Equipped with a temper and a talent for combining unusual flavors, Cai wants nothing more than to be able to own her own restaurant. So when the opportunity presents itself to enter the Celestial Banquet, a cooking competition for the gods, Cai cannot help but want to enter. Together with a quirky team, she and her friends must face all sorts of challenges and risk their lives. Can they triumph?

This was a fascinating storyline that I just did not expect. At every turn, I was surprised by the outcomes and where the author took us. Cai was easy to connect with, and I really enjoyed getting to learn the back story of the sad minor god, Kama. I do wish that YA books would stop relying so heavily on the love triangle as a way to create drama. There was plenty of action without adding in the love triangle and it made me wish that one of those characters were female with a straight female main character, so I could still get their contributions.

I think this has the potential to go over well with teens but I also am not sure how many teens would be into the cooking aspects. It may end up with a smaller audience as a result.

Thank you to Net Galley, Zando, and Sweet July Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

Celestial Banquate is Roselle Lim's YA fantasy debut, and overall, a solid start to the genre.

Set in a fictional world that is heavily influenced by Chinese and Southeast Asian cultures, readers follow the main character, Cai, in a deadly competition called the Celestial Banquet. Held once every generation, competing teams must work together to feed the fickle gods and impress them with their meals. The prize for the winners is the Peaches of Immortality, which are worth riches beyond belief.

Marketed as "Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games," the book unfortunately felt a little underwhelming with a fast pace that left the ending feeling lackluster. While the story may have some pacing issues, it is engaging, especially as it includes excerpts from ancient scrolls that serve as great inputs for worldbuilding. The story includes a romantic subplot that at times felt unnecessary and took time away from the main story's plot and the main course of the book, the cooking.

As a librarian, this book is great for younger high school students and middle school students who are at a higher reading level. The writing is simple enough for younger readers to comprehend, with some vocabulary that could lead students to learn new words.

If you're like me and catch every cooking challenge show that's on TV, then you definitely need to read this book. I loved how Lim sets up the details of the Celestial Banquet and the consequences of failure. It was also interesting to see how minor god Kama was so commonly seen in the community, frequenting the food stalls and bars.

Personally, I feel like the romance subplot bogs down the overall story and takes away from the cooking challenge. Cai could have easily had the same conflict between staying in the village she's always known and wanting to have the opportunities she could get from moving to the city without spending the entire novel unsure if she liked Bo or Seon more. I also think she chose the wrong partner, but that might just be me.

There could have been more depth to the characters, but I can overlook that given how interested I was in the food challenge.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Zando, and Sweet July Books in exchange for an honest review.

Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim follows Cai, a noodle chef, as she enters the Celestial Banquet, a cooking competition for the gods. The stakes are high, as winning the Celestial Banquet provides riches and immortality, while losing provides likely despair at the hands of the gods.

The Celestial Banquet had highs and lows for me.

I loved the concept of the Celestial Banquet. I’ve always been a fan of stories that include competition, and the Celestial Banquet provided that for me and did a great job. The competition did not take over the story, but was just one aspect of it. However, one other large part of the story was the love triangle in which Cai was attempting to decide between two love interests. I unfortunately found myself not caring about the romance side of this book.

I loved the descriptions of food throughout the book, and often found myself hungry while reading. I think this book would make an AMAZING movie, particularly animated.

The book felt a little too YA for me, particularly with the first person point of view, but that has more to do with me and my preferences. I think this would be a great read for upper middle school, however all ages can definitely enjoy it, I certainly did!

Thank you to Sweet July Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I picked up Celestial Banquet, the competition immediately reminded me of the video game Battle Chef Brigade. The stakes are high as these mortals join a deadly cooking competition to each win a peach of immortality (or worldly riches should they decide to sell it to a god). The competition was reminiscent of Battle Chef Brigade in that the chefs had to go hunt for their special ingredients, prep them, and then cook them as part of the competition. Much of what they could do was limited by what they brought back from the hunt. This added some danger to the competition, and I found this to be the most interesting part of the book and why I had picked it up in the first place.

