3.5 stars.
The food descriptions were so enjoyable. However, Fiona was a dumb dumb for falling into the bad guy drama served to her by the Michelin star obsessed Liam. Rory, her adorable food vendor slash true love was a dream come true. Who in earth would mess up a chance with him?! This reads like the devil wears Prada but food version.

⭐️⭐️.5

Tropes:
🔺Love triangle
👩‍🍳Workplace drama

This is some plot I tell you. I like the idea of having a realistic point of view of working in an intense, high-stake career. I love the food and pastries element in this book because I love food duh. It’s a very easy book to read. But, I don’t feel attached to any of the characters at all. The main character, Fiona, dreams of becoming a well-known pastry chef but she struggles to find her place. I enjoy reading about her journey to becoming the pastry chef who enjoys making pastries because she likes it and not just following orders like a robot of what her boss wanted. The struggle of getting validations felt real and relatable to me.

What I don’t connect with is the romantic relationships in this book. I honestly couldn’t feel anything on the romance aspect but I guess this book doesn’t want to mainly focus on that. But, just know that I do not like Liam since the beginning and Rory was ok for me. He is sweet and caring. I also did not see that tragic happening btw, it really came as a surprise to me. There’s actually so much going on in this book that it felt really chaotic and rushed.

P.S. Thank you to NetGalley, Michelle Christensen and Sibylline Press for giving me this ARC!

Fiona is super kind and insanely driven. She’s out to make a name for herself in the pastry world before eventually opening her own spot – big goals, and she’s not messing around. Her dad is awesome too – total role model – even if Fiona’s pretty set on not following directly in his footsteps.

The romance in the book is more of a side plot, and honestly, I didn’t love how Fiona handled it. She hesitated way too long, and in the end, it didn’t really feel like she made the final call, which was kind of frustrating.

Now Rory? Loved him from the start. Total standout. And Liam? Yeah... didn’t like him at all from the get-go. Even though the author tried to soften him up a bit later, it just didn’t work for me. Some characters you just know you’re not going to vibe with – and Liam was definitely one of them.

I needed more romance.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

3.75⭐️

One thing I really liked about this book was how the aspect of food was brought into everything, simple moments were described like tastes and scents of different fruits and I really liked that. I also loved that music was also a really big part of it (especially the claire de lune mention). I really liked the speed at which the romance with Rory progressed at the start and in the end I was just shocked especially with how it ended between them in my mind they live happily ever after. At one point I was really scared that there would be a switch to a romance between Fiona and Liam and I couldn’t figure out who the love interest was this part definitely stressed me but i’m kind of a good way. I felt that the book dragged a bit because the chapters were so long and this was the part that bothered me the most about it, but the last 15% went by really fast. One thing that really pissed me off too was that Julia had no Backbone at all like she was just getting commanded around even though it was her restaurant and that was just so incredibly annoying. My Jaw was on the floor when Delia died like what do you mean I really did not expect that at all.

Thank you NetGalley, Victory Editing Co-op & Sibylline Press for my review copy. These are my thoughts:

How far are you willing to go and how much of yourself are you willing to give up for success and recognition? Fiona had worked hard to be where she was and she was one step away for being head pastry chef at Lucien - a two Michelin star restaurant in L. A. But under the vision and guidance of Chef Liam Auclair, will Fiona shine brighter or will she crash and burn in order to meet and exceed expectations.

Fiona is a hard working, determined woman with a goal and a deep passion and love for food and for telling a story evoking emotions in those that taste her sweet creations. Her vision clashes with that of chef Liam, who in turn, wanted her to bend to his will and what he thought was the way to gaining the coveted 3 Michelin stars.

I felt that the romance took a back seat in the story to be honest. Fiona’s journey and moral dilemmas, as well as the food and the intensity of the job, took centre stage. The male characters were polar opposites: Chef Liam was charming and insufferable, while Rory was sweet but at times felt too good to be true.

