I enjoyed this tale and was fascinated by the magical system and the strong women in this book.
The story is fascinating even if the pace is a bit uneven and the plot does not always flow.
.3.5 upped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Ada is a Chef, an individual who has an empathic, magical connection to food and wine. She has deserted the royal court of Verdania where she was property going now on 16 years. She is discovered and assassins are sent after her but she escapes with her Grand-mere. Princess Solenn is to wed the prince of Verdania. With her newfound ability she uncovers a plot to kill her fiance. Ada and Solenn deal with threats of the present and of the past on their way to inevitably cross paths and face them together.

There is a sophisticated air to the narrative which is breezy in manner and complimented by how spirited the protagonists are. The emotion in the writing is honest and heartfelt. The author has a great sense of detail, evident in her descriptions that build this world around us. Also, there are instances of absolutely marvelous use of words. The mythology and magic of this story are quite creative and much more intricate than it originally seems. I really liked that surprise.

Both protagonists are clever and determined. Ada, a fierce protector and Solenn standing up for what's right. both POVs are equally interesting and the switching between their storylines makes the narrative more exciting.

Information about things like the magic system, countries & their politics, etc are conveyed in the least overwhelming way possible not only through narration but also adequately with dialogue and thoughts of the character. But there is a shadow of info-dumping in some parts. Also the Chef entries at the beginning of each chapter were sometimes tedious. There were little missteps in the otherwise intriguing story such as parts unclear that I had to reread, interjections that seemed, in my opinion, off-topic, and some scenes taking too long.

Issues the book deals with are prejudice, societal injustices & misconceptions, and the corruption of power. It is about the power of family and love. About gaining your power. Respect is a quality very much cherished in this story.

What we have here is an ambitious, creative, new fantasy series with a beautiful feminist flair to it.

To be touched by the gods is to be a Chef – but, in this fantasy we’re not just talking delicious meals. A Chef has a magical connection to food, in one way or another, and are used in battle as much as the kitchen. The catch? Well, they’re pretty much considered the property of the Crown, expected to turn their skills – and lives – over to service. Any refusal is punished with having your tongue removed. Urgh!

We follow two main character threads. One is with Adamantine (Ada), a particularly gifted Chef able to perceive foods strongly, and in preparing them strengthen any latent magic. Ada has been a fugitive for many years, refusing to be ‘owned’ and told what to do. However, it seems like someone might be hunting her old army buddies – for what dark purpose, she can’t yet tell.

Elsewhere we meet Princess Solenn, who’s preparing for an arranged marriage to strengthen the ties between neighbouring countries. But it seems that she doesn’t just have to deal with being a foreigner in an unfriendly court, or even an unexpected ‘awakening’ of her tongue that might prove exceptionally awkward – if, that is, she survives the assassination attempts!

So… well, phew, there is such a LOT going on in this book – I’ve barely scratched the surface there! I didn’t even mention the magical animals being harvested for their use in enchanted food, but that will form a huge plot point.

The concept is intriguing, although it almost lost me right at the beginning – ‘Chef’ is such a silly word to use when talking about war! It’s better once explained a little further, but it did set an inappropriately flippant tone for me at the start. Instead, this is actually quite a dark kind of a tale – but, that doesn’t sit so well with the very YA tone. Solenn is a teenager, which doesn’t help, but even 40-something Ada never quite seems fully ‘grown up’ despite all of the comments about wrinkles and such. I didn’t feel particularly engaged with any of them, if I’m honest. And let’s not start on how awful some of the entitled, rich supporting cast is.

I’m not quite sure what I thought of this overall. Nothing about it is bad, but nor does it feel entirely cohesive. You could argue that it’s just the opening for a longer series, but it still feels like too much is thrown at the reader, and the story hurtles from one plot to the next, without quite explaining enough (I thought) to bring them completely together.

There is a not-so-faintly moralising tone, too, around the concept of the ‘epicurea’, or magical ingredients. It’s laid on just a little too thick for my liking, frankly.

