Language: PG (6 swears 0 'f'); Mature Content: PG (Brief Drinking) Violence: PG (Briefly mentions that the dad was beaten to death).
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
In this gender-bent retelling of My Fair Lady, Helena, and Penelope are the top students at a prestigious culinary school in 1830s London. For their last semester, they must complete a project and when Helena meets Elijah, she clearly sees her goal: to transform this street peddler into the best gentleman chef. Elijah doesn't much care about the gentleman part of this plan, but he does want to open his own shop one day, and for a Jew to do so in this day and age, winning the national culinary contest might be his only way. As he learns from the girls, he finds himself becoming better and better friends with Penelope, whose father was English and whose mother was Filipino. Because of this, they bond, both of them understand the power of prejudice and yet are determined to make their way in the world.
There was nothing overly impressive about this book. I found the characters unsympathetic and rather annoying and there are so many descriptions of food I was bored and skipped whole pages of strictly food talk. For someone who adores cooking maybe this book would be great. The writing itself was probably the most enjoyable part, but still couldn't redeem the uneventful plot, low stakes, and dull characters. Helena is white. Elijah is Jewish. All three are 17. Strictly heterosexual relationships.
Sierra Finlinson - HS
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