Readability: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Recommend: No

Ever since Lumi was a child, she has been able to taste the emotions people felt while cooking. and as a result, Lumi's taste for food has only refined. Lumi’s ventures as a restaurant owner have not gone the way she expected. Needing a new job, she applies for a position as a sous chef at DAX, not realizing that it was a restaurant owned by someone who had insulted her cooking a few weeks ago. Although intent on not tasting Julien’s food, Lumi can’t help but sneak a taste and reconsider her feelings about Julien.

I thought this was gonna be a cute, contemporary romance, and at first, it was, but then things got a little off. I read this in one sitting with the physical book and an audiobook, but if I only had the physical copy (an ARC from the Goodreads giveaway) I would not have finished this in one sitting.

The first really weird thing that made me feel off of the story was Lumi’s food synesthesia. As a concept, it can be cool or interesting, but in practice, it’s a little odd and weird. Maybe it’s just how it was written, but it really didn’t work. Not only that, but the synesthesia only really came up in two or three key moments, rather than being present in the whole book. It felt like it was written in to force a couple of plot points.

If you know me, you know that I really don’t like insta-love, and the progression of Julien and Lumi’s relationship was incredibly rushed and abrupt.

The engagement/marriage at the end was the nail in the coffin that made me not like how fast-paced this relationship was.

Getting both perspectives of the relationship didn’t help, it made Julien really unlikeable. The mutual feelings happening instantly felt unrealistic and really jarring. The way this book was written felt really amateur and unrealistic. Not only that, but the story went from being a cutesy romance to that of the romance commonly seen in New Adult or any Sarah J. Maas books (if you know what I mean). I'm not criticizing the genre/age group, mainly how the scenes and transitions were handled.

The imagery of Julien touching himself to the thought of Lumi, or the words like “velvety wetness” or “deepening his exploring” was a total 180 from the original way the story was written in the beginning. Or the fact that Lumi was burned by hot oil, but only on the face/arms, so Julien thought she would be okay with having sex with him only a little while later.

The shift was incredibly awkward and bazaar.

As for the two main characters, they seemed to be really in tune with each other's emotions and behaviorisms, but only to each other. Julien’s relationship to Esme was so awkward, how could he be so oblivious? It’s clear the author wanted Julien to be that broody chef that craves a true romance, but in reality, he was more of a sex-crazed fool.

I really didn’t like any of the characters in this book, and I guess that is why I really didn’t root for the romance between Julien and Lumi. Especially at the parts where Julien interacted with his friends and family, the conversations were awkward and amateur.

Things in this book felt a little too perfect and scripted.

Like when Lumi’s mother revealed that her father hadn’t abandoned them. Suddenly, Lumi finds it is okay to listen to her mother about relationships with men, but not about the fact that she disagreed with Lumi’s ventures as a chef. It’s not that she can’t agree or disagree with certain ideas her mother speaks about, but the fact that the one thing that she agrees with is centered around the rejected engagement that just occurred. Or like the part when Julien was talking with a friend and got distracted, and his friend automatically knew it was because of a woman.

The conversation between Esme and Lumi at the end of the book was so crazy.

For some reason they were blaming Esme for feeling bad about the fact that the guy she liked didn’t like her back, and accidentally hurting Lumi though a method no one knew anything about?! It was clearly unintentional, but Lumi thought about putting the blame on Esme over something she couldn’t control, and that rubbed me the wrong way. Or the fact that Esme was written to feel guilty about it?! It wasn’t her fault at all, and it was kinda weird that Julien had her mix part of the dessert anyway. The forced plot of Esme, synesthesia, and the oil burn was totally unnecessary, crazy, and stupid.

It’s also clear that Esme was set as a miniature villain for drama, instead, it was just petty and stupid.

Another part of the story that I didn't like was how forced the mentioning of sage was. It was weirdly placed and mentioned only at the end, or barely mentioned in the middle. I'm assuming that was the intention, since the book was titled "A Taste of Sage", but not only did it not make sense, since Lumi was able to detect it, even though it wasn't an emotion, but it kinda felt like it was just placed there for the sake of the title or as an obvious point for the two love interest to talk about.

(Honestly, this feels like a book I would’ve written in 9th grade. And yes, I cringe over and hate my own writing, so it’s not a compliment.)

ratings:
stars: 5/5
readability: 5/5
plot: 5/5
recommend: yes

overall:
i still love this book, it's just not as perfect as the first few times :)

liked:
- the fact that Hades was complaining about needing to expand and add more infrastructure. ummm, he's a literal god.
- Percy and his narration is godly :)

disliked:
- i wasn't that big of a fan of Sally Jackson, sorry not sorry
- the meeting with Hades was a bit anticlimactic

»»—————————————————————««

Readability: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Recommend: Yes

The Lightning Thief, the first of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, details the theft of Zeus' master lightning bolt. Percy and his friends embark on a quest to the Underworld, where they believe Hades has stolen the bolt. The trio faces many dangerous obstacles, many of which come disguised.

This was my second time reading this book and it is still amazing. Rick Riordan has to be one of my favorite writers and this book is a great introduction to Greek mythology (even though some aspects are manipulated to fit the plot). The Percy Jackson series is one of my all-time favorites and I can't wait to reread this series as well as the Heroes of Olympus series.

Readability: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Recommend: No

This memoir follows the life of Phyllis and her relationship with food and the world around her.

This was a surprisingly quick read. The "chapters" were around 1-3 pages each, so jumping from one chapter to another was really quick and easy. The thing with the small chapters is that, as we read, it speeds past all of the events and memories. I really didn't understand the purpose of this memoir, it's kind of just a brief summary of the author's life that really doesn't feel like it tackles or addresses any topic other than motherhood and her relationship with food.

