Sarah Schmitt’s Where There’s a Whisk is a cute young adult romance set against the backdrop of a TV cooking competition. Teenager Peyton Sinclair has a passion for baking and finds herself with a chance to show off her skills on Top Teen Chef. Competing may be her ticket out of her small town, whose lack of opportunity threatens to hold her back and looms over her every decision. Peyton heads to New York City where the city and her fellow competitors help her grow and change in ways she could never have dreamed.

Peyton’s fellow competitors Malik, Lola, Paulie, Adam, Hakulani, Dani and Inaaya come from all walks of life and, though there is a lack of character development across the board, particularly when it comes to Peyton’s competition, it is hard to hold that against the book. Where There’s a Whisk does not set out to be an expansive character study. Rather, it is a teen romance and Schmitt provides an adequate level of nuance. New York City became a character all its’ own and I relished the opportunity to live vicariously through Peyton, exploring the city for the first time.

As a Top Chef junkie, the behind the scenes glimpses of production city and the organization, logistics and responsibilities of the PA’s is fascinating are fascinating. The producer’s involvement is barely shy of outright manipulation and one must wonder about the validity and fairness in all cooking competition shows. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the book did make me question the integrity of Top Chef, one of my all time favorite shows.

All in all, Where There’s a Whisk is sugary sweet romance. Definitely worth a taste! Look for it this fall!

When I first saw this book, I knew I had to read it. Cooking shows and books are some of my favorite things and this book showed me that they go very well together.

I enjoyed all the different characters in the book. They were all very unique and easy to distinguish. I liked the character development in Peyton too. I liked the whole plot. It was very enjoyable and easy to read. I personally liked the romance aspect of the book. It was very simple and subtle at some points, but I think it made the book a lot more interesting to me.

I feel like some spots in this book were too fast paced and could have been drawn out a little more. Like the spots where they just skipped past the judging by giving a brief overview. I would have liked to read about what the judges thought about some of her later dishes.

I def recommend this book to anyone who likes cooking or just anyone who likes young adult books. It was a very quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I could NOT put Where There's a Whisk by Sarah J. Schmitt down. I thought this was the cutest and most enjoyable read. It got me ready for the summer and some romance. The characters were well-rounded, the dynamics were realistic; I just loved this one so much. A must-read for anyone who loves romance, cuteness, and anything in-between. I loved this set and the overall narrative of this novel.

Alright, before we properly get into the review, I'd like to say thank you to NetGalley, Sarah J. Schmitt, and Perseus Books for sending me this ARC, and giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
Ok, so. Where There's A Whisk is about this girl Peyton who goes on a cooking competition for teens so she can get a scholarship to a culinary school.

I initially thought that Where There's a Whisk would be a romance, and less focused on the competition, and there was a romance, but it wasn't completely central to the novel, which I really liked. But then while it wasn't central, we still got a fake-dating element, and also, my favourite PLATONIC BOY-GIRL FRIENDSHIPS! Where in another novel, we would have had a lot more dedicated to the romance, Where There's a Whisk took time to write about Peyton's development, as both a chef, and a person, and also there was a lot about reality TV and what it is to be on those shows, and how it feels.
The only reason that this book got 4 stars rather than 5 was because I felt that the pacing was a bit weird, and Peyton's backstory wasn't explored enough. With the pacing, I just felt like everything moved too fast and there wasn't enough detail. With Peyton's backstory, I was only learning it at the same time as other characters. I didn't really get much of Peyton's feelings about everything, and when occasionally I did, I just didn't care enough.

All in all though, I really liked this book. As a Bake Off fan, the idea really interested me, and so if you like Bake Off or the cooking classes in With The Fire On High, this one is for you. </p>
Now, you may be wondering, when can I read this?


Well, Where There's A Whisk is estimated to release on October 5th 2021, so in a few months. I hope you check it out and enjoy it!

What a cute read. I loved the story line- a group of kids all wanting to win a cooking competition and a chance to make it as a chef one day. Not the typical behind the scenes of a reality show book- this was very quick and the drama was very light. Yes, a tiny bit predictable, but also not at the same time. I wish there was a little bit more story after the competition ended. All in all would read again for sure.

My favorite thing about Schmitt's novel is how it chose to merely discuss the issues in Peyton's outside life, rather than wallow in them, or worse, introduce them into the competition. Keeping the focus on Top Teen Chef and the other contestants, both on and off set, made the book feel focused and kept the stakes high throughout. I especially like how she developed each contestant, so that their actions meant something as the story unfolded. As the producers of her fictional show can attest, balancing that many characters can be difficult!

I read this book in two same-day sittings, which says a lot about how engrossing it was for me. Food Network shows are some of the most bingeable things in the world to me, and reality television in general comes in a close second, so everything about this book was right up my alley. Despite the slow start, once the competition really began the story really came together in a way that felt like watching Chopped or Top Chef and had me rooting for the cast members as well as being sad watching them go, and I had a great time viewing it all through Peyton’s eyes.

