I thought this was a lovely story! The main character is selected to participate in a televised food competition for teenagers, and the book takes us through her experiences - the relationships she forms with the other participants as well as the challenges in the competition. I enjoyed watching her progress, as well as learning her back-story which gets revealed in bits and pieces throughout the book.

I’m a little torn writing this review. On one hand, I enjoyed reading it. On the other, I think it could have been so much better. To begin, I LOVE the premise of this book. Small town girl with a troubled family past (Peyton) makes it into a reality culinary completion to have a shot at getting out and making something of herself. I love reality cooking competitions, so this had me interested immediately. Unfortunately, there was just so much that could have been improved.

The book jumps right in with the competition, and we’re given all this Peyton background. I think there was a missed chance to show the background and how Peyton even came to be on the show. I spent a lot of time wondering about her audition and where she even got the confidence to try out, and would have liked to have seen that.

Then, there’s the competition itself. The book started with a lot of detail, but then it completely fell off. It was almost like, “She cooked. She was judged. Someone went home and they moved on.” Just no real connection and way too much of an overview to be satisfying. I didn’t mind the other characters, and actually r was ply enjoyed some of them. They just weren’t fleshed out enough. There’s a reason why reality completions are lengthy, and this book could have taken a page from them with that. The ending was… okay. Everything fell into place, and I wasn’t mad at it.

I also want to talk about the writing. Please, close your dialogue quotation marks when your character stops speaking. It’s confusing as a reader to try to figure out if a character just said something or if it’s just back to the story. Cues like quotation marks and moving to the next line make for a more enjoyable reading experience. Additionally, this could use a good edit. There were several instances of extra words that made no sense being in sentences.

Overall, I did enjoy this read. It was cute and quick. It could benefit greatly from some editing and additional details being added.

This was a breezy and entertaining read. This book follows the story of Peyton Sinclaire from the small town of Florida, who wants to escape from her dreary job as a waitress in a small diner. She gets selected for a teen cooking reality show, Top Teen Chef which gives her a chance to maybe win it and attend the top culinary school of the country. But what are reality shows without some drama?

Peyton is a likable enough main character and you want to root for her in the competition. She does not want pity for her background and wants to be known for her cooking. The side characters seem to be underdeveloped and a little more backstory and depth to them would have made the reader feel more connected.
I really enjoyed reading the cooking challenges which were given to the contestants and I was excited to see what would Peyton come up with. Though what I did not like was how the cooking procedure which had been described in such great detail in the first few challenges seemed to be just brushed over in the second half of the book.
The friendships were the main highlight and I liked how they developed over the course of the book.
The drama sometimes seemed to be less and it could have been definitely jazzed up by adding subplots for the side characters because I think they were very underutilised. Subplots would have done wonders for this book. The romance was okay. The ending of the book was very realistic and satisfactory.
All in all this was a fun read and I would recommend you to give this one a read if you like some drama, romance and reality shows, which at the end of the day are not so real.

Peyton enters a cooking reality show for teens for a chance to win a scholarship to the culinary school of her choice, which she sees as her only chance to escape her small town and dysfunctional family.

As a huge fan of cooking shows, I was very excited to read this book but wasn't completely satisfied with it. Though the tasks in the competition were quite interesting and the author tries to introduce some drama and romance, the general feeling I had was that there was something missing to have me invested in the characters and the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-copy. All opinions are my own.

Sarah Schmitt’s Where There’s a Whisk is a cute young adult romance set against the backdrop of a TV cooking competition. Teenager Peyton Sinclair has a passion for baking and finds herself with a chance to show off her skills on Top Teen Chef. Competing may be her ticket out of her small town, whose lack of opportunity threatens to hold her back and looms over her every decision. Peyton heads to New York City where the city and her fellow competitors help her grow and change in ways she could never have dreamed.

Peyton’s fellow competitors Malik, Lola, Paulie, Adam, Hakulani, Dani and Inaaya come from all walks of life and, though there is a lack of character development across the board, particularly when it comes to Peyton’s competition, it is hard to hold that against the book. Where There’s a Whisk does not set out to be an expansive character study. Rather, it is a teen romance and Schmitt provides an adequate level of nuance. New York City became a character all its’ own and I relished the opportunity to live vicariously through Peyton, exploring the city for the first time.

As a Top Chef junkie, the behind the scenes glimpses of production city and the organization, logistics and responsibilities of the PA’s is fascinating are fascinating. The producer’s involvement is barely shy of outright manipulation and one must wonder about the validity and fairness in all cooking competition shows. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the book did make me question the integrity of Top Chef, one of my all time favorite shows.

All in all, Where There’s a Whisk is sugary sweet romance. Definitely worth a taste! Look for it this fall!