What I found lacking in this book was character development, which led to other things falling flat, like the romance. Cai is a hungry chef, determined to make her dreams (and her father's dreams) come true, and she has worked hard to become one of the best noodle chefs in her region. However, if she'd spent her entire life waiting for this competition, I would've thought she'd spend every waking moment preparing for it. She knows she has to hunt down her ingredients, and yet she never learned to swim?? Coming from a peninsula??

I also found much of the character development to be shallow, especially for her love interests. With such high stakes, I really needed to care about these characters to feel something when they falter (or perish) and yet I knew nothing, really, about one of the main love interests at the point when something happens to him. So, I didn't really care. The emotional beats just weren't there for me. Even by the end, I didn't understand why everyone was so invested in this love triangle because both men had the depth of peeling wallpaper - looks pretty on the outside, but can't really tell what's underneath it.

The world building as a whole was very well done. I loved the inclusion of mythology and learning about the major and minor gods. I felt like their machinations also helped to drive the story, and I wish there had been more focus on them than the love triangle as I was still left with a lot of questions by the end.

All in all, this was a miss for me. Unless you're a huge fan of love triangles, I'd say skip this one.

TW: death, injury detail, mutilation, murder, violence; mentions death of a parent

Plot: 1.5/5
Characters: 1/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Writing: 3/5
Pacing: 3/5
Overall: 2/5

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Zando in exchange for an honest review.

it's more fun and lovelier than I thought!
I love the storyline and the main character. not sure about the romance, but i don't hate it either

I feel so disappointed. Coming from a romance lover, YA needs to accept that not every book needs romance, and this book is a prime example of that. The love triangle was so badly done and unnecessary, and I felt irritated every time the romance was brought up. It genuinely took away from the story. Maybe if it had been done better, it could have been interesting, but unfortunately, it was just really badly done. Besides the two love interests, all of the characters were compelling, and I loved learning about them and their stakes in the competition. The worldbuilding was pretty ok too, and I liked the bits of lore that were between each chapter. I feel like if this book had gone through more edits, more drafts, and had more time to be made, it genuinely would have been great. Unfortunately, this is what we ended up with.

Good pacing and plot points. Don't care about romance but I think that's a me thing. Wish it was a little more in depth, or maybe that there'd be a sequel about the war stuff, but not a deal breaker.

Loved this one. So much so that I will actually get a physical copy for myself once I've got some money to my name.

Celestial Banquet is a fast and fun-paced fantasy novel based on a cross between Asian mythology and any one of a number of competitive cooking shows. Cai is a teenage orphan, who lost her mother at birth and lost her father a relatively short time ago. Her goal is to win the Celestial Banquet - a cooking competition held every decade for the best cooks available, who cook for major gods, and compete for the Peaches of Immortality, which, beyond immortality (only available for minor gods), can provide the winner with anything they wish for. However, the competition is shrouded in mystery, as the gods blur or erase the memories of anyone involved, to hide the details from future competitors, to improve the competition. Details about the competition are thus vague, but it is known that death is a significant risk, balancing out the potential reward.

The parts of the plot dealing with the cooking competition were a solid five; however, the novel could use more of the Asian mythology, which felt like it was thrown in for scenery more than the significant part of the plot that it really was. It would also benefit from developing the relationships between the characters more - especially the romantic subplot that was a significant part of the plot, but which felt like it was added later rather than developed along with the story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this book avaiable on NetGalley and immediately thought it could be my cup of tea. I wasn't wrong at all.

I honestly don't know if, in the future, the author's gonna write a sequel to this book. I think it could be a good idea, but even if this will not happen, the book is also good as a standalone.

The vibes are a mix of Asian mythology, classic fantasy with the hero's journey to win a competition, and Master Chef's x Final Destination. All started calm and full of hope, but scene after scene the story darkened and very bad things happened.

