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A review by coffee_nd_pages
Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Five cooking teams. Three deadly trials. One final winner.
If you've watched the Netflix shows, Iron Chef or Culinary Class Wars & wished for it to be a book, you absolutely gotta read this. And if you add some fantasy elements to the shows & make the judges into major gods (aka pompous pricks with so much power in their hands), and the challenges into even higher stakes (as in you could literally explode if one thing goes wrong), you'd get Celestial Banquet!!!
Final rating - 3.5⭐
What can you expect -
🍜East Asian inspired YA fantasy
🍜Strong FMC with a short temper
🍜Two strong & handsome MMCs
🍜Deadly, exhausting trials hosted by the gods
🍜Lavish feasts & mouthwatering delicacies
🍜Love triangle
Celestial Banquet is every food lover's paradise, cuz you could get lost in the elaborate descriptions of delectable delicacies & may also end up with more cravings, so do tread with caution, aka have your snacks or meal prepared by the side while you read it!!!
The story follows Cai, a young noodle maker & cooking prodigy who wants nothing in life than to participate & win in the Celestial Banquet, the cooking competition that's held every decade by the major gods! The winner is bestowed the peaches of immortality which are priceless & coveted by every chef in the Peninsula. And we follow her journey into the competitions that prove to be more strenuous & demanding than she thought it'd be.
The book gets straight into the plot by introducing our FMC who's skilled and knowledgeable in the culinary arts, and introduces the competition right away which might seem to be a bit intimidating if not done right but it doesn't seem to be so. Plus each chapter starts with a titbit about the world or the gods or even some of the mythical creatures, so you're always made aware of the things you should know before getting into that chapter. And this gets you slowly acclimated to the world than making you feel overwhelmed with the info-dump. And the world was quite detailed & interesting as well, and it made me feel like this book would translate so well into an animated movie. The writing was so flavorful & descriptive that every single time a dish was described, the picture was immediately evoked in my mind & I felt like I was there beside them preparing & tasting it!!!
Coming to the characters, Cai was quite an interesting character to follow cuz even though she was skilled in cooking, she wasn't perfect and had her own flaws, one of which includes her sharp tongue. No matter the situation or the status of the person she's talking to, she doesn't hesitate to speak out her heart if they do so much as utter something insulting!! And I admired that about her cuz it showed how much self-respect she has & that she would not let anyone talk bad about her place or her parents without knowing the reality about them. And she has so much empathy even towards her rivals in the competition which might appear to be dangerous to have esp in such a setting but it distinguishes her as a character who'd readily aid anyone in danger over herself.
And I'm gonna be completely honest, I didn't really care about either of the love interests nor the love triangle!!!! Both of their advances towards Cai felt juvenile & I found myself rolling my eyes every single time they wanted to talk to her about their feelings. Like you're literally minutes away from being obliterated, and you want her to kiss you & tell you how she feels?!!!!!🙄😮💨 Idk if it's because I usually get icks from reading cliched YA romance or it was really done for the sake of doing it but the love triangle in here wasn't it.
Other than that, I really liked all our other characters - minor god Kama, Tala, even the two MMCs (Seon & Bo) when they were aiding in the competition or talking about their families, etc but just couldn't handle the romance.
Also the narrator, Natalie Naudus brought Cai to life with her amazing narration. Usually with YA books on audio, there's a fine line between making them sound just right or making them too childish & immature (which I absolutely hate), but the narrator made Cai sound perfectly stubborn & confident, and not even a tiny bit childish which I appreciate. And this made my experience ten times better as I found myself listening to it non-stop.
Overall, if you love books with trials, and also LOVE FOOD & different cuisines, you gotta pick this one up.
Huge thanks to Dreamscape Select & Sweet July Books for the ALC through NetGalley!!!
If you've watched the Netflix shows, Iron Chef or Culinary Class Wars & wished for it to be a book, you absolutely gotta read this. And if you add some fantasy elements to the shows & make the judges into major gods (aka pompous pricks with so much power in their hands), and the challenges into even higher stakes (as in you could literally explode if one thing goes wrong), you'd get Celestial Banquet!!!
Final rating - 3.5⭐
What can you expect -
🍜East Asian inspired YA fantasy
🍜Strong FMC with a short temper
🍜Two strong & handsome MMCs
🍜Deadly, exhausting trials hosted by the gods
🍜Lavish feasts & mouthwatering delicacies
🍜Love triangle
Celestial Banquet is every food lover's paradise, cuz you could get lost in the elaborate descriptions of delectable delicacies & may also end up with more cravings, so do tread with caution, aka have your snacks or meal prepared by the side while you read it!!!
The story follows Cai, a young noodle maker & cooking prodigy who wants nothing in life than to participate & win in the Celestial Banquet, the cooking competition that's held every decade by the major gods! The winner is bestowed the peaches of immortality which are priceless & coveted by every chef in the Peninsula. And we follow her journey into the competitions that prove to be more strenuous & demanding than she thought it'd be.
The book gets straight into the plot by introducing our FMC who's skilled and knowledgeable in the culinary arts, and introduces the competition right away which might seem to be a bit intimidating if not done right but it doesn't seem to be so. Plus each chapter starts with a titbit about the world or the gods or even some of the mythical creatures, so you're always made aware of the things you should know before getting into that chapter. And this gets you slowly acclimated to the world than making you feel overwhelmed with the info-dump. And the world was quite detailed & interesting as well, and it made me feel like this book would translate so well into an animated movie. The writing was so flavorful & descriptive that every single time a dish was described, the picture was immediately evoked in my mind & I felt like I was there beside them preparing & tasting it!!!
Coming to the characters, Cai was quite an interesting character to follow cuz even though she was skilled in cooking, she wasn't perfect and had her own flaws, one of which includes her sharp tongue. No matter the situation or the status of the person she's talking to, she doesn't hesitate to speak out her heart if they do so much as utter something insulting!! And I admired that about her cuz it showed how much self-respect she has & that she would not let anyone talk bad about her place or her parents without knowing the reality about them. And she has so much empathy even towards her rivals in the competition which might appear to be dangerous to have esp in such a setting but it distinguishes her as a character who'd readily aid anyone in danger over herself.
And I'm gonna be completely honest, I didn't really care about either of the love interests nor the love triangle!!!! Both of their advances towards Cai felt juvenile & I found myself rolling my eyes every single time they wanted to talk to her about their feelings. Like you're literally minutes away from being obliterated, and you want her to kiss you & tell you how she feels?!!!!!🙄😮💨 Idk if it's because I usually get icks from reading cliched YA romance or it was really done for the sake of doing it but the love triangle in here wasn't it.
Other than that, I really liked all our other characters - minor god Kama, Tala, even the two MMCs (Seon & Bo) when they were aiding in the competition or talking about their families, etc but just couldn't handle the romance.
Also the narrator, Natalie Naudus brought Cai to life with her amazing narration. Usually with YA books on audio, there's a fine line between making them sound just right or making them too childish & immature (which I absolutely hate), but the narrator made Cai sound perfectly stubborn & confident, and not even a tiny bit childish which I appreciate. And this made my experience ten times better as I found myself listening to it non-stop.
Overall, if you love books with trials, and also LOVE FOOD & different cuisines, you gotta pick this one up.
Huge thanks to Dreamscape Select & Sweet July Books for the ALC through NetGalley!!!