Book Blurb:
Lizzie Ly is determined to win when she's invited to compete on Sweet Heat―a reality cooking show where young cooks compete for a mentorship under world famous chef, Harrison Moss. Victory would mean finally fulfilling her culinary dreams and honoring her mother's memory.
But then Ethan Huang walks into the kitchen.
Lizzie never forgot when the arrogant foodstagrammer nearly destroyed her kitchen confidence with a harsh review, and now he’s her competition? Ethan, however, has plans of his own. He's ready to prove to his parents and the world that cooking isn’t just a hobby, it’s his future. And he’s not about to let Lizzie Ly stand in his way.
From collaborating on team challenges, enduring the show’s meddling producers, and one upping each other in their private late-night cookoffs, Lizzie and Ethan clash at every turn. But as the competition comes to a boiling point, they begin to realize that their rivalry might be the very thing pushing them to become their best selves…
Lizzie and Ethan are falling in love…but can they turn up the heat without getting burned?
Tropes:
*Netgalley ARC *Enemies --> more *Cooking reality show competition *young adult *just kisses
*Slow burn
Thoughts:
I picked this arc up from netgalley the blurb sounded cute and I liked the idea of a romance happening on a reality cooking competition (it could happen).
Lizzie (FMC) struggles with long term grief over the loss of her mother who shared her passion for cooking and cooking shows, she's wanted to be a chef for as long as she knows and she is well on her way working at a local Vietnamese restaurant owned by a family friend when one day popular food blogger Ethan comes in and tries her food... only he barely tastes it walks out and leaves a terrible review... how dare he!
Ethan (MMC) comes from a wealthy family and his father wants him to follow in his footsteps in the business world starting with going to an ivy league college, his father feels that he needs to let go of his cooking dreams, is highly unsupportive and cold. Ethan wants to prove to himself... but mostly his father that he's a really good... maybe even great chef and he got there on his own, being on this show is a great step towards that.
Sparks fly when Lizzie finds out that Ethan is also on the show... even worse he doesn't seem to remember her at all... of course not he's a popular influencer why would he remember her from a small restaurant in a small town?
I enjoyed that the contestants made many dishes that were meaningful to them, and were given lessons to help them along the way.
This book had cute moments but I felt that there was too much time spent introducing additional characters (that ended up getting voted off early... to the point where I don't remember all of their names) and the meals that were made for the show I expected some of this to be in the story but felt that a lot of that could have been glossed over for there to be more time for build up of characters that were a bigger part of the story.
Lizzie has been holding onto this grudge towards Ethan for a few years but since he doesn't remember what happened and she didn't tell him... he doesn't understand why she's so rude to him at times... kind of wanted her to just tell him already. I don't mind a slow burn, but this was kind of too slow like to the point where nothing was happening for ages... then her dislike of him was just dropped (finally) and got closer but by that point the book was almost over.
I liked that both of our lead characters had moments of growth and helped each other think of their future in different ways win or lose.
This was a story of finding friendship and love in unexpected places, the spirit of competition, going for what you want even if it's not what your parents want for you and learning that sometimes you need to let the past go to move towards your future.
Have you read this one? what did you think?
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