a couple of days. It's filled with the perfect amount of description, exposition, action, and dialogue.
-The romance with Diego is fun and sweet. He comes with some great character depth a little farther in the book, which I appreciated.

Lasting Impressions

One thing I really loved about this book was the cooking class/competition that Isa participates in. It's so tense, but not only that, the techniques taught and put into action are so well described. I could picture it really well. These scenes were fast paced and very suspenseful.

On the other hand, Isa often has flashbacks of her abuela. These are slower paced and rich with detail. I enjoyed this change of pace and found these flashbacks to be incredibly touching. Isa's love for her abuela really stood out to me, as it affected everything Isa did.

The relationships Isa has with her family is complicated but also realistic. She lives with her dad who is newly married to the woman he hooked up with when cheating on Isa's mom. It's awkward and painful at times, but I liked how it was handled. Even her relationship with her abeula is complicated, but seeing Isa have tough feelings like this was compelling and made me appreciate her more.

One thing that surprised and fascinated me while reading was learning about the sexism women have to deal with in the culinary field. That isn't something I'd ever considered, and this peek into that was both heart wrenching and educational. The ending is tied into all of that, and I LOVED how everything was resolved.

There is one aspect of this book that made me uneasy, however. Isa spends a lot of time thinking "she's different from other girls" in that she doesn't wear makeup or dress up or swoon over boys. This caused some unneeded girl-on-girl hate and friendship drama that disappointed me. The problem with this especially is that Isa does end up doing all of these things—she dresses up, puts on makeup, and ultimately swoons over Diego. It made me trust her less as a character.

Looking at the book as a whole, however, I did really enjoy this book. It's fun, it's hilarious (some of the jokes took me completely by surprise! I was giggling so much!), and it's a great story.

Overall Feelings

I'm glad I had the chance to read this book. I enjoyed the journey and will definitely try to read more of Cuevas' future books.

Isa is a seventeen-year-old French-Cuban-American girl who is struggling with a complicated family situation following the death of her beloved abuela, or 'Lala', and her parents' divorce. Now living with her father and stepmother, who are expecting their first child together, Isa feels shoved to the side of this new family dynamic, and it's not helped by the irritating presence of Diego, her stepmother's cocky teenage stepson. After being accepted into a prestigious cooking competition where the grand prize is to become the apprentice of renewed French chef Pascal Grattard, Isa juliennes the perfect vegetables, practices omelettes and shows off her chicken butchering skills in an attempt to win. However, as the competition continues, Isa starts to wonder if she has her priorities sorted.

I'm sure that Mayra Cuevas had good intentions when writing Salty, Bitter, Sweet, but I'm afraid the book made me very angry. Since I first read The Devil Wears Prada more than a decade ago, I have been sick to death of this kind of plot in 'chick lit' and in YA fiction. For some reason, so many books that focus on ambitious women and girls feel that they have to preach that ambition is bad and causes you to lose touch with your true self, that friends and family (and heterosexual romantic partners) are more important, even if you are literally a teenager and, on average, aren't going to be settling down with somebody or having children any time soon. I can understand what these kind of books are going for - there is an interesting question to be explored about how important external markers of success are when compared to internal validation - but they always fail to actually have this conversation.

So, I was NOT happy with the way the plot of this novel turned out. In short, Isa deliberately gives up on the cooking competition because she doesn't think she's the sort of person who will thrive in the high-pressured atmosphere of a Michelin-starred kitchen, and opts instead for a different apprenticeship with a female chef. This could have been framed as a reasonable career choice, but instead, the books tosses around so much rubbish about always putting family first, and also implies on a number of occasions that 'strong women' have a special duty to stick together and lift each other up, whereas men are allowed to get on with doing what they're best at. The very idea that Isa might want to win this competition and not give extra help to her opponents is framed as bad, even before Isa decides she doesn't really want the apprenticeship.