We all know that in the stories Gods and Goddesses are cruel and almost always love to see humans struggle and suffer, and this book it's a great example of that.

I liked every character, the good ones and the bad ones, and all of them are well written and interesting. My favourites were: Kama, 'cause he's a Minor God but he loves his people and he's gentle and kind; Bo, because of his loyalty and because he deserved more; Tala, for her fierceness and sincerity.

There's romance in this story, too: Cai has to cook, survive and fulfill her dream while also struggle with her love problems, because both Seon (her crush) and Bo (her childhood friend) are aiming for her heart, attention and love. She made a cute pair with both, I think, but unfortunately in the end she didn't choose the one I hoped for.

Luck, Temperance and Indulgence, the three Major Gods that organized and judged the Celestial banquet, are ruthless and cunning. They really didn't hold back when they had to punish or curse some of the contestants.

Finally, the Empress. Well, what can I say? I hated her more than I hated the Gods. I'm hoping she fails in all her evil plans.

[Note: While there is some body horror in this book, due to some terrible cooking accidents, the book doesn’t linger on the moments. ]

I really do love deadly competitions in my media, so Celestial Banquet caught my eye immediately. When author Roselle Lim focuses on the competition, Celestial Banquet really shines. The descriptions of how Cai made all of the food were always interesting, and Lim gave enough detail I felt like I could envision what Cai was doing even if I wasn’t familiar with even some of the mundane ingredients. Cai’s ingenuity during the competition made her a fantastic underdog competitor, and each round felt like a genuine struggle and well-deserved placement. I was always impressed by Cai’s clever solutions and determination to fulfill her and her father’s dream.

There is a lot more going on in this book than the competition, and several of these plot threads do not have enough room to breathe. This largely impacts the characters—everyone except Cai and Kama did not have enough pages dedicated to them to become fully fleshed out. There were also two different political subplots that I very much wanted the book to explore that didn’t get much screen time at all. We also hardly got to know anyone from the other teams (except toward the end), which meant that the casualties along the way didn’t have significant emotional impact.

I also did not enjoy the love triangle. There truly wasn’t space for Bo or Seon to get enough depth that I could favor one or the other. And their repeated pushing to make Cai choose between them was frustrating. I was with Cai on this—she’s in the middle of a deadly competition, can we shelve the romance, please? By the end, I was so annoyed, I wanted Cai to cut them both loose so she could focus.

That said, there are very solid scenes and fascinating pieces of worldbuilding in here that I think the book is still worth sticking on your TBR list if the premise speaks to you. The gods Cai cooked for where entertainingly horrifying and unsettling, and they really upped the stakes with their trials and curses. I would have loved even more complicated trials or a longer competition overall, honestly. I’m certainly interested in checking out future works by Lim.

Recommendation: Borrow it someday, if deadly magical cooking competitions are your thing. Celestial Banquet has an interesting premise that gets watered down by too many complications in the allotted pages. The best parts of the book center on Cai’s deadly cooking competition and her ingenuity. The love triangle, unfortunately, is its weakest plot thread.

I recieved this in exchange for an honest review, thanks to NetGalley.

The descriptions of the food, clothing, setting are absolutely amazing. The food descriptions left me salivating; the descriptions of the gods appearances and their clothing was so magical and so easy to imagine in my head; the architecture and the buildings were describe so well and it was easy to picture in my mind. I really, really enjoyed these parts of the book and they are definitely the strongest parts. I could read a whole nother book of Lim just describing food and clothing - she is really talented here.

This is the third book recently that has involved a cooking competition, similar to The Great British Bake-Off, and it is clearly a trope/setting/idea I am loving. I really enjoyed reading about the competition in this novel, just like I have in the other books.

However, and it is a big however, this story is VERY weak in the emotional, romantic, and conclusion departments.
Emotional - the story has a few very shocking and sad very sad moments but they happen and we move on in about two sentences. There is literally no build up, the description is not there, and it's rushed. For example; there was an explosive, this person died, that's really bad. Oh well, but back to cooking. Done.

