A Taste for Love is an adorable YA rom-com about a Taiwanese–American teenager who attempts to balance relationships with family and friends, a love for baking, and a shot at finding love all on one platter.
To the outside world, Liza Yang may seem like she is living the life every high school teenager could dream of. It is her senior year and she is looking towards bigger and better things for her future. She is free-spirited, determined to chase her dreams, and will not settle for anything less, at least, that’s what her friends think. In comparison to her prim, proper, and perfect older sister, Jeannie, Liza is the daughter every Asian mother fears: an out of control, headstrong, rebellious girl determined to escape the restrictive traditional values of her culture, especially the ones that involve dating.
Other than butting heads almost 24/7 with her mother, Mrs. Yang, Liza maintains a somewhat civil relationship with her through their passion for baking at the family-owned Yin and Yang Bakery located in Houston, Texas. With high school ending, college months away, and the bakery’s annual junior baking competition coming up, this might be Liza’s chance to prove to her mother she is more than an Asian mother’s nightmare. Just when things couldn’t get any crazier, Liza comes to find out the contestants for the baking competition are of course, young Asian-American men that her mother picked as potential suitors. James Wong, one of the competition’s contestants, sticks out like a sore thumb to Liza and she cannot help but be attracted to his irritating and aloof personality. With a tiger mother looking over her shoulder and a shot at love right in front of her, Liza begins to realise she may have to bend the rules of family traditions and dating to achieve the best recipe for success.
A Taste for Love is a wonderful read filled with its soft and fluffy moments, delicious foods both savoury and sweet, and the realities of what it’s like in an Asian-American household, especially with parents who were born overseas. Oh and of course… All. The. Boba!
The relationships from this book were my most favourite aspect! Several of them were very relatable and quite easy to resonate with. The familial bond Liza has with her parents and Jeannie is what truly holds the book together. The development, dynamic, closeness, and tensions that arise between the four of them are all very realistic aspects within an Asian-American family. Grace is that best friend everybody needs. And James and Ben are what you would call a near impossible to attain dream, yet attractive and kind gentlemen nonetheless.
Although Liza wasn’t born in the States, she possesses many of the values American kids grow up with: an individualist mindset, the freedom to make decisions, and to forge their own life path. These aspects are what interfere with Eastern culture, and it is no surprise why Liza’s parents (especially her mother) fear for their daughter’s future. The story does a wonderful job of cross-culturing two very different worlds, which was very much appreciated.
Being an avid baker and recipe developer myself, it was so much fun seeing the food come to life in both the bakery and restaurant! It was a joy to visualise the imagery from the bakery kitchen and restaurant’s ambient atmosphere. You could quite literally smell the aroma of the food coming off the pages and I was a bit afraid I was going to eat my Kindle by accident, so, fair Warning, you may want to get Taiwanese food and some boba tea after reading this!
This novel was a short and truly sweet one to devour! I may be a bit biased in my rating because I myself am of Asian-American descent, but I really loved how fun this was to read and what it brings to the YA genre, including more diversity, a look into the cultural practices of Asia, and how relationships (familial, romantic, and friendly) are handled. There is good balance between mushy gushy romance and the seriousness of family which makes it feel more real to the readers. This is also fantastic for anyone who loves to bake, has an obsession with Boba, and are looking for a great modern love story. A Taste for Love is definitely one of my favourite books of 2021 already and I highly recommend this not only to young readers, but to anyone who wants to diversify their bookshelf and wishes for something sweet and satisfying to read!
A Taste For Love is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up A Taste For Love? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
For fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show, A Taste for Love, is a delicious rom com about first love, familial expectations, and making the perfect bao.
To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. Smart, kind, and pretty, she dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang’s traditional values, especially when it comes to dating.
The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston’s popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition to prove to her mom that she’s more than her rebellious tendencies once and for all. But when Liza arrives on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there’s a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date.
The bachelorette situation Liza has found herself in is made even worse when she happens to be grudgingly attracted to one of the contestants; the stoic, impenetrable, annoyingly hot James Wong. As she battles against her feelings for James, and for her mother’s approval, Liza begins to realize there’s no tried and true recipe for love.
