I struggled to finish this book, although it improved somewhat towards the end. It's advertised as a rom-com but it fell flat for me. The characters were shallow and the writing just OK.

Thanks to Harper Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn't a book for me. I didn't find Lumi and Julian compatible. Yes, they're attracted to one another but they don't seem to have much else in common other than the fact that they work together and have a mutual crush on one another.

Julian Dax is a rude, stubborn chef who punches food critics in the face and doesn't serve ketchup at his restaurant. Everybody seems to want to be Julian Dax or be his girlfriend but should people really be idolizing a guy like him in this story? That answer is no.

Lumi is a down-on-her-luck chef who starts a new job at Dax's restaurant. I liked her creative flair and passion for food but when she added apple slices to a ratatouille at Dax's restaurant nobody ate it and people complained. I just couldn't handle the stuck-up food world portrayed in this novel. Good, creative food is supposed to be comforting, not stressful, I wanted a comforting romance about food and I didn't get that here.

Overall, this book wasn't what I craved; I found one of the characters just too unlikeable, the writing a bit strained and unpolished at times.

This book kept me reading. The characters Lumi and Julien just draws you in. I was suprised hoe much I kept getting drawn in. This book will have you rooting for Lumi as well as laughing at the lobster scene! Lumi shows you how to survive the painful and how to grow. Julien’s character matures and surprises you.
I highly recommend this book.


*****Netgallery provided me an ARC for my honest opinion. **********

This book was one that took me some time to fully dive in to. Trying to get a sense of the characters was a process for me. But at one point, the book started to take turns and I couldn't put it down. There were moments I assumed I knew what would come next, but the author kept me guessing. It is a unique love story, and the way their hearts come together is one that grows on you with each passing page. The book has two very different characters coming together, Lumi and Julian. At first, they seem like complete opposites. As the reader I wasn't sure I could see their personalities meshing, but the more insight the author gave into Julian's personality, the more you started to pull for him. His honesty for his feelings was refreshing, especially coming from a male character. He said what he thought, without hesitation, and I started to fall in love with his personality on each page. At the end you are rooting for Lumi and Julian, with a smile as you finish the last page of this sweet romance.

I always enjoy books that have "flavor" and this one had it's fair share. Lumi is a likable character and I felt myself rooting for her.

“A Taste of Sage” was uneventful, dull, and lacked appealed. The relationship between Lumi and Julien was just about non existent and there was no real connection at all between them beside a physical attraction. It had potential but the author failed to meet them which is unfortunate because I was really looking forward to a culinary romance.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was disappointed in this modern romance novel. While I enjoyed Lumis spirited personality and enjoyed the cuisine recipes I felt the romance took a back seat to all of the food references. The dialogue between seemed abrupt and awkward. Things moved too slow in the beginning and then was like a runaway train towards the end. It did not move me unfortunately

I'm loving all of the foodie romances coming out lately! And the enemies-to-lovers romance going on here gave it an extra spice (pun intended). Also thought that the recipes were a nice touch. My one criticism is that the plot felt a little rushed but, on the other hand, quick pacing is probably better than pacing that's too slow.

I loved the premise of this novel and really enjoyed the recipes. However, ultimately I did not finish it due to feeling like the writing was somewhat unfinished. I really look forward to hearing how other people enjoyed this and maybe giving it another try.

I enjoyed this story at the highest level, but I really would have prepared a more cohesive description of the characters and how they came together. Time was so fluid that it felt rushed yet I couldn’t really tell the timeline. Lumi and Julien didn’t really seem to mesh to me until the author decided that they did. Also, this is a nit-picky detail, but the author had a massively repetitive habit of making sure every description called out some sort of color. I spent the entire novel thinking Julien had crimson (like blood) colored hair until later she called his eyelashes or chest hair red and it totally screwed up my mental image. Then she stopped coloring everything halfway through. It was odd.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read half this book and chose not to finish. In the first half of the book there is little character development of the male main character and little to no quality interaction between the two main characters. The female main character is developed as far as her cooking and kitchen skills but I don’t know her well enough to know if jumping into sexy after spending a couple of hours with a person is in character or not. I like a lot of character development and at least a natural progression of events, but I did not find either in this book. I probably could have finished it, but saw nothing to indicate I was going to like it anymore and in fact saw a spoiler that hinted I was going to like it a lot less.