Romance - I absolutely hated the romance and the love triangle in this. It made no sense, it was stupid, and the conclusion to it was absolutely ridiculous and lacklustre. Again, there was absolutely no build up to the romance or feelings. Also, if the main character hadn't liked them, there would've been sexual harrassment multiple times, but because she's into the person/people, it's fine. I'm sorry but the romance pissed me off. It felt almost fake because of how poorly written it was; I was seriously expecting an A-HA! moment from one, if not both, of the love interests because I could not believe the romantic feelings were actually happening. I was genuinely waiting for a "silly girl, you've been manipulated all this time" or some ulterior motive to be revealed towards the end. This was Lim's weakest area in my opinion. It gave me the ick multiple times and made me cringe. Both love interests and the romance itself were not written well.

Conclusion - The conclusion was very rushed, again no build-up or tension towards the finale of competition; it was literally revealed, again, within about two sentences and it was over. And then the actually ending was so bad. If there is a sequel, then I'll forgive the very end. But where were end was just genuinely rushed and not a happy ending for any of our main characters in my opinion.

Celestial Banquet is set in a world inspired by Chinese and Southeast Asian folklore.

But the star of Celestial Banquet is the food. It’s clear that author Roselle Lim is a fan of cooking. No one could write about composing dishes the way she does if they didn’t like creating in the kitchen. These are the places where Lim’s writing is most assured, almost poetical.

That’s not to say that there aren’t other strong elements. The trials are exciting and engaging. There’s action and problem-solving and teamwork there.

Where the plot kind of stumbles is the love triangle, which sometimes feels forced and a little unnecessary. Lim’s ending also breaks with the rest of the book, feeling too fast and a little disjointed.

The Celestial Banquet is the first book in a planned series, and I can’t help but wonder if the kitchen magic will be there. Fingers crossed. I look forward to the next book.

Battle Chef Brigade that took me by surprise on some parts and hungry for the majority of it. It feels very fairy-taley and plays out like an animated series in my head. Worth a read.

Hunger Games meets Iron Chef in this YA fantasy novel. Sadly, the only strong element of the Hunger Games I got from this book was the annoying love triangle 😅

Let me back up though. The premise of this is good. I was interested in exploring more of the amalgamation of all Asian cultures into one fantasy land, as well as the melting pot (hehe) of their cuisines. The book jumps right into the main plot and the pacing moves pretty fast throughout the book.

Almost too fast though. I feel like a lot was skimmed over. Especially the cooking aspect, it seemed glossed over when it was basically the main plot of the book: cooking for the gods. There could have been greater world-building in this novel for the ending to really pack a punch. As things were tying up towards the end, it seemed like a lot of things were an after-thought. The author could have really dug into the brutality of the Hunger Games-like competition. But each trial felt a little too fast and not explored enough with its after effects and other contestants.

This fast pacing also affected the characters because they came across quite flat to me. There was an opportunity to have a fun found family aspect, but I wasn’t getting it. The roles everyone took on were too cliche: ambitious female main character who doesn’t know how to hold her temper, suddenly-a-man-childhood best friend (aka potential love interest #1), classically handsome, popular rich guy (aka potential love interest #2), a foil to the FMC and a comic relief. Though I will admit the character of Kama was endearing and my favourite part of the whole book.

The FMC also had way too many cliched lines that they were saying. But I’m reeeeally hoping that it was just the ARC I read that made it feel messy. The basic bones of the book is actually quite good and the ending left an impression as well. The author is also an exceptional writer. There was so much potential for this to be really good.

Thank-you to NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC and ALC!