All in all, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It’s written well and very readable, and yet it just didn’t quite come together for me. It’s one thing that I never quite knew where the plot was going, but rather than keeping me turning the page I rather struggled to maintain interest. Hopefully others will be more appreciative, as it’s not a bad book – just, not really for me, alas.

The magic and world were super unique. I loved the way cooking is a form of magic and Chefs have special abilities, thus resulting in those with said abilities being forced to serve in the military as assassins. The world building was thorough and very beautiful, however the plot didn’t grab my attention like I hoped. The characters felt a tad flat and could come across hyper-emotional. I think the story needs some work, but there is a very strong premise that I think a truly wonderful story can come of this.

There are a thousand quotes about revenge and most of them are not kind to the person seeking it. But it’s possible that the one in the world of these particular five gods is the most bitter, literally and figuratively. “There are a thousand recipes for revenge, and they all taste like scat.”

In other words, revenge tastes like shit. In a world where the ability to perceive and even enhance the qualities of every single thing a person might eat or drink is the highest form of magic, that has to be one of its world’s greatest curses.

And a warning that entirely too many people have refused to heed in this fantastic story that has only just begun.

At first, we’re following two women who don’t seem to have much to do with each other. And even though we don’t know it yet, someone’s revenge has reached out, seemingly from beyond the grave, to do its best to turn both their lives into shit.

Or perhaps something a bit worse but surprisingly edible – even if it really, really shouldn’t be. Which is where this world’s magic comes in.

Ada Garland is one of the chefs blessed by Gyst, the God of Mysteries and Unknowns. Her tongue is literally magic. She can tell whether something is clean or polluted, poisonous or just badly prepared, too salty, too sweet, or perfectly balanced. Her magic allows her to make the dish that a person wants and needs most in that moment – and do it perfectly every time.

And she has the power to turn certain special ingredients, called epicurea, into magical items that will pass their magic on to whoever eats them.

It’s a gift and a curse at the same time, as all blessed chefs in her country are automatically conscripted into the royal service the moment their talents manifest. It’s a service that led Ada to her husband and their child. And it’s a service that split them apart when the alliance between their countries dissolved.

Ada is on the run, and has been for over a decade, taking care of her increasingly unstable grandmother while avoiding the grasping, greedy mother who wants to use her and her talent for ends that are even more unsavory than Ada first believed.

The revenge that reaches out for Ada, her friends and her family threatens to expose all of her secrets – and theirs. If it doesn’t get them all killed first. Or worse. Much, much worse.

Escape Rating A+: I picked this up because I was looking for something else with magical cookery after The Nameless Restaurant. Both stories do feature cookery as Magic with a Capital “M”, but that is the only thing they have in common. I’m still grateful for the push from the one to the other, because A Thousand Recipes for Revenge is just plain awesome and I’m so glad I read it, even if it is making me give the side-eye to pretty much everything I eat.

The magic system here is both fascinating and unsettling at the same time, because it’s all wrapped around magical foods, the ability to create them and the ability to taste them. This is a world where many people can cook, and unsurprisingly so or everyone would starve, but where it takes a gift from the actual gods to be a chef. But the silver lining of that gift comes with plenty of cloud wrapped around it, as both Ada and Princess Solenn discover to their cost.

This is also definitely one of those stories about being better off – or at least sleeping better at night – if one did not know how the sausage was made. It’s a secret that has been brutally suppressed in this world for excellent if entirely terrible reasons.

At first, this seems like a rather typical military type, gaslamp set fantasy. Ada is AWOL from her military service, while our second perspective on this story, Princess Solenn, is in the midst of being married off for a political alliance.

But then Ada’s old comrades start getting killed, Ada’s hidden existence is suddenly under threat, and it seems like she’s on the run from awful but otherwise mundane forces. Until things go completely pear-shaped and the gods start getting involved. At which point it’s off to the races – against time, against death, against the forces of oppression and most especially against petulant beings who would rather play with their food than either nurture it, treat it as a pet or kill it as prey.

And then things get really complicated.

