The premise of this book was really interesting! I enjoyed the first half of it with the character and world building however I did begin to feel the YOUNG in Young Adult. I feel like this book definitely panders to bit more teenage audience than I was expecting. I feel like middle school or high school aged teens would definitely enjoy this book but ultimately it wasn't for me.

The book really reminded me of the god Beerus and the obsession with food that people have in Dragon Ball Super so that was fun!

Thanks so much to Zando | Sweet July Books and Netgalley for this ARC!

I ultimately did not finish this book, but I will give it 3 stars because I feel like this book is for someone out there, just not me. And since it is YA, I know that I am also not the target audience either. Still, the premise was interesting, but the writing style leans towards younger YA. And with its brisk pacing favoring action and plot over world and character development, some readers may enjoy it for being easily readable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Celestial Banquet in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist
When I picked up Celestial Banquet, I expected food to play a strong role. What I didn’t expect was for nearly every emotional beat, memory, and plot turn to be filtered through recipes, ingredients, and cooking. That’s not inherently a flaw—it’s simply not to my taste. If you love food-centric stories, you may find this novel magical. But if you prefer your fiction with less focus on culinary detail, you might struggle like I did.


The Details
Roselle Lim’s writing shines with elegance and sensory depth. Her prose feels lush and lyrical. She paints every dish with care—steam rising, spices blooming, textures woven into emotion. Each meal tells a story. Her descriptions are immersive, and for food lovers, they’ll likely be a highlight.



The story follows a woman dealing with loss and reconnection. As she explores her heritage, cooking becomes her way of grieving, healing, and understanding her place in the world. This emotional core holds real power. I connected with several scenes where the protagonist reflects on her family, identity, and what it means to honor the past. Lim brings that sense of longing to life through carefully crafted moments.



Still, the narrative often pauses for food. At times, the pace slows so much that the emotional arc feels secondary. Plot development takes a backseat to another lovingly described dish or food metaphor. That constant return to the kitchen left me feeling disconnected. I wanted more forward motion—more time with the character’s thoughts and less time on the page savoring sauces and garnishes.



This isn’t to say the book is poorly written. It’s quite the opposite. The themes of cultural identity, grief, and self-discovery resonate. The style is gentle and poetic. But the execution leans heavily into one mode of storytelling, and it just didn’t resonate with me as a reader.



If you're someone who finds meaning in food, especially when it intersects with family and cultural roots, this book might be exactly what you're looking for. It has warmth, depth, and sincerity. For me, though, it felt like being at a beautiful banquet I couldn’t fully enjoy. I could admire the craft, but I wasn’t truly satisfied.


The Verdict
Celestial Banquet is a heartfelt, delicately written story. It offers plenty to appreciate—even if I didn’t walk away hungry for seconds.

Pitched as THE book for fans of The Hunger Games and cooking competitions, Celestial Banquet is Roselle Lim’s foray into the YA fantasy genre. As someone who has enjoyed Roselle’s women’s fiction books, I was curious to see how she would approach YA fantasy. Set in a world inspired by the mythology and history of both East and Southeast Asia, readers follow Cai, a young noodle chef who enters the “Celestial Banquet,” a deadly, cutthroat cooking contest held by the major gods as a way to escape her impoverished life. Lim, as always, delivers on mouthwatering descriptions of food with Celestial Banquet, and from the start it’s obvious just how much care and effort were put into the world-building. I also appreciated how each chapter begins with an excerpt from a scroll that expands upon the world that Lim has so lovingly created. Unfortunately, Celestial Banquet suffers from the all-too-common issue of having a compelling concept—its intriguing premise—but lacking in execution. I openly acknowledge that love triangles are one of my least preferred tropes, however the one featured in Celestial Banquet was not only unnecessary but also poorly handled. Not only did both of Cai's options suck, but any time spent on the juvenile “romance” took away from time that could have been spent on further developing the backstories of Cai and the rest of Team Kama as well as fleshing out the motivations of the other teams and even the gods who were the hosts of this deadly competition. That said, I did find it refreshingly relatable how petty the gods were and how they were overly invested in Cai’s relationship drama, to the point where they would openly mess with her and the guys just for their own entertainment. Celestial Banquet does its reader a solid by not ending on a major cliffhanger as it wraps up the main story while simultaneously setting things up for the sequel. However, the ending felt like it came out of nowhere and was rushed, and I’m just not emotionally invested enough to continue with this series.

