A Thousand Recipes for Revenge… how to even describe what I just read…?

There is so much that goes on and keeps you hooked the entirety of the book. I can honestly say I did not expect this story to take turns the way it did and I am pleasantly surprised.

The ending was a shock to me. It was pretty dense/complicated at the beginning as the world building is happening because it is kinda given to you in a big bundle rather than slowly, but once you get past that, the story was really well done and beautifully fleshed out.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

4.5 stars, rounded up

This was a very interesting take in food magic; a recentering of Chefs as magicians blessed by the Five Gods.
The author has created a lush, well-realized world with tons of lore and little interesting tidbits, as well as an unexpected twist well into the second middle of the book. While I am not the best audience for court intrigue plots (in one of the POV character arcs) the book quickly went beyond that and it really managed to cover a lot of ground—and I say this with fascination because there's still so much to happen in this world, and we're left well-poised for a sequel.
I really enjoyed the sprawling cast of characters, as none of them felt two-dimensional, and I found the conversations about what motherhood can look like to different people very interesting. Solenn and Ada, the two main POV characters, were refreshingly real and complex on page. I do wonder however if revealing the nature of their relationship to the reader could have been done a bit later, to increase the tension—and I found Erwan's interactions with one of them (spoilers) to somewhat lack the expected chemistry.
But overall, I would definitely recommend this book!

I read an eARC of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato.

This was a book with a truly unique magical world. Here, magical is brought forward by humans in the dishes that they are able to create by "Chefs". In the kingdom that we find ourselves, Chefs are immediately conscripted into the army and government as venerated but controlled people by those in power when their "tongue" starts to be able to taste the fine details that normal humans cannot. What a Chef can taste will depend on the Chef, with empathetic, or Chef's who taste what others taste thus able to make dishes to their customer's pallet, being hailed as the most powerful and most sought after. There are also certain ingredients within mundane and magical creatures that can be cooked and give people certain powers for a time like invisibility or keeping them looking younger.

Honestly, I adored the magical system, and could go on about the more complexities and how later in the book it adds to the political intrigue of the book and how people treat each other and really it's the best part of the book.

The book also follows two characters. Ada, a Chef who has an empathetic tongue who is hiding from the government that she once served. Because of how fickle the king, her marriage to a man she fought with but was from another country was annulled when he declared to separate their alliance, and she left her daughter with him because she was afraid her daughter would also be a Chef and she didn't want her to live the way she had.

The other main character is a princess who is marrying the prince of the kingdom who develops a Chef's tongue just in time to stop an assassination attempt on her future husband, and now must hide that she's a Chef in this land that conscripts all their Chefs and also save her new husband to be from further assassination attempts without giving herself away.

This on top of a cannibal who turns people into salt in order to eat them and gain a great deal of power and who has a grudge against not just Ada but also the princess.

This story is action packed and will have you constantly on your seat with political intrigue and action scenes. A wonderful book that is definitely worth the read!

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A mother and daughter duo against the gods? Sign me up. This isn't your typical book of mythology, this has a chef going against some of the gods of old. With her penchant and magic with food and wine, one would think her a daughter of Bacchus. A wonderful one sitting read that I will read again. Would make a wonderful film.

(Also posted on Goodreads)

I wasn't sure that I would finished past the first few chapters. The concepts were interesting and the world intriguing, but I struggled switching between the characters in the beginning. However, as plots began to unfold and the world flourished, I found I couldn't put it down. The author foreshadows well and I felt rewarded when everything I thought about might be really happening, was true. Even then, I was still surprised (pleasantly) by a few things that happened in the end. I can't wait to see what happens in the a sequel.

Disclaimer: I was given an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The description enticed me into requesting this book. I am very glad I did.. The author creates a unique world of "culinary magic" and adds gods who were once human , then combines that with action and adventure. I highly recommend all fantasy fans read this.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for allowing me to read this outstanding ARC. Thus is my honest review.

Do you love the video game Battle Chef Brigade?
Then this book is for you!
From the cover, this wasn't exactly what I expected. I imagined something more intimate, a little like a fantasy cozy mystery... this wasn't it. It really was an Iron chef battle of god powers and army fighting linked to food and taste. The magic system is amazing for someone who loves food and cooking like me. But the tone was just too young. I couldn't quite believe the main character was not a teen and that made the plot difficult to work, which is sad because it's a good one. I think this is really a question of reading preference, and this one just wasn't for me, I didn't manage to get into it.

There are a lot of books coming out lately that feature food. A lot of these books are cozy slice of life books that are about found family and setting a certain mood. The title of the book should warn you that this is not what this book is going for.

The author has clearly thought a lot about her magic system and how to make a Chef be a powerful magical force within her world. This idea didn't work for me in this book; it felt forced. There is a lot of heavy lifting and explanation early on that kept me from falling into the story. I love cooking myself and was ready to love this book too, but it felt like the scaffolding and idea behind the book were more front and center than the story. I did not finish the book so this might have eased off later, so take this all with a grain of salt (hah).