I have to praise Christensen for her descriptions of the food and ingredients - they were a character in themselves. They came to life and you felt as if you’d had a Michelin worthy banquet just from words on pages. The food and desserts came across as rich and complex and the ingredients juicy and luscious.

I would say this was quite slow burn. There was a steady rise towards Fiona accomplishing her goal to become head pastry chef and then the crash and burn as it all collapsed. I liked how she picked up the pieces and moved on to something bigger and better. I loved how she found her way back to herself.

The tension present throughout the story matches the intensity of the environment and the high stakes at play in the haute cuisine world. Even when I felt frustrated, I wanted to keep going. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. In the end, it was worth the wait. In hindsight, Fiona’s journey made sense - with all its ups and downs, she came out stronger and braver.

So many lessons can be extracted from this story. This is a book that will stick with me for a long while.

[Spice: closed door]

I love a book that merges cooking and romance, this was enjoyable and I loved the characters and the romance, but the abrupt ending lost a star from me, can’t say without spoilers but it was a good 3 star read would be more

I wanted to love this but sadly had to DNF @ 47%
When I DNF, I do a skim through the rest of the novel to form a more complete opinion.

La Pate a Bombe follows Fiona, daughter of an ever-optimistic catering business owner. Fiona endeavours to make a name for herself, to become a noteworthy pastry chef chef, with the hopes of one day opening her own place. Until then, she works in the pastry kitchen in Lucien, a restaurant that already has 2 Michelin stars. But owner Julie is ambitious for that 3rd star, and fires both the pastry- and head chef in one fell swoop. Seeing something in Fiona in the moment, she gives her the chance of a lifetime: a 30 day trial period to prove herself. This is what she's been waiting for! But when the new head chef is brought in, all of Fiona's positive affirmations are brutally snowed under by her insecurities. Because Liam Auclair, one of the hottest chefs of today, is a tour de force in his own right, his ambitious vision challenging Fiona to confront her limitations as well as her priorities.

Here's what I liked about this debut:
- The book read away easily and did pull me in immediately. It felt very promising and I was excited. I love a baking / restaurant setting.
- Fiona's father was a sweetheart who shared her love for food. Would have loved more of that. That's where Fi's roots were.
- The author is a pastry chef, herself. Her knowledge of recipes, ingredients, flavors (and combinations) all shone through. I thought this part of the book was a joy to the senses. She got the setting of a high-stakes kitchen down pat.

But there were more things I didn't like:
- The narration & (inner) dialog were very repetitive. It became a chore to wade through Fiona's constant questioning.
- Fiona wasn't likeable. She was too singularly focused on “making a name for herself” and not very kind to people around her, dismissive even. As insecure as she was, she did exude arrogance at the same time.
- The career story line wasn't convincing. The setting is a 2 star Michelin restaurant which has its eye on star number 3. Fiona is a wallflower pastry baker who works in the kitchen below head chefs. I found it hard to believe that, with the stakes as high as they are, it is Fiona who (on a whim) gets and keeps this opportunity at this point in her professional career. She is insecure – which of course is very human and we need our main characters to have some vulnerability. But she can't take any criticism, seems unwilling to learn, and she lacks moxie. 
- I felt Christensen relied on jargon, explanations of techniques and name-dropping chefs with their cookbooks to give Fiona a professional air, but realistically, she just wasn't ready for this. She gets there eventually but it felt contrived to me. 
- A prominent romance story line in women's fiction is absolutely fine if it serves the rest of the story. I'm not opposed to a love triangle either, if it's done well. Unfortunately Christensen's MMC's both are utterly unappealing. Initially, I expected Liam to be the romantic lead; there was an instant organic chemistry and the promise of a good enemies-to-lovers trope. Instead, Christensen introduced Rory, who was very nice, but soooo wooden. Reading his dialog was like reading from a textbook. He had no personality and drama in his family life that didn't add much to the story. But we got told Fiona liked him immediately and I was disappointed when THIS guy was set up to be the actual romantic lead. Liam had much more potential. INITIALLY.

