Title: All We Hunger For
Author: Anna Mercier
Genre: YA Fantasy, Romantasy
Format: eARC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.5 stars)
Release Date: June 23, 2026
Synopsis
In Anespérer, magic is expressed through artistic talent.
Music, painting, sculpture, and even baking can shape the world around you, and one of the most prestigious positions in the city belongs to the Souverain of Culinary Arts.
When the current Souverain dies, a massive baking competition is organized to select a successor.
For Elara Rousseau, a talented baker from the slums, participating should be impossible. But thanks to a carefully crafted false identity and help from an unlikely ally, she finds herself competing alongside the city's elite.
Meanwhile, Nikolas Dupont is determined to earn the approval of his powerful father, even if it means manipulating the competition for political gain.
As tensions rise throughout the city, Elara and Nik become entangled in a web of secrets, betrayals, and growing unrest that threatens to change Anespérer forever.
My Thoughts
I picked up All We Hunger For largely because the premise sounded irresistible.
A magical baking competition?
Say no more.
What immediately drew me in was the book's magic system. In Anespérer, artistic talent is directly tied to magical ability, which creates a world where bakers, musicians, and artists hold real power and influence.
It's a creative concept, and easily one of the strongest aspects of the novel.
The competition itself was probably my favorite part of the story.
Watching Elara combine baking and magic while navigating a contest clearly designed to favor the wealthy elite made for some genuinely entertaining moments. I also enjoyed seeing her become a symbol of hope for the poorer citizens of the city, even as she struggled to keep her own secrets hidden.
At the same time, we follow Nikolas.
Much of his storyline revolves around his complicated relationship with his father and his desperate desire to earn recognition and approval. Initially, he views Elara as a convenient pawn in a larger political game, but things become considerably more complicated as the story progresses.
And that's where the novel starts to expand beyond its competition premise.
What begins as a magical baking competition gradually evolves into a story filled with political intrigue, manipulation, betrayals, hidden agendas, and even murder plots.
There are certainly plenty of interesting ideas here.
In fact, I sometimes felt there were almost too many.
While I appreciated the complexity of the political storyline, there were moments where the sheer number of schemes, secrets and competing interests became a little overwhelming. The book is constantly introducing new layers to the conflict, and occasionally I found myself wishing it would slow down long enough to fully explore some of them.
My other struggle was the romance.
Unfortunately, Elara and Nik never completely clicked for me as a couple.
While I understood why the story paired them together, I never felt a strong emotional connection between them. Much of their interaction felt argumentative rather than romantic, and by the end I wasn't entirely convinced the romance added much to the story.
Ironically, I found myself more invested in the competition, the magic system and the political tensions than in the relationship itself.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it did leave the romantic arc feeling somewhat underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the novel.
Final Thoughts
All We Hunger For is an ambitious fantasy that combines a unique magic system, a high-stakes baking competition, and a city on the brink of political upheaval.
While I didn't fully connect with the romance and occasionally felt overwhelmed by the number of plot threads, I genuinely enjoyed the creativity of the worldbuilding and the competition elements.
This ended up being one of those books where I admired the ideas more than I emotionally connected with the story itself.
Still, if magical baking, political intrigue, and class conflict sound appealing to you, this is definitely worth checking out.
⭐️ 3.5 stars
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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