I thought I knew where this was going. And then I thought I knew where this was going. But it didn’t go any of the places I thought it would, but where it did end up was both head spinning and stomach churning as well as a tremendous tease because there had to be more and at first I didn’t realize there was, but there is and oh thank goodness!

Ada and Solenn give readers two heroines to route for, as this is both Ada’s story of picking up the pieces of the life she left behind and Solenn’s coming of age story and both are fantastic. The world’s setup at first seems fairly standard epic fantasy and then goes to places that are fresh (if occasionally rotting) and new and unexpected. There are bits of Bujold’s World of the Five Gods and Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons in the way that the gods of this world operate, as well as Guy Gavriel Kay’s and Jacqueline Carey‘s use of real world geography and history as a way of creating a fantasy world’s map and political divisions, but the magic system is just completely off a new wall and it’s marvelous in the way it suffuses the story.

Which, as I squeed earlier, thankfully isn’t done yet. There’s a second book in the Chefs of the Five Gods series, A Feast for Starving Stone, coming in January. And I can’t wait!

For me A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato was a book of two halves. I loved the idea of blending magic and food , that was what initially drew me to the book, alongside the beautiful cover of course. The idea of using cooking ingredients to create magic sounded like a lot of fun, and I was all in when I read the dramatic and exciting opening chapters where we are introduced to Ada, a magician in hiding because she deserted the army of Verdania where she was forced to use her magic in battle as property of the Royal court. We are also introduced to Solenn, a foreign princess newly arrived at the Verdanian court as the betrothed of the Crown Prince. She had no idea of the magical heritage she shares with Ada until a strange experience at a court banquet causes her to realise that she has magical abilities, and even worse that she is being set up to take the fall for the assassination of her husband to be.
I really enjoyed the first half of the book, which seemed to be set in a version of historical Europe not so different from our own, apart from the magic of course , but in the second half of the book it veered into an almost more high fantasy style with talking magical creatures and living Gods, and I have to admit that this just did not work quite so well for me. The plot seemed to drift away from the original ideas in a way that meant I struggled to maintain interest.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Adamantine “Ada” Garland has an empathic connection to food and wine, a magical perception of aromas, flavors, and ingredients. Invaluable property of the royal court, Ada was in service to the Five Gods and to the Gods-ordained rulers of Verdania—until she had enough of injustice and bloodshed and deserted, seeking to chart her own destiny. When mysterious assassins ferret her out after sixteen years in hiding, Ada, now a rogue Chef, and her beloved Grand-mère run for their lives, only to find themselves on a path toward an unexpected ally.

Ok, I liked the book but I’m a pretty good cook and enjoy cooking so I went in prepared to like the book based on its theme. It was a fairly lightweight read, the book went by quite quickly but I enjoyed the two POV characters and found them both likable. I suspect you also won’t be too shocked to find a magic system that involves slaughtering unicorns is evil…. It’s a series set up but the book ends in a good spot and I will read book two quite happily. I see it’s showing in Goodreads already and I’ve marked it as a to read title.

Set in a world where food is magic, “A Thousand Recipes for Revenge” is a swashbuckling tale of vengeance and intrigue that quickly pulled me in and had me whipping through chapters. The story follows two fierce female MCs—a rogue chef on the run from assassins and a young princess framed for the murder of her fiancé—whose paths are set on a collision course by the gods. As war brews on the horizon, mother and daughter reunite and ally against a common enemy that threatens to devastate kingdoms.

First, I particularly enjoyed the world-building in this story. There's a strong whimsical vibe that reminded me of The Last Unicorn and Stardust, but it's mixed with some fairly dark themes that added grittiness and surprising twists.

I also loved the culinary magic system with ingredients that granted special powers. It was fun to see how these were used by the various characters.

Lastly, the pantheon of gods and goddesses is super creative. Each of these divine characters has domain over certain culinary aspects and they play interesting roles in the stories of the protagonists. I'm very eager to see more of them in the sequel!

