Initial setting of the story is Bucharest, at the end of the 18th century. This intrigued me just as much as the magic in this book, which borrows from Romanian folklore.

I liked the story, didn't love it though. There were a lot of characters that had little to know influence on the overall story and bogged down the story with tangents.

This book does not work for me. Sometimes, as intriguing as a story sounds, I just can’t get past the first couple of pages. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this book’s translation or anything, but I could tell pretty quickly that for some reason, it just wasn’t going to jive with me.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book was originally published in Romanian and then translated.

I’m not sure if it was the translation or the prose itself but I just really couldn’t understand this book. Everything felt disconnected and nothing was making sense to me.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. I hope others love it.

I went in with zero expectations, the synopsis alone being what drew my attention to this book. It ended up being a pleasant read, a bit slow paced but full of magical little details that kept me invested! I did enjoy the peek at Romania in this book, as I am unfamiliar with that country and its background. The detailed recipes throughout the book and the resulting mayhem hehehe. Overall, a delightful read and one I'm happy to recommend to others!

My thanks to Netgalley for theDRC of this book, my opinions are my own.
I'm afraid this one just wasn't for me. I'm not sure if it was the translation or the style itself, but I found the prose just too disjointed to follow with any enjoyment. However, there were some paragraphs that were absolutely beautiful, and captured the essence of that flavour, or mood etc like poetry, and for these jewels, I persevered. This is a book that I think deserves re-reading, possibly after I have done a bit more homework on my Romanian history.

Pâtca is on the run in Doina Ruști’s The Book of Perilous Dishes (carefully translated by James Christian Brown). She flees from her small village when her grandmother is accused of witchcraft. Unlike so many others accused like this, Pâtca and her family really are witches. Sadly, their knowledge is no match for a pissed-off mob and Pâtca must seek refuge in Bucharest, only to learn that this is just the first in a series of unfortunate events.

The plan was for Pâtca to live with her uncle, a talented and influential magician. As soon as she arrives at her uncle’s house, Pâtca discovers that the poor man and his servants have been murdered. It turns out that turn-of-the-nineteenth-century Bucharest is absolute bedlam. Not only has Pâtca’s uncle been killed but Pâtca is almost sold into slavery by a group of corrupt Turkish gendarms. This book skirts the boundaries of the picaresque. The only thing keeping The Book of Perilous Dishes from slipping completely into that kind of malarky is Pâtca’s agency. Although she needs to be rescued more than once, Pâtca’s little hexes help her in her quest to right the wrongs done to her family. That said, so much happens to Pâtca that it’s hard to keep the plot and mishaps straight sometimes.

There’s no way I can summarize the plot of this book. Not only is there her uncle’s murder to solve, Pâtca also has to figure out how to retrieve her uncle’s book of magical recipes. A rogue cook has the book and is cooking his way through it, wreaking havoc in the Ottoman-appointed prince’s court with dishes that inflame emotions like paranoia and generosity or cause fatal bouts of laughter. Pâtca also has to do polite battle with churchmen who want to snaffle her inheritance away, locate a mysterious house on a street that may not exist, and help her patroness in her mission to become the new governor of Romania.

I appreciated the sense of place and time Ruști created. There are occasional untranslated words in Turkish and Romanian (I know what an anteri is now) that add texture to my overall impression of a city of near-anarchy and corruption and exotic flavors and magic and infatuation. There is so much going on in Bucharest and this corner of the Ottoman Empire that it was a little startling to hear a French diplomat refer to Napolean’s dreams of conquering Europe. Readers looking for unusual historical fiction may like this one.

I don’t have many thoughts about this book. It’s different from anything else I’ve read, and I did enjoy the Romanian myth/cultural aspects. It took me a bit to get through this book and the translation tripped me up here and there, but overall it was an enjoyable time. Thank you NetGalley and Neem Tree Press for the arc!

This book checked a lot of boxes for me: eye-catching cover & title, unique historical fiction, mysterious murders, and magical elements. However, I found the story confusing and a little hard to follow. Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

“But what matters is not what you see but what is in your mind.”

I believe all books harbor magic in their pages—some perhaps more than others. In Doina Ruști’s The Book of Perilous Dishes, I can guarantee you there is enough magic to sate the bellies of a dozen ravenous Phanariots.

