Thoughts: Previous to reading this book I had read Cato's Clockwork Dagger duology (loved it) and the first two books in her Blood of Earthe series (loved the first book, thought the second book was just okay). I liked this, but did think the beginning was slow. However, the story really picked up in the second half. I usually really enjoy the steampunk elements Cato adds to her story but that wasn't a theme of this book.

This story alternates POV between Ada and Solenn. Ada was a Chef (has magical perception of food called an epicurean gift) in service to the Five Gods, but left that service and went rogue after many years in service to the army. Solenn is a foreign princess that is being married to a prince of Verdania in order to unite the two nations; however things change for her when she finds out she has the magic of a Chef.

This book starts out pretty slow. Ada is fleeing from assassins with her Grand-mere but she doesn't know exactly why they are after her now (after many year of hiding) and starts out by trying to figure out why rogue Chefs are suddenly being targeted. This is a lot of her running from place to place trying to put facts together. Solenn's start is also a bit slow; she is trying to adjust to the new foreign court and befriend both her future husband (who is 14 years old and pretty much a boy still) and his friends. Things get complicated for Solenn when she finds out she has the epicurean gifts of a Chef. It takes a while for these pieces to come together and really get interesting.

I struggled to stay engaged and interested in the first half of the book. I did enjoy the unique magic system and the world-building here but I didn't actually start to enjoy the story until halfway through the book. There are some big reveals halfway through the book and as we learn more about where epicurean (a magical substance) comes from, things start to get really intriguing. The characters were mediocre to me, I didn't really engage with them or care about them that much. This may have been because of the constant POV switching, which broke up the story quite a bit.

This book is hugely politically driven. A lot of page space is given to discussing alliances with other nations and past and potential future wars. I am not huge into reading fantasy that focuses on politics. Again, there are some other interesting elements that come into play later in the book but it was a bit too little to late for me to love this.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I ended up liking this but didn't love it. I am glad I finished it because there are some very intriguing fantasy/magic elements that come into play later in the book. However, the first half of the book was slow for me and I didn't like the political focus. I am on the fence about whether I will continue this series right now. I am leaning towards not continuing it because the first half of this book felt like a chore to get through, but I did enjoy some of the twists revealed in the second half. This also did not include the heavy steampunk themes that I really love Cato for, so that was a bit disappointing.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and 47North for my copy of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato in exchange for an honest review. It publishes June 1, 2023.
This was a clever and unique book! I haven't read a fantasy that has gripped me in a long time, I cannot wait for the next book in the series!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC.

Unfortunately I DNF’d this book at 40%. I was drawn to the story and the beautiful cover, but really struggled to connect to the characters and magic system. I may try this again someday, but for right now it wasn’t for me.

Adamantine has been on the run for years. She's a Chef, endowed with a magical talent for food, wine, and uncanny ingredients. She and others of her kind were forced into service to the crown, but Ada escaped, leaving an infant daughter behind. Years later, when old enemies resurface, Ada must reckon with her past to save her future. That infant daughter, adopted by a royal family, is now a young woman, and her Chef's tongue has awakened.

This book offers three of my favorite things: innovative magic systems, strong relationships that aren't just romantic, and middle-aged, female protagonists. While this light fantasy might not be to everyone's taste, these rare ingredients made this a delicious read for me.

The food-based magic explored in this book is such a treat, and it's especially novel because it avoids being saccharine sweet, instead tending towards an earthiness (even sometimes a little grotesquery-- cat hair!) that embodies a society with a different relationship to food than we have (side note: the book seems to draw heavily from Ancien Régime France). There's also a metaphor here, though unlike another reader who pegged it as an endorsement of veganism, I read it as a subtle commentary about understanding the origins of what we put in our bodies.

I also loved the relationships between characters. In other books, these are often just conveniences to make action or teenage romance happen. In this one, characters are deeply tied to one another for more complex reasons. I found how Ada and other characters care for Ada's mother, who has a failing memory, especially moving. The relationship between Solenn and her captain/guardian Erwan was also touching. Similarly, there's a scene later in the book of two characters reuniting that was so charming.

And how refreshing to see a middle-aged protagonist, especially one who's powerful in large part because of the experience of her years! While I'm sure there are more, the only other I can think of from fantasy is Ista from Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls (also an utter delight).

My library has purchased a copy of this novel based on my recommendation. We are eager to provide it to our college students.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that the premise of this novel was really unique -- some of my favorite novels have magic systems that are rooted in food and the preparation of food. I was also pleased to see an older female character when the book begins, similar to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. But ultimately, too many little things piled up to turn this into a novel that was okay, but not one that I loved.

