I really wanted to like this book but it just didn't do it for me. It felt like it was trying to be to many genres at the same time: contemporary, splash of magic, and a slight mystery did not do this book good. The writing was all over the place, the pace of book seemed really off, and I really didn't care for any of the characters. I just could not get into this cookie-cut she's Latina and spicy/ he's white and stuffy plot. Plus there wasn't even any chemistry between the main leads.

A fun, tasty treat of a romance! Lumi not only has a talent for cooking, she also can taste the emotions of whoever prepared her food, which unleashes a realm of complications when she is forced to close her restaurant and start working for a cranky - but charming - local chef. The ensuing relationship has high points and low points, making this more than an enemies-to-lovers romance. I'd love to visit Lumi's kitchen!

I hate to say this, but I didn't like this book. I don’t think all of the recipes are necessary, if anything they annoy me because they get in the way The writing made me feel awkward, like a badly acted hallmark movie. Forty-five percent through the book and I didn't want to continue. This novel was confusing and the sex scene was too awkward to read. This book felt so unrealistic, and are you serious? Knowing how someone felt while cooking what you’re eating? Overall, I didn’t like this book, I didn’t like the writing style I didn’t like the plot and I didn’t like the characters, I’m hoping some of the recipes were good. I have suggestions for other books with a similar theme that I enjoyed, below.

I was so excited to read an own voices romance featuring a Dominican heroine. There was a promise of something in the realm of magical realism, which I was excited for. And I enjoy a good food romance. Alas, this book was so incredibly disappointing to me.

The biggest reason is how there seems to be no consideration for consent ANYWHERE in this romance. It's a boss/employee romance, and they just never talk about that power dynamic, and how off the bat it creates a situation of dubious consent. I had to reread the first kiss scene, because I was agog that it was just there, with no tension or anything. Then I got to the first sex scene, during which the author takes care to note that NOT ONE WORD was spoken between these two people! I don't want to read that, it grosses me out!!! Also, it seemed to be unprotected sex, in the year of our lord 2020???? WHAT IS THIS

It would be one thing if this book was trying to explore or make sense of dubiously consensual encounters, but that was not the vibe. If it were that kind of book I'd know to avoid it and keep it moving. The vibe here is illustrated cover, rom com trappings, and recipes at the ends of the chapter like a cozy mystery or something! I am just really disappointed that no one involved in the publishing of this book seemed to notice the problem?

On top of that, the hero just had absolutely no appeal at all. Also the food writing left me underwhelmed. I thought the heroine should be fired for putting apple in ratatouille, that sounds gross and don't put autumn produce in a summer produce dish. Also they drank absinthe like it was secret and forbidden when it's been a pretty normal spirit available in the U.S. for a long time. So really nothing about this book panned out for me.

I’m so bummed that I didn’t enjoy this book. The premise sounds amazing: chef with an interesting ability to taste the emotions of the people who make the food bumps up against the head chef at her new restaurant who is frigid, rude and ridiculous. Unfortunately, the amazingness that I was hoping for did not unfold. Lumi isn’t the worst heroine - she’s interesting but overreacts a lot and is a bit childish. Julien on the other hand is horrible. He’s a jerk, he’s controlling, falls instalust with Lumi and starts acting extremely possessive, and he encourages her to have sex after an accident where she is injured. I was rooting for them NOT to get together! This is my first books by Santos and I was really excited that it is #ownvoices. But, the writing was a bit all over the place: lots of showing, too many explanations, too many side characters it was hard to keep track of, and ridiculous plot lines (Esme was absurd). Overall, I’m so disappointed. This might be other folks cup of tea but it wasn’t mine.

This was an ok read for me.. The best parts were the food descriptions. Another highlight was the section in which Julien takes care of Lumi. It was a nice way to developer their relationship. Unfortunately, the first part of their relationship when they were becoming attracted to each other didn’t work as well for me. Otherwise, it was pretty uneven. Also, I felt like the magical realism aspect could have been developed more. It felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought and it was one of the more interesting parts of the story.

