Book Review: Love à la Mode
Main Genre: Romance
Synopsis: Take two American teen chefs, add one heaping cup of Paris, toss in a pinch of romance, and stir. . . .
Rosie Radeke firmly believes that happiness can be found at the bottom of a mixing bowl. But she never expected that she, a random nobody from East Liberty, Ohio, would be accepted to celebrity chef Denis Laurent's school in Paris, the most prestigious cooking program for teens in the entire world. Life in Paris, however, isn't all cream puffs and crepes. Faced with a challenging curriculum and a nightmare professor, Rosie begins to doubt her dishes.
Henry Yi grew up in his dad's restaurant in Chicago, and his lifelong love affair with food landed him a coveted spot in Chef Laurent's school. He quickly connects with Rosie, but academic pressure from home and his jealousy over Rosie's growing friendship with gorgeous bad-boy baker Bodie Tal makes Henry lash out and push his dream girl away.
Desperate to prove themselves, Rosie and Henry cook like never before while sparks fly between them. But as they reach their breaking points, they wonder whether they have what it takes to become real chefs.
Perfect for lovers of Chopped Teen Tournament and Kids Baking Championship, as well as anyone who dreams of a romantic trip to France, Love la Mode follows Rosie and Henry as they fall in love with food, with Paris, and ultimately, with each other.
Review:
Rosie wants to be a pastry chef, but she decided to attend this cooking school in Paris because it’s held by a very famous chef. She knows this would be a great opportunity for her, even though she doesn’t focus too much on cooking in general and more on pastries. She decided to go even though she was a bit hesitant. Henry aspires to become a great chef and own a restaurant of his own like his father, but his mom isn’t as on board with the idea. She wants him to study hard and go to college. Even when he gets to the cooking school in Paris, his mom makes sure he’s taking accelerated classes and getting all A’s on his report card which is a burden on Henry.
I really enjoyed the cooking and baking aspects of this story. I love food and baking myself so reading about all of that was very interesting and fun. I also loved watching Master Chef when I was younger, and this book definitely gave off Master Chef vibes at multiple points throughout the book. The setting was also in Paris which was lovely. Especially because the book included descriptions of places in Paris and some history as well. The descriptions of food and deserts were really good and made me want to try everything.
The plot of the book was fine. It wasn’t extremely fast-paced or intriguing, but it wasn’t super slow either. I wasn’t itching to read this book but would pick it up because it was a nice easy read. I did enjoy the different cooking challenges they were required to do and how Henry and Rosie would go to bakeries and try out different desserts. The friendship bonds between Henry and Rosie’s friend group was delightful. There was a great mix of personalities and diversity. I want to emphasize the diversity aspect. The author did a fabulous job with including a wide range of diversities, I was actually impressed. I haven’t seen this amount of diversity in one book in a while.
I related to Henry’s inner thoughts a lot, but in general his character was kind of annoying. He was real, sure, but there wasn’t a lot of development that took place. First of all, love at first sight isn’t something I believe in. Keeping this in mind, Henry fell in love with Rosie as soon as he met her on the plane. I think the author was trying to make it seem like it was her energy because of how they met, though, quite honestly, she just appeared immature. Even though her first impression wasn’t that good (on me), her character did become better as the book went on. She showed perseverance as she struggled to figure out how to master some cooking skills as she was more of a pastry chef. I appreciated how she made sure she was going to impress the strict chef and make sure not to get kicked out from the school. Overall, her character was pretty good.
Back to Henry, after he fell in love with Rosie, he couldn’t stop comparing different aspects of her as food which became annoying after a while. Like yes, we get it Henry, you love food, and you love her because she reminds you of food. He was also really bad at communicating which caused tons of problems and it was never really confirmed whether he got better at that in the end of the book. He was also really stubborn, especially with not wanting to understand his mother’s view of things when in reality, she just wanted the best for him. It was only when his father (who he idolizes) talked to him about extra studies and helped him see what his mom really wanted for him. Henry was funny and a good friend, though, and he wasn’t a bad person. Those were just things that stood out to me throughout the book.
The romance was okay. The two characters went together well, there was a love triangle with another famous pastry chef named Brady. I did think Rosie and Brady would’ve been a good match as well, but I would’ve definitely felt bad for Henry if she ended up choosing him (I know this may seem like a spoiler, but c’mon how could she not end up with Henry. He was a pov in this book, that would’ve been impossible. Plus, she was only conflicted between the two for like a chapter or two, she expressed liking Henry in her pov often). They kind of balanced each other out with their pros and cons so they seemed like a fine match to me. I didn’t feel a lot of tension and didn’t really root for them. Though I didn’t have a problem with them. Henry’s efforts were very sweet, I’ve got to say. Henry liked Rosie’s quirks; Rosie liked Henry’s quirks. It all worked out in the end.
This book was dual pov. We get to see Rosie’s and Henry’s thoughts. I love dual pov’s, we get to see both sides of the story. It can also be frustrating, though, when things aren’t expressed properly. Rosie was seen struggling but trying her best which was nice to see. We can also hear her worries and her longing to go home at times which gave her more dimension. Hearing how much Henry liked Rosie was cute and sweet. Sure, he really didn’t show a reason for suddenly liking her out of nowhere but, nonetheless, his commitment to her and impressing her was admirable. A big problem I had with the writing in these povs was that it was quite cringy, especially in the beginning. It wasn’t even cute cringy, just cringy. I was debating whether to even continue the book because I didn’t know whether I’d enjoy it but, thankfully, the rest of it was fine.
Overall, I would recommend this book to young teens and not really regular ya readers. If you really like food, cooking shows, desserts, then I think you could still enjoy this book after you get past the first few chapters of the books.
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