The biggest issue for me was the balance of this novel. I was fully expecting this to be a trilogy or at least a duology, at least by the rate that events progressed during the first 2/3s of the novel. There were too many tabs open, and I just couldn't see how the author was going to get them all closed by the end of the book. Except they did, for the most part, and that's because things got really rushed in the last third. The "message" with the epicurea felt really heavy-handed; it's fitting for the story, but it could have been handled more subtly.

This book follows two women who unknowingly share culinary magic, blood, and a target on their back in the intermingled plots of revenge, nations, and gods.

I could not put this book down. It had one of the most original magic systems I have seen - and I loved how it played into cooking, taste, and perception. While smell and taste are some of our stronger senses, I find that books often leave these kinds of details out, so having unique powers based around this was a breath of fresh air.

This magic, and the lore it stemmed from, were the cherry on top of the cake of an engaging fantasy plot. With many competing interests (between nations, gods, magic, creatures, and vengeful humans), Cato effortlessly wove each character's motivations and histories together so they culminated in one exciting reveal after another until the climatic battle at the end.

All I can say, is I hope there is a sequel coming (and much much more of Grandmere). Fantasy lovers will not be disappointed.

This was a super creative read. Not sure if it'll blow up on TikTok, but there's definitely potential to be a social media darling.

If you love all things magic and thing culinary this book is for you! If you are blessed by the Five Gods, you have a sense for food and sweets like no other. With warn the way it is hard to keep all abilities a secret.

A Thousand Recipes For Revenge (ARC)
Beth Cato
3⭐️
Pub Date: 6/13/2023

In a world where 5 gods ruled, chefs are held as of highest regard and strength, properties of Verdania. Ada has found herself as a rogue chef after being burned by the injustice and bloodshed. After years of hiding, assassins now hunted her down and Ada has to run for her life. Her paths soon cross with a foreign princess Solenn, and they realize they have much to share more than just their gifts. Sacrifices have to be made, but how much? And will the gods assist or destroy them as they go into war?

This book is about culinary characters and magic/fantasy. This is my first one of this particular topic and was curious and excited to get this ARC. It was so hard to follow in the beginning. The plot/world building aspect was not set up, and made me think that I was missing something or that I'm reading a sequel. But I googled and this is the first book. I was tempted to DNF because I wasn't confident that the world will be built completely for me to fully understand the story. But ofcourse I did not and pushed through.

Once I pieced the plot and world together, it got better but I was still constantly confused. First, there were so many French terminologies. The plot was engaging but not to the point that I couldn't stop reading it. I actually stopped for days and felt no need to continue. It might be me finding out that I'm not a huge fan of culinary plotlines? The story picked up exactly at 50% of the book, where there's more action. The explanation and the world building came at this point too. So since it's more coherent, I started to enjoy it and actually finished pretty quickly. There are excerpts from make-believe chef books too at the start of each chapter which was confusing. It's a nice touch but I don't see how it added to the book. Skimmed.

Also, the conclusion was so unsatisfactory. I would imagine there's going to be a book 2. If not, it ended in a weird way. Actually, it didn't end at all.

Overall, it was very creative, the story was actually good but world building was unsatisfactory and it was too confusing.

I was intrigued by the worldbuilding in the book summary--food magic!--and there is indeed food magic in this one. On the other hand...I don't think it's unfair to a book when most reviewers come to it "wanting a different book" when there is a mismatch between what the book's marketing says it is and the readers' expectations. It's different when it's the academic vs. popular nonfiction thing; but this is genre fiction and when I'm promised food magic, I'd expect a little bit more cooking and magic with ordinary food, instead of the food magic being actual magic food made with dead magical creatures (except for the cat hair, I can't forget the cat hair.)

This leads to a lot of heavy-handed pseudovegan moralism, too, which I also wasn't expecting. This made it feel more YA than this book actually is, along with the adult protagonist reading like a teen and the teen protagonist being mature beyond her years; it's Solenn the teen who has to make the really important decisions.

The other problem with the promotional material is that I expected a standalone novel and this...is not that. There are a lot of dropped threads that hopefully are sequel bait, because it's not good if this is all we get and those plots got dropped.

This book may appeal to the horse girls out there. Solenn is definitely a horse girl.

The premise of this book sounded really good, and the first couple of chapters I was really sucked in. It got into the action quickly and gave me a character to latch onto and feel for.

Once the book kept going it started to lose me, however. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight, following what was going on, and getting invested in what was happening. I think part of the problem is that the book jumped between time frames without much warning or sign as to where/what we were jumping too, Once I lost focus on the book I had a hard time staying invested. This was definitely not a good book to read with large breaks between sittings, or on ebook.

