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The first half of this book was filled with a beautifully detailed back story and delicious food descriptions that my mouth watering. Unfortunately, all of that was lost in the second half of the book. The story dragged, became repetitive, and there were multiple instances of undisclosed sensitive topics that were not mentioned at the start of the book. These topics need trigger warnings and change the entire atmosphere of the book. It lost the magical fantasy aspect that initially attracted me to the book and focused much more on the hardships of living in the time period which I was not as interested in.

Feast, a historical novel by Catherine Kurtz, is indeed a feast for your imagination with luscious descriptions of the flavors, the tastes, and the smells of food, as well as descriptions of landscaping, clothing - really any thing in the book - and those put you there. It is difficult to believe that Kurtz is a debut author, her descriptions are that good!

The storyline, however, fell short for me: Minha's gift came off as magical, not historical, and the characters, other than Minha herself, were not well flushed out. The ending also felt rushed and was somewhat predictable. Still, this is a talented author to watch! A solid three stars from me.

Feast by Catherine Kurtz

Minha was born with an extraordinary ability to taste. Her senses of smell and taste were so finely sensitive that even as a child she could distinguish all the flavors and ingredients in a dish. Her beloved grandfather patiently helped her refine her palate further. After his death she stowed away on a ship to France and, quite by accident, became the food taster to the Duc Nicholas de Bellefalaise when she saved his life from a poisoning attempt. Minha was thus required to taste every single food and drink to insure the Duc’s safety. Soon, however, she was off to fend for herself again.

Many of Minha’s experiences will resonate with readers. The author, who is also a food writer, describes food in exquisite detail. This reader was entranced by sumptuous descriptions of sweet and savory dishes.

The writing is truly moving in several places, and those passages lift the book to a higher and more meaningful level. (No spoilers here!). The plot itself though seemed somewhat predictable. And, with the exception of the determined and resourceful Minha, the characters didn’t truly stand out. However, FEAST is altogether an enjoyable book.

Thanks to NetGalley and BookBrowse for the opportunity to read and comment. It will be well received by many book groups and individual readers.

This book is a tale of a woman who has a magical ability to taste everything including where the food has been grown. She falls into being a taster for a Duke to guard against poisoning. She suffers many travails along the course of the book. I had an easier time accepting her magical power than some of the coincidences. Maybe I would have preferred more magic or super powers along the way. I found myself losing admiration for the heroine as I followed her journey.

Feast is a historical novel set in the 19th century. Locations are England and France. Minha is a young woman who has an extraordinary sense of taste. Her whole life she can list every ingredient in a prepared dish. She possesses a taste memory as well. Minha gets a job as a poison taster at the castle of a rich French duke. She is treated as "parlor trick" and paraded before the guests to perform. She is a person of color and considered an outcast. Minha has some horrendous experiences but preserves. This novel provided a huge contrast between those with power and those with none. Some of the plot events were a bit predictable. Overall, I enjoyed it. The descriptions of the food and the other characters was very detailed. I felt like I was in the story.

While I thought that the writing of Feast was good, I found the plot to be disappointing. I have found that recently many authors use the technique of jumping back and forth in time while telling the story. Sometimes this technique is very effective when you slowly gain "little nuggets" of information about a character(s). In Feast I just found jumping back and forth in time to simply be tedious. I believe the story would have been much more effective if told linearly. I also found the plot to be very predictable. To avoid spoilers I won't give the many examples, but I will say, not once did i think, "well I didn't see that coming."

The author does an excellent job in her descriptions both of the people and of the food. I could smell and taste every dish that she described. And I could definitely visualize all of the characters.

I would recommend "Feast" to someone who would like a light read, but not to a book club that wants to dive deeply into character or plot analysis.

I found the premise of "Feast" by Catherine Kurtz to be very intriguing. I looked forward to meeting Minha, a girl with the extraordinary ability to smell and taste every tiny ingredient in her food. That she was a poison taster for a French duc made me look forward to this interesting tale. There is so much to like about this book, but there were some issues for me. The descriptions of the sumptuous foods served on a regular basis were wonderful, but I found the amount of food descriptions to be overwhelming. I also wanted to read more details about Minha's and Frog's life especially how they survived their long time in hiding. Although I was happy with the ending, I found the miraculous nature of it to be a bit too much. This was, however, a satisfying read.