Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
Thank you, NetGalley and Zando Project, for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Celestial Banquet follows a young girl named Cai who enters a cooking competition with a minor god, a nomad, and a friend. The competition is filled with deadly challenges given by the three most powerful gods, who are also the judges.
The premise sounded interesting and fun. The writing was decent, nothing repetitive or clunky. It was also fast-paced and jumped right into the main plot without taking too much time. And while I appreciated its pacing, it also had a downside.
Because of its fast pacing, we're not left to settle with some things that happen, and a lot of things are left unexplored and unexplained. I'm guessing this might be the start of a series, but with how quickly everything was going, it just didn't make sense.
The challenges and competitions weren't properly explored, and I wasn't fully immersed as I would have liked to be. I couldn't feel the high stakes with how quickly everything was going, and it's disappointing because I was looking forward to reading more about the cooking parts.
It's told through a first-person point of view, so we're seeing this through Cai, and she's an okay character, but I couldn't connect with her, and her priorities in the middle of the deadly cooking competition made me side-eye a bit.
For some reason, there's a love triangle. I am the biggest hater of love triangles, but I can tolerate them if they're actually interesting and make sense. Her two love interests, Bo and Seon, are both one-dimensional and caricatures: Bo, the childhood best friend, and Seon, the pretty rich boy that's where both of their characters end. They both have no interesting quality that would make me even want to root for her to end up with either of them.
A lot of the other minor characters fell flat and were uninteresting and forgettable. There's a lot that could have been done that would have elevated the story for me if it had more depth.
Celestial Banquet follows a young girl named Cai who enters a cooking competition with a minor god, a nomad, and a friend. The competition is filled with deadly challenges given by the three most powerful gods, who are also the judges.
The premise sounded interesting and fun. The writing was decent, nothing repetitive or clunky. It was also fast-paced and jumped right into the main plot without taking too much time. And while I appreciated its pacing, it also had a downside.
Because of its fast pacing, we're not left to settle with some things that happen, and a lot of things are left unexplored and unexplained. I'm guessing this might be the start of a series, but with how quickly everything was going, it just didn't make sense.
The challenges and competitions weren't properly explored, and I wasn't fully immersed as I would have liked to be. I couldn't feel the high stakes with how quickly everything was going, and it's disappointing because I was looking forward to reading more about the cooking parts.
It's told through a first-person point of view, so we're seeing this through Cai, and she's an okay character, but I couldn't connect with her, and her priorities in the middle of the deadly cooking competition made me side-eye a bit.
For some reason, there's a love triangle. I am the biggest hater of love triangles, but I can tolerate them if they're actually interesting and make sense. Her two love interests, Bo and Seon, are both one-dimensional and caricatures: Bo, the childhood best friend, and Seon, the pretty rich boy that's where both of their characters end. They both have no interesting quality that would make me even want to root for her to end up with either of them.
A lot of the other minor characters fell flat and were uninteresting and forgettable. There's a lot that could have been done that would have elevated the story for me if it had more depth.
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I want to start by saying I know this is supposed to be YA and I believe you can read YA at any age. If you love YA books, I love that for you! I even do read and enjoy some YA books here and there. But in this case I found the love triangle first of all confusing because love triangle where? Cai liked Seon period. And Bo made it weird. Sorry if Bo is your fave, I just. He was giving major Gale (from The Hunger Games) vibes and I never liked Gale. Also it was just grating, to me the triangle nonsense got so much in the way of the story. I'd say keep this edition as is for the young adults & the romance readers, but then also release an edition without the romance stuff for those of us who just care about the cooking competition.
If this was all about the competition, I would be all about this book in return. It really was the forced romance aspect that brought this down so much for me. I felt like every time I started to get into the world and the stakes of the completion we were dragged back to who will Cai choose. Like girl, no one, if you don't let this poor girl focus on her cooking, her life is at stake!
