Seventeen-year-old Carter Lane has wanted to be a chef since she was old enough to ignore her mom's warnings to stay away from the hot stove. And now she has the chance of a lifetime: a prestigious scholarship competition in Savannah, where students compete all summer in Chopped style challenges for a full-ride to one of the best culinary schools in the country. The only impossible challenge ingredient in her basket: Reid Yamada.After Reid, her cute but unbearably cocky opponent, goes out of his way to screw her over on day one, Carter vows revenge, and soon they're involved in a full-fledged culinary war. Just as the tension between them reaches its boiling point, Carter and Reid are forced to work together if they want to win, and Carter begins to wonder if Reid's constant presence in her brain is about more than rivalry. And if maybe her desire to smack his mouth doesn't necessarily cancel out her desire to kiss it.
I wanted to love this book, but instead I just enjoyed it for what is: a easy YA romance with a cooking competition thrown into the mix. Why didn't I love it? Well, for starters - some serious sabotage happens, and not the kind that can be laughed off as no big deal. No, it's the kind where it would be really inexcusable if the judges knew that it happened: tripping some one on purpose? Going into their room, going into their phone without their permission? No bueno. And it felt really unbalanced - the kind of sabotage that Reid did verses what Carter did are totally disproportionate. Carter crossed all the lines. I was not okay with what she did.
But the biggest issue I had was the romance between Reid and Carter. There is a strong animosity between them that is somehow crossed over into romantic tension/feelings. I don't buy it. I don't think the author did enough to show that switch between rivalry to camaraderie. And what I find even more problematic is that they cannot go long without blowing up at each other. Almost every encounter between them ends in an argument. And to top it all off - they sleep with each other. After only knowing each other for a few weeks, and starting off sabotaging each other. They decide to have sex. And the very next day, what happens? They blow up again. I just don't see how this is a good message for any teen.
The author does attempt to be contemporary with her inclusion of comments about "privileged white girl problems," and the inclusion of a diverse cast (not just ethnicity, but also sexual orientation - Reid himself being what he calls "queer" and admitting to having dated a non-binary person). So I appreciate that this book is attempting to exist in a more current environment of inclusion, even if it did feel clunky and trying to hard on that score (a bit like name-dropping).
Another issue - though I wouldn't call it a deal breaking one - was the writing style. For some reason, I felt the author's way of writing Carter's narrative, her speech, and even the speech of other characters seemed very weird and staccato. Lots of periods and half-sentences, such as "I'm really. Like mad at him." It was a bit difficult to read and it happened a lot. Most of the characters did this at some point, so it took a way, a bit, from the distinction of their voices.
Character-wise, it was a mixed bag. Carter was really hard to like at points, but other times she was relatable. I would be agreeing with her one minute, but within moments I would be shaking my head and completely hate her. It made me feel like the author didn't quite know how to write a character that is supposed to be the one you root for, but also one that would do things that were really despicable, just because it was the whole crux of the story and have it be believable. I still half-hate Carter after everything. And Reid was all over the place as well. At times, I couldn't understand why he'd be willing to put up with everything Carder does and still like her (and by the end, even love her!). Though his decision to sabotage her seems a bit weird, considering he otherwise seems like a likable guy, gives me the feeling that the "assholery" (as the author puts it) exhibited by both of them is purely for plot and doesn't really seem to be the nature of their characters outside of that. All other characters are really just props for the story and aren't really fleshed out, most of them don't even have names.
Overall, I would say I liked reading this story, but I would be hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone unless I knew they were into YA romance stories. This book has a very specific audience and does not really do much to attract outside of that, in my opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment