Incredible!! I loved reading about Eliza and Wesley’s journey’s of self-discovery and growth after the salutatorian ends up in culinary arts instead of AP physics. This has found family, love, grief, redemption and food!!

I really enjoyed this one. The story is Young Adult and it's perfect for its intended audience. It's nicely written and, more importantly for me: the characters feel like real people, and their experiences, conflicts, etc., felt authentic. It touches on themes like grief, love, family, friendship, confronting your prejudice, finding your passion, showing up authentically, learning to communicate, and more. All very relatable things to any human being.

I feel like a few things here and there could've been explored a little deeper, and some things aren't tied up as best as I thought they would be, but overall, this was a very nice story. I loved the way food and cooking connected the characters and these kids were just adorable. A super solid YA contemporary romance debut!

This book!!!! I was squealing for half of it!!

It was so cute and entertaining, so just couldn’t put it down. An academics-obsessed girl and a baking-boy is such an intriguing coupling to me. I know it isn’t original, but I loved every second of it!

i love how the author portrayed the struggles of immigrant children. it hit so close to home. i also really relate to the struggles of basing your entire self worth on academic validation

This book isn’t simply a rom-com, which I think made me love it so much more. It handles grief, trying to connect with your culture, friendships, and so much more.

Eliza felt a bit relatable to me, in both the striving for academic perfection but also the feeling a lack of connection with her culture. It was phenomenal to see her growth throughout the novel.

But I obviously have to talk about Wesley and Eliza. Their dynamic was so cute, and I actually felt like giggling and kicking my feet every time they interacted. They’re honestly like my babies, and I love them.

I would definitely recommend this book. It was an emotional journey but I loved it. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Words can’t describe how much I loved this book! This was such an amazing read and I’m so honored to have had the honor of receiving a digital arc. I couldn’t put the book down the whole time and ended up procrastinating an important assignment just to finish it in one sitting.
As an Asian American myself, who is also obsessed with school, Eliza’s character was incredibly relatable, both her feelings regarding her grandmother’s death and her view on school. As she discussed her AP classes and rank, I felt like I was in the middle of a conversation with my own friends. Eliza showed such amazing development throughout the book and as she grew, I felt myself learning the same lessons that she did.
In the book the three main focuses in Eliza’s life are her relationships with her parents, friends, and Wesley. All of it was balanced so well in Lee’s writing. Her relationship with her mother and their dynamic was heartwarming to read about and it was satisfying seeing their relationship begin to change as they talked to each other through cooking. Although some of the conflicts regarding friendship made me frustrated, they also felt real and highlighted a lot of the insecurities that many high schoolers also carry. Lastly, Eliza’s relationship with Wesley. Academic rivals to lovers is my all time favorite trope and I loved Lee’s different approach to it. Every interaction between Eliza and Wesley was so fun to read about and incredibly sweet. To me, their relationship flowed perfectly, and there wasn’t a moment where it felt dragged or rushed. Even a day after finishing the book I cant stop thinking about them.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who might be interested and will definitely be looking out for any books Sophia Lee writes in the future, after reading such a great debut novel!

Flawless.

The word to describe the author’s writing style. She engages the reader right from the start. It’s a book I wish I had when I was growing up.

Topics ranged from the ubiquitous lesson immigrant parents impart to their children of how to define success to the impact of female friendship. All of this explored in the context of food. Eliza’s meetups with her friends over boba or picnics. Eliza learning more of her mom’s identity as a child, wife and mother through cooking lessons. Eliza’s exploration of her self as a student via her budding romance with Wesley.

Excellent title, too !

This ARC was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Children’s Book Quill Tree Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

#ElizafromScratch #NetGalley.

This is the perfect book for me at the moment, which is clear from the way I devoured this in one sitting. I loved the writing (though there were a few minor errors that I assume will get edited in the final version), the humour was exactly my type of humour (meaning I laughed and highlighted many quotes), and I really enjoyed the focus on cooking, as well as the discussions of Eurocentrism in art curriculums (cooking in this case).

