Bloom

"I gave Bloom by Kevin Panetta one star—and that one star is entirely for the art, which is absolutely beautiful. The illustrations are soft, expressive, and honestly the only thing I liked about this book.<br/><br/>Everything else? A mess.<br/><br/>Let’s start with the characters. Ari is incredibly immature. I get that he’s a teenager, but why do authors keep writing teens like they have no sense? His behavior was frustrating throughout the entire book. In the beginning, I felt bad for him when his dad pressured him to take over the bakery—because, yeah, it’s not a kid’s fault that their family business is struggling. But as the story went on, Ari just came off spoiled and annoying. His constant whining, especially when Hector went home for a week, made me roll my eyes. Like, why are you pressed? You’re not even dating at that point!<br/><br/>Hector was the only character who seemed to have any common sense. As for Ari’s friends—Jake and that one girl with black hair were fine, but the others? Especially the blonde dude and Lauren? They sucked. The white friend constantly called Ari a loser and acted like a complete jerk. That’s not friendship. It felt like the author tried to show toxic dynamics but never really addressed them properly.<br/><br/>Now let’s talk about the romance. I didn’t buy it. At all. It felt forced and unnecessary. Ari and Hector had no chemistry. Just because two people are friendly doesn’t mean they need to fall in love. The story could’ve been way more powerful if it had focused on friendship or personal growth. Not every story needs romance—especially when it’s this weak and underdeveloped.<br/><br/>And the plot? What was it even about? Was it about Ari rediscovering his love of baking? Coming-of-age? Romance? Because it didn’t do any of those things well. It felt aimless, like it was trying to do too much and ended up saying nothing.<br/><br/>I really wanted to like this book. But beautiful art can’t save a story that lacks depth, direction, and likable characters."

"Liked it, needed more romance between Ari and Hector tho 🙃"

"Sometimes I read these costal books and think to myself. I'd love to go to the beach everyday, than I realize I live two minutes from lake Erie. This book was so cute I love how hector is very kind and a strong character with a heart of gold. And Ari is really cute. The ending was really cute and honestly reminded me a lot of check please. I guess I love manga of people my age baking! Maybe I'll follow the recipe on the back of the book. "

"🩷"

"A cute coming of age love story about cooking, family, and friendships. I like how realistic and not over dramatised everything is it makes the story more relatable. And if you are a sucker for love you'll like this graphic novel. #love_and_romance #baking #lgbtq "

"This was cute, however it felt like there was constaaant tension between the two and idk if that was the point, but it wasn’t for me like I was waiting for them to grow on each other but it just ended off of what still felt like tension imo 😶 (waiting for the second book to redeem tho !)"

"Ive never wanted to learn how to bake more. Beautiful romance"

"mmmmmmmmm the storyline was a bit thrown together, there are a few plot holes/skips, and the romance aspect could've been a lot better (i didn't know it was a romance-, there wasn't much build up about any at all) but i still liked the book altogether. vou know when vou do an art proiect and it's kinda not what vou were hoping it'd be but you're satistied with it in a "it's good enough" kind of way? that's this book."

"The art style was pretty, the characters were alright, overall not bad!"

"Too boring "