This is especially rage-inducing because of the 'friends and family' who surround Isa. I was horrified by how she is treated by her dad and stepmother, who are totally uninterested in her ambitions. Her dad happily eats food she is clearly saving for the competition, whereas, despite Isa making special efforts to reach out to her, her stepmother completely ignores her and sneers at her cooking. Her French grandmother makes racist remarks about Isa's 'dark' skin, whereas her dead abuela was always supportive but also a role model for how to be a pushover, letting one of her grasping neighbours take credit for her secret apple pie recipe and selling it commercially. There's also the inevitable romance with Diego, which is not remotely incestuous but is still so offensive, as Diego never really seems to listen to what Isa needs or wants. He tells her how he gave up competitive swimming because he didn't like the kind of person it was making him into and he came to hate swimming, but then seems to assume that this model fits any kind of ambition. (By the way, I would LOVE to read a YA novel where the male lead character chooses friends and family over ambition, or a YA novel where the female lead character realises she isn't being ambitious enough and needs to dream bigger, even if it means making short-term sacrifices re boyfriends etc - any recommendations?)

In short, I can't recommend Salty, Bitter, Sweet, despite its fun and diverse premise, because of the way it plays into misogynist tropes.

This is a cute story. The characters grew on me, though it took me a little bit to get into the book. The descriptions of food are fantastic, and I was hungry the whole time I was reading the book. I also enjoyed the setting of the story! I recommend this book, especially to those who are into good foods! Do yourself a favor and bring a snack along with your copy when you go to read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I couldn't help but feel as if I was reading With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, which is a book I love. There were a lot of similarities, however, I would say this one was a more amateur version of that story.

Don't get me wrong, I did like this book and the general idea was nice. In here we follow Isabella, a 17 year old girl, whose dream is to become a chef in the most prestigious restaurant in France. She's just started her more mature life, she's lost her grandma, her parents are divorced and she's been living with her father, who's married again and has a baby on the way.

With all of that, Isabella sometimes feels lonely and out of place, so her main focus is her studies and this high-end course she'll be taking in order to try and get an apprenticeship with the chef she most admire. Having gone through so much and feeling disappointed so many times, Isabella feels the urge to succeed in all aspects of her life, which brings her joy at the beginning... as the days pass though, she feels the pressure and succumbs to it.

It's a nice concept with the right amount of depth to it, but like I said, I simply couldn't stop feeling as if I was reading a book a had read recently, and that didn't help my experience with this one.

Isa is spending the summer in France with her dad and her pregnant stepmom in order to be able to attend a prestigious kitchen apprenticeship at the restaurant of world-famous Chef Pascal Grattard. She's trying to juggle being overwhelmed in the kitchen with apprenticeship rivalries, a guy who randomly shows up at her stepmother's house, and various unresolved family issues, from confronting her dad about the affair that led to Isa's parents divorcing to grieving her beloved Abuela.

Look, I live for Chopped (even if I'll defend raw onions until they kill me #balkangirl #sorrynotsorrychrissantos) and just food in general, so this should have been right up my alley. And I did enjoy parts of it - mostly the food stuff (can someone please just hand me a box of French pastries ASAP?), as well as all the interior decor descriptions. And, then, it did get you right in the feels in the right places (especially towards the end).

But then...

Spoilers ahoy in the bullet points below:

- Riddle me this #1: Isa's cooking skills. She gets accepted into the most prestigious culinary program in the world, proceeds to bomb her way through 2/3 of it, then suddenly rises to the top by screwing over a friend, with basically no middle ground at all, the year-long internship suddenly hers to lose. Look, I'm always there for stories of the underdog making it big due to hard work, but this... wasn't it. The level of woeful underpreparedness Isa shows at the beginning of the course, combined with the fact that large parts of the course don't get covered at all, makes for a pretty unrealistic rise to the top.

- Riddle me this #2: Isa's "passion for cooking". We're told she cares OMG So Much. What we're shown, however, is... Her showing up late on the first day. Her not bothering to learn how to put on a chef's hat properly until, like, day 10 of the 20-day course. Her constantly disobeying the rules. Her constantly being distracted by Diego's abs. Her constantly blowing off being a reasonable human being to stay up all night with Diego. Yeah, fine, teens and hormones, BUT: it's a three-week course. It's not a year abroad, it's not a 4-year program, she hasn't signed her life away for this. She's being asked to focus on a thing she supposedly loves for 15 days + weekends + one exam. It's implied that she did just fine through three boyfriend-less years of high school, so remind me again why the 6-hours-each-way drive to Barcelona couldn't have been postponed to literally three days later? Does. Not. Compute.

