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alexvb 's review for:
Celestial Banquet
by Roselle Lim
I recieved this in exchange for an honest review, thanks to NetGalley
The descriptions of the food, clothing, setting are absolutely amazing. The food descriptions left me salivating; the descriptions of the gods appearances and their clothing was so magical and so easy to imagine in my head; the architecture and the buildings were describe so well and it was easy to picture in my mind. I really, really enjoyed these parts of the book and they are definitely the strongest parts. I could read a whole nother book of Lim just describing food and clothing - she is really talented here.
This is the third book recently that has involved a cooking competition, similar to The Great British Bake-Off, and it is clearly a trope/setting/idea I am loving. I really enjoyed reading about the competition in this novel, just like I have in the other books.
However, and it is a big however, this story is VERY weak in the emotional, romantic, and conclusion departments.
Emotional - the story has a few very shocking and sad very sad moments but they happen and we move on in about two sentences. There is literally no build up, the description is not there, and it's rushed. For example; there was an explosive, this person died, that's really bad. Oh well, but back to cooking. Done.
Romance - I absolutely hated the romance and the love triangle in this. It made no sense, it was stupid, and the conclusion to it was absolutely ridiculous and lacklustre. Again, there was absolutely no build up to the romance or feelings. Also, if the main character hadn't liked them, there would've been sexual harrassment multiple times, but because she's into the person/people, it's fine. I'm sorry but the romance pissed me off. It felt almost fake because of how poorly written it was; I was seriously expecting an A-HA! moment from one, if not both, of the love interests because I could not believe the romantic feelings were actually happening. I was genuinely waiting for a "silly girl, you've been manipulated all this time" or some ulterior motive to be revealed towards the end. This was Lim's weakest area in my opinion. It gave me the ick multiple times and made me cringe. Both love interests and the romance itself were not written well.
Conclusion - The conclusion was very rushed, again no build-up or tension towards the finale of competition; it was literally revealed, again, within about two sentences and it was over. And then the actually ending was so bad. If there is a sequel, then I'll forgive the very end. But where were end was just genuinely rushed and not a happy ending for any of our main characters in my opinion.
The descriptions of the food, clothing, setting are absolutely amazing. The food descriptions left me salivating; the descriptions of the gods appearances and their clothing was so magical and so easy to imagine in my head; the architecture and the buildings were describe so well and it was easy to picture in my mind. I really, really enjoyed these parts of the book and they are definitely the strongest parts. I could read a whole nother book of Lim just describing food and clothing - she is really talented here.
This is the third book recently that has involved a cooking competition, similar to The Great British Bake-Off, and it is clearly a trope/setting/idea I am loving. I really enjoyed reading about the competition in this novel, just like I have in the other books.
However, and it is a big however, this story is VERY weak in the emotional, romantic, and conclusion departments.
Emotional - the story has a few very shocking and sad very sad moments but they happen and we move on in about two sentences. There is literally no build up, the description is not there, and it's rushed. For example; there was an explosive, this person died, that's really bad. Oh well, but back to cooking. Done.
Romance - I absolutely hated the romance and the love triangle in this. It made no sense, it was stupid, and the conclusion to it was absolutely ridiculous and lacklustre. Again, there was absolutely no build up to the romance or feelings. Also, if the main character hadn't liked them, there would've been sexual harrassment multiple times, but because she's into the person/people, it's fine. I'm sorry but the romance pissed me off. It felt almost fake because of how poorly written it was; I was seriously expecting an A-HA! moment from one, if not both, of the love interests because I could not believe the romantic feelings were actually happening. I was genuinely waiting for a "silly girl, you've been manipulated all this time" or some ulterior motive to be revealed towards the end. This was Lim's weakest area in my opinion. It gave me the ick multiple times and made me cringe. Both love interests and the romance itself were not written well.
Conclusion - The conclusion was very rushed, again no build-up or tension towards the finale of competition; it was literally revealed, again, within about two sentences and it was over. And then the actually ending was so bad. If there is a sequel, then I'll forgive the very end. But where were end was just genuinely rushed and not a happy ending for any of our main characters in my opinion.