Here, the whimsical meets the gastronomic as readers are transported into the colorful yet dangerous world of late-eighteenth-century Bucharest.

Our story begins at the crack of dawn with fourteen-year-old Pâtca, who is herself descended from an ancient magical order. She becomes ensnared in a carefully plotted scheme that will leave a trail of dead bodies, including that of her uncle.

When her family’s recipe book falls into the hands of the princely cook Silica, it sets her on a breathtaking adventure across Romania, France, and Germany.

Good food has always been nothing short of magic to me.

You can imagine how pleased I was to pick up a book about, well…magical food. No less than twenty-one recipes are laid down throughout the story—from potent elixirs that make you vomit out the truth to sweet cakes that can provoke bouts of uncontrollable laughter.

As someone who grew up sniffing my grandmother’s spice collection like a hound in a hunt, I could relate to Pâtca’s attachment to Maxima and the urgency with which she regarded her mission. The same urgency is reflected in the lines that swerved too fast; I was often left trudging behind the smoke of names and long-buried Latin phrases.

The story can sometimes feel too overcrowded, introducing you to words and titles that challenge the curve of sound on your tongue.

The novel was originally written in Romanian and brought into the English by James Christian Brown. With translated works, you never know what you have lost in the transfer of language.

However, they say it is the mark of a good storyteller to take you out of your reality.

And many times throughout the story, it felt as if I had landed smack dab in the congested alleys of Doina Ruști’s Lipscani square. Overall, The Book of Perilous Dishes is well-written and engaging. The narrative voice flows naturally with a seasoned writer’s confidence and skill.

Ruști’s The Book of Perilous Dishes is a delightful blend of history and fantasy that will enthrall readers of all ages. I thoroughly enjoyed my first foray into Romanian lore and am grateful to Neem Tree Press and NetGalley for the early copy.

This was definitely a struggle for me. Perhaps it is for others but I realized about 20% that this book wasn’t for me. I’m grateful to have received an arc of this, though!

I wanted to like this book, but I felt like there was too much crammed into it, and the translation faltered. I considered DNFing, but powered through and I shouldn’t have wasted my time.

The Book of Perilous Dishes is a solid tale of magic and mischief set in a Bucharest on the verge of moving from Turkish to French influence around 2 centuries ago.

From the perspective of a born and raised Romanian who currently lives in Bucharest, this was a fascinating story that caught my eye immediately. I haven't read the Romanian version, so I jumped at the opportunity to dive into this version. The narrative was split into big chapters of short stories, jumping within a timeline spanning 30 years. Sometimes the short stories flowed well, at other times they seemed a bit disjointed by jumping from one character's point of view to another's, or into different narrative threads. There was also a lot of detail and traces of the flowery and colorful language that is Romanian, making this one a slow read for me, as I often needed time to process the details before moving forward. That said, the story was thrilling, the characters were charming, and it ends in a very satisfying way that ties all loose ends.

Let's talk about the magic in this book. I've always loved our local flavor of myth and folklore. Romanians are known for having a strong background of superstitions, which came across really well in this story. The magical system borrows a lot from Roman mythology, which is certainly one of the foundations of our nation, and adds a local flair through ingredients and recipes that are said to have special powers. Cooking plays a big part throughout the book, and the recipes range from mouthwatering dishes to shady concoctions. It's a refreshing take on magic that worked really well and felt genuine considering the setting.

My main drawback however is the translation. I understand from the note at the start of the book that a conscious decision was made to keep some of the Romanian terms as they are, for the sake of authenticity, and I understand and appreciate this decision. The glossary and pronunciation guide at the back of the book should make it a bit easier to reference terms. What didn't work as well for me was translating Pâtca's real name, Mâța Vinerii, into Cat 'o Friday as it changed the tone completely in my view. I also noticed a few Romanian phrases translated verbatim. While I was able to understand what something like "put lice into my soul" was supposed to mean, it might confuse non-Romanian readers. Perhaps adapting some of these phrases into natural English language would have been a more accessible choice for foreign readers. You can still definitely catch the meaning out of the context, so if you choose to pick it up, you should still be able to enjoy the story.

All in all, a great story that I'm glad I picked up. If you're looking for a fresh magical story and are a fan of books about cooking, try it out!