Lumi is down on her luck. The restaurant of her dreams has failed and she doesn't know where else to turn. So she ends up applying for a job as a sous chef at one of the top restaurants in Manhattan run by a famous-for-being-an-asshole chef, Julien Dax.

When they first meet, the sparks go wild! They do not get along but there's something simmering between them. It continues to grow the longer they work together and culminates in them having sex IN THE RESTAURANT KITCHEN. Do I need to tell you the health violations here?? OMG.

After the kitchen sex, they start a relationship, They go on cute dates, Julian cooks for her, and they work together better than ever. But there's someone on staff at the restaurant who would rather they weren't together and they're willing to do some extreme shit to make sure that's the case. 

This is where the story starts to go wrong for me. Lumi is in the kitchen by herself and she's poisoned and when falling to the floor, has a pot of boiling oil fall on her. I want to know why this was necessary? How does this make the story better or more complex? It feels like knocking a character down a peg for no reason. I don't know. It sits wrong with me, especially because Lumi is a woman of color and this is promoted as a romance.

Which...yes, this is completely a romance, but what does this incident bring to the story? As a writer and a reader, sure it brings drama and gives Lumi another hurdle to jump over to get to the end, but it also feels like something put in to prove Julian actually loves her. Like because he loves her after she's burned, it's more real? I'm not in love with that premise. It feels like it's saying it's harder to fall in love with someone who looks different? I don't know if the story takes it that far, but I wish there was another conflict in its place.

After the incident, Julian cares for Lumi even when she doesn't want him to. She's obviously wrestling with her new scars, but he still tries his best to make sure she knows he's there for her. The story goes on from there showing how they rebuild their relationship.

I'm giving A Taste of Sage 3 out of 5 stars. It was a good romance and I enjoyed Lumi's relationship with food (and of course the recipes!), but I wish it was better. It's up to you whether you're willing to try this one or not.

A Taste of Sage comes out on May 19, 2020.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

At the end of the day I really liked this book.

This is a love-hate story which are some of my favorite kind of books. The setting is the restaurant section of New York which is a wonderful place. Lumi Santana is a chef who has a wonderful ability to feel and taste the emotions of the person who cooked the food that she is eating. That would be a great gift, maybe. Then There's Julian Dax, a gergeous chef who is best known for his good looks and of course because he's good looking, his bad attitude, Lumi ends up working for Julian after the restaurant she opens closes. At first she doesn't like him, of course but then after she tates his food that changes.

I liked this book, but I am not one for the whole damsel in distress and must be saved by a man. I wish she had been able to pick save herself. Dispite that I will be recomending this book to friends and family. It was a good book with a good story line.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving this book to me to read in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a little taste of everything! While the main story is a very slow burn, it does heat up a little bit. I was so excited to be approved for this ARC from Netgalley but ultimately ended up a little disappointed.
The good: I love that the characters are from different backgrounds, even though that seems to be happening a lot lately, and I also loved the included recipes! I felt the over all story line was good and perhaps even brought out the feels a little bit as we all struggle to hold on to something and make it thrive down the line even if it means taking some steps back ourselves.

The bad: I felt that one of the main characters was just plain rude and it made me struggle a little bit to feel for him and want him to end up with the happy ending. The slow burn of the main story line made me feel like I was watching for water to boil at times.

Overall I don’t regret having read the book as I did enjoy it I just would rate it as an ultimate favorite. I would definitely recommend it to friends just with a precursor of no over excitement.

A Taste of Sage by Yaffa S. Santos is a cute romance about Lumi, a Dominican chef, who was struggling to keep her restaurant afloat in New York City. Out of necessity, she ends up becoming a sous chef at Dax, a popular restaurant ran by The infamous Julien Dax himself. Their love story was initially a slow burn. A slow burn that raked up the anticipation and need for the couple to finally come together passionately. But I think I was a little let down.