3.5/5.

A charming debut strengthened by the vivid prose about the scenery and the food, (Thank you for the brilliant idea of including the recipes in each chapter!). While the romantic arc could have been stronger by having more scenes of Lumi and Julien bonding in their mutual pining of each other - the part with the escape lobster is easily the best - their attraction to each other is undeniable.

An ARC has been provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

2.5
I wanted to love this....and I did for the first 40%. A lot of good food descriptions, fun setting, strong MC (Lumi),.....and even though Julien was an a-hole, there was promise for his character development. A lot of hate-to-loves kind typical portray one of the MCs as arrogant anyway. I thought the romance part was building at a nice pace.
However, after around the 40% mark, it felt like I was reading a completely different story. Not only did the story seem to change, the characters did? I don't have an issue with instalove but it was not executed in a way that was believable. Not to mention their personalities did a total 180 overnight. Their relationship seemed so forced..their chemistry in the beginning was great then it just started seeming shallow.
From the synopsis, you gather Lumi has a"gift" ...this doesn't even really come up until 70% of the way in? I feel like that whole aspect of the story could've been omitted and the focus should've just been consistent with the beginning.
Also, we are introduced to several supporting characters...but we hardly saw them in the end! Kitchen staff, Lumi's family/friend, Julien's dad/friend, the secretary....basically in there for 5% of the story...I didn't think there was a chance to really get to know any of them.

Anyway, the beginning would've been a 5 star for me, but the way it came together didn't do it for me.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I’ve just hit a bad run, guys. I can’t seem to pick the right galleys lately. A Taste of Sage was truly disappointing with very few redeeming qualities.

Chef Lumi’s restaurant Caraluna goes under and she is forced to take a job with chef Julien Dax at his French-style restaurant. She dislikes Julien, for his harsh words and for running a tight ship. And because of this, she refuses to taste his food: Lumi has a special gift making her capable of knowing someone’s feelings when they cooked the food she eats. Resentment and tiredness can ruin a dish, just as happiness and love can improve one. Unable to resist, she tries one of Dax’s meals once…and it’s a taste she just can’t get out of her mouth.

I can’t emphasize enough that this whimsical twist was the only redeeming part of this story. I got absolutely lost in Santos’ writing style: her description of food, of cooking is absolutely beautiful and incredibly fun to read. I think there’s a lot of potential to create something great from that talent alone.

HOWEVER, everything else was just bad. The romance? Unbelievable. The characters? Flat. The story line? Rushed and hard to follow. I felt like I was sprinting through this book just by reading it at a normal pace. I couldn’t keep up with unbelievable turns in their “relationship”. And truly, Julien and Lumi’s romance felt like an afterthought compared to the food. Honestly, I’m also just here for the food at this point.

Character development was seriously lacking. I could feel what Santos’ intended for the characters, and I truly did want to like them, but their lack of well-rounded-ness absolutely ruined this book. Trashed it. It wasn’t heartfelt or anything I felt myself consumed by. I didn’t even know these people, you know? You can’t just give a character like two quirks and call it character development. Just no.

Pass on this one, friends. No need to bother. Hopefully the remaining stack of galleys I’ve got left turns out a bit better!

Lumi is a proud chef who sadly had to close the doors of her restaurant when business got too slow. She ends up being hired as a sous chef for Julien Dax, owner of a renowned French restaurant. Their first encounter was a nightmare, and now Lumi has no idea how she will survive working for Julien. As Lumi and Julien spend more time with each other in the kitchen, they may just learn that these enemies can develop a new type of relationship.

**Spoilers**

I'm sorry to say I DNF this book at 50%. The premise was intriguing, and I was excited for a contemporary romance that featured a Dominican protagonist. Unfortunately, I couldn't get myself hooked onto this book. The passages felt really disjointed and the backstory was lacking. Julien is arrogant and mean. Lumi has a kind heart and ends up working in his kitchen. Suddenly the two go from enemies to lovers with almost zero character development. The chapters are primarily their interactions in the kitchen and Lumi's refusal to eat his food out of spite, but stealing bites when he isn't looking only to admit his cooking is impeccable.

