The Quick Cut: the grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries begrudgingly work together to save their families respective businesses from a takeover attempt. Drama ensues as emotions get involved.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Inkyard Press for providing the ARC for an honest review.

Working with family at a minimum can get difficult. Whether its different perspectives, opposing work styles, or frustrating problems, things can get heated very quickly. For how complex it can be though, it can also create strong bonds to make success happen. When a superstore chain moves into town, Lari and Pedro do the unthinkable to save their families bakeries: work together.

Lari has lived her entire life watching her family bake and run the family savory bakery, Salt. She also has watched her family continue to compete and argue with the bakery across the street, Sugar. They used to work together, but years ago ended up enemies after a partnership went south. Now generations continue the rivalry and pass it down to their kids. However, superstore Deals Deals threatens that continuing rivalry by coming into town and pitting them against each other, in the hopes of taking both businesses down. Can the rivals work together to take down a common enemy? Or end up taking their family businesses down quicker instead?

This is a cute contemporary story that manages to weave together an adorable rom-com with plenty of cultural exposure on what Brazilian food and families can be life. So much of what happens in the story tells you how important holidays are and what communities do together to stay together.

The story is told through Lari's perspective, but Pedro features heavily as they go from enemies to partners to more. At first, it seems like there's a valid reason for the family rivalry. However, then the different sides start to see one another's perspective and slowly changes their ways. Fighting alone will only cause more pain. Working together will save them from certain doom.

While I enjoyed the overall story, it definitely has it's rough spots. At 368 pages long, it's definitely a longer contemporary story. While I enjoyed the story's journey, it also read long too and I'm more of a fast paced reading girl. The plot has a lot of elements too it, which mostly work together. However, it's so much working together that as a reader I started to nitpick the parts that felt unnecessary. If you enjoy a highly complex story, it won't bother you. I'm just not exactly the reader they aim for with these tales.

My rating: 4 out of 5

This book gave us family rivalry, two main characters, coming together to save their family bakeries, and a ton of family drama. I adored Lari and Pablo, they are serious go getters, and are so innovative, and fun, there is the introduction of first love in this book, and the lessons of forgiveness. The messages in this book were very strong and heartfelt.

Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I love stories of families and rivalries and this one delivered. Cute, overall enjoyable and reminded me of a Nicole Yoon story. I enjoy sweet stories. Love, love, love stories with baking themes too - I don't know why, but those are warm and fuzzy stories to me.

Seeing that salt and sugar remind me of cooking and baking, I will say that this book is a sweet treat. This is a nice story with some elements that will remind the reader of Romeo and Juliet with the feuding families. There is a lot to learn about Brazilian food and you may want to research some recipes along the way. This story results in the teaming up of two feuding families to make sure their family businesses succeed against the new market coming to town. New bonds are formed. There are a few predictable moments but overall it is a really nice story.

Salt & Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho is a YA novel about two high school students from feuding bakeries that fall for each other.

A sweet and enjoyable enemies to lovers novel that will have you craving all kinds of baked treats

This book had a good amount of romance and family struggle in it. I was able to feel with the heroine character and got teary eyed at a few points. I rated a 4 because I enjoyed the story but it took a while for the turn around and then the book ended too quickly for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Inkyard Press and Rebecca Carvalho for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

A nicely, although not over-reliantly, tropey YA contemporary. The passion for cooking and community was on full display here, and Lari's conflicted feelings about her future are extremely relatable. However, I found a lot of the feuding to be over the top (at some point it felt like people would just start avoiding both families if they were constantly screaming at each other in the street over tiny things and a generations-old slight), the story sometimes felt like it was dragging, and the secondary characters especially didn't feel particularly well-rounded. I also thought the resolution, while perhaps more realistic than a complete routing of the big chain store, was a little underwhelming. A nice choice for teens who enjoy books about food and/or feuds, but not necessarily a standout.

I read a physical galley of this and totally loved it. My husband is Brazilian, so I knew several of the references and my mouth was WATERING for the pastries and breads described. It made me miss Brazil. Such a fun enemies/friends to lovers romance. Rivals, so much pining... this is not one to miss.

I wanted to love this one but I feel like I have read too many books lately that have been similar to this one and it just didn’t pan out for me.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Lari. Her grandmother has just died and now her mother must decide what to do with the bakery. There is a lot of history with the other bakery on their block and it’s never pretty when they are together. I definitely would have liked to see Pedro get a point-of-view and maybe it would have helped with understanding both sides a bit more.

Lari isn’t a bad character and she does have a heart of gold. She wants to see her grandmother’s bakery strive and if that means taking baking classes then so be it! Lari also wants to see the feud squashed and I give her props for following through and trying to be friends with Pedro. It takes a lot of guts to disobey the family.