What I will say is the cover is absolutely STUNNING and I do really like that we wasted no time jumping into the story itself. Sometimes I feel as though authors don't trust young readers to pick up the story as it progresses and therefore wastes a lot of time with unnecessary and prolonged setup, but that was not the case here and we love that.
I also had a feeling this might become a series, which, good for the author, truly! But if so, I am going to bow out of any future books, it's clear to me I am not the intended audience here this time.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
If this was all about the competition, I would be all about this book in return. It really was the forced romance aspect that brought this down so much for me. I felt like every time I started to get into the world and the stakes of the completion we were dragged back to who will Cai choose. Like girl, no one, if you don't let this poor girl focus on her cooking, her life is at stake!
What I will say is the cover is absolutely STUNNING and I do really like that we wasted no time jumping into the story itself. Sometimes I feel as though authors don't trust young readers to pick up the story as it progresses and therefore wastes a lot of time with unnecessary and prolonged setup, but that was not the case here and we love that.
I also had a feeling this might become a series, which, good for the author, truly! But if so, I am going to bow out of any future books, it's clear to me I am not the intended audience here this time.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Celestial Banquet is perfect for all the foodies who love fantasy. It screams Roselle Lim in the best way and I'm so happy for her! If you love cooking competitions, fantastical and magical trials, and swoons this is for you! I loved Cai immediately. She's clever, the ultimate underdog, and is increidbly resourceful. The competition delivers danger from the beginning as Lim wraps us up in an atmosphere of magic and danger. Because everything has a price even failure. I found myself immersed in the action and adventure and forgot to take notes!
Celestial Banquet is perfect for all the foodies who love fantasy. It screams Roselle Lim in the best way and I'm so happy for her! If you love cooking competitions, fantastical and magical trials, and swoons this is for you! I loved Cai immediately. She's clever, the ultimate underdog, and is increidbly resourceful. The competition delivers danger from the beginning as Lim wraps us up in an atmosphere of magic and danger. Because everything has a price even failure. I found myself immersed in the action and adventure and forgot to take notes!
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy
Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim is a first person-POV YA fantasy. The prize for winning the Celestial Banquet is a bunch of Peaches of Immortality, which grant twenty-five years to mortals and more for minor gods. Cai not only wants the peaches, but the fame and fortune that comes with winning to open her own restaurant and accomplish her father’s dreams. But it won’t be easy as the Celestial Banquet isn’t only about cooking, contestants also have to kill monsters and cook with brand new ingredients.
Cai has two potential love interests in her childhood friend, Bo, and a disgraced noble, Seon. Both are very much interested in her and have different relationships from her, though both do push her to make a decision. Seon is a flirt, which makes her not take his feelings seriously at first and her previous feelings for Bo have morphed into something more platonic until he says something. The back and forth between the two doesn’t take up a lot of the plot, but it definitely is present. I found myself rooting for Seon despite feeling bad for Bo. Seon just felt like the choice that would respect Cai’s feelings more, which is what I usually go for.
There is a cozy quality to this in all the cooking elements and how it uses a tournament. The leads don’t spend that much time with the monsters and more time is spent focused on the cooking, romance, and the results. I think the focus on relationships also helps to sell the coziness even though many of the relationships are more on the tragic side. I wouldn’t call it a cozy fantasy but it is cozy-adjacent since the stakes are more personal and the plot elements are closer to cozy than they are to epic.
I really liked the little worldbuilding blurbs that appeared between every chapter. All of the blurbs have citations that help enrich the world and show there are a variety of sources being drawn from. Things like this make the world feel bigger and in a book that is more claustrophobic, it provides a sense of balance that makes it feel lived in and rich without sacrificing the focus on relationships.
I would recommend this to fans of Iron Chef who are looking for a YA fantasy and fans of cozy fantasy
The premise of this sounded amazing - Iron Chef meets Hunger Games? I was so excited for this. Unfortunately, I struggled to get into this one. We're thrown immediately into the action with so many names thrown around and not much of an explanation of who they are. I also started this one immediately after finishing a fantastic fantasy novel and that did this no favors.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
adventurous
I really enjoyed the cooking tournament and everything related to that within this story. The trials and the cooking were well described and unique!