To wrap things up, I'd recommend this book for you if you enjoy the following:
- a reunion of old military buddies
- hidden powers and pasts revealed
- meddling gods
- old enemies/new threats
- political intrigue and espionage
- family reunions and 2nd chances

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Adamantine “Ada” Garland has an empathic connection to food and wine, a magical perception of aromas, flavors, and ingredients. Invaluable property of the royal court, Ada was in service to the Five Gods and to the Gods-ordained rulers of Verdania—until she had enough of injustice and bloodshed and deserted, seeking to chart her own destiny. Sixteen years later, assassins discover her whereabouts, and she and her beloved Grand-mère have to go on the run. Meanwhile, Solenn is a foreign princess in a strange land. She has just discovered that she has been blessed with an epicurean gift. With her newfound magical perception, she becomes aware of a plot to kill her fiancé, the prince. It’s part of a ploy by adversarial forces in the rival country of Albion to sow conflict, and Solenn is set up to take the blame. As Ada and Solenn's paths cross, they discover they are not only working toward the same goal, and share the same gift, but that they are mother and daughter, who were separated at birth.
This is book one in the Chefs of the Five Gods Series. I loved it. The author did an excellent job with world building and I felt completely immersed in the story. It was like I was actually there watching it all unfold. There was plenty of action, suspense, and then the fantasy element, so I feel like this would be a great read for pretty much anyone. I loved the "excerpts" from the various cooking manuals at the top of every chapter - it just added a little bit extra to the story, and the background and culture. I am already anxiously awaiting book two in the series. I can't wait to see where the story unfolds from here. Wherever it goes, I know it will be magical!

Thank you to Author Beth Cato, 47North Publishing and @netgalley for providing this ARC. All opinions shared are my own.

I absolutely loved this book; the world building was epic and all of the magical elements really drew me in. Each of the main characters had real depth and learning about 'Chefs', the Five Gods and how everything intersects had me on the edge of my seat.

This book is the first in the 'Chefs of the Five Gods' series and will be publishing on June 1st 2023. If you like enjoy the fantasy genre, I would highly recommend giving this book a read!

An intriguing story with a very clever and original magic system based on food and cooking. It is obvious that this is the first in a series as there is much left unresolved. I guess I will have to read the next book to see what happens. 3.5 stars

I found the magic system in this one really intriguing--I don't think I've read a food-based magic system before. I didn't realize going in that this was multi pov, so the switch a couple chapters in was a bit of a surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

Thoughts: Previous to reading this book I had read Cato's Clockwork Dagger duology (loved it) and the first two books in her Blood of Earthe series (loved the first book, thought the second book was just okay). I liked this, but did think the beginning was slow. However, the story really picked up in the second half. I usually really enjoy the steampunk elements Cato adds to her story but that wasn't a theme of this book.

This story alternates POV between Ada and Solenn. Ada was a Chef (has magical perception of food called an epicurean gift) in service to the Five Gods, but left that service and went rogue after many years in service to the army. Solenn is a foreign princess that is being married to a prince of Verdania in order to unite the two nations; however things change for her when she finds out she has the magic of a Chef.

This book starts out pretty slow. Ada is fleeing from assassins with her Grand-mere but she doesn't know exactly why they are after her now (after many year of hiding) and starts out by trying to figure out why rogue Chefs are suddenly being targeted. This is a lot of her running from place to place trying to put facts together. Solenn's start is also a bit slow; she is trying to adjust to the new foreign court and befriend both her future husband (who is 14 years old and pretty much a boy still) and his friends. Things get complicated for Solenn when she finds out she has the epicurean gifts of a Chef. It takes a while for these pieces to come together and really get interesting.

I struggled to stay engaged and interested in the first half of the book. I did enjoy the unique magic system and the world-building here but I didn't actually start to enjoy the story until halfway through the book. There are some big reveals halfway through the book and as we learn more about where epicurean (a magical substance) comes from, things start to get really intriguing. The characters were mediocre to me, I didn't really engage with them or care about them that much. This may have been because of the constant POV switching, which broke up the story quite a bit.