But then keeping Liam as a love interest regardless stopped making sense because:
- The drama at their place of work escalated; Liam became increasingly antagonistic (into bully/villain territory), yet simultaneously became increasingly appealing to Fiona? Enemies-to-He's-destroying-my-confidence-but-he's-hot-so-yeah... No. For a good chunk of the book I actually got where Liam was coming from! But rather than explore a deeper mentor-mentee relationship there, Christensen torched his character, zero redemption.
- Fiona got serious with Rory; once Fiona had chosen Rory, that should've been it. However dull their romance was. The focus could have been on fleshing out the career story line further with Rory serving more as a character who'd support his girlfriend, seeing as he worked with chefs all the time, owned a winery and thus knew how things worked behind the scenes. Cut the drama, serve the story.

Unfortunately, as I suspected, Christensen doubled down on that triangle by forging ahead with a trope dearly beloathed by almost every romance reader. That's hard to come back from, regardless.

Thank you NetGalley and Sybelline Press for generously providing me with a copy of this book; all opinions expressed are honest, voluntary and 100% my own.

The cover of La Pâte à Bombe caught my eye, and I was intrigued by the French title. This novel is Fiona’s story about breaking in to the restaurant scene as a pastry chef in Los Angeles. While fightingd for her place in the restaurant industry, Fiona has several love interests, great nights out with friends, and support from her Dad as she tries to find her way.

I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at the profession of pastry chef. From everyday tasks, to the professional kitchen setup, to the nightly chaos of preparing food in a Michelin-starred restaurant, the reader sees what it means to be a pastry chef. Fiona is talented and hard-working, and wants to succeed in this cutthroat environment. She has to deal with toxic work environments, volatile chefs, and intense daily pressure to create perfect desserts. Yet, Fiona seems to struggle most of all with her uncertainty of her path in life, and how to find satisfaction and happiness.

I found the character of Liam to be really aggressive and abusive to others. The author created a chef character that embodied all of the chauvinistic, egotistical and controlling behavior of the stereotypical head chef. I found his character to be so unpleasant that the parts of the book he was featured in really dragged for me. I just couldn’t stomach his abusive behavior towards Fiona and the other characters of the book.

Initially, I was disappointed to read about some of Fiona’s insecurities and poor decision-making skills as she navigates her career. After reading the entire book, I really appreciate how the author wrapped up the story, and resolved the many issues that Fiona was struggling with throughout the book. Fiona is ultimately a successful and empowering example of a successful pastry chef in the Los Angeles food scene.

Thank you to Michelle Christensen, Sibylline Digital Press and NetGalley for an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for my eARC.

I loved this book, the feelings it evokes are the same ones I get when I'm watching The Bear.

It's a turbulent story with workplace kind of romance, lots of high stakes drama and exceptional culinary standards.

The romance is definitely overshadowed with all the Michelin stars and amazing LA culture/cuisine seen. Would have loved to have seen more build up and fall out between the main FMC and MMC.

A great debut novel and I'll be keeping an eye out for her future works.

ARC Review – La Pâte à Bombe by Michelle Christensen
⭐️⭐️ (2/5 stars)

La Pâte à Bombe starts strong with the promise of high-stakes kitchen drama, professional ambition, and a dash of romance. Fiona McConnell, a pastry chef trying to break into the elite culinary world of Los Angeles, is finally handed her big break—just as the restaurant she works for sets its sights on the impossible: earning three Michelin stars. Alongside the new head chef, the intense and inspiring Liam Auclair, Fiona begins to come into her own. Then Rory, a charming vintner-slash-surfer, enters the picture as the supposed love interest… and things start to feel uneven.