I enjoyed Julien’s character and appreciated the different sides of his personality that we learned and though I felt his feeling towards Lumi were genuine I didn’t understand where it’s depths came from. Same from Lumi. They spoke of soul connections but had had no meaningful interactions to warrant it in my opinion. That said, a lot of their reactions to each other didn’t make sense to me.

Aside from that, it’s a nice concept. I enjoy the tension in a “forbidden” love story.

This was a slow burn for me, but it picked up in the second half. I appreciated the originality in the plot and the character development of Lumi. The romance was a good mix of sweet and sexy. Fans of foodie fiction will definitely enjoy that aspect of it!

I was able to read A Taste of Sage by Yaffa S. Santos for free from Netgalley for providing me with an advanced ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020. I hardly read romance novels but I wanted to read Taste of Sage because while reading the description it reminded me of "Like Water for Chocolate.”
I enjoyed Lumi and Julien’s love of cooking and the way author Yaffa S. Santos writes those scenes will make anyone salivate (the Majarete brought back so many memories). Lumi’s gift for Dominican fusion creations and Julien’s traditional French cooking were the highlights of the story.
This book kept me reading. Lumi and Julien just draw you in. The story will have you rooting for Lumi as well as laughing at the lobster scene. The aloe vera scene had me welling up with tears.
Lumi shows you how to survive the painful and how to grow. Julien’s character matures and surprises you.
I was so happy to receive this book and it didn't disappoint! I love the story and it just keeps you wanting more.
I loved the recipes mixed in with the story, but I especially loved how these two were just what each other needed.
I can't wait to read more from this author.

I liked the idea of this story and the cover is so adorable. However, I really disliked the main character (kind of rude) and struggled at times through the book because of this. When I completed the book, I liked the overall story - just a wished for better character chemistry.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I could not finish this book.
When I was first introduced to A Taste of Sage a year ago, the synopsis lead me to believe that this would be a modern day, "Like Water for Chocolate," but the cover told a different story and was very clearly a standard romance.
Even with that knowledge, I tried to give this book a chance because I LOVE reading books about food and books about people who love to cook but I just could not get into this cookie-cut she's Latina and spicy/ he's (probably) white and stuffy plot. I just couldn't.
I'm sure there is an audience who will love this book but I'm just not apart of it.

DNF at 35 %. This one wasn’t what I hoped for. I love a good food themed book. But Julien was insufferable and their relationship made me uncomfortable.

I thought the food writing was beautiful and I loved the addition of actual recipes, but I just didn’t connect with the characters. Julien in particular.

While I'm a total foodie, the one-dimensional characters, choppy chapters, lack of chemistry, and disconnected scenes did not endear me to finish this novel. While the inclusion of recipes was a cute idea, I think it interrupted the story (and nothing in the chapters made me really interested in them, anyway).

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

I really love culinary romance books, but this one just wasn't my favorite. I liked the chemistry in the kitchen and between the characters, but I felt that our leading man at times was kind of a jerk.
It's a cute story, the characters just needed some work.

I can't say much here. The heroine (Lumi) was likable, the hero (Dax) took a while for me to get there. There just needed to be more character development. I also thought that Ms. Santos just totally ignored the whole thing with the Fatal Attraction secretary. It just seemed to be hand-waved and it was just odd. I did love the recipes, and the description of the food in the book seemed great.

"A Taste of Sage" follows chef Lumi as she tries to give her own restaurant in New York a go. Lumi wants to have an eclectic clientele, and changes up the menu on a daily basis. She thinks she may be close to realizing her dream after dealing with her mother's voice in her head and on the phone telling her she's not capable of more. When Lumi's venture fails she has to go back to work as a sous chef to French chef, Julian Dax at his place called Dax. Lumi finds Dax off-putting and arrogant. She also doesn't think his style of cooking resonates with her style since he's all about the classics with no modernization. The two quickly start to feel something between them.