Based on the book summary, more conflict was coming but I could not get that far. I read enough to see something weird was going on with Esme, but she has made very limited appearances and seems more of a another random character that will throw in some conflict. This story could be really good, but what I read just feels like random stories in a kitchen that somehow end up with two chefs going from intense enemies to being interested in each other. The story would make much more sense with more character development and interactions that sparked their relationship.

I liked(ish) but didn't love this book. While technically it is a romance the main characters were definitely more in love with food than one another. They were written kind of strangely, with minimal interactions other than cooking alongside one another, which made their sudden switch from loathe to lust & boss/employee to romantically entangled feel a little bit forced. Maybe this is a metaphor for their food speaking for them and I just didn't get it at the time, which given Lumi's unique abilities is entirely possible. Her instant switch from doting to distrusting gave me a bit of whiplash and at that point I was kind of over this book. It went from 0 to all the tropes in a paragraph, and the whole rest of the book was a bit formulaic and finished fast. Maybe the author was over it by then too? Another thing that bothered me was how quickly her burns seemed to heal, as well as the way that Julian kind of urged Lumi to have sex before her doctors okayed it. I don't think someone who recently had a large portion of their body severely burned would be overly concerned about that sort of thing in a matter of a couple weeks. All this being said there were a few redeeming qualities about this book. One, I loved that Lumi was a driven, creative, independent entrepreneur as well as a Latina and that Julian was a ginger who basically threw away a trust fund to follow his passions. I loved the uniqueness of Lumi's ability (although by the time it really came into play in the story I had nearly forgotten about it). I really enjoyed her strong support system as well, I also liked the addition of the recipes mentioned at the end of each chapter. All of these things were really promising and exciting to me, but were not enough to overcome the abundant aforementioned shortcomings.

DNF at 34%

It's amazing how disliking one MC can destroy all interest in a book. The premise is right up my alley and I liked the heroine. Unfortunately, I just can't with the hero. He's the kind of pretentious asshole who punches food critics in the face and tells customers to "educate their taste buds" when they ask for ketchup. Zero chemistry between him and the heroine so far (they're lusting after each other, but I don't feel genuine interest or respect between the two). I can't think of a single redeeming quality for the hero and that's a problem after 34%. I follow news in the culinary/fine dining world; the industry is rife with abusive and unhealthy practices, and it's difficult not to project my disgusted feelings onto Julien. I don't think that type of asshole presence in the kitchen is endearing.

You may read the book and think that I'm over-exaggerating here (that's fair! People respond to books differently). It's just that Julien really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe he improves and the book gets better, but I'm not waiting to find out. DNF.

Mentioned in SBTB's biweekly Whatcha Reading post: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2020/01/whatcha-reading-january-2020-edition-part-one/

So many great ideas in this book. Wonderful food, romance, latin culture, it had all the elements for a great book, but the writing didn't come through. While I love a descriptive book, many times the descriptions in A Taste of Sage felt like tangents that disrupted the flow of the story. As a set of excerpts, the individual segments were fine, even good at times, describing food, restaurant ambiance, latin culture, and even entire recipes, but they didn't come together in a smooth read to form a cohesive, well-paced book. Then, there were the dialogues, which felt like a repetitive cycle of: "Lumi said," "Simon said," "he asked," "Julien asked," on and on with some variations interspersed. This book feels like a lot of hard word work went into it, with extensive research behind its details and descriptions, but in the end the whole didn't feel effortless and I wasn't able to immerse myself in the story itself.

I had a similar opinion to some of the other reviewers who have already contributed their thoughts on this book. I could not finish it since the writing just did not grip me. Now, I understand that a romance novel will never "grip" you in the same way as a thriller. But, the endless descriptions of the physical characteristics of some of the main characters and the slow moving plot just could not hold my interest. I love food writing and I love a good romance, but this was just an odd combination of both that did not really work for me as a reader.

I really liked the two MCs in this one. I also really just enjoyed cruising through this book more than I expected (based on earlier reviews I thought it might be slow). It’s cute and if you like food, the recipes included and food descriptions are a treat.

There is the tiniest dash of magical realism vibes in here and I found that choice to be quirky and fun. I also want to note than an entirely lavender kitchen was such a great image to picture! Maybe I need to go buy some new paint / pots...

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!