While the setup hints at an “enemies-to-lovers” tension between Fiona and Liam—one that feels natural and compelling—the actual romantic arc ends up centering on Rory, a character who, despite his charm, never quite commands the same presence or narrative investment. This bait-and-switch made the story feel disjointed. The plot leans heavily into romance without committing to its emotional weight, leaving moments like a pivotal (and implied) cheating scene feeling rushed and underdeveloped.

More than anything, this book seems to want to be about Fiona’s growth as a chef and a person—learning to stand up for herself, to take creative control, to find her voice in the kitchen. And those parts worked! The final chapters, especially with her and her friend opening a new spot, felt earned and satisfying. But the romance elements felt forced, and in some places, unnecessary. I’m all for books about self-discovery, but when a love triangle is introduced, it needs to add to the character’s evolution—not muddy it.

Ultimately, La Pâte à Bombe had the ingredients for a satisfying contemporary novel, but the execution left me underwhelmed. A tighter focus on Fiona’s culinary journey, or a more carefully built romantic thread, could have made this a standout. As is, it didn’t quite rise.

The story started out slow for me, but it really got better towards the end. It is like The Devil Wears Prada but set in the restaurant/cooking world.

The story follows pastry chef Fiona who wants to be renowned in her craft. Opportunity strikes as restaurant owner Julia asks her to prove herself. Famous chef Liam joins the team, but creates a push-and-pull atmosphere with Fiona. At the same time, Fiona starts a relationship with purveyor Rory. What will Fiona do to reach her dreams? Are fame and Michelin stars the most important things as a chef?

I understand Fiona. I see myself in her because of desire to succeed in her career. She works hard and abides by what those around her tell her to do. However, Fiona tends to make bad decisions for the sake of achieving her dreams. This makes her a believable FMC though. Fiona is not perfect, and her development was well-written by the author.

Looking at the MMCs, they’re very interesting. I was hoping that there will be a redemption arc for Liam. I did like that there was none. In real life, bullies and manipulative people will always be like that. When it comes to Rory, I felt bad for him. To open yourself up finally then get stabbed in the back is too much. It was brave of him to give Fiona another shot. Let’s hope Fiona doesn’t get too ambitious this time.

I liked the ending. It was predictable in a way, but it was enjoyable. There’s no happy ending in a romantic sense, so I am left to wonder what happens next.

Overall, I will recommend this book to those who love restaurant drama with a slice of revenge.

Romances with chef MCs are my kryptonite so I was really excited to start reading La Pâte à Bombe especially because it’s set in one of my favourite cities, Los Angeles.

I liked Fiona and I could understand why she was so driven to seek external validation for her culinary talents. The foodie descriptions were yum. I could definitely tell that the author is a Pastry Chef because it felt really authentic. Rory is a sweetheart and I liked the two of them together. So far, so good…

It’s hard to talk about why I only gave this 3 x Stars (It Was OK) without risking giving away any spoilers. I’d say up until the last chapter, I was going to give it 4 x Stars (Liked It) but I’m not a fan of how abruptly it ended. I also feel like there was a curveball that kind of came out of nowhere and apart from blaming too much alcohol, I’m still not sure why it happened.

Fiona is kind and very driven. She wants to make a name for herself before opening her own place. Her dad is great, a fantastic role model, even if she really doesn't want to be like him.

Romance is mostly a subplot in this book, I didn't like that Fiona hesitated for so long and that finally she wasn't really the one the make the choice.

I really liked Rory for the very first moment... just as much as I disliked Liam from the first moment ! (even if the author tries to make him likable :) sorry, it didn't work for me )

If you're looking for nice dessert recipes, this book is for you !

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

This is the perfect book for anyone who loves cooking shows and just cooking/baking in general! Fiona is a very relatable character and the romance was sweet. Great book!

2.75 rounded up to 3

First and foremost, I want to give credit to the author. She has so much knowledge regarding baking and culinary arts. She mentioned techniques and ingredients I had never heard of and found myself Googling a lot of her desserts. Also, made me crave sweets (lol).

Now, to get to the not fun part.

