If you can grill it, smoke it, or fry it, Nora Henderson knows all about it. She’s been basting baby back ribs and pulling pork at her father’s barbeque joint since she was tall enough to reach the counter. When she’s accepted to Taste Test, a reality-television teen cooking competition, Nora can’t wait to leave her humble hometown behind, even if it means saying good-bye to her dad and her best friend, Billy. Once she’s on set, run-ins with her high-society roommate and the maddeningly handsome—not to mention talented—son of a famous chef, Christian Van Lorten, mean Nora must work even harder to prove herself. But as mysterious accidents plague the kitchen arena, protecting her heart from one annoyingly charming fellow contestant in particular becomes the least of her concerns. Someone is conducting real-life eliminations, and if Nora doesn’t figure out who, she could be next to get chopped for good.

With romance and intrigue as delectable as the winning recipes included in the story, this debut novel will be devoured by all.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I was pretty excited to read it, but was a little apprehensive, because it wasn’t the kind of book I generally read. But, I really enjoyed!

I absolutely loved the narrator. Nora seemed really shy, and unconfident at first, but through out the book she became really quick witted, and sarcastic, which was a really fun POV to read! I felt like she was a character who was easy to relate to, without her having some crazy dramatic backstory. She was just a girl, far away from home, really out of her element. It was nice to read about someone who wasn’t magically comfortable being away from home. Nora felt really out of place at first, and it was a refreshing change to have a female character who wasn’t always confident, but was definitely ‘strong’.

I also really enjoyed the cooking element. I was very unsure about it at first. I have no knowledge of cooking, so I figured I’d be uninterested. But I really wasn’t! I loved how unique the idea was, and how it made the story so interactive, by including the actual recipes!

I give Taste Test 4.5 out of 5 stars! I REALLY hope to see a sequel!

Maddie