On a different note, I really liked the writing/formatting style. It was both vague and interesting to me. There aren't many memoirs I can get through as easily as I did this one, and it is purely due to the writing style and formatting.

Overall, it was a quick read and not a bad one. The only reason I wouldn't recommend it is because I felt no connection to it and it lacked a central idea/story to me.

I appreciate the recipes at the back of this book, but there is probably a 10% chance of me ever revisiting this book to find a recipe.

The specific copy of this book I read was an ARC.

Readability: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Recommend: Yes

Animal Farm is an allegorical novel centered around a farm and its animals. In the story, the farm animals revolt against the previous norms and leaders on a farm. However, as time passes, the new leaders become more and more corrupt until everything that occurred in the revolt is reversed and the human leaders have now become animals, simply stating that the more things change, the less they change.

I read this book twice, and even though it was less enjoyable the second time, it is still a great classic.

Ratings:
Stars: 2/5
Readability: 1/5
Plot: 2/5
Recommend: No

Summary:
Following the death of her family due to cholera, Mary goes to live with her uncle. All alone in her uncle's mansion, Mary spends time in the gardens, where she discovers a magical secret.

What I Liked:
There were occasional points where it was a bit humorous, but they were few and far between.

Mary's relationship with Colin and Dickon was nice.

What I Didn't Like:
Mary was very annoying. She was just as spoiled as Colin, but she thought herself better. She isn't.

Overall:
I honestly don't know why I thought this would be an easy book to get through. I guess I really didn't realize how similar it would be to the old classics, I thought it would be more modern and easier to get through.

Readability: 1/5
Plot: 2/5
Recommend: No

Go Tell It on the Mountain details the history of a religious family after a life-threatening event.

There is a lot of great drama and different sides to people's backstories. However, it's not my type of book. It was way too boring and I only read all of it because it was an assignment.

Readability: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Recommendation: Yes

Frankenstein details the events Dr. Frankenstein faces after reanimating a person (and regretting it). Dr. Frankenstein's monster is set in a world that despises its existence, which causes him to hate and punish his creator.

This is a great book with a great story. This book deserves its title as a classic. It's original and does a great job at covering both Frankenstein’s and his monster's points of view.

Readability: 3/5
Plot: 1/5
Recommend: No

The book documents the knowledgable Morrie Schwartz as he suffers from ALS and is slowly dying. His former student, Mitch Albom, the author of the book, is at his house every Tuesday to speak on a topic, whether it is marriage, death, or forgiveness. This non-fiction story is packed full of quotes and things to live by.

Ah, “Tuesdays with Morrie.” I first read this book before my freshman year of high school and was quite unchanged. My friends and classmates, who also read the book, spoke of how it touched they were and how it made them sad or emotional. They spoke of the tears they had and how they had learned a valuable lesson on life and death. Me, on the other hand, tried to get meaning out of the story, however, failed as I felt it was boring and quite uneventful. I decided that I must have skimmed through the book too fast and missed the important parts, so I reread it before my senior year of high school. Again, I felt that “Tuesdays with Morrie” was not as great and insightful as others had perceived it to be. I felt that the book was trying too hard to be meaningful and insightful. It was boring and Albom used the death of an old man to sell a book. Sure, Morrie may have wanted his story to be out there, but this book simply fails to deliver. The need to find a reason or answer on how each person should live their lives is overwhelming. “Tuesdays with Morrie” will be meaningful to some, but to me, I have learned nothing and will not be recommending this book.

Readability: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Recommend: Yes

On Eddie's 83rd birthday, a tragic accident occurs at his workplace that causes him to die. Following his death, Eddie is confronted by five different people in his past in the afterlife. As each of the five people appears to Eddie, each of them teach him a lesson about his life on Earth and how they affected each other's lives.

I liked this more than I liked [b: Tuesdays with Morrie|6900|Tuesdays with Morrie|Mitch Albom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423763749l/6900._SY75_.jpg|1995335]. I do believe this book had a message in it about how each of us live individual lives that affect others, but the message in this book wasn't as pushed down our throats as the former. Secondly, I saw this as more detached from reality since no one really knows what happens after you die, thus not much of this book is based on truth or fact.

I honestly took no real, central message from this book. I rated this book higher than [b: Tuesdays with Morrie|6900|Tuesdays with Morrie|Mitch Albom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423763749l/6900._SY75_.jpg|1995335], simply because the message it was trying to push was less prominent and the writing style was easier to get through. If someone forced me to recommend a book from [a: Mitch Albom|2331|Mitch Albom|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1368640552p2/2331.jpg] I would recommend this book over [b: Tuesdays with Morrie|6900|Tuesdays with Morrie|Mitch Albom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423763749l/6900._SY75_.jpg|1995335] in a hearbeat.

Overall, it was a nice, shorter book that was easy to read and get me out of a six month reading slump.

Readability: 4/5
Plot: 1/5
Recommend: No

Pick Three documents how Randi Zuckerberg balances her life through five main categories: work, fitness, family, sleep, and friends.

The book contains 7 main sections: the introduction, the five categories, and worksheets/tips. As I was reading this book, I felt like most of what was the key points could be summed up in the first 10-30 pages (the introduction) and through the tips in specified boxes (or at the end); You need to pick three of the five categories every day to live an imbalanced (and therefore balanced) life. The rest of the book can be a little redundant and isn't necessary to practice Randi Zuckerberg's Pick Three mantra. The book is quite easy to get through if you really want to, I'd just recommend skimming it over rather than reading each and every word.