11 must-read new YA book releases to snuggle up with in February
By Lacy Baugher
A Taste for Love – Jennifer Yen
A story that’s described as Pride and Prejudice meets The Great British Baking Show with effortlessly handled Asian representation thrown on top? Sign us up right now.
A Taste for Love follows the story of high school student Liza, who finds herself at the center of a family baking competition turned Bachelor-esque competition involving a group of handsome young Asian-American men her mother wants her to date. Naturally, she finds herself almost immediately drawn to one – you guessed it – Mr. Darcy, a stoic and handsome baker.
You probably can guess what happens next, but this story is full of enough entertaining twists and turns to make this familiar tale feel entirely brand new.
The official synopsis describes the story in more detail.
"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."
We chatted with A Taste for Love author Jennifer Yen last week about her story, what it means to her, and writing about all that delicious food.
A Taste for Love is available on February 2nd.