What brought this down was the romance and the love triangle aspect, it seemed rushed and not necessary. Without the romance or at least if focused on one relationship (even just the platonic friendship) that would've really elevated this one! It detracted from the really enthralling tournament.
What brought this down was the romance and the love triangle aspect, it seemed rushed and not necessary. Without the romance or at least if focused on one relationship (even just the platonic friendship) that would've really elevated this one! It detracted from the really enthralling tournament.
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
GBBO x The Hunger Games? Sign me up!
This is the delightful story of a cooking competition with the highest stakes possible. Cai is a talented cook who has taken on her late father's dream to open up his own restaurant, and also, just maybe, make things better for her people. When her local minor god agrees to sponsor her for the Celestial Banquet, Cai knows that she will have to use every skill she has mastered if she wants to win.
With the alternative being some horrific punishment from the gods or even death, Cai relies on her teammates and her own cooking to face every challenge. The magical peaches that are the winning prize can give the champion extended life and riches beyond measure but there are plenty of wrenches thrown into the competition and other teams will not hesitate to sabotage their opponents.
I enjoyed this fast paced, delicious story so much, the dishes described sounded amazing and Cai is such a hardworking and determined lead, I was cheering for her all along.
This is the delightful story of a cooking competition with the highest stakes possible. Cai is a talented cook who has taken on her late father's dream to open up his own restaurant, and also, just maybe, make things better for her people. When her local minor god agrees to sponsor her for the Celestial Banquet, Cai knows that she will have to use every skill she has mastered if she wants to win.
With the alternative being some horrific punishment from the gods or even death, Cai relies on her teammates and her own cooking to face every challenge. The magical peaches that are the winning prize can give the champion extended life and riches beyond measure but there are plenty of wrenches thrown into the competition and other teams will not hesitate to sabotage their opponents.
I enjoyed this fast paced, delicious story so much, the dishes described sounded amazing and Cai is such a hardworking and determined lead, I was cheering for her all along.
fast-paced
This was a cute little read!
It was very fast paced and I usually love a fast-paced plot however, this felt slightly too fast.
Even though I was 100% rooting for them, I struggled to connect with the characters on a deeper level, which I guess isn’t imperative to this kind of story but, it made the romance kind of redundant since, I wanted them to win but, I didn’t really care whether they got together or not.
Celestial Banquet has a really solid idea, major gods hosting a deadly cooking competition? I WAS SO EXCITED!
I especially liked the little scroll excerpts at the beginning of each chapter!
And while it didn’t disappoint, it was definitely lacking.
The concept was so unique and I would read something like this again, but it lacks overall depth.
The detail however, was amazing; the foods sounded delectable!
Overall, I wasn’t invested as emotionally as I would have liked to be, but i enjoyed it nonetheless and will recommend my friends - that like food competitions more than me - to give this one a go, upon release!
It was very fast paced and I usually love a fast-paced plot however, this felt slightly too fast.
Even though I was 100% rooting for them, I struggled to connect with the characters on a deeper level, which I guess isn’t imperative to this kind of story but, it made the romance kind of redundant since, I wanted them to win but, I didn’t really care whether they got together or not.
Celestial Banquet has a really solid idea, major gods hosting a deadly cooking competition? I WAS SO EXCITED!
I especially liked the little scroll excerpts at the beginning of each chapter!
And while it didn’t disappoint, it was definitely lacking.
The concept was so unique and I would read something like this again, but it lacks overall depth.
The detail however, was amazing; the foods sounded delectable!
Overall, I wasn’t invested as emotionally as I would have liked to be, but i enjoyed it nonetheless and will recommend my friends - that like food competitions more than me - to give this one a go, upon release!
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of Celestial Banquet! This novel captured the essence of what makes cooking shows so fun!
