My Week in Reading: Slow burns, cooking adventures, and rivals

Not me posting this when the week is almost over! That's okay. I'm in my foodie era right now. I had to have it pointed out to me but I've read 3 foodie books back to back and I also have on hold a book called Thursdays with Hot Chocolate. I had a great reading week. I rated Eliza, from Scratch 5 stars and Pasta Girls 4.5 stars.

Eliza takes academics seriously so when she gets stuck with culinary arts as a class instead of an AP one she has to learn to work with a boy 1) Looks down on her for not knowing how to cook 2) Becomes her rival for the cooking competition at the end of the semester (being the top cook is the only way to get a GPA boost) and 3) she has to be partners with. Eliza and Wesley had such a lovely, slow-burning romance. I mean, you knew they were going to be together but their misconceptions about each other dissolved into a loving relationship. Eliza doesn't feel close to her Korean roots and Wesley doesn't feel close to his Thai roots. They explore this through their cooking lessons and many talks with each other. What I really loved even more than the individual characters and their romance was Eliza and her mom. Her mom lost her mom (Eliza's grandmother) a year ago and their relationship hasn't been the same since. She becomes close with her mom again because she starts asking her to teach her to make her grandmother's recipes. That relationship really got to me! It also had an important discussion about academics not being everyone's forte. People can aspire to be different or have different strengths, and that didn't make them less than. Eliza's growth and understanding was a wonderful thing to see.

Pasta Girls is a Romeo and Juliet retelling, but make it gay girls who have parents with rival Italian restaurants. I loved how they Juliet and Romea. Juliet specifically was my favorite POV because she's kind of on the "bad" side os the two families. Her father is basically jealous of Romea's dad and he claims it as he doesn't like that he doesn't make traditional Italian food. Her cousin is also homophobic, even though she has said for sure she is a lesbian. I think both girls faced some sort of prejudice or dismissal of their sexuality because they are too "young" to know what they want. 

Juliet has autism and she goes to this therapist to try to help her learn to navigate new situations and advocate for herself. Her parents are very well-intended, all in all, which I appreciated. They do love her; she just had to go to extremes for them to listen to her. I loved that she stood up for herself, especially after feeling invisible after the death of her brother years ago. Romea kind of had the same problems at home to a degree. She wasn't spending time cooking with her dad like she used to. She felt like she was being pushed to like a boy, so she would act out around him. Romea has ADHD and there was a brief mention about feeling misunderstood. Her dad is not a bully, though, so she wins there. I loved both characters. I was so pleasantly surprised by this story because I had DNF'd it earlier this year, but I was trying to read it physically and right now, audiobooks are the only form of reading I can get through.

Last week I watched You, Me, and Tuscany. I was a little wary in the beginning because I wasn't seeing much emoting with Halle, but once she got to Tuscany, I was transported. I was like when can I go? It was so much fun, had some drama, and there was some humor sprinkled in. Would recommend watching! I also went to a weaving class, where I learned only one technique, but it did make me appreciate the art and want to do it again. I went to a cultural center and the gallery had different fiber artists' work and it was gorgeous. Very inspiring. I actually took a painting class yesterday which I'll write about more in my next weekly recap. 

I'm currently reading Estela, Undrowning and it is so good! I plan to give reading physically a shot this weekend with two books as options - This Ain't Our First Rodeo and The Starter Ex. I have bought so many diverse romances this year, but I've only read one! So it would make sense for me to read The Starter Ex, but I really want to read the teen cowboy romance I got from the library! Decisions. Decisions.