- Isa's "not like other girls"-ness. Yes, Isa, some girls prefer perfecting their smoky eye to perfecting their omelette. Deal with it. (And that's before even touching on the situation with Lucia.)

- The visit to Isa's mom and maternal grandmother. Isa supposedly goes over to visit them for a weekend, but we only get told about her arrival and one lunch, during which Isa gets zero quality time with her mom and mostly has to listen to her grandmother berating her and being low-key racist. It's such a weird episode that doesn't really connect to any of the bigger story arcs and mostly left me wondering why the mom character was shoehorned in (since it would have been perfectly legitimate to just have her stay in Chicago and leave her out of the book completely), especially given how jarring it was that the mom completely disappears after this one chapter, while the stepfamily gets a perfect little happy ending.

- Dad's new family. Fair enough, Isa is a jerk to Diego to begin with (not that he helps matters), but Margo having a pregnancy-get-out-of-jail-free-card as an excuse to never interacting with Isa in any kind of a positive manner and Papi being the most conflict-avoidant person on the planet, even at the expense of protecting his (already living and breathing) daughter was... annoying, to say the least.

- The mixed messaging about what it takes to be successful. The culinary world is cut-throat and you'll lose your soul if you enter it? You can have it all if you're a girl, but, really, you can't... or shouldn't want to? You should want success in your career, but less than you do now... because... you'll lose your soul? It's not that I don't get the point this book is trying to make about balancing your professional desires with still being a decent person, but the way the point gets made left so much to be desired. Especially since, while Isa deals with her work-life balance by stepping down, Lucia manages to thrive on the job without screwing anyone over, but this is mostly either glossed-over or treated by Isa with the same low-key dismissiveness which her own family shows about <i>her</i> culinary career, which irked me in ways I can't fully verbalize.

- The uneven structure of the storytelling. For a book that only covers a time span of three weeks, this was very weirdly paced. Not that I needed to be shown every day at the apprenticeship and every dish made, but when multiple days at a time were missed, I did feel like I was missing huge parts of what was happening. See also: the visit to Isa's mom.

- What's the point of Snake Eyes throwing around Chekov's gun-ish ideas about taking out the competition if there's no follow-through on it?

- The baby is born, Margo now wants to eat Isa's chicken, and - ta-da! - all the family issues are resolved. Really?! Isa's dad never gets called out or has to explain himself, Margo never really apologizes for how dismissively she's treated Isa for half the story, Isa's mom just... ceases to exist? Yeah, yeah, life doesn't hand you resolution tied up with a pretty bow either, but that's exactly why I read fiction - to get the kind of narrative satisfaction that all the family issues here so clearly lacked.

All in all, this was... fine. Which is a shame, because it could have been great. Better yet, it could have been a book about Lucia or Chef Trossaint. (Have I mentioned that Chef Trossaint, with fart-mushrooms, a sweet tooth and expensive champagne binges is my actual fave?) Ah well...

I really enjoyed this #ownvoices telling by Mayra Cuevas of a smart, driven, goal focused teen striving to find her place, not only in the kitchen but in her own family. I felt the love she had for her Cuban abuela Lala and how hard she tried to make her proud.

One of my favorite quotes “Happiness, like love, arrives through the kitchen. At least that’s what my abuela Lala used to say. I may not know much about love, but I definitely got the kitchen part down.” I think this says everything. I feel for Isa, she has heart and so much of it that it almost becomes her undoing. Decisions she makes threatens to unravel her friendships, her apprenticeship, her family relationships and the possibility of knowing love.

