Some of my favorite series are the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries and the Once Upon a Broken Heart universe. So for me, this book is a magical mix of both. The love triangle! The delicious dishes and completion! The atmosphere! The Gods!

Cai is a lovable character and is written in such a perfect way where you root for her and those she brings into her orbit. Which makes the love triangle that much better. I loved all the supporting characters and the dialogue had me laughing out loud at times. I loved the ending and hope to see more of Cai, Bo, Seon, and Kama.

The best thing about this was the food. I don't watch cooking shows, but I really enjoyed the descriptions of food and some aspects of the challenges. I also like the concept of humans having to deal with the power struggles between minor and major gods.

The worst thing about this was the love triangle. I personally hate love triangles (which is a real hindrance to my enjoyment of YA fantasy in general, to be honest), but this one felt especially pointless. I said "OH COME ON" out loud at least four times because the characters kept getting hung up on the romance when they should have been focusing on the life-threatening challenges. It felt so unnecessary and unconvincing.

On top of that, Cai was a bit of a nothing character, and I never felt like she surprised or impressed me in the challenges. I would have liked to see her come up with some ingenious solutions along the way.

I didn't think this was bad, but it wasn't for me. That said, Natalie Naudus is one of my favourite narrators, so I still had a perfectly pleasant reading experience despite not being very into the story.

Thank you Dreamscape Select, Sweet July Books, and NetGalley for the advanced electronic audio review copy of this book. I really enjoyed this interesting book based on Chinese and Asian folklore. Loved the premise — cooking competition for the gods. The plot is fast moving and the characters are well- developed. A great debut novel for a new author.

Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim

YA Fantasy Debut
6 hours 44 minutes
Read by Natalie Naudus

Once every generation, the Major Gods hold a Celestial Banquet, inviting chefs from all over the Continent to prepare mouthwatering fantastical feasts. The winner is awarded the fabled Peaches of Immortality, along with a lifetime of fame and fortune. The losers perish per the whims of the fickle gods.

Cai enters into the competition under the guidance of minor god Kama and teammates Seon & Tala. What follows is Hunger Games meets Iron Chef.

I love a good cooking competition in a book and this had a very unique spin on one.

I really hope there’s a hook 2 because the whole thing with the empress is left unresolved.

I feel really bad when I rate lower than a 3 but unfortunately this book in my opinion needs some polishing. While I get tired of every book having to be 800 pages long this one felt more like a novella and needed a bit more substance. If this had been marketed as a cozy foodie story then I wouldn’t have expected a bit more. Everything felt rushed and the characters didn’t have enough time to show us a lot of depth. It didn’t feel as high stakes as I know it was supposed to be. I think many will read this and enjoy it but if there is a second book I wouldn’t be interested in picking it up unfortunately.

Celestial Banquet is a fun, quick read with a fun premise rooted in Asian mythology. Cai is a chef with aspirations of owning her own restaurant, but the opportunity to participate in a competition to feed the gods. While this feels like a shorter story, each chapter opens with a scroll that provides world context, which helps enhance the plot of the story without bogging it down.

While the romantic subplot is usually one of my favorite parts of fantasy, I felt like it was a little unnecessary in this story, especially considering how short it felt. (I'm not sure if it was the audiobook that made it feel shorter, but apparently it is 320 physical pages, so it is actually not particularly short for the genre). I didn't care who she ended up with out of the two boys, I was more looking forward to seeing how the competition would go. Without this element, the characters felt well-developed and were easy to root for.

