Salty, Bitter, Sweet (audiobook)

 

Audiobook narrator: Jennifer Jill Araya

Listening length: 10 hours 38 minutes

My Thoughts:

I have a complex relationship with audiobooks because they are a larger investment in time for me than just reading a book. I can moderate my reading pace and skim some parts so that I can finish quickly, but I am not good at following along when I speed up the reading pace on an audiobook. Because of that, I think I need to put the listening time in  the post and talk about the quality of the narrator from now on. 

Audiobooks moved from cassette tapes and CDs to listening on one's device via apps like Sora or Libby so I need to force myself to listen to more audiobooks. 

For this book, I grabbed it because of several things:

• non-white author
• appealing cover
• foodie fiction

It has all the elements of success - a YA character in a foreign situation, a handsome stranger who both irritates and intrigues the main character, bullies and new friends.  In Isa's case, she is living in France with her father and new stepmom. She has lost her abuela and she just won a prestigious kitchen apprenticeship. Her apprenticeship definitely does not start well and that handsome stranger turn out to be her stepmom's stepson. 

What made this a difficult ten plus hours is the narrator. For me, I did not enjoy her Diego voice. At all. It was creepy and I just could not get to know him because I really did not like his voice. I think I would feel differently if I were just reading. 

So in short, this was probably a good book as a book. I really do believe that the narrator made this a 3 star for me, but it is probably at least a 4 star read. This is perfect for middle grade and young YA females who want a foodie, power of female friendships, family drama, sweet romance read. 

From the Publisher:

There’s more to becoming a top chef for 17-year-old Isabella Fields than just not getting chopped...especially when the chances of things heating up with an intriguing boy and becoming a food star in the kitchen are both on the chopping block. 

Salty, Bitter, Sweet:

• Is a YA contemporary #OwnVoices novel written by CNN producer Mayra Cuevas
• Is a perfect book for foodies ages 13 and up and features a Latina main character who is trilingual
• Explores complicated family dynamics and relatable themes of friendship, acceptance, and learning to care for yourself 

Aspiring chef Isa’s family life has fallen apart after the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents. And after moving in with her dad and her new stepmom, Margo, in Lyon, France, Isa feels like an outsider in her father’s new life. She balances her time between avoiding the awkward “why-did-you-cheat-on-Mom” conversation with figuring out how a perpetually single woman can at least be a perpetually single chef.

The upside of Isa’s world being turned upside down?

Her father’s house is located only 30 minutes away from the restaurant of world-famous Chef Pascal Grattard, who runs a prestigiously competitive international kitchen apprenticeship. The prize job at Chef Grattard’s renowned restaurant also represents a transformative opportunity for Isa who is desperate to get her life back in order - and desperate to prove she has what it takes to work in an haute kitchen. But Isa’s stress and repressed grief begin to unravel when the attractive, enigmatic Diego shows up unannounced with his albino dog.

How can Isa expect to hold it together when she’s at the bottom of her class at the apprenticeship, her new stepmom is pregnant, she misses her abuela dearly, and things with the mysterious Diego reach a boiling point?