This was a really fun book! It has an extremely unique premise and it was very captivating and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

To sum up this reading experience, I just have to say that I was so aware that I was reading words on a page, you know?

Intriguing concept, however the execution was extremely lacking.
There was basically no world building. Why was there a war? Beside there being an evil empress. How was an immortality peach, that was going to be sold to buy a building be the solution to stop this supposed war? Absolutely nonsense, that is what I say.

Besides the descriptions of food, the writing left a lot to be desired. It was so to the point that it was painful, there's was absolutely no nuance in this entire book. The author constantly told us how everything made the characters feel. The message of this book was also so heavy-handed.

The characters were as flated as a piece of paper, and that is me being generous. They had no personality besides the author really trying to make us believe they did.

Now, as if it wasn't already bad, the worst for last, the live triangle. That was the most painful thing I have ever read, no chemistry at all. Why was everyone so obsessed with who this sixteen year old girl "ended up" with.

Recommend - For those who enjoyed the likes of Food Wars (Shokugeki no Soma), but with less fan service and more gods

YA fantasy - FM romance, and plenty of it, no spice

I really enjoyed this one. It was a lot of fun, with a lot of diversity in environment and descriptions throughout.

Seen through the eyes of Cai, our FMC, we are given a glimpse of what life is like in the Peninsula. Oft looked down upon, and underestimated by, the Continent, Cai sees participating in the Celestial Banquet as an opportunity to further her own ambitions, as well as to uplift the profile of her town.

We follow her through to the Banquet, meeting the Major Gods, and her competitors. As Cai passes each stage of the Banquet, Lim takes the opportunity to showcase the mythical and fabled ingredients and delicacies of a fantasy China, as well as the venues and creatures through the stylings of the Major Gods.

The focus on the romantic plot between Cai and the two MMCs was certainly a regular story point throughout. I would argue that it was potentially focused on rather more than the food itself was. Unlike its Food Wars comp, we only loosely read about how each dish is prepared or how it’s put together.

Nevertheless, the story was a fun romp through a new world and its cuisine.

Synopsis:
Every 10 or so years, a banquet is prepared for the Major Gods to partake of. The winning team gets the fabled Peaches of Immortality; the losers’ prize is subject to the whims of the gods. Cai is looking for a way to fulfil her dream of opening her own restaurant.

When word of the next Celestial Banquet spreads, she sets out to join a team and compete for a chance to serve legendary meals to the gods.

I’m not usually a fan of fantasy because I don’t really have the imagination for it – I can’t picture the worlds they live in – but this one was centered around a cooking competition, which I love, so it was a little easier to understand. I enjoyed the various tasks involved in the competition and I found the ingredients fascinating. Likewise, Cai was a formidable character and I had fun following along as she made educated decisions about what to create and how to do so. The only issue I had with this was the love triangle. I didn’t think it fit the story, which was perfectly fine without this drama. I also thought getting the Gods involved in it was far-fetched and actually took away from the story from me.

I loved this story. Such fantastic writing and characters! Our main character Cai, is clever and quick-witted; her team of Seon, Tala, and Kama are smart and will do whatever it takes for her to win. I thought the challenges were unique and the outcomes surprising. The world-building is superb, and I loved learning more about the other places, foods, and customs. The story itself is fast-paced and will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. The combination of fabulous writing and characters worked for me. I hope the author writes a few more books with these guys. I can't wait to read more about Cai and the crew.

Celestial Banquet, a sacred cooking competition held by the Major Gods. Chefs of all the Continent could participate with the blessing of their own Continent Minor Gods. The winner will receive the Peaches of Immortality, along with everlasting fame and fortune. The loser? Well just say they've got their dooms. Cai, the ordinary noodle chef, enters the competition in the hope of saving her beloved Continent, the Peninsula. Alongside the drunken Minor God Kama, her childhood crush-turned-friend Bo, and dreamy noble Seon, Cai enters the competition. Would they survive this deadly sacred cooking competition?