Celestial Banquet has the set up for a great story! Meddling gods (my favorite trope) hosting a competition for teams to gather ingredients and cook meals for the gods in hopes to win a big prize. The food written in this story was delicious and I loved the added element of fantasy with magical ingredients. There is a bit of a love triangle that takes a rather large focus of this story which wasn't all bad, but certainly felt ill timed due to some of the challenges we were in the middle of. As much as I liked getting to know these characters on their journey, a lot of the development felt rushed. This either needed to be longer or split into a duology. Sadly, with the pacing off at times or getting annoyed with these boys timing at least, I really struggled with feeling the stakes were actually high. A lot goes on, this is quick paced and entertaining. When bad things happen to side characters it sucks but I knew nothing truly bad would ever happen to the main characters, especially when death has no meaning it makes it feel cheap. This is a perfectly fine young adult fantasy with a focus on the romance, at times you may wish to roll your eyes but the overall premise keeps your attention and with this being a shorter book it's a quick palette cleanser in between those more hard hitting stories. Also, the narrator is one I've listened to a few times this year and I really enjoy Natalie Naudus' voice.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Listening Copy (ALC)

This was so cozy despite the life and death challenges, it had the same flavor as delicious in dungeon. From the love to the trials. It was such a fun story.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a copy to review!

A charming story that will make you hungry. I liked the idea and the worldbuilding, but felt that the characters needed more developing. I also would have loved to learn more about the other minor gods and the areas they govern.

Celestial Banquet was unfortunately a bit of a miss for me. I thought the premise held a lot of potential for something fun but many aspects of the story didn't feel fully fleshed out. Most notably the characters and the love triangle. The world was interesting though I wish we could have gotten a bit more of the lore. As I read the audiobook version, I will say that the narrator did a fantastic job in keeping my interest!

Thank you netgalley and dreamscape media for the audiobook. Roselle Lim is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. A combination of iron chef and Hinger Games. Where people enter a deadly cooking competition for the Gods. She’s a hot headed chef going up against an all male competition. She slowly is falling for one of her competitors and her cooking partner.

First and foremost, I like to think NetGalley & Dreamscape for the amazing opportunity to listen to ARC audio copy of this book. I am forever thankful and my review is an honest reflection of my feelings towards this book..
I think on my favorite thing about this book was that it was something unique and a fresh experience that I feel like I needed. I think describing it as a combination between the hunger games and Iron Chef was a perfect description.
We meet Cai, a hothead. I’m very opinionated chef that enters a competition where once a generation the major gods hold the celestial banquet. Inviting chefs across the continent to prepare magnificent feasts in the hopes of winning the fabled Peaches of Immortality. While the ones that lose perish at the whims of fickle gods
Following Cai on her journey through this competition of dodging unforeseen obstacles and gods who would love more than nothing for her to fail was a journey well, also, discovering that she was being poor between two men that I couldn’t help but get wrapped up into. The narrator. Natalie Naudus, was the perfect choice to bring this book and Cai to life.
I honestly would recommend this book to anyone who loves high stake competitions, engaging storytelling, and the beginnings to possible series that were for sure become a fan favorite.
Absolutely if five star read that I can’t wait to see me where the story goes

This was a super fun YA cozy romantasy that had a baking competition element with life or death consequences. There was also a love triangle and it was just an overall entertaining experience especially as an audiobook narrated by Natalie Naudus - my very fav! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review! Recommended for fans of books like The heartbreak bakery by A. R. Capetta.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute and quick read. Every 10 years, the Gods hold a banquet, which involves a competition between lesser gods and the best cooks they choose in the kingdom to win a peach of immortality. The concept was very unique and fascinating, and the book was done well. However, I feel that more regarding the lore and gods could have been elaborated on. The world building was good, though, and you did feel immersed in the story and world.

The characters were very interesting and well developed. I thought that the romance subplot needed some serious work though as it almost felt like an afterthought and was not well developed. All in all, this was a cute, quick read and for the author's debut book it was good! I am definitely interested in reading anything else this author comes out with.

This book had so much promise, it just doesn’t read like it was finished yet. Typically when you read an ARC you give some grace knowing that the draft you’re reading can be revised several times before publication but when it’s the audio ALC you know so it’s the final draft to be published.

I got drawn on with the description of a noodle chef with a high stakes competition but in a fantasy world! How great is that! And I’ll say that the food descriptions were incredible. You could almost taste everything the author detailed! For that alone it made the book enjoyable.

On the other hand, there was a lot of tell and no show. The plot suffered as it feels like it’s not finished. An outline if you will. There is also a “romance” which seems like an idea that was thrown in but not actually developed.