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

Historical Fantasy
Dark Magic
Epic Adventure
Mystery

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Pâtca is a 14 year Romanian girl who is on a mission to find a family heirloom, a magical recipe book titled ‘The Book of Perilous Dishes.

After her aunt is arrested for practising divination, she travels to her uncle’s house but on arrival she discovers that he has been murdered.
Pâtca then tries to hide the body which then sets the story in motion for a weird and wacky adventure

This is a great book for someone who wants to read something completely different. It has a lot of Romanian folk lore and superstitions and the actual magic system is extremely refreshing.
It is quite hard to understand at times and it took me a long time to finish the book..


I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.
A huge thank you to Netgalley and Neem Tree Press for this e-arc.

Escaping after authorities coming for her aunt Maxima for practicing divination, fourteen-year-old Pâtca heads for Bucharest to take refuge with her uncle Cuviosu Zăval. She arrives to find her uncle murdered, along with his two servants, and a chef's wife at the door asking for a specific bottle from her uncle. After handing it over, Pâtca leaves the house, but ends up getting captured by a moneylender's goons, and is terrified by him until she gets out.

Soon Pâtca is trying to hide her dead uncle's body, is captured yet again, is told by the local church that her uncle's fortune is to be handed over to the church, and keeps running into the moneylender, and getting embroiled in the doings of a wealthy woman, Caterina, who takes Pâtca in, and the local prince Kostas, who has stolen Caterina's chef Silica (Pâtca met his wife briefly).

Silica begins making dishes for Kostas from a cookbook prized and kept secret by Pâtca's family, The Book of Perilous Dishes, which allows one to control the behaviour of others with carefully selected and unexpected ingredients. The effects of the consumption of Silica's strange dishes, of course, range from odd to disastrous. Pâtca decides to get the book back.

I was eager to read this as it sounded like it would be a lot of fun. And there are some terrific moments and fantastical elements in this book, but the pacing kept lagging, as the prose bogged down with too many details. And though there was some sense that a mystery was at work (where's the book?, who killed the uncle?), this story was more about the history of Bucharest and the many complicated interactions people of various cultures had with one another.

I loved the idea of using unusual dishes to perform dark magic, and the cast of characters was fascinating, and some of the conversations Pâtca has with them are amusing, off the wall, and elliptical, suiting the general feeling of this book, which could easily fall under the magic realism label. So, this is a story with plenty of atmosphere, and strange, magical happenings that everyone just rolls with.

I liked many parts of this book, and just wish it had had a tighter narrative.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Neem Tree Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is an utterly charming novel, full of magic and food, that keep you coming back for more.
I really enjoyed the plot, being an absolutely brilliant idea to have a stolen magical cookbook, a charming adolescent witch who’s the book’s rightful owner and a thief who works as a cook for prince. Adding the gorgeous settings of 18. century Bucharest and almost poetic descriptions of food creations and we have an amazing book, very difficult to put away before finishing it all in one evening. The storytelling is great, the characters are fascinating and the plot is unique.
I’d also like to praise the translation, it’s a very good work.
I have absolutely no negative criticism about this novel, I highly recommend reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a pretty "no plot just vibes" kind of book, which I hadn't expected when going into it. Not to say that I was disappointed by that, but I was expecting more from the book in terms of plot, based off of what I read in the synopsis. But this was fine? Because I honestly forgot all about the big mystery mentioned in the synopsis. There was other stuff going on that was unrelated to the mystery, like with the politics around the prince and the main character's own family drama. Now that I think about it, this book is pretty plot-y, there was a lot of stuff going on, but somehow it just didn't read that way to me. The narrator, Pâtca, has a tendency to go off tangent, relaying short stories and exposition to the reader which slows down the overall pacing a bunch. I wish the pacing was just a little faster to make the plot more exciting, but at the same time, I really enjoyed reading the short stories.

I felt that the big mystery was resolved a little too easily. I feel like Pâtca made a lot of assumptions without doing much, or enough, sleuthing to come to those conclusions logically, although I suppose that's fine? Because she manages to make the correct assumptions and figure it out in the end.

Another favourite part of mine was the food!! The whole reason I picked up this book in the first place was because I am a big fan of food, and I just love reading food descriptions in books, because it sounds so 😋. The food descriptions in this book were SO GOOD! Each time a new dish is introduced, Pâtca goes into detail describing the process of preparing and making it, as well as some of the history behind it, and stories about its magical properties. I love how detailed and storied each dish was, it was immersive and made me hungry. (Disclaimer: this may not apply to everyone, as I just really love reading about food.)