With the characters, I really liked Eliza, though I'm sure some may have found her unlikeable. She's definitely flawed: she can be judgy, nosy, selfish, and abrasive, but also... I relate to her struggles with her insecurities, perfectionism and true goals for the future, so I was able to understand her hurt when she lashed out at everyone, though it definitely wasn't right. So, she was a character I really connected with.
Wesley was just amazing, talented, and sweet and I wish he existed irl. He wasn't perfect either, of course, but I loved how he and Eliza helped each other, and they went from dislike to friends to lovers in a way that felt natural.
Though we meet Wesley's friend group a little later on in the book, I immediately liked how sweet and fun they seemed. Eliza's friend group also seemed like a realistic group of smart teen girls: kind with genuine intentions, but can be judgy sometimes. However, after some learning from their end, I loved how they all came together in the end and found common interests. As Eliza's friend Meredith said, it's like in High School Musical when the decathlon team hangs out with the basketball team!

For the plot, I had a great time watching Eliza grow both as a cook and as a person. The food descriptions seriously had me considering trying out new recipes even though I'm not a very good cook. Also, I loved the cook-off at the end! That was really fun. It was also heartwarming to see how Eliza grew closer to her mom through cooking her late grandmother's recipes, and how it was healing for her mom to share stories about her own life and memories with Eliza's grandmother.

Overall, this was a great read! I'm definitely going to be tuning into whatever Sophia Lee writes next!

“The story of my family begins in the kitchen, so I should have known that the story of me would start there, too” (255)

Thank you NetGallery for access to the eARC! 4.25 ⭐️

This book was so sweet. The story follows Eliza and the journey through her first semester of senior year. There is a lot riding on her for this term- college applications, trying hard to be salutatorian, and trying to keep time for her friends. However, there is also a lot of emotions she experiences. After a scheduling mishap, she has to take a culinary class. For the first time ever, Eliza isn’t immediately great in a class. She also meets her rival, Wesley, who at first becomes a thorn in her side as her assigned partner. All the while at home Eliza is dealing with grief—or the lack thereof—of her grandmothers death. The real heartfelt experience, though, comes in the form of watching her mother deteriorate from this grief. Trying to balance school, family, and friendship is a huge part of this novel.

There is so much I could say about this story. Eliza is a great character that experiences humility. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, Eliza is able to grow after changing her views on her relationships within her family and her friends. She takes a step back in some very hard situations to recognize the world around her. I appreciated the way situations were talked through and mutual communication shone. Specifically in her relationship with her best friends, Kareena and Meredith, really hit home for me and some of the things I could have done differently in high school. Eliza was very real, which is so needed in a narrative like this.

Also Wesley!!! Rivals to lovers is such a wonderful trope and I think it was written well. I also appreciated the meta view on Wesley’s archetype. What I mean by this, is that I’m glad that he was not a poor kid with deep familial traumas. I was falling into the same mindset that Eliza was, thinking that was the case. But then there was a good laugh to be had when Wesley explained (which I will leave out specifics for spoiler reasons). I appreciated the different take, which also helped remind the reader that this setting is a “fancy,” I believe private high school. Wesley and Eliza have a great dynamic, I enjoyed the sweet romance and Wesley has some very beautiful lines.

Then of course there is great commentary of being the child of immigrant parents. Getting a lens through Eliza’s eyes amplified her sadness around not feeling completely connected to her Korean culture. The small glimpses of that sadness and anger showing (especially toward the end in the fight with her mother on Thanksgiving) was a well written addition. I felt there could have been more depth or even just moments that helped aid in tackling this, but really the moments cooking with her mom were solid.

On that note, the cooking!! I ended up staying up till 2am reading this book and let me just say I was very hungry. It makes me want to get more into cooking and also Korean food. So yummy!

Overall, a very solid and endearing debut novel. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a quick read, but also a novel that has a range of topics. Definitely a good one to pick up!

This was a fantastic concept for a romantic comedy novel, I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their work in this story. It was a realistic romance and was enjoying the overall feel of this. Sophia Lee has a strong writing style and am excited to read more from them as this was a fantastic read.