I think Mayra portrayed Isa (Isabella) like a typical teenager, thinking she knows it all, a touch selfish, close minded to what's in front of her, childish in her attitude at times. It can be irritating at times, her irrationality

When she meets Diego, her stepmom's ex stepson, she can't stand him from day one, although she doesn't give him much of a chance. He is definitely a live in the moment kind of guy, or so it seems, Isa currently is not. She is so focused in her own world she loses sight of herself and of her true goal that she ends up hurting those close to her. Her family's dynamic is definitely odd. I feel like her Dad should have stuck up for her more and been more supportive, her stepmom Margot not really showing any kind of love or acceptance toward Isa and you aren't set up to understand why. I didn't really enjoy that aspect of the story.

I felt sorry for Isa, she was trying so hard and she had many obstacles including ones she didn't need. No one truly understanding how important the apprenticeship was (except Lucia and Pippa), downplaying her stress of the competition like it's not a big deal. And the kitchen incident with Diego, I could have killed him myself! I think a lot of this stems from her denial that she was falling for him combined with her being on the edge of losing it and not yet having fully coped with the loss of her abuela.

Through it all, I loved the storyline in general and it gave me all the feels, esp from when Diego took Isa to Barcelona. I feel that's when everything slowly began to fall in to place. The chef dinner Diego took her to, it was an eye opening experience and Isa discovered in herself what she was truly meant to be and where. Margot going into labor also aided her in realizing what was important.

I loved the detail given to the town's and cities and the food experiences. Mayra breaks down all the foodie terms and dishes at the end of the book which is a nice surprise.

I felt the sadness, grief from loss, angst, stress, love, warmth, and much more. Overall, I truly enjoyed this read.

Let's just cut to the chase: overall, I really enjoyed this book. I love cooking shows and anything food related. I really like YA. I always like to learn about other countries and fiction is one of my preferred educational methods :) This book covered it all and was fun to read, too. I was mildly disappointed that there is rarely a YA book without a sexual element and this was no exception. It was minor but still there....and frankly it didn't improve/change/move the story along in any way - it seemed like it was just thrown in there. That being said, I did like this book as a whole and do recommend it.

17 year old Isa is laser focused on her goal to become a prestigious chef, but is struggling emotionally following the recent death of her beloved grandmother as well as the breakdown of her parent's marriage. She is living with her father and his new (and pregnant) wife while trying to figure out how to navigate her new normal. When she is accepted to a three week course at a prestigious international apprentice program taught by a Michelin star chef, she is thrilled - but soon finds out that what she believed she always wanted the most may not look exactly the way she thought it would. Isa begins to ask herself if this dream is worth the price of admission - and is there something else out there for her?

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by Blink YA Books in exchange for my honest feedback.

DNF @ 40%

SALTY BITTER SWEET sounds amazing on paper, a book about a French-Cuban American girl who is trilingual, passionate about cooking and wants to make a career out of it, who also faces complicated a fresh parental divorce, complicated family dynamics and grief over her grandma's passing, when said grandma was the center of her world. On paper. But the execution of it all left a lot to be desired, at least in the 40% that I read before I gave so bare in my mind that this is a review strictly of what I read and not of the entire book as I don't know what happens later on.

SALTY BITTER SWEET does have some positives to it. Although the story didn't really manage to grip me in the beginning, I chalked that out to it not being written for me as I'm not a teenager and have been recently growing out of YA contemporary, so I didn't really fault it for that, I could still see everything that it did well. First is all the cooking parts had me salivating, so much focus on the kitchen and our main character being laser focus on her passion and getting into an apprenticeship that would open up many many doors for her, while I could also see that her focus didn't solely stem from passion but it also also a way for Isa to escape her dysfunctional family dynamics, with a father who seems to have done a 180 on everything that made her the man she grew up around her whole life, a stepmom who barely acknowledges her existence and seems to dislike everything she does, and a boy, Diego, who is making it all worse. To top it all off, this whole family is very dismissive of her endeavors that they don't take seriously and downright undermine at times.

