BOOK REVIEW for CUB by Paul Coccia

Thank you to the publishers - Orca Books for sending me a copy of this e-book.

TITLE:       Cub

AUTHOR:  Paul Cocccia

GENRE:     YA

RATING:    4 stars


I am on the fence about the rating for this book.  Parts of it were really good, but other's not so much.

I know that these series of books are primarily aimed at YA and social issues, but what worked best in this story were the parts dealing with Theo and his love of cooking/baking.  Having him compete in a "Chopped" type of environment was a great idea and I loved reading all the excellent food ideas he had.  

The author was great at not dwelling on too many details, especially when it came to the cooking, but rather gave us just enough information to a) follow the story and b) make your mouth water.

What did not work? the sexual harassment.  Yes, it is certainly an important topic, but it felt gratuitous in this story and not completely believable.  As I mentioned before, I would have enjoyed this book so much more if the story had focused solely on Theo and his desire to win the cooking competition.

His friend Di was interesting, but we did not get enough of her backstory.


Overall, a good book that could have been better.