Chefs are gifted with magic from the gods. They know which ingredients to use to bring out the best flavor and full potential of food. Chefs have a responsibility to use their gifts for the good of the kingdom. Rogue Chef Ada Garland has a particularly strong gift for perceiving the aroma and flavor of food – a gift that landed her in the military years ago. After deserting, Ada and her grandmother have been lying low and staying on the run. But now, it seems Ada’s past has caught up to her as she returns home one day to an assassination attempt. She reaches out to fellow members of her military unit and finds her problem is not unique. While on her journey to help her friends, Ada sees someone she thought she would never see again…

A foreign princess has come to Verdania’s court to marry their young Prince Rupert. Princess Solenn does her best to fit in in a new country, but her empathetic and caring nature is at odds with the haughty attitude of her betrothed’s crew. While dining with the prince, Solenn uncovers a plot to kill her future husband. What’s almost as surprising is the way she is able to discern this threat…

Ada’s and Solenn’s journeys will converge as each woman tries to save those around her and protect the world from raging deities.

It never fails to amaze me how imaginative authors can be. Just when I was getting into the story and feeling like I was familiar with the world she created, a whole new layer was unveiled. The idea of certain foods imbuing eaters with special abilities, gods being associated with specific flavors and powers, and multiple storylines joining together seamlessly were just a few of the things I thought were well done. I did find a couple of the revolutions that Ada had to be a little abrupt, but I would read the next book (if there is one) in a second!

Well written enjoyable read with an interesting food based magic system, and some twists I didn't see coming.

The first half of the book was a little slow, but for the most part I found it to be a relaxing introduction to the world. The second half of the book is where the action really picks up.

My favorite thing about this book was the food based magic system and the well developed lore around the gods and their influence on foods and the world. There were some really interesting twists around the epicurea and I loved the powers associated with cats!

Thank you to NetGalley & 47North for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book - the magic system curated through food was inventive and complex. I, as possible the World’s Worst Cook™️, would fare terribly in this world.

The characters are the real standout here: every one of them felt developed and had their own personalities beyond their ability to move the plot along. The history & worldbuildjng of the novel was incredibly interesting (though some of the select texts to start the chapters were a bit on the nose).

Two main callouts here: the whole novel felt like YA, even though Ada was somewhere in her 40s. Not that I expected the tone to change drastically between POVs but I did expect some more change in maybe sentence structure or complexity. And the final battle ended semi-dramatically but the aftermath felt a bit rushed.

Overall - cannot wait for the next installment! Already have some friends in mind for recommendations.

This is a story of food and its magic abilities which caught my attention. And although it is an interesting style of book I found it fell a bit flat for me.

It was like a long and winding road and if it had been shortened and a little bit less descriptive it would have flowed so much better. A bit historical, a lot of food, some magic brought some interest and fun to the story.

Although I though this would be the book for me I just didn't get into it as much as I had hoped.

I picked this book up because of the cover and the title. The premise came third. Thankfully that wasn’t higher on my list..,. This book flat out was not for me, The concept was somewhat intriguing but also missing something that held it together. I had no connection to the characters and the plot of the story did nothing to draw me in. That’s just my opinion, though, which I know is going to be completely different from someone else’s. I’m only throwing this review out there for like minded readers.

the premise sounded very interesting. but i dont think it lived up to the expectation that I had. I couldn't even get through the latter half of the book

In a land where Chef’s are god-granted in their talents of magic, Ada is born-Chef and deserter from the imperial army. When her identity is uncovered, she and her grandmother must flee into hiding, as an old enemy sets his sights on killing her. Meanwhile, in the same city, Princess Solenn is just trying to survive her upcoming marriage to the Crown Prince, but someone keeps trying to poison him—and she fears they are trying to frame her for his death.

Cato’s magic system is one of the coolest I have ever encountered. The world-building is efficient, but graceful, with pieces of information slipping into place just as you begin to wonder or ask questions. Each twist and turn of the plot is brilliant and surprising, with both Solenn and Ada being equally compelling and likable characters. I mean, it says something I read, photographed, and posted this book all in the same day, despite the fact I have a backlog of something like 40 books to post about (whoops).

My one reservation about this book is that there are moments, toward the end of the book, where the plot grows a bit too convenient—characters finding each other by chance, or revelations that feel a bit unearned. But mostly, this was a really solid read, and I'm looking forward to its June publication date!

Thank you for the opportunity to review this ARC!

I will say that this book started slowly for me. There seemed to be so much background information that needed to be explained that the action was delayed significantly and any action there was, was hidden beneath explanation. About midway through, I couldn't stop, though. As Ada and Solenn grew closer and closer together without knowing it, as they all worked to solve this problem, I loved it.
There were some moments of dialogue where I felt like it sounded juvenile but then I realized that Solenn is 16 and instead of being annoyed, I was relieved that a teenage girl got to sound like a teenage girl.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

Unfortunately I just could not get into it and had to DNF it at about 20%. The concept is unique and intriguing but it was too all over the place for me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and there was too much telling and not enough showing.

The cover is beautiful and drew me in instantly! This book has such an interesting concept of magic being tied to food and how this is used socially and politically. This is also a story of connecting with long lost lovers and family where you find yourself really rooting for this families happy after-ever. There are many different aspects to this book that it kept me interested.

Let me start by saying I love the premise of this book. Also, the cover really drawed me in. However, I just found the entire book dull. I love the idea of food containing magic, but for me, there was never an "Oh, wow!" moment. The entire thing fell flat for me.

2.5/5 stars! I really enjoyed the premise of this story and I love food/cooking-related tales. I think my expectations were set too high because this story felt very dull. I wanted to like the characters and buy-in on their goals, but I felt myself putting this down frequently and forcing myself to pick it back up. I will say that I really enjoyed the world-building and found the plots around assassination to be exciting.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily