Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food and Love by Elsie Chapman and Caroline Tung Richmond

 Rate: 3.5/5

Recommended to: anyone over sixth grade

Review: Hungry Hearts is truly a travesty because of all this wasted potential. This book is certainly a new idea, but I think it could have been carried out better. The basis of the book is really cool - a bunch of interconnected short stories written by completely different authors. But this was not done as well as it could have been. The stories weren't connected in meaningful ways - the only ways they were connected at all was a character from one story makes a little cameo in another. In all the stories, you'll notice that a character named Lila is mentioned, making her out to be this interesting enigma, and I knew from the start that she would be the last story, and I was really hyped about it. However, there was very little payoff. That story was one of the weakest in the whole book, and there was nothing special about it at all - it was forgettable. I was pretty disappointed, since Lila had been made out to be such a huge deal throughout the entire book. Nothing was said about Lila instinctively knowing what pastry to give to help people along, and that was a huge missed opportunity. Also, the constantly changing narratives and writing styles made for a difficult read. Overall, an entertaining book, and while the strong stories were really good, the weak stories kind of ruined it for me. Worth a read if you're tired of the same old thing in books.