All We Hunger For

Overall Rating: 4/5

Welcome to Anespérer... where magic is brought to life through artistic skill...

Elara Rosseau knows she will never be chosen for the Objet d'Art... a high-stakes baking competition that will determine the next Souverain...they would never choose someone from the Restes after all.

Until she's snuck in by a brooding figure of her past, and given the opportunity of a lifetime to embrace a better future... so long as no-one discovers her traitorous secret...

Nik Dupont was plucked from the streets by his powerful father, and will do anything to be able to gain the official recognition as his son... like handpick the most unlikely of contestants to become his father's personal political pawn...

And as Elara displays her unlikely talent and becomes a hero for the poor... as her and Nik become closer and feelings begin to blossom... while Nik's feelings for his father crumble... they must form the most unlikely of bonds and fight together for their future...

Or start a revolution.

If I were to be honest, I wasn't 100% in love with this at first. I found it really hard to fully enjoy the story sometimes. Some of the characters in the beginning seemed overly snobbish or overly full of themselves, but I kept an open mind and pushed forward with this story. And I am glad I did... because I was swept away by the magic contained within these pages, and my dislike for the way some of the characters fell away.... replaced with the feelings of wanting more...of wanting to know more about the enchanted pastries, of the magic... and wanting to figure out more of the world woven between the stakes of rebellion and order... and what was something I would rate 3 stars rose to 4...

Albeit there are still slight issues with the overall pacing of the story, there are moments where it flows way too quickly, the events falling too quickly into place to where it feels more like a blur than actual sense ... another issue I had was the fact that there seemed to be no actual romantic connection between the main characters... but this is an issue I think also weaves together with the problematic fast pace of this book... still, the pretense of a world where something so simple as baking still enchanted my mind and tugged at all the right strings, and I can't wait to see where this leads...