This book is hugely politically driven. A lot of page space is given to discussing alliances with other nations and past and potential future wars. I am not huge into reading fantasy that focuses on politics. Again, there are some other interesting elements that come into play later in the book but it was a bit too little to late for me to love this.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I ended up liking this but didn't love it. I am glad I finished it because there are some very intriguing fantasy/magic elements that come into play later in the book. However, the first half of the book was slow for me and I didn't like the political focus. I am on the fence about whether I will continue this series right now. I am leaning towards not continuing it because the first half of this book felt like a chore to get through, but I did enjoy some of the twists revealed in the second half. This also did not include the heavy steampunk themes that I really love Cato for, so that was a bit disappointing.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and 47North for my copy of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato in exchange for an honest review. It publishes June 1, 2023.
This was a clever and unique book! I haven't read a fantasy that has gripped me in a long time, I cannot wait for the next book in the series!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC.

Unfortunately I DNF’d this book at 40%. I was drawn to the story and the beautiful cover, but really struggled to connect to the characters and magic system. I may try this again someday, but for right now it wasn’t for me.

Adamantine has been on the run for years. She's a Chef, endowed with a magical talent for food, wine, and uncanny ingredients. She and others of her kind were forced into service to the crown, but Ada escaped, leaving an infant daughter behind. Years later, when old enemies resurface, Ada must reckon with her past to save her future. That infant daughter, adopted by a royal family, is now a young woman, and her Chef's tongue has awakened.

This book offers three of my favorite things: innovative magic systems, strong relationships that aren't just romantic, and middle-aged, female protagonists. While this light fantasy might not be to everyone's taste, these rare ingredients made this a delicious read for me.

The food-based magic explored in this book is such a treat, and it's especially novel because it avoids being saccharine sweet, instead tending towards an earthiness (even sometimes a little grotesquery-- cat hair!) that embodies a society with a different relationship to food than we have (side note: the book seems to draw heavily from Ancien Régime France). There's also a metaphor here, though unlike another reader who pegged it as an endorsement of veganism, I read it as a subtle commentary about understanding the origins of what we put in our bodies.

I also loved the relationships between characters. In other books, these are often just conveniences to make action or teenage romance happen. In this one, characters are deeply tied to one another for more complex reasons. I found how Ada and other characters care for Ada's mother, who has a failing memory, especially moving. The relationship between Solenn and her captain/guardian Erwan was also touching. Similarly, there's a scene later in the book of two characters reuniting that was so charming.

And how refreshing to see a middle-aged protagonist, especially one who's powerful in large part because of the experience of her years! While I'm sure there are more, the only other I can think of from fantasy is Ista from Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls (also an utter delight).

My library has purchased a copy of this novel based on my recommendation. We are eager to provide it to our college students.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that the premise of this novel was really unique -- some of my favorite novels have magic systems that are rooted in food and the preparation of food. I was also pleased to see an older female character when the book begins, similar to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. But ultimately, too many little things piled up to turn this into a novel that was okay, but not one that I loved.

The biggest issue for me was the balance of this novel. I was fully expecting this to be a trilogy or at least a duology, at least by the rate that events progressed during the first 2/3s of the novel. There were too many tabs open, and I just couldn't see how the author was going to get them all closed by the end of the book. Except they did, for the most part, and that's because things got really rushed in the last third. The "message" with the epicurea felt really heavy-handed; it's fitting for the story, but it could have been handled more subtly.

This book follows two women who unknowingly share culinary magic, blood, and a target on their back in the intermingled plots of revenge, nations, and gods.

I could not put this book down. It had one of the most original magic systems I have seen - and I loved how it played into cooking, taste, and perception. While smell and taste are some of our stronger senses, I find that books often leave these kinds of details out, so having unique powers based around this was a breath of fresh air.

This magic, and the lore it stemmed from, were the cherry on top of the cake of an engaging fantasy plot. With many competing interests (between nations, gods, magic, creatures, and vengeful humans), Cato effortlessly wove each character's motivations and histories together so they culminated in one exciting reveal after another until the climatic battle at the end.

All I can say, is I hope there is a sequel coming (and much much more of Grandmere). Fantasy lovers will not be disappointed.