Celestial Banquet has a unique lore and world building. Actually, I think this book is the first time to be categorized as a dark food fantasy genre. There are so many food ingredients that I find the author made it by herself and I love it. Golden song mushrooms, diamond dust rock sugar, ruby treasure arowanas and so many more.

Each step of the cooking competition stage is deadly. Don’t expect this book to be a relaxing and slow-paced story. In fact, it isn’t! Even though it is all about food, there is a fast pace and so much thriller tension along the way the story goes, in almost every chapter. Also, there are so many dark plot twists here, and I am shocked!

As for romance, there is a love triangle between Cai (FMC) and two MMCs. Each MMC has plus and minus and I like the way Cai thinks, processes and how she makes her decision to choose everything that happens in the competition. She is just a girl who tries to be careful and thinks five steps ahead. She is wise and I love her already.

The best part is the magic system is about taste buds. Yes! Food is the magic here! To be honest, this book is the first fantasy book which made me gain weight hahaha. I hope this book will become a series.

Equipped with a temper and a talent for combining unusual flavors, Cai wants nothing more than to be able to own her own restaurant. So when the opportunity presents itself to enter the Celestial Banquet, a cooking competition for the gods, Cai cannot help but want to enter. Together with a quirky team, she and her friends must face all sorts of challenges and risk their lives. Can they triumph?

This was a fascinating storyline that I just did not expect. At every turn, I was surprised by the outcomes and where the author took us. Cai was easy to connect with, and I really enjoyed getting to learn the back story of the sad minor god, Kama. I do wish that YA books would stop relying so heavily on the love triangle as a way to create drama. There was plenty of action without adding in the love triangle and it made me wish that one of those characters were female with a straight female main character, so I could still get their contributions.

I think this has the potential to go over well with teens but I also am not sure how many teens would be into the cooking aspects. It may end up with a smaller audience as a result.

Thank you to Net Galley, Zando, and Sweet July Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

Celestial Banquate is Roselle Lim's YA fantasy debut, and overall, a solid start to the genre.

Set in a fictional world that is heavily influenced by Chinese and Southeast Asian cultures, readers follow the main character, Cai, in a deadly competition called the Celestial Banquet. Held once every generation, competing teams must work together to feed the fickle gods and impress them with their meals. The prize for the winners is the Peaches of Immortality, which are worth riches beyond belief.

Marketed as "Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games," the book unfortunately felt a little underwhelming with a fast pace that left the ending feeling lackluster. While the story may have some pacing issues, it is engaging, especially as it includes excerpts from ancient scrolls that serve as great inputs for worldbuilding. The story includes a romantic subplot that at times felt unnecessary and took time away from the main story's plot and the main course of the book, the cooking.

As a librarian, this book is great for younger high school students and middle school students who are at a higher reading level. The writing is simple enough for younger readers to comprehend, with some vocabulary that could lead students to learn new words.

If you're like me and catch every cooking challenge show that's on TV, then you definitely need to read this book. I loved how Lim sets up the details of the Celestial Banquet and the consequences of failure. It was also interesting to see how minor god Kama was so commonly seen in the community, frequenting the food stalls and bars.

Personally, I feel like the romance subplot bogs down the overall story and takes away from the cooking challenge. Cai could have easily had the same conflict between staying in the village she's always known and wanting to have the opportunities she could get from moving to the city without spending the entire novel unsure if she liked Bo or Seon more. I also think she chose the wrong partner, but that might just be me.

There could have been more depth to the characters, but I can overlook that given how interested I was in the food challenge.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Zando, and Sweet July Books in exchange for an honest review.

Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim follows Cai, a noodle chef, as she enters the Celestial Banquet, a cooking competition for the gods. The stakes are high, as winning the Celestial Banquet provides riches and immortality, while losing provides likely despair at the hands of the gods.

The Celestial Banquet had highs and lows for me.

I loved the concept of the Celestial Banquet. I’ve always been a fan of stories that include competition, and the Celestial Banquet provided that for me and did a great job. The competition did not take over the story, but was just one aspect of it. However, one other large part of the story was the love triangle in which Cai was attempting to decide between two love interests. I unfortunately found myself not caring about the romance side of this book.