That said, I do wish Peyton’s character would’ve had a bit more depth—she spends most of the book saying how much she doesn’t want her past to be her everything, and I never felt like she confronted it head-on; this would be fine normally, but it is the reason she’s on the show, and it would’ve been interesting to see more of the contestants commenting on their stereotyping. This, also with the vague racial awareness she has (thinking of the State of Liberty challenge and the brief conversation she has with Lola) instead of outright confronting more sensitive topics throw the book off its rhythm a bit. I also didn’t particularly care for the “love triangle”, even though the showmance was fun enough for its short time. Like Peyton was claiming to believe, the competition comes first, and the romance did seem much like an afterthought, especially towards the end.

All in all, this was a really fun and quick read that I did enjoy, and I’d probably binge a season two of this, if it ever came out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC of this book!
This was such a great read! I really enjoyed the characters and the plot twists. I have always enjoyed cooking competition shows so it was nice to read it in book form!
It kinda felt weird that there was no buildup to being on the cooking show, the book just starts backstage. It also felt like the ending was a little rushed. Early in the book, there were lots of vivid descriptions of the dishes prepared, but it felt like those tapered off in the end and just rushed to the finale.
I would still recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys romance and cooking competitions!

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this so much!! It was a quick and fun summery-read and I really liked it! I’m a sucker for food/cooking shows so this was just the kinda fun contemporary book I needed!

I so wish the book was more detailed, especially in the second half, and everything went by so quickly that it felt a little underwhelming. The competition was supposed go over the course of three weeks, but I was left feeling like it had only been a couple of days because of the simplicity and lack of details, and as a person who loves cooking shows I think I would have loved it even more if we saw more of the competition!

I did like the characters, but I wanted more character development as I didn’t really feel connected to them and they seemed a little dull. The romance didn’t stand out to me, although I really liked Peyton and Paulie, the romance would have been so much better if, instead of the ‘love triangle’, we got more development of (all) the character and the relationships between them.

But, this is a good book and it’s fun and easy so in the end I really ended up enjoying it, and I really needed this atm to get out of a reading slump. It’s not a perfect book, but any book that gets me out of a reading slump is a good read for me!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the sending me a e-book!

I was almost in a reading slump and when I came across this book, it sounded like the perfect one and I can say that it was a perfect read because it was so light and I just breezed through this book.
This book had:
Tournaments, love-triangles, fake-dating, friends-to-lovers and so much more which made it such a promising read for me.
I honestly enjoy cooking so I absolutely loved this book and it was honestly such an adorable book. I loved Peyton as a character.
The only reason I haven’t given this book 5 star is because I wanted this book to have more POVs and that I wanted to know more about the side characters as well.
It is not my most favourite book, but it most definitely is a fun book and if you're in a reading slump then I'm sure you'll enjoy it and it'll get you out of your slump.

There could not be a more perfect fit for my interests than Where There's a Whisk as I'm a reality tv junkie, a fan of all things baking, and a lover of any type of competition in YA fiction. I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at a reality television series--it felt like Chopped in book form, so there's little to complain about there :) While it's hard to balance a cast of characters this large and the entire time span of a television show filming, I do wish there was a bit more nuance developed in some parts of the narrative. It was refreshing to see trope-y characters were designed to be exactly that way, but I would have loved more complexity in this realm. That being said, this was a super fun read, and I think it will be a hit with younger YA readers especially.

Cute, quick, and entertaining -- this is the perfect YA (or older!) beach read. Peyton Sinclaire has won a coveted spot on the new show Top Teen Chef where she is competing for full scholarship to culinary school (and, for Peyton, a way out of her dead end town and the miserable future she predicts awaits her there). However Peyton quickly learns that reality TV has minimal reality in it and she is forced to balance her cooking competition skills with her ability to maintain a compelling plot/narrative least she be eliminated by the cut-throat producer. G-rated romance mixes with kitchen competition formats borrowed from Guy's Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, Top Chef, and Hell's Kitchen.

Where There's a Whisk was such a fun teen book. The book is about a teenage girl, Peyton, trying to win a scholarship to culinary school on a reality cooking show to elevate her out of her current life circumstances. The story has the perfect balance of what is going on on-camera and off-camera on the show. I also thought it included just enough information about the dishes Peyton cooks without bogging us down with every little detail of every recipe she makes. The bit of romance included was enough to be an interesting plot point without making this a teen romance novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. Overall I would not hesitate to recommend this book for middle grade to high school aged readers!

Peyton Sinclaire is in New York preparing to embark on a foodie adventure. She and seven other contestants are about to film Top Teen Chef - and the prize is a scholarship to a prestigious cooking school. Peyton, who comes from a rural Florida town, feels like winning is the only way for her to escape her circumstances. What she didn't count on was the friends she'd meet along the way or the strange things happening behind the scenes on the show. Can Peyton compete with other brilliant teen chefs and score a win?