When I first saw this book, I knew I had to read it. Cooking shows and books are some of my favorite things and this book showed me that they go very well together.

I enjoyed all the different characters in the book. They were all very unique and easy to distinguish. I liked the character development in Peyton too. I liked the whole plot. It was very enjoyable and easy to read. I personally liked the romance aspect of the book. It was very simple and subtle at some points, but I think it made the book a lot more interesting to me.

I feel like some spots in this book were too fast paced and could have been drawn out a little more. Like the spots where they just skipped past the judging by giving a brief overview. I would have liked to read about what the judges thought about some of her later dishes.

I def recommend this book to anyone who likes cooking or just anyone who likes young adult books. It was a very quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I could NOT put Where There's a Whisk by Sarah J. Schmitt down. I thought this was the cutest and most enjoyable read. It got me ready for the summer and some romance. The characters were well-rounded, the dynamics were realistic; I just loved this one so much. A must-read for anyone who loves romance, cuteness, and anything in-between. I loved this set and the overall narrative of this novel.

Alright, before we properly get into the review, I'd like to say thank you to NetGalley, Sarah J. Schmitt, and Perseus Books for sending me this ARC, and giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
Ok, so. Where There's A Whisk is about this girl Peyton who goes on a cooking competition for teens so she can get a scholarship to a culinary school.

I initially thought that Where There's a Whisk would be a romance, and less focused on the competition, and there was a romance, but it wasn't completely central to the novel, which I really liked. But then while it wasn't central, we still got a fake-dating element, and also, my favourite PLATONIC BOY-GIRL FRIENDSHIPS! Where in another novel, we would have had a lot more dedicated to the romance, Where There's a Whisk took time to write about Peyton's development, as both a chef, and a person, and also there was a lot about reality TV and what it is to be on those shows, and how it feels.
The only reason that this book got 4 stars rather than 5 was because I felt that the pacing was a bit weird, and Peyton's backstory wasn't explored enough. With the pacing, I just felt like everything moved too fast and there wasn't enough detail. With Peyton's backstory, I was only learning it at the same time as other characters. I didn't really get much of Peyton's feelings about everything, and when occasionally I did, I just didn't care enough.

All in all though, I really liked this book. As a Bake Off fan, the idea really interested me, and so if you like Bake Off or the cooking classes in With The Fire On High, this one is for you. </p>
Now, you may be wondering, when can I read this?


Well, Where There's A Whisk is estimated to release on October 5th 2021, so in a few months. I hope you check it out and enjoy it!

What a cute read. I loved the story line- a group of kids all wanting to win a cooking competition and a chance to make it as a chef one day. Not the typical behind the scenes of a reality show book- this was very quick and the drama was very light. Yes, a tiny bit predictable, but also not at the same time. I wish there was a little bit more story after the competition ended. All in all would read again for sure.

My favorite thing about Schmitt's novel is how it chose to merely discuss the issues in Peyton's outside life, rather than wallow in them, or worse, introduce them into the competition. Keeping the focus on Top Teen Chef and the other contestants, both on and off set, made the book feel focused and kept the stakes high throughout. I especially like how she developed each contestant, so that their actions meant something as the story unfolded. As the producers of her fictional show can attest, balancing that many characters can be difficult!

I read this book in two same-day sittings, which says a lot about how engrossing it was for me. Food Network shows are some of the most bingeable things in the world to me, and reality television in general comes in a close second, so everything about this book was right up my alley. Despite the slow start, once the competition really began the story really came together in a way that felt like watching Chopped or Top Chef and had me rooting for the cast members as well as being sad watching them go, and I had a great time viewing it all through Peyton’s eyes.

That said, I do wish Peyton’s character would’ve had a bit more depth—she spends most of the book saying how much she doesn’t want her past to be her everything, and I never felt like she confronted it head-on; this would be fine normally, but it is the reason she’s on the show, and it would’ve been interesting to see more of the contestants commenting on their stereotyping. This, also with the vague racial awareness she has (thinking of the State of Liberty challenge and the brief conversation she has with Lola) instead of outright confronting more sensitive topics throw the book off its rhythm a bit. I also didn’t particularly care for the “love triangle”, even though the showmance was fun enough for its short time. Like Peyton was claiming to believe, the competition comes first, and the romance did seem much like an afterthought, especially towards the end.

All in all, this was a really fun and quick read that I did enjoy, and I’d probably binge a season two of this, if it ever came out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC of this book!
This was such a great read! I really enjoyed the characters and the plot twists. I have always enjoyed cooking competition shows so it was nice to read it in book form!
It kinda felt weird that there was no buildup to being on the cooking show, the book just starts backstage. It also felt like the ending was a little rushed. Early in the book, there were lots of vivid descriptions of the dishes prepared, but it felt like those tapered off in the end and just rushed to the finale.
I would still recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys romance and cooking competitions!