The plot is filled with a lot of cooking and drama. I am always down for a book talking about food even if it makes me hungry. I feel like I can smell it right off the page. The feud drama was okay but felt a bit childish. Lari had the most sense and everyone else kind of acted like middle schoolers. It didn’t work for me and I just had a hard time getting into that part of the plot.

Overall, this was an okay read. It could be just my mood with this one since I have read books similar to this one recently. Who knows! If you like books about food and feuds then definitely give this one a try.

I love a book that handles tough subjects well and this book covers grief, familial expectations, and discovering your passion as a young teen. These plot devices can rather make or break a book and in case they work really well. Lari's subplot about grief was really emotional. She really wanted to become a baker, but both of the families against their families' wishes was also thoughtfully explored in this book. I loved that Pedro and Lari bonded over the shared burden of their family.

This gave serious Romeo & Juliet vibes.

I enjoyed my time with these two long-time feuding families. Pedro and Lari found themselves caught up in the fighting, both making assumptions about the other's behavior and motivations for his or her actions. Both Pedro and Lari wanted different things for themselves than their families did and I enjoyed their struggles as they fought for what they wanted. I also enjoyed the pacing of how both Pedro and Lari started to doubt what they've been raised to believe all their lives.

The themes of grief and overcoming huge personal losses were ones that paralleled the feuding bakery families. Lari's struggle with her grief was worsened by her lack of support at school as her classmates sided with more popular Pedro.

I also enjoyed the theme of big business taking over mom and pop shops. This issue is has often played out close to home and beloved small businesses have folded due to big box stores moving into the neighborhood and underselling the independent stores.

The setting was amazing and I enjoyed the cultural references and foods. I could almost smell and taste the delicious creations Salt and Sugar baked.

My favorite part of this novel was the theme of family. The broken bonds, the loyalty, the healing, the protective parents, and the willingness to forgive and work together were heartwarming.

A Romeo and Juliette retelling set in the Brazilian culture, Salt and Sugar is a sweet,young adult romance novel. The grandchildren of the Molina and Ramires families go to school together and have a huge rivalry thanks to their family bakeries being right across the street from each other. The descriptions of the baked goods is mouthwatering and a great way to learn about the Brazilian culture. When the stakes are high, Lari and Pedro, now dating, put their rivalry aside to do what is best for their families. This was a cute read!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ugh!! I cannot get over how cute this debut ya rom-com is!! Some debut books have trouble with over description but not Salt and Sugar!! It is adorable!!! Sweet yet Salty, readers will be itching toward their favourite treat while reading this adorable read. I love how readers are able to get not only a sense of character from the first few pages but also sense of history

A great debut from Rebecca Carvalho!

Salt and Sugar gives readers a Romeo and Juliet story full of mouth-watering food, feuding, and falling in love. Adding in the neighborhood and its importance to the characters gives it an inspiring twist that I think many people can relate to.

Lari is a great protagonist, and I felt connected to her story and her growth. I think many readers can relate to wanting to make their family proud, pushing aside dreams in favor of what their family finds important. She's just a relatable character, and not just because I also find myself a bit clumsy!

I loved seeing Lari and Pedro's relationship ebb and flow through the story, and I thought their romance was done really well. Not that insta-love the real Romeo and Juliet had, but one with a focus on the family feud and where different generations stand in it. Though they made me angry at times because I just wanted them to TALK and be together, I think the author does a great job of bringing them together realistically and at the right pace.

And the food. Oh the food. Do not read on an empty stomach. I want to try everything mentioned in this book! Having the food play such a prominent role in the story really made the culture shine! Showing readers the importance of community and local-owned businesses is also something I really appreciated and felt drawn to in the story.

Overall, this is such a fun enemies-to-lovers story to tide readers appetites over until Carvalho gives us more!

Salt and Sugar is a foodie, enemies to lovers romance with a Romeo & Juliet vibe (minus all the dying). Two feuding families operate Salt and Sugar, rival bakeries in a small town Brazilian neighborhood where a new, modern supermarket is trying to drive local shops out of business. Teenagers Lari Ramir of Salt and Pedro Molinas of Sugar, carry on the family feud until teaming up to save their families' businesses sets the stage for friendship and love. Along the way, Lari grieves the death of her beloved grandmother and both she and Pedro learn to challenge their families' expectations and become truer to themselves.

I initially almost stopped reading because of the feuding adults' sometimes ridiculously childish behavior; it was too over-the-top. The author could've axed half those shenanigans without sacrificing the story. But I'm glad I stuck with it. It's a good story, with mouthwatering descriptions of Brazilian food, sweet first-love tropes, and some serious grappling with grief and growing up.

Salt and Sugar is an adorable enemies to lover story. Lari loves her family's bakery, Salt. It's been her whole life for as long as she can remember. When her grandmother passes away she has to find a way to save it before they lose it or have to sell it to the big supermarket in town. She's forced to work with the rival bakery across the street. The two families have been at war for years. Lari works with Pedro to find away to help both bakeries. I really liked Lari and Pedro. Family is definitely at the center of this story. It sorts through the good and bad of families. It also deals with grief. Salt and Sugar is full of family, love and charm.