Our protagonist is Cai, a woman who owns a noodle stall in the Peninsula. Cai is passionate about cooking and dreams of owning her own restaurant. At the start of the novel, she owns a small noodle stall that is frequented by the Penninsula's minor god Kama and Seon, a flirtatious noble born who Cai has a massive crush on. Cai conspires with Bo, her childhood friend who clearly has a crush on her, to convince Kama to enter the Celestial Banquet. The banquet is a contest judged by Indulgence, Luck, Temperance, and the mortal Empress.
Kama has not had a team participate in years. Cai convinces Kama to participate. After a contest, Cai successfully wins the right to compete in the Celestial Banquet and is thrust into a deadly competition where the stakes are higher than she could have imagined. Of course, high risk means high reward. The prize for pleasing the gods and the Empress is peaches of immortality. For Kama, that means a restoration of his powers. For Cai, that means the ability to sell the peach and finally have enough money to open her own restaurant.
I don't want to spoil too much, but this was a fantastic read. The major gods reminded me of a more deadly Alton Brown and the banquet felt like a higher stakes version of Chopped. Each challenge also allowed Lim to focus on writing a detailed description of what Cai was cooking. I have never craved food this much except for when watching a Ghibli movie. Lim obviously loves food and showcases that with her loving description of various Asian foods. Personally, my favorite is the last dish Cai cooked.
As with most YA, there is a love triangle. However, it is really only a triangle because Cai is a bit dense and has more to worry about than boys. She is cooking to win the peaches, but also to make sure she and her teammates are not killed on a whim by the gods. Overall, I believe the romance aspect was handled realistically. Cai isn't presented as wishy-washy or confused. There is a clear choice from the beginning. The triangle comes into play with her not wanting to lose any companions.
Overall, I cannot wait to see what Lim writes next. I hope to see more of Cai, Seon, Bo, and the others. Now, if you want to know more, make sure you pick up a copy! Also have a bowl of noodles handy. You will thank me later.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Death
Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Gore, War
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eArc in exchange for an honest review.
What a high concept book! I am always interested in food writing, and after just having watched Culinary Class Wars (set in Korea, but did feature Chinese cooking), seeing the "Hunger Games meets Iron Chef" comparison was all I needed to hear to want to read this book. This will find many happy readers; I was not one of them. The prose was absolutely fine, but the plot construction and characterization were really lacking. An example: perhaps three quarters or more through the book, minor God Kama must select a member of his team to complete the next challenge. "Who will you pick?" someone asks. To which Kama responds, "I don't know, I need to know more about you all first." They are not just meeting each other; this team has already bonded over two previous challenges. This sentence felt forced and inorganic and the vulnerabilities shared as a result were not impactful for it. Similarly, there was no real chemistry or build up between the protagonist and either love interest. The reader is asked to simply accept the love triangle without creating any real tension to root for one party or the other. And the first kisses?? In 2025, I have a really hard time accepting those kisses. (Both basically occurring as trauma responses). I would recommend this for the right reader, but not as a general reading recommendation.
What a high concept book! I am always interested in food writing, and after just having watched Culinary Class Wars (set in Korea, but did feature Chinese cooking), seeing the "Hunger Games meets Iron Chef" comparison was all I needed to hear to want to read this book. This will find many happy readers; I was not one of them. The prose was absolutely fine, but the plot construction and characterization were really lacking. An example: perhaps three quarters or more through the book, minor God Kama must select a member of his team to complete the next challenge. "Who will you pick?" someone asks. To which Kama responds, "I don't know, I need to know more about you all first." They are not just meeting each other; this team has already bonded over two previous challenges. This sentence felt forced and inorganic and the vulnerabilities shared as a result were not impactful for it. Similarly, there was no real chemistry or build up between the protagonist and either love interest. The reader is asked to simply accept the love triangle without creating any real tension to root for one party or the other. And the first kisses?? In 2025, I have a really hard time accepting those kisses. (Both basically occurring as trauma responses). I would recommend this for the right reader, but not as a general reading recommendation.