I saw a few reviews say that the romance is ~taboo~ because a stepbrother/sister romance but I'll have to disagree. Diego is the son of Isa's stepmom's ex-husband. So he's not even related to her, let alone to Isa? And they didn't grow up together nor know of each other's existence until the book started. So you'll have to excuse me if I think that's a bit of a stretch. And I say this as someone who wasn't really fan of the romance in the bit that's I've read, not only because it was barely budding when I stopped reading but also because they're mutually assholes to each other. Isa dislikes him right off the bat for no real reason but then he starts hindering her kitchen progress and not really taking her hurt seriously. All of this is fine as I might have continued reading but then a couple things made me stop:

- There was this passage where the main character encounters people struggling with addiction (not saying how or where because spoilers), but although there are a few of them but the only one whose race is pointed out is the Black man in a way where the MC thought to herself "I can't believe that Bubba, the sweet Black man I've known for so long had an addiction problem too", and this rubbed me the wrong way for two reasons. 1/ Addiction doesn't have a "look" to it, there isn't one type of person that struggles with it, so the fact that she's shocked "a sweet man" struggles with it is...not it. 2/ Why was it necessary to have the Black man's race pointed out when no one else's was? it didn't bring anything to the story and enforces stereotypes. I shrugged this off on account of it being such a fleeting minor part of the story, but then a trope I despise showed up.

- Isa suffers from the "Not like other girls" syndrome. There were bits and pieces of it sprinkled in the beginning but nothing to make me think that the book would go all out with the cliché but then this quote happened and I just needed to cut my loses especially since I wasn't really invested in the story to begin with:
<quote>Once I entered high school, the pretty girls were so predictable, daubing on lip gloss in the bathroom mirror or styling their hair with a curling iron until it has the "messy-after-sex" look. I never knew what they meant, And what's so special about using lipgloss and curling irons? Ask any of them to make the perfect lemon zest whipped cream and they would probably go to the stopre and get a tub of Cool Whip, an artificial imitation</quote>
In 2020? really? it's great to be passionate about cooking, and it's also great to like makeup, but flash news, some people also like both??

Like I said I didn't read enough to see if the MC grows and changes her ways so I don't know if this is a pattern throughout the whole book. I saw a couple reviews say that the second half is much better which I sincerely hope is true because this book has some potential to be a teaching moment for the MC and have a really great character growth ARC, but I'm sadly not invested enough to push through the things I disliked to find out.

Salty, Bitter, Sweet will sweep young readers away with its wonderful story of romance, baking, and family. The food descriptions will leave readers salivating! This story whisks readers away to a dream world that is also grounded in reality with the way it addresses universal themes facing YA readers. Highly recommend.

The word choice used in this book and the actions that the protagonist did were just too odd for me to get over. I don’t like it when I need to set my phone down to think about what I just read. Your character shouldn’t be doing things that out there. Thank you, next.

Give me a good YA with cooking at it's heart and I'll give you 5-stars. This one is a mix of the humor and seriousness of [book:I Love You So Mochi|39828159] and the sexy romance of [book:With the Fire on High|38739562] and that (in the author's note) is so personal for Cuevas in that her only elders helped her through her parents divorce in the kitchen makes it even more meaningful. The tidbits sprinkled throughout the book are applicable to a lot of scenarios for teens reading the book about how to find and follow your passion, that growing up is hard, that families are complicated.

In this story, there's a romance between Isa and a boy who comes to live on her dad and stepmom's cherry farm in France, who also happens to be her stepmom's stepson from her previous marriage. Both have had bumpy relationships with their parents. Isa channels her frustration and sadness into cooking and is in an intensive cooking school for several weeks to both get her class credit but add another rung on the ladder she's climbing to work in a kitchen. How she creates her dishes and how she feels about the flops and perfection are beautiful.

The story has all of the tumultuousness of teenagedom, including a weak moment when Isa let's a friend down in the kitchen, but the message perseveres that female friendships are significant and important (and which is then underscored by the late-night champagne drinking with Chef Troussaint). The setting is it's own character in so many scenes that make it more perfect and while it seemed like it ended somewhat abruptly, it wasn't distracting-- that last few elements could have been organized differently to come together, but I'll take it no matter what because it hit me in the feels, which any good book can do.

I learned so much about cooking and baking through this book! I love watching cooking shows like masterchef, so this book definitely appealed to my taste. The ending felt a little abrupt, but I really enjoyed seeing Isa grow and mature through the story. Her internal conflicts are very realistic to a teen’s life, and I appreciate the genuine portrayal of her character.