The ending picked up a little, but at that point I was half-invested in the book and couldn't focus on it like I had wished I could.

"A Chef intimately knows the anatomy of a knife."

What a unique fantasy world. Not too far off from ours, but the recipes are magical! "Gods-touched creatures are set apart, much as Chefs are set apart from common people". (221) Political intrigue and dangerous alliances. Oh, and unicorns. 🦄 And the only person who you can really trust is yourself.

It reminded me a bit of Lost Apothecary, which I enjoyed a great deal.

Ada is a new & interesting heroine.
"Please keep my presence here a secret. These are dangerous people."
Ragnar considered her words with an inclined head. "Most people are dangerous, in one way or another."

Solenn wasn't my favorite narrator, but I did like seeing a different perspective in the story.

I haven't really seen people talking about this book... but they should be!

I have to say it was really difficult for me ti finish this book. Sometimes it felt too "strange" for me, even if I requested to read this because I was very intrigued by the plot and the magic sistem.
The first part of the book was good, but then at 35℅ of the book my attention began to dissolve.
Hear me out: I think the concept is great, the magic sistem is original and pretty cool, but maybe this is not my time to read it? I think that if I pick this book in five months maybe I will enjoy it more.
Super cool the idea of putting part of a cooking rule book at the beginning of each chapter.
You can find my review on goodreads, link in my bio
Excuse me if my English is bad, it is not my first language.

This was well written but disappointing for me. I just did not connect to the story or characters. I expected something a bit more modern.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Being entirely honest - I DNF'd at 45%. I'm so sorry! I just couldn't get on with the characters or the story. I adored the idea of the magic and how it works. Reminded me a little bit of Mistborn. As other reviews have mentioned, world building was amazing and I could fully picture each character in my mind when reading, their different personalities shined through. I just couldn't get fully absorbed into the story.

This book wasn't what I expected at all. For some reason (based on the title I guess) I thought this would be akin to the assassin's that take out their targets with food. That DOES happen but not in the way I would think. The title in fact simply refers to a saying regarding the Five Gods that the characters in the book revere. chef's are considered those who can commune closely with the Gods via their food preparation.

There's a lot more here but I can't do too much w/o giving away major plot points. The book was a lot of plot and needed a moment to breathe explain, world build, etc just a smidge more. I'm assuming based on the ending theres more to come and hopefully more world building happening..I will say this book did not play it safe with sacrifice; the protagonists were not looking for easy ways out.

The story intriguing but the writing and story need some tightening up particularly with two POVs. 2.5 stars.

A huge thank you to netgalley for providing me an ARC of this delightful book.

I didn't know what to expect going in, but I'm so glad I got to read this book.

The magic system and world is so unique. I have never ready anything with food magic in before, especially not like this. It was interesting, and really fun to learn about.

The characters were loveable, I was particularly fond of Ada, myself.

The story as a whole was great, but there were a few moments during the first 1/2 of the book that could've been dealt with a little differently, and in my opinion, may have improved those aspects if done in a new way. (now this is already in good reads and this won't be a huge spoiler, I am referring to sollen finding out erwan and ada are her true parents. The reaction was very minimal and brushed over the issues).

The story as a whole was really enjoyed, even the early books court politics as it was not written in a boring way at all.

Cats writing style is simple,yet effective. It is easy to read, and suits the story and pacing well. It was enjoyable to read.

In all, I highly recommend picking this book up if you enjoy fantasy reads with unique magic systems.

I really can't wait for the next instalment, and learn more about where we left off in this book, learn more if the world's and so on. I'll be glad to jump back in, again. I have questions that need answers!!

This BOOK has EVERYTHING!!! A 100 years from now this will be a fairy tale we tell our daughters (and sons).
It has everything a classic fantasy saga needs. A girl on a mission, hiding from a villain, a family member who helps them face the world, growing up too fast, magical food and suspicious talents. And this would make a great animated film too with an awesome soundtrack.
You cannot help but want to read all of Ada's life in one sitting but if you can't --because it is a LOT-- you will have that lovely feeling of not being able to wait and get snuggled into your favorite spot and start reading again.
Fantasy, Magic, Empowerment, Culinary, a little bit of a pirate or steampunk lifestyle---so good I can't explain it But halfway through I already tons of ideas for fan art.

I could not get into this book. I tried and tried and there was nothing that made me want to keep reading this book honestly. It was well written but just not my style of book at all even though it sounded like it could have been.