Envy of Angels

So basically one day I had no idea what to pick from my to-read list, so I decided to ask a friend of mine to point at something based on the cover alone. This was before lunch, so those chicken nuggets looked really good and she went with this one. (At least it's no some million page series, I told myself. I have a hard time picking them up when I know it will take a lifetime to actually read them.)

You know, I do love food. Eating it, making it, reading about it, looking at shows and photos. I have a bit of a love affair with those shows where they show little video clips of stuff being made and the food ones are my favourites. It's all fascinating and I am convinced that if we need to eat multiple times a day for survival, we should make it nice, not just another chore.
I also really like urban fantasy. The idea of supernatural elements being part of modern life and taking place in situations that are so familiar is just fun to me. They ways you can integrate them to a completely non-fantasy setting can go in so many absolutely fascinating ways.

Well, in this case it's... meh.
In the artsy-fartsy New York gastronomy scene there is a place where they serve supernaturals with ingredients a bit more exotic than the normal grocery store selection and I don't mean artisan crap. Two people get invited for a job to this restaurant and things aren't exactly culinary school lever.

The idea, I love it. It sounded like a nice blend of things that could have been so refreshingly fun. Instead, the author went with this upper class idle hipster way of looking at everything. It all really felt like the fantasy of some guy who only ever went to restaurants as a customer and saw maybe 10 minutes or Gordon Ramsay action.
The characters were nothing interesting, just paper thin caricatures of human beings (like Lena, who is super good at EVERYTHING and is the moral superiority of it all, or the chef guy who we know is a dick from the get go because he has the wrong kind of facial hair). It all felt so superficial and simplistic.

I didn't expect depth. This thing is really short, you can read it lightning fast, but this... no. I'm sorry, I can't vouch for a book that's so underdeveloped. Sure, be light, be funny, I love me some reads like that. Seriously, I am the last person to demand seriousness and heavy things at all times, but this just didn't measure up to what I call truly worth my while.
It is possible that with more stories coming out this universe and idea will be properly formed and it will all make sense, but right now I feel like it is more like a cool little idea you write down in a little notebook that you could totally work with later.
It just wasn't good. It really wasn't.

Shoo now, I'm hangry.