I honestly thought that Lumi was a bit naive at first. When she is told her venture is failing she just stuck her head in the sand. I liked the fact her friend helped her out with the job at Dax. I am realizing more now that we had gotten more of Lumi with her friends and other colleagues. Most of the book was her in the bath tub and then cooking something, while being irked at Dax. I don't know much about the restaurant world, but Lumi's style definitely didn't seem workable. I wish that we had gotten a chance to see her learning more from Dax and Dax learning more from her. I thought the book would end up similar to "Woman on Top" with the female character showing how to good wonderful food and how it slowly wakes up others senses around them. We do have Lumi with her special ability to taste people's emotions when she eats their cooking, but it didn't work it into the plot enough for me.

Julien or Dax as he was mostly called was fine. I just felt myself growing bored of him throughout the book. At first he irritated me, then I was just, eh. I wish there had been more there.

I did love the sexy times between the two of them, but sex scenes are no enough to have me return to a romance novel again and again. This just needed more time to simmer so we can see how the two have changed. We just jumped through so many things too fast I think and then we are in the epilogue a year later.

Heat Factor: There’s a fire in this kitchen
Character Chemistry: He’s a manipulative douchenozzle
Plot: It went some unexpected places
Overall: I was so excited about the premise, but the execution was disappointing

The basic idea behind this book is that when Lumi eats food, she experiences the emotions of the person who cooked it. When she goes to work for a chef with some anger issues, she initially dislikes him, but then she tastes his cooking and it’s magical.

What a cool idea for a book, right? We’ve got some enemies to lovers stuff going on, some fated mates stuff going on (because of course only his cooking has that magical something extra), and some magical realism for good measure.

Sadly, A Taste of Sage fell flat for me.

On an objective, craft level, the food writing was a little off. Santos includes lot of detail about the process of preparing food - what ingredients our protagonists gather together, what tools they use, how they chop and sauté and braise everything. Santos even includes recipes for some of the dishes made, which is fun! (I’m totally going to make the Coq au Vin in Mamajuana, mainly because I have a bottle of Mamajuana my husband impulse bought when we were on our honeymoon and I have no idea what else to do with it.) I will say that I side-eye anyone who makes ratatouille by cutting up vegetables and baking them all together in one casserole dish, because that has NEVER worked for me. (I’m looking at you, Remy the Rat.)

However, Santos includes very little detail about the sensory experience of eating the food, which, given the premise, is a little weird. I want to know specifics about how things taste! How does it feel in her mouth? How do the flavors harmonize - or not? How does her emotional synesthesia interact with the flavors of the food? We get a little of this, but frankly, the fact that this book is not dripping in these kinds of details is a missed opportunity.

My other issue with this book is more about personal preferences. I thought Julien, our hero, was a complete jerk (even after he was supposedly redeemed), and it really killed the romance for me.

Some examples:

When Julien and Lumi first meet, he negs her. At first I was like, ok, we’re setting the stage for an enemies to lovers romance. But then we get his perspective on the interaction and he’s all like, I think this complete stranger is cute so I’m going to “tease” (!!!) her by telling her her food is terrible. Just...no.

Lumi has an accident and is covered in 3rd degree burns. Julien goes to tend to her, and convinces her to take a walk. (This is the first time she has left her apartment in weeks. Understandably. She has had bandages all over her face.) They walk to his place. She wants to go home, but he’s like, how about you take a shower? And then he walks into the bathroom before she even gets wet and when he sees her naked he’s like, can we please have sex? I’ll be careful. She has blisters on her face and is on a liquid diet because she can’t move her mouth, but she still says yes. That is a dick move, Julien. And even though she’s into it, I do not buy this interaction as enthusiastic consent.

AND THEN! Here’s what happens after the sexytimes start. Reminder: her face and torso are covered in burns.
A thought crossed his mind and he smiled to himself with a glint in his eye. He pushed away from her and stood up behind her.
“Sorry,” he lied. “I got a little carried away.”
She turned to face him, eyeing him seductively. “Come back,” she whispered.
This is not sexy. Just revisiting this quotation makes me feel all ragey inside.

I also had some issues with the pacing and build up of the relationship, which did nothing to mitigate my complete and utter loathing for Julien, but which I’m not going to cover in detail because I think I have ranted enough.


I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report. (May 2020)