Something I struggled with were the multitude of Romanian terms. As stated in the translator's note, he made the decision to keep a lot of the terms untranslated, due to a lack of a modern equivalent. While I do appreciate how using the terms lend themselves to authenticity, I had trouble remembering the meanings of all the words, which did take me out of the story at times. There is a glossary at the back of the book, but due to the fact that I'm reading this as an ebook, jumping back and forth to check is more troublesome than bookmarking and flipping through a physical copy.

I appreciate the translator's note a lot, I feel that he put a lot of care into translating the story as accurately as possible, as well as being respectful and researching the culture behind it. And, a lot of the time, I struggle with translated books as the writing can come off as stiff or awkward as they don't translate smoothly into English, but I found the writing in this book to have good flow and the descriptions were vivid.
Overall, a really intriguing and satisfying read!

Thank you @NetGalley and Neem Tree Press for this ARC of The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Ruști.

It was such an intriguing book. I thoroughly enjoyed the era of 1798 and all the events described in the book. The amalgamation of age-old recipes with an element of magic and fantasy was so well-done.

This book really takes you back to the time period under consideration. It is a bit slow-paced and had so many names in Romanian or Latin or sometimes in Turkish but the whole idea of Ottoman rulers, Greek princes, the infamous cook, Ismail Bina, Cirta, Dubois, Caterina, Perticari the spiritist, the involvement of Sator, Maxima and Zaval and the narrator Patca was worth all the time I spent reading this book.

The book of perilous dishes in the book with all its curious and weird recipes of various dishes, elixers and potions was such a treat.

It also includes such thoughtful passages and lines about life and emotions in general that I couldn’t help highlighting so many of them.

It jumps from 1798 to thirty years ago and sometimes so many things are happening but after the first few pages, one gets used to the world of Bucharest and the characters involved.

If this book comes to Pakistan, I am definitely going to buy its physical copy.

This is a very interesting novel, deeply anchored in Romanian folklore and superstition.
While the world of this book is fascinating, sadly, it's taken so much for granted that the book loses a lot of tension. As someone who doesn't know that culture well, I couldn't foreshadow any of the implications of people's actions and any of their assumptions, just because I don't know the folk tales or superstitions that ruled everyday lives during that period.
Multiple times, I found myself discovering the true meaning of what had happened chapters later, when the peril was past and the main character had moved to different things. Literally, I would find out the true danger of what she had walked into, way too late to care about it, meaning that I didn't feel any emergency as I was reading and instead it feels a lot like meandering... bad stuff happens, bad stuff is resolved in mysterious way, more bad stuff happens, new mysterious way is used to solve the problem...
I really wanted to like this book but I found it hard to stay engaged.
I would recommend this book to anyone who liked the classic surreal "The Master and Margarita", this novel reminded me a lot of that elusive Devil controlling the minds of people in the city, or readers who are more familiar with the Romanian culture.

Food and recipes are a comfort read for me, add in a dash of magic and I'm all in. My only disappointment is that I got a bit lost in the timelines and the many many threads picked up.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think Doina Rusti did a beautiful job capturing the spirit of that time. This books made me think of Mircea Eliade's books.

However, I was confused for a good part of the book and I really think the issue is the way it was translated. I am a Romanian who grew in Bucharest and moved to Brasov, so I am very familiar with the places were the action takes place, and I was still kind of confused. I have to say that some words used are very old, and even I'm not sure about their meaning at times, and while they are additive to the story in the original language, I feel that in this version, they just confuse the reader. That being said, I think it would have been beneficial to translate them, or at least add a sub-note on the page where that word is used. What I think should not have been translated instead is Patca's actual name. The original name is Mata Vinerii, translated as Cat O' Friday, and while mata can be translated as cat, is more of a derogatory term, and I think that's again, quite important to the story.

That being said, the story is quite captivating, and I intend on reading it in Romanian, following a cult-centered family with magical powers given by some form of sanctity, and a book filled with dishes that have some magical proprieties that we'll learn more about as the story progresses. Unfortunately I don't feel like I can give it 5 stars, because this version of the book is too confusing, and I've seen that many people had this problem.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange of my honest review