Content Warning: death of loved one, illness

This was a fun, young adult romance book (leans more towards teen readers) about two rival families and they cook delicious Brazilian food! So if you like foodie romances, you will like this one. Here’s what did and didn’t work for me:

+ I love all the food and Brazilian culture. I like that this was also set in Brazil! Both families have bakeries and bad blood between them but eventually they work together to fight the big box chains encroaching on their towns. But if you love food romances, this has a lot of different foods I never heard of or even tried and it makes me want to go somewhere and try Brazilian food.

+ There is definitely a Romeo and Juliet feel to this book, minus the death of our MC’s but the rivalry is there. Lari and Pedro hate one another because of their family history. When they are put together in a cooking club at school, there is a lot of fighting between them at first but then eventually they start to open up and admit they have an attraction. I feel like the romance is perfect for teen readers.

+ Good side characters like the other kids in the cooking club.

~ I found Lari sometimes acting a bit childish, she fought with Pedro a lot and I didn’t quite connect to her. It took me awhile to get into the story. She was grieving her grandmother and also trying to figure out how to help her mom not lose their shop but still – at times she was always fighting Pedro too hard.

~ Speaking of childish, everyone seemed so volatile in this story. Pedro and Lari’s moms went at it all the time and you would think they would act a little bit better in front of their children. The fights became repetitive at some point and silly.

Tropes: rivals to lovers, enemies to lovers, family rivals, Romeo and Juliet inspired

Why you should read it:
*it’s got Brazilian bakery goodies and culture, it’s set in Brazil also
*rival families, enemies to lovers
*story about family

Why you might not want to read it:
*more geared towards teen readers
*lots of dramatic family feud fighting – a bit repetitive

My Thoughts:

I loved that Salt and Sugar is centered around Brazilian food and that it’s set in Brazil. I definitely saw the Romeo and Juliet inspiration with the two feuding families but I did wish the fighting was taken down a notch. It’s a story about family, cooking, trying to have a better life and keeping the community authentic, while fighting the big corporate store. There’s also a little love story between Pedro and Lari and of course a happy ending. Overall I thought this one was a cute romance that teen readers would enjoy.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Inkyard Press for allowing me the opportunity to read a digital ARC of Salt and Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho. This YA novel will be released November 1, 2022. All opinions are my own.

Lari Ramires and Pedro Molina are at the heart of a multi-generational feud. Their families' bakeries have been feuding ever since their great-grandmothers had a falling out. Pedro has grown up in Sugar's bakery and is poised to take it over after graduation even though he and his grandfather don't see eye to eye. Lari's grandmother and mother have kept her as far away from the kitchen as possible hoping that she will be the first Ramires to go to college and that she'll follow her father's dream and become an accountant. Following her grandmother's death, Lari finds herself drawn to the kitchen. It's a place where she finally begins to feel like she belongs. At the same time, she and Pedro are inexplicably drawn to each other. The two realize that in order for their bakeries to have any kind of future, they will have to end the feud.

This was a fun and new take on Romeo and Juliet. I loved the incorporation of Carvalho's culture. I also enjoyed how the family feud was explained and deepened throughout the story. Both Lari and Pedro's characters are relatable and their desire to live their dreams is something many readers will be able to connect to. Overall, I found it very easy to get into the story and I really enjoyed it. While it is a YA book, I feel it would be appropriate to include in a middle school library.

Two feuding small town bakeries on the Atlantic coast of Brazil have been rivals for centuries. Their agreement is one makes savory items, one makes sweet items... which is a bandaid on a major injury. When the matriarch of Salt, the savor bakery, passes away, a new round of arguments comes to a head. Sugar made savory foods for a catering event while the Salt family buried their loved one. But the real enemy is a supermarket threatening to take both businesses under.

Each family has a child, a boy and a girl who attend the local high school together. Although they've fought for years, can they come together to help their families?

Excellent cultural learning through setting - Brazil's cultural events leading to Saint John's Day celebrations is a new addition to the representation movement.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of the ARC for review.

This is a very standard enemies to lovers story but filled with lovely details about Brazilian culture and baking. I enjoyed the rival bakeries aspect of the story and found the idea of each bakery being focused on either Salt or Sugar items as a result of feud started several generations before but everything beyond that felt really muddled. Pedro and Lari read young even though they are nearly finished with high school. Their fighting families read very childish and the resolution/agreement between the families feels very suddenly at the end, especially when you consider how vehemently the mothers fight throughout.
I did enjoy the setting as I’ve never read anything set in Brazil before and I loved how so many details about the culture, especially the world of food, was shared throughout the story. I also enjoyed that there was an emphasis on volunteering and helping the community.