I loved the descriptions of food throughout the book, and often found myself hungry while reading. I think this book would make an AMAZING movie, particularly animated.

The book felt a little too YA for me, particularly with the first person point of view, but that has more to do with me and my preferences. I think this would be a great read for upper middle school, however all ages can definitely enjoy it, I certainly did!

Thank you to Sweet July Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I picked up Celestial Banquet, the competition immediately reminded me of the video game Battle Chef Brigade. The stakes are high as these mortals join a deadly cooking competition to each win a peach of immortality (or worldly riches should they decide to sell it to a god). The competition was reminiscent of Battle Chef Brigade in that the chefs had to go hunt for their special ingredients, prep them, and then cook them as part of the competition. Much of what they could do was limited by what they brought back from the hunt. This added some danger to the competition, and I found this to be the most interesting part of the book and why I had picked it up in the first place.

What I found lacking in this book was character development, which led to other things falling flat, like the romance. Cai is a hungry chef, determined to make her dreams (and her father's dreams) come true, and she has worked hard to become one of the best noodle chefs in her region. However, if she'd spent her entire life waiting for this competition, I would've thought she'd spend every waking moment preparing for it. She knows she has to hunt down her ingredients, and yet she never learned to swim?? Coming from a peninsula??

I also found much of the character development to be shallow, especially for her love interests. With such high stakes, I really needed to care about these characters to feel something when they falter (or perish) and yet I knew nothing, really, about one of the main love interests at the point when something happens to him. So, I didn't really care. The emotional beats just weren't there for me. Even by the end, I didn't understand why everyone was so invested in this love triangle because both men had the depth of peeling wallpaper - looks pretty on the outside, but can't really tell what's underneath it.

The world building as a whole was very well done. I loved the inclusion of mythology and learning about the major and minor gods. I felt like their machinations also helped to drive the story, and I wish there had been more focus on them than the love triangle as I was still left with a lot of questions by the end.

All in all, this was a miss for me. Unless you're a huge fan of love triangles, I'd say skip this one.

TW: death, injury detail, mutilation, murder, violence; mentions death of a parent

Plot: 1.5/5
Characters: 1/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Writing: 3/5
Pacing: 3/5
Overall: 2/5

eARC gifted via NetGalley by Zando in exchange for an honest review.

it's more fun and lovelier than I thought!
I love the storyline and the main character. not sure about the romance, but i don't hate it either

I feel so disappointed. Coming from a romance lover, YA needs to accept that not every book needs romance, and this book is a prime example of that. The love triangle was so badly done and unnecessary, and I felt irritated every time the romance was brought up. It genuinely took away from the story. Maybe if it had been done better, it could have been interesting, but unfortunately, it was just really badly done. Besides the two love interests, all of the characters were compelling, and I loved learning about them and their stakes in the competition. The worldbuilding was pretty ok too, and I liked the bits of lore that were between each chapter. I feel like if this book had gone through more edits, more drafts, and had more time to be made, it genuinely would have been great. Unfortunately, this is what we ended up with.

Good pacing and plot points. Don't care about romance but I think that's a me thing. Wish it was a little more in depth, or maybe that there'd be a sequel about the war stuff, but not a deal breaker.

Loved this one. So much so that I will actually get a physical copy for myself once I've got some money to my name.

Celestial Banquet is a fast and fun-paced fantasy novel based on a cross between Asian mythology and any one of a number of competitive cooking shows. Cai is a teenage orphan, who lost her mother at birth and lost her father a relatively short time ago. Her goal is to win the Celestial Banquet - a cooking competition held every decade for the best cooks available, who cook for major gods, and compete for the Peaches of Immortality, which, beyond immortality (only available for minor gods), can provide the winner with anything they wish for. However, the competition is shrouded in mystery, as the gods blur or erase the memories of anyone involved, to hide the details from future competitors, to improve the competition. Details about the competition are thus vague, but it is known that death is a significant risk, balancing out the potential reward.

The parts of the plot dealing with the cooking competition were a solid five; however, the novel could use more of the Asian mythology, which felt like it was thrown in for scenery more than the significant part of the plot that it really was. It would also benefit from developing the relationships between the characters more - especially the romantic subplot that was a significant part of the plot, but which felt like it was added later rather than developed along with the story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.