With all that being said, the narrator Natalie Naudus did a fabulous job with her vocals. The production as a while was very good and probably made it more enjoyable to tread than if I had the eARC.

So do I recommend it? Sure. It’s a quick read at only 6.5 hours at the 1x speed so you can get it done in just over 3 hours at 2x which is easily understandable at that speed. Just don’t read when you’re hungry!


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Dreamscape Select through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

First, thanks so much to the publisher for the opportunity to review this e-Book and the audiobook for this book. Both were remarkable as far as a debut novel is concerned. I am really excited to read the rest of this series. The explanation of cooking show meets hunger games is absolutely correct and it is incredible. The one issue I had is the love triangle. First of all, the FMC is wildly naive and the whole ingenue thing doesn’t work super well. Additionally, the audiobook narrator sounds significantly older than Cai and it undercuts the young ingenue thing in a way that takes you out of the narrative. Lastly, she chose the wrong guy so hopefully she will pick again in the next book! lol!

Okay, love the narrator for this audiobook! I have listened to other books narrated by Natalie Naudus and she does a phenomenal job in bringing the characters and worlds to life. I ended up really liking most of this book because of her.

The parts I liked were Cai and her plan to make it to the Celestial Banquet by convincing minor god Kama to participate so she could fulfill her father's wish and also help out the peninsula which keeps being attacked by the awful Empress. The trials to get the special ingredients for each dish to be judged were cool and how though it is not like the Hunger Games in that the participants volunteered, you still get some cool deaths from not being prepared properly to make the dish. Also, there are interesting tidbits about the history of Kama that I found intriguing, and the secret princess. Those I could see being expanded in future books that I would like to read. Plus the cooking of the dishes which were cool especially since the chefs needed to be very careful or risk maybe having acid eat through your hands! I also enjoyed the excerpts from scrolls at the beginning of every chapter which helped give depth to this intriguing world.

Now what I did not like and was definitely not needed: a stupid love triangle! I mean, it was not the time for Cai to choose between Bo and Seon while trying to cook the dishes to impress the major gods and not end up cursed or killed! Those scenes were very irritating and had me telling them to shut up and let Cai concentrate! The only other thing that was odd was that the ending seemed incomplete. I am hoping that means there will be another book with more meat. I would read or listen to that.

So, great narrator and pretty good story that went by really fast and was mostly enjoyable (except the Bo and Seon showdown) and so five stars for the narrator and 3 1/2 for the story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to this entertaining audiobook.

My mouth is watering, the food descriptions in this book were so good! I live for watching cooking competitions but I have never read one. This did not disappoint, I had so much fun! In Celestial Banquet we follow Cai a young noddle chef who joins a cutthroat cooking competition to feed the gods to win immortal peach’s and fulfill her and her father’s dream of owning a restaurant. The challenges kept me on my toes. The pacing was engaging. The romance subplot a was fun, I love a love triangle. I enjoyed the folklore elements. If you like cooking shows or are just looking for a quick fun YA read I highly recommend picking this one up.

A cooking competition called the Celestial Feast, a competition from the gods. Where you must kill your meat and try to stay alive.

Loved it! 4 stars

Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Select for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe I enjoyed this way more than I should’ve ’cause I watch similar animes. It gave Food Wars, but like Toriko vibes ☠️ Definitely deadly games & trials w/ cooking, iykyk. It’s more so God of Cookery than Iron Chef lmfao, but not sure if anyone remembers that movie to reference it 🤣

All the characters were enjoyable & I loved the premise of it all- Definitely could’ve worked on the romance a bit w/ the chemistry (the MMCs both lowkey gave me the ick), but that would be the last thing on my mind in a competition- ESPECIALLY if I’m cooking, pls get outta my way lmfaoo.
(I hate people in the kitchen when I’m cooking ☠️)

Overall, I thought this was so fun!! The twist at the end- Oh 😬 lmfaoo. Did this make me hungry? Yes. Did I end up eating a bunch of food while listening to this? Also, yes lol. I love that Ayesha Curry also reviewed this ‘cause ok Bay Area!! 👏🏽
Natalie Naudus did an amazing job narrating!!