ARC #Review: SALT AND SUGAR by Rebecca Carvalho

SALT AND SUGAR

Author: Rebecca Carvalho

Series: N/A
Source: ARC from Publisher
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:

Summary:

The grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries fall in love despite their families’ feud.

Trust neither thin-bottomed frying pans nor Molinas.

Lari Ramires has always known this to be true. In Olinda, Brazil, her family’s bakery, Salt, has been at war with the Molinas’ bakery across the street, Sugar, for generations. But Lari’s world turns upside down when her beloved grandmother passes away. On top of that, a big supermarket chain has moved to town, forcing many of the small businesses to close.

Determined to protect her home, Lari does the unthinkable—she works together with Pedro Molina to save both of their bakeries. Lari realizes she might not know Pedro as well as she thought—and she maybe even likes what she learns—but the question remains: Can a Ramires and a Molina truly trust one another?

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Content Warning: death of a loved one, food discussions, yelling, emotional neglect by a parent

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This is no way impacts my opinion.

Love between rival families’ children themed with sweet, salty, mouth watering bakeries that make you extremely hungry with well developed characters! Two rival bakeries across the street from one another. The Ramires family only prepares savory foods (Salt) as Molinas family only prepares sweets (Sugar). When a new department store opens up and threatens both bakeries, Lari and Pedro need to work together to save their family bakeries. But after hating a person for a long time, it may be real challenge to work alongside them.

Oh my goodness, this was so stinking cute! I loved the baking scenes, the build up of the romance, and the way that the Romeo and Juliet story was retold through this. While not a one for one retelling, I appreciated the homage to the story in this one. I thought there was a lot of really great scenes and dialogue between our main two characters.

Lari and Pedro’s chemistry was sizzling and their relationship felt well developed to go from rivals to lovers. I also really appreciated the apologizing on both sides when they were in the wrong to help settle old wounds.

I went into this thinking it was going to just be light-hearted and a cute contemporary novel, but there was so much more than that! All the descriptions of the different pastries had me absolutely drooling. This wholesome story does a beautiful job exploring the complex emotions of figuring out that there is more to people than we know.

I loved their relationship and seeing how it came to play. I would have liked a bit more looking into the other three people in the Cooking Club, and some of the other classmates, but I think it could have been too much for this one novel.

I felt like there were a few pitfalls in the writing style but I think that will be something that Carvalho works out as she writs more novels in the future. I think for a debut novel, it was super well done!

Definitely pick this one up, but make sure you have something yummy near by!