The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
The Golden Spoon is about a baking show involving 6 contestants held on the grounds of a manor who is owned by the host of the show. This season, a secondary host is brought in to help liven it up. It follows the competition as well as the lives of the people staying at the house during the taping. It technically takes place in Vermont but the entire time I was thinking it was England due to the obvious nod to The Great British Bake Off. There are secrets, murder, and some baking. The book featured chapters from each of the contestants in the first person but then the host was 3rd person. The sheer number of narrators and the change of perspective was grating. One character was young, full of herself, and unlikeable. Another was very two dimensional and fake. It seemed he was written as a caricature instead of a real person. 2 other characters were interchangeable to me. One had no impact on the story whatsoever. I had to constantly refer to the front where backstories and descriptions were written out. They just didn’t pop and were not unique. The writing bothered me as well. There were things that didn’t add up and didn’t make sense like a character described as doing something then completing that same action a few paragraphs later. Once, the phrase “this far into the competition” was used and it was only the second day. I rolled my eyes. The same silent scream metaphor was used too many times and the use of a wardrobe was cliché. It was all too predictable as well. I could see the connection a mile away. This was not a mystery or a thriller or any combination of the two. The inside cover provides false, leading statements about how the book unfolds. I would say one good thing was that it was a quick and easy read. I would say do not bother with this one as there are much better books dealing with baking and/or murder.
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