I had a really hard time with this one. The characters had some issues. The romance was subpar. And the constant positivity quotes drove me insane.

Fiona, a baker at a Michelin star restaurant owned by chef Julia Stone, finally gets her chance to be head pastry chef. She has dreamed since she was a child of being the best pastry chef in LA. Fiona has a lot of drive and passion, but she is SO hard on herself. Every time something didn't go her way or when Liam disregarded her pastry menu, she doubted everything and it got annoying after awhile.

Liam, a Michelin star chef, is hired by Fiona's restaurant to lead the kitchen. He is egotistical, short tempered, and overall a horrible person. But he is "so dreamy", so Fiona is drawn to him physically. Liam is world-renowned for his cooking and takes Fiona to a lot of celeb-worthy dining events and has access to other Michelin star restaurants in the city. This is appealing to Fiona, but she's also overwhelmed by the spotlight.

Rory, a wine maker and farmer, connects with Fiona at a market as his mother supplies all the fresh produce to Fiona's restaurant. He seems like a decent guy, but honestly I don't get what's so appealing about him to Fiona. He is a single, divorced dad. He has multiple businesses and is nonstop busy. And he ghosts her for over a week after their first date. But even so, Fiona is obsessed with him. She isn't one to have long relationships and claims she gets bored after 3 dates, and let me tell you, she gets to 3 dates with Rory and is convinced that he is her "one" and she pines for him. They just didn't appear to have a lot of chemistry to me and the whole relationship felt forced.

Fiona's friends were fine. Kate was artistically gifted and was in a band, which we heard about a lot as the characters often went to her shows. Charlotte, another culinary friend of Fiona's, was pushy. She wanted to open restaurant with Fiona and was relentless in her bringing it up with Fiona. Fiona was adamant that she wanted to create a name for herself prior to opening a restaurant on her own (understandable, as it's a lot to take on and it's costly). Charlotte called her a coward and was so mean to her because she didn't want to give up her Michelin dreams right away.

Fiona's dad was fine, hardworking, but my god if I had to hear one more positivity quote (ex: believe you can and you're halfway there), I was going to LOSE my mind.

Also, probably the worst of all, the chapters are SO long.

I think if you're a fan of cooking/baking shows and the restaurant industry, this book may be for you.

Pub date: 6/13/2025

i mean our author clearly knows her cooking. and her patisseries knowledge seemed to bake itself off the page. and when i felt such connection with the food i went to google who the author was and wow haha yes this woman knows her stuff! and it felt like an even sweeter read because we had skilled writing here from an extreeeeemely skilled chef.
the book follows Fiona a coming up chef who has a dream and has always had this dream. to become a brilliant career as a chef. but along the way there will be more than just the thrill of the pastry cooking to contend with. because there might be a few rises in the love stakes too. this sweet romance woven throughout the book is spot on. its doesnt take over but nor does it stay too far in the background. so the balance along the way ebs and flows in all the right moments to give us more than cooking, more than love and instead a brilliant mixture of both.
a thoroughly gorgeous book that hits the right notes throughout.

This was a super cute story! I loved the way that cooking was incorporated. I just slightly wish our FMC had a bit more confidence and capability

Thank you to Michelle Christensen, NetGalley, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy in exchange of a honest review.

I think this would be a good book for those who enjoy either cooking shows or those who genuinely enjoy the practice of cooking. The main character Fiona was very relatable. She has a passion to help others. The romance elements of this book were very nice. Overall good dialogue and character development. Would recommend this book to others!

Adore novels that blend cooking and romance, and this fun story captured my heart and stomach and made me swoon. Delightful!

I loved this one! I really enjoy cooking shows and especially people who love cooking as an art so I’m always fancied by stories that have a character focused on that. Fiona was a very enjoyable relatable character. I loved her relationship with her family, and her passion to help and the romance mixed in as well was the cherry on top! Very cute read. Looking forward to more form this author in the future