This was a light, funny teen rom-com/slice of life comedy set in the world of competitive cooking. Peyton is great - she's trying really hard to make it on her own merit and tries to play down her family circumstances. Inside she's a bundle of nerves, but she's trying to grow and with the help of her new friends, she might just gain a little perspective. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

Cute but clunky. You're thrown right into the main event without build up and it felt more like a step by step guide to hire reality shows work. The characters were cute and Peyton was a fine main character but I don't think she was flushed out enough to really love. I just wish there was more depth to the overall story to really draw me in.

This behind the scenes book about a reality TV show was fascinating. Watching reality shows and knowing the behind the scenes are two different things.
I really enjoyed the different aspects of the story. The friendships, the competition and the cooking were "blended" so well together. I appreciated that I couldn't predict the outcome. "Well done!".

This book was super cute and upbeat, while giving a realistic behind the scenes of what it's like to be a teen on a cooking competition show. The honesty about the fact that a lot of the cooking show, beyond the actual cooking, was quite staged was nice to see. It did a wonderful job at showing what reality TV can really be like.Along with that, I enjoyed seeing the growth that Peyton went through over the course of the show/book and I also enjoyed that as much as there was a romance that it didn't take centre stage of the book. As much as I'd say Peyton was my favourite character, each of the show's contestants had something that made them unique and loveable - except maybe Dani. Despite not liking her for a good portion of the book I did love the redemption Dani got at the end and it made me love the book even more. The ending overall was more that I would've ever expect and I though it fit the story perfectly. This is definitely a book I'll be recommending to everyone when it comes out.
I'm so grateful I got the chance to read an arc of this, thanks to NetGalley for that opportunity!

This was a really fun book! It follows a group of teenagers as they compete in a reality TV cooking show. Not only do they have the stress of having to cook their best, but the pressures put on them from the producer to act certain ways makes their life outside the kitchen complicated.

If you've ever wondered what it might be like to be on reality TV, you should check out this book. It is much more about reality TV life, living in a fancy apartment with fellow cast members, being given clothes to wear, roles to play, and constently wondering if this is their last day on the show, than it is about any specific aspects of cooking.

The show Schmitt created, Top Teen Chef, is very similar to the actual reality show, Top Chef, but it sounds like it would be an exciting show to watch and it definitely made for a fun and engrossing book!

I love cooking shows and this was such a fun book to read! It was a quick read with a little rom-com and drama involved. I recommend to anyone who wants a light fun read!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

I'm giving this book 3.5 stars but since there aren't half-stars on this, we're going to round up since it deserves more than just 3.
2 Stars for a relaxing and fun book.
+1.5 Star for Dani, Malik, and the last part of the book

<b>No-Spoiler Review</b>

This is the first book I've finished reading on Netgalley and I was worried it'd go like a lot of my friends' choices and that I'd pick a book I ended up really hating. I in fact picked the opposite and read a really solid and cheerful book that I enjoyed a lot.

The entire book is very much what it says on the tin. It's all about the main character Peyton competing on a reality tv show called <i>Top Teen Chef</i> in order to get a scholarship to culinary school. Peyton needs this scholarship because she comes from a very low socio-economic background, which pretty early on turns out to be the reason she was invited on the show.

Since it's a reality show, there's lots of importance placed on storylines and such by the producers. This gives a very short-lived conflict where Peyton doesn't want to be shoehorned into a rags-to-riches story, normally the way the conflicts disappear would annoy me but the book is less than 300 pages and I'm not here for wide sweeping themes. I'm here to read cool descriptions of what Peyton is cooking and hope that the characters end up three dimensional.

The character that ended up defying my expectations was, in fact, Dani. It might be because I've recently read The Selection but I wasn't sure if Dani was going to be more than just Mean Girl Number 1. Since this is an actual review I won't spoiler but I had given up hope and then BAM: Dani is 3 dimensional.

The most interesting part of this book is when you realise that throughout all of the competition, watching through Peyton's eyes you've quite literally been duped the same way the audience will be when they watch the show. You believe the plotlines because Peyton believes the plotlines, and that makes the writing uniquely compelling.

Before I end my review I want to give a quick shoutout to one of the characters that although they weren't a big focus (due to the short length of the book), were still major and pretty fun. I cheered for Malik throughout the book, he was genuine and sweet and a character I just really liked.

The last part of the book where you see Peyton's final creation and you see Dani again for real bumped this up to 3 stars. I don't want to spoil the joy of reading this scene for the first time so I'll leave it at the fact that it made me actually proud of the character for the first time in the book.

The only way this book could've gone up to 5 stars would be if it was longer or if we got to see more POVs than just Peyton. It was quite short so I couldn't really get a feel on Peyton's personality beyond "doesn't want to be poor" and "sweetheart", so I wasn't entirely invested but I did want to see what Peyton cooked next which was quite fun.

Also a quick disclaimer for people that aren't from America: In America for some reason they call your main meal an entree even though an entree is what they would call an "appetiser" for almost all the rest of the world.

Link to Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4015027263