This is an interesting book. I love the idea of a cooking competition between the gods and humans. I was really invested in the book the first third, the second two thirds I feel like I became less invested. Cai’s character was well developed and I was truly enjoying her journey until the love triangle came into play. Bo I can see as a suiter but Seon just didn’t feel right, and Cai trying to pick between to two didn’t really add to the competition. Maybe if the love triangle had been taken out, I would have enjoyed the book. Or if the love triangle seemed more realistic. Both boys just seemed like they were pushed into confessing to Cai that they wanted to be with her. I did enjoy everything else about this book, from Cai’s ingenuity when it came to making dishes, and to her interactions with the various gods.
Thank you so much to Zando and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

3.25 ⭐ - 🥗⚔ A cozy foodie fantasy with deadly celestial trials! I loved the concept of a celestial cooking competition, and the characters were great fun. The food descriptions throughout the book were rich and delightful. I loved the scrolls at the starting of each chapter, capturing a facet of the history/lore of the world - it was an interesting and vibrant setting that felt quite fresh. I always find the culture, concepts and magic in eastern-inspired fantasy books to be quite creative.

I was quite happy to get both the e-arc and audiobook for this story through NetGalley.

🎧 Audiobook Rating: 4.25 ⭐
Narrated by Natalie Naudus (Dreamscape Media)
The narrator's voice is rich and earthy. I found her tone to be quite comforting and expressive - the voices for all the characters were done really well, especially the male characters. And I have to say, I absolutely LOVED it when she sang in a chapter towards the end! I added a 0.25 to the rating purely on account of that. This is a rare instance where listening to the audiobook actually enhanced my enjoyment of the story, and made it feel more cozy and fun. I'm now curious to know whether she has released any songs! 😋

What didn't work for me:
The back and forth romance with two love interests - Cai was simply too young and indecisive! I think this story could have done without such an emphasis on the romance, because there was a lot of fun potential for the world and setting to be explored better. Critical events in the story were overtaken and overshadowed by conversations around her romantic life, which felt silly or cheesy at times. Also, everyone in the story from the Gods to competitors to friends, were invested in which of the two love interests she would pick. 😂 Somehow, because of the audiobook and other positive elements of the story, I found it dramatically funny for the most part. (Otherwise there are far too many books I have dnf'ed on account of getting annoyed by such things 😋 )

Overall, this was an enjoyable cozy read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complementary e-arc and audiobook of this story. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This was such a cosy debut, and the premise felt very unique. The characters were well-developed, which I appreciated, as Cai was fun to read. However, I wish there had been more depth to the lore? The whole idea is so unique that I would have loved to read a bit more about the gods. The romance was nice, even if a bit lacklustre, but overall, this was a fun book!

Many thanks to Zando / Sweet July Books for the ARC of this one, which is billed as Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games. This one is out today, June 3rd.

The premise of this book is incredibly fun. I love the concept of a cooking competition for the gods, and how they were portrayed as fickle and careless. There were so many delicious food descriptions to enjoy throughout the pages, as Cai prepared her dishes before and during the competition.

The pacing is quick, keeping you engaged as events fly by. I like that the book really immerses us in the contest, unlike some books that fade to black during the actual cooking part of these competitions. Part of what keeps the book going at a fair clip are the little interludes from history and myth between each chapter. These really added to the flavor of the book and fleshed out the worldbuilding in a way that I liked. Learning a bit more about the minor and major gods through these myths complicated them in interesting ways.

I love a YA love triangle as much as the next person, but the love story in this one felt a little underdeveloped. We keep being told that Cai cares for these boys, but I didn’t feel we really got to see that on the page for the most part. I love to root for someone in a love triangle, but I didn’t really have enough to go off of either way. Obviously, the cooking competition setup didn’t allow much time for lingering glances and long conversation, but a bit more setup beforehand or perhaps strategic flashbacks or reflection could have helped those relationships feel more fleshed out.

In all, Celestial Banquet delivers a nice, hearty meal of a YA novel. The pacing is solid, the descriptions and worldbuilding are spot-on, and the characters are compelling enough to keep you wanting to learn more. I do wish there was a bit more to make the love triangle feel like something other than an afterthought, as it didn’t quite feel fully formed. Even so, I highly recommend Celestial Banquet to anyone who loves a solid YA dystopia and/or cooking competition novel.