A Taste for Love

For fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show, A Taste for Love, is a delicious rom com about first love, familial expectations, and making the perfect bao.

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.

Autorentext

Jennifer Yen

Klappentext

For fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show, A Taste for Love is a delicious rom-com about first love, familial expectations, and making the perfect bao.

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.

Zusammenfassung
For fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show, A Taste for Love, is a delicious rom com about first love, familial expectations, and making the perfect bao.

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.

Leseprobe
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a mother in possession of great wisdom, must be in want nay, in need of a daughter who will listen.

The neon letters mock me from the plaque s smooth black surface. Surely, Mom hasn t twisted the words of one of my favorite authors. My jaw swings open, but the curse never quite leaves my lips. Instead, I squeeze my eyes shut and wish for the words hanging over my desk to disappear. I pry one eyelid open.

Nope. It hasn t changed.

Jane Austen, give me strength.

The corner of Mom s mouth twitches as I swivel to look at her.

So, what do you think? Sharon was running a sale, and I thought this would be the perfect addition to your room.

Of course it came off Etsy. I wish I d never introduced her to that hell site. It s like Pinterest for people with insomnia and money.

It s clever, right? I came up with the quote myself, she continues, eyes glinting. By the way, I don t know why you love that story so much. If I were Mrs. Bennet, those girls would have been married off in half the time.

I cringe. If fictional characters aren t safe from her meddling, what chance do I have? I can t even remember a time when Mom wasn t bossing me around. I m pretty sure Jeannie and I were barely out of diapers when she taught us the two most important things to have in life:

1. A useful college degree, so we can take care of her when she s old.

2. A good husband, so he can take care of us.

Not one to leave things to chance, the minute we hit puberty, Mom also gave us her cardinal rules for dating:

1. No dating while you re in school.

2. Only Asian boys allowed. The more traditional, the better.

2.5. The best type of Asian to date is Taiwanese, then Chinese. There are no others.

3. He must be tall. At least three inches more than you.

4. He has to be smart and choose a stable career like doctor or engineer.

5. He must be Asian (this point is so important, it s stressed twice).

Jeannie, my older sister, is the poster child for obedient Asian daughters. She followed all but the first rule to the letter, something Mom easily forgave. To make matters worse, everyone loves her.

She s so graceful and well spoken!

Jeannie is the nicest person! She s always smiling.

I love her style. I m always stalking her Insta to see what she s wearing!

Jeannie s so pretty a modeling scout chased after her for weeks to sign her. In fact, we have one of her first pictures sitting on the mantel. Whenever we have guests, Dad always jokes it s the one that came in the frame.

As for me?

I m the rebel or if you ask Mom, the troublemaker.

Watch where you re going, Liza! I can t believe you just walkedinto a parked car.

Why did you have to say that in front of Mrs. Zhou? I m so embarrassed!

Stop slouching. It looks lazy.

And let s not forget one of Mom s favorites:

You act too smart. Boys don t like girls who are smarter than them.

She had a million of these advice for how to make a boy like me. Not any boy, mind you. Only the ones who fit her list of rules. It didn t take long for me to realize what she really wanted was for me not to be . . . me.

Like that was going to happen.

So I broke her rules. Not to annoy her, though it was an added bonus. I just didn t see the point. Why make myself something Iwasn t just to convince a boy to date me? Especially when there wereguys out th