Celestial Banquet is an immersive, vibrant tale full of heart, heat, and high-stakes culinary chaos. Cai is a fierce, determined heroine who leaps off the page (and into your heart) as she fights not just for glory, but for her family and hometown. The worldbuilding is rich with Chinese and Southeast Asian influences, blending myth, magic, and food in the most delicious way possible. Every trial feels epic, emotional, and creative—think magical sea serpents, legendary ingredients, and gods who are as dangerous as they are divine. I loved the exploration of identity, loyalty, and the bittersweet power of dreams. A must-listen for fans of food fantasy, fierce girls, and mythical adventure.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#CelestialBanquet #NetGalley #YAFantasy #FoodFantasy #RoselleLim

Audiobook Rating: 4.25 ⭐
Narrated by Natalie Naudus (Dreamscape Media)
Review: 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! 😋

Book Rating: 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.

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 as an audiobook, and I had fun with it.

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

Celestial Banquet is a delicious, riveting YA fantasy with scrumptious food descriptions, tender romance, and a strong main character that hooked me from the first page.

'Celestial Banquet' is a young adult culinary fantasy.

First of all, the audiobook was enjoyable, with the narrator doing an amazing job of expressing excitement and interest. The production of the audiobook was also fairly well.

As for the story, the plot is unique but also feels familiar, with the quests being interesting and entertaining, and the food descriptions enjoyable. It was, in addition, filled with many details, like the story of the peninsula and the empress, as well as the whole mythology of the gods.

On the other hand, the romance was a big letdown. It didn't vibe well with the story, as the characters were supposedly trying to survive while coming up with interesting recipes for the gods, so the kisses and the romantic scenes were awkward and didn't make sense at the time that they were taking place. Furthermore, it was eye rolling how the love triangle was so intense and how everyone was interested in it, even outsiders.

The ending, final, was rushed.

This review is also posted on Goodreads and Storygraph

Actual rating 4.5

I’ve seen Roselle Lim’s books, but this is my first time reading one, and what an intro to her writing! This is such a good story with fantastic world building and so many delicious food descriptions. I love Cai and her love of food and the way it connects her to her Baba, even after his death. I also love the gods and their stories. One of my favorite elements of the book was definitely the excerpts from scrolls; it is one of my favorite ways to see world development and get to know more information. This wasn’t a terrible love triangle romance, though I don’t know how I feel about the conclusion. I think this may be a prime example of a time where polyamory should be the answer lol. But still, it was a very interesting story, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more in this world. Natalie Naudus is cementing herself as one of my favorite narrators, and when she sang, that just elevated the audio experience!

Read: May 27th - June 1st
Format: E-Book
Rating: No rating, DNF-ed @ 50

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this listening ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to try to finish this book. It's only about 7 hours, and I was at 50%, but that entire 50%, the book felt like a 2-star read to me, and I couldn't imagine the next half getting any better.

I don't know exactly where to pin my issues. Maybe the fact it's so quick paced? The plot had to keep moving forward, so I never really learned who anyone was in this book, but also, there's this focus on a love-triangle, so it feels like I should know the people involved more? Yet I don't. I only know the role they fulfill, nothing more. And there's so many names, which makes sense in this sort of situation, but some of those names should have weight, you know? Instead they feel like fodder for people to lose.

The only character I really cared about was Kama. I always love gods that don't let godhood make them lose their humanity and genuinely care about the people they're patron over.

The cooking scenes, which was what drew me in because godly cooking competition sounds awesome, were at least pretty decent. I think they'd have worked better for me if not for the other issue: the writing felt juvenile. And yes, I know this is a YA book, but I don't think YA book means the writing has to feel so young. Books can still be fast paced, teenage accessible, and all that without feeling as weightless as the writing in this did. That lack of meat and weight to the writing is what I think made it come across as juvenile.

Others seemed to really like this book, so it may just be a me thing. As always, I hope people can pick this up and love it because all books deserve someone to love them. I just am not the right person in this case.

An oriental fantasy deadly cooking competition???!!! Yes please!!! This was a very unique read. The story and characters were great. Love triangle, against all odds competition, spiteful and vengeful gods. What’s not to love? This was a great debut and the narrator being Natalie Naudus made it feel like this was part of the world of Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Perfect for fans of Sue Lynn Tann & Molly X Chang.

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.