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this so much!! It was a quick and fun summery-read and I really liked it! I’m a sucker for food/cooking shows so this was just the kinda fun contemporary book I needed!

I so wish the book was more detailed, especially in the second half, and everything went by so quickly that it felt a little underwhelming. The competition was supposed go over the course of three weeks, but I was left feeling like it had only been a couple of days because of the simplicity and lack of details, and as a person who loves cooking shows I think I would have loved it even more if we saw more of the competition!

I did like the characters, but I wanted more character development as I didn’t really feel connected to them and they seemed a little dull. The romance didn’t stand out to me, although I really liked Peyton and Paulie, the romance would have been so much better if, instead of the ‘love triangle’, we got more development of (all) the character and the relationships between them.

But, this is a good book and it’s fun and easy so in the end I really ended up enjoying it, and I really needed this atm to get out of a reading slump. It’s not a perfect book, but any book that gets me out of a reading slump is a good read for me!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the sending me a e-book!

I was almost in a reading slump and when I came across this book, it sounded like the perfect one and I can say that it was a perfect read because it was so light and I just breezed through this book.
This book had:
Tournaments, love-triangles, fake-dating, friends-to-lovers and so much more which made it such a promising read for me.
I honestly enjoy cooking so I absolutely loved this book and it was honestly such an adorable book. I loved Peyton as a character.
The only reason I haven’t given this book 5 star is because I wanted this book to have more POVs and that I wanted to know more about the side characters as well.
It is not my most favourite book, but it most definitely is a fun book and if you're in a reading slump then I'm sure you'll enjoy it and it'll get you out of your slump.

There could not be a more perfect fit for my interests than Where There's a Whisk as I'm a reality tv junkie, a fan of all things baking, and a lover of any type of competition in YA fiction. I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at a reality television series--it felt like Chopped in book form, so there's little to complain about there :) While it's hard to balance a cast of characters this large and the entire time span of a television show filming, I do wish there was a bit more nuance developed in some parts of the narrative. It was refreshing to see trope-y characters were designed to be exactly that way, but I would have loved more complexity in this realm. That being said, this was a super fun read, and I think it will be a hit with younger YA readers especially.

Cute, quick, and entertaining -- this is the perfect YA (or older!) beach read. Peyton Sinclaire has won a coveted spot on the new show Top Teen Chef where she is competing for full scholarship to culinary school (and, for Peyton, a way out of her dead end town and the miserable future she predicts awaits her there). However Peyton quickly learns that reality TV has minimal reality in it and she is forced to balance her cooking competition skills with her ability to maintain a compelling plot/narrative least she be eliminated by the cut-throat producer. G-rated romance mixes with kitchen competition formats borrowed from Guy's Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, Top Chef, and Hell's Kitchen.

Where There's a Whisk was such a fun teen book. The book is about a teenage girl, Peyton, trying to win a scholarship to culinary school on a reality cooking show to elevate her out of her current life circumstances. The story has the perfect balance of what is going on on-camera and off-camera on the show. I also thought it included just enough information about the dishes Peyton cooks without bogging us down with every little detail of every recipe she makes. The bit of romance included was enough to be an interesting plot point without making this a teen romance novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. Overall I would not hesitate to recommend this book for middle grade to high school aged readers!

Peyton Sinclaire is in New York preparing to embark on a foodie adventure. She and seven other contestants are about to film Top Teen Chef - and the prize is a scholarship to a prestigious cooking school. Peyton, who comes from a rural Florida town, feels like winning is the only way for her to escape her circumstances. What she didn't count on was the friends she'd meet along the way or the strange things happening behind the scenes on the show. Can Peyton compete with other brilliant teen chefs and score a win?

This was a light, funny teen rom-com/slice of life comedy set in the world of competitive cooking. Peyton is great - she's trying really hard to make it on her own merit and tries to play down her family circumstances. Inside she's a bundle of nerves, but she's trying to grow and with the help of her new friends, she might just gain a little perspective. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

Cute but clunky. You're thrown right into the main event without build up and it felt more like a step by step guide to hire reality shows work. The characters were cute and Peyton was a fine main character but I don't think she was flushed out enough to really love. I just wish there was more depth to the overall story to really draw me in.

This behind the scenes book about a reality TV show was fascinating. Watching reality shows and knowing the behind the scenes are two different things.
I really enjoyed the different aspects of the story. The friendships, the competition and the cooking were "blended" so well together. I appreciated that I couldn't predict the outcome. "Well done!".