You're Bacon Me Crazy

Wish #4

by Suzanne Nelson

Tessa loves working at the trendy food truck her aunt runs in their native San Francisco. Whipping up creative treats, serving yummy BLTs to her classmates after school… Tessa feels like she’s living the dream. Then the dream turns into a nightmare. Popular, arrogant Asher starts working at the truck! He can’t make a sandwich to save his life, and on top of it all, he’s frustratingly cute.

But when the city’s big food truck festival is cancelled, the future of the truck is suddenly at stake. Tessa and Asher will have to set aside their differences and work together to save the truck. With the help of her friends, some cooking tricks, and her secret weapon — bacon! — can Tessa turn things around? And will she finally admit to herself how she really feels…about Asher?

Genres: Romance, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Food

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

When she was in kindergarten, Suzanne Nelson jotted down in a school keepsake album that she wanted to be a “riter.” Though she clearly had issues with spelling, she persisted, composing cryptic poems about rainbows, fairies, mud, and even "Star Wars" in spiral notebooks all through elementary school. When she was seventeen, she filled four journals with her handwritten first novel, titled “The Dream Keeper.” To escape her chores, she often lied to her parents about what time her shift started at the local fast food joint so that she could spend an extra hour writing in the parking lot in her mom’s faded Buick. Her first published novel was The Sound of Munich, followed by Heart and Salsa, The Ghoul Next Door, Cake Pop Crush, and Dead in the Water. She is a shameless fan of “The Sound of Music,” Hershey’s kisses, Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Austen, and can often be caught daydreaming of romping about gothic castles in lovely Victorian gowns. She was born in New Jersey, grew up in Southern California, attended college in Texas, and spent eight years as a children’s book editor in New York City. She now lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her family.

Reviews

[Kary · Rating 3 out of 5]

We ordered this for our middle school library, and I took it home to read and review before putting into circulation (there were no online reviews yet...)

I thought it was cute and had a good message about not giving up on something you really believe in (with a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure.) Our middle school girls are sure to "eat this up." :)

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best few hours of my life spent

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!! This was a super cute story!

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute read, but not my favorite in the series. I really liked how Tessa’s issues with her mother and best friend were handled, and I liked the bacon themed recipes.

[CAREY TOWNE CHRISTENSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is seriously the best book ever! Tessa an everyday average girl who works in her Aunt Cleo's food truck, suddenly finds her life being turned upside down! Her best friend Mei suddenly has a boyfriend and neglects Tessa! The tasty truck suddenly needs help and so they enlist the help of pretty boy Asher! Does Tessa find herself best friendless? Or will she will fall head over heels for Asher? You just have to read to find out!

[Nya Hodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is truly nice. i honestly think that this is something to be read for young people. i think that this book connects with you're life and also kind of have the same problems others might have. (im not saying i have the same ones, im just saying). Good Book.

[Adeline W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like how Tessa doesn't like Asher at first, but in the end, she falls in love with him.
I also like how Tessa didn't give up and she kept working hard to make Flavor Fest possible.
I like how Tessa was strong while her aunt was in the hospital.

[☽✧Rowan✧☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just... no.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who doesn't love a story set on a food truck? This one was a lovely intersection about family dynamics (two overworked parents who are always traveling and their left-behind daughter who becomes close with the ten-years-older aunt there to look after her) who happens to be cool and run a food truck. Tessa has the same love of food that her aunt does and finds refuge in the cooking as well as her best friend. But such is middle school- her best friend now has a boyfriend and that's taking up too much of her time and leaving Tessa in the dust. And one of the more popular kids, Asher, is "forced" to work on the food truck to learn the price of a dollar only to fall in love.

But it's the food truck trophy they're after even when someone is trying to stop the competition from happening altogether.

It's another delightfully food-centered romance and they're like potato chips- you can't have just one.

[Riley Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rating this now because I remember reading this in middle school and rereading it multiple times. Might not have been any good plotwise, I have no idea, but I enjoyed it! And nostalgia definitely ups the rating.

[Kameryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. It is kind of corny though because of the puns. I still recommend it though because it is funny. There are more books to this wish series so I am planning on reading it all. I read the Willow Halls series by the same author and it was my favorite series I have ever read. I also recommend that series also. This author is a really good author and I recommend you read the books that she writes.

[Rmsooon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute i liked it i felt like i worked in food truck for a while

[Anna Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and I think that it deserves a 6 out of 5. I like it because it is a romance and I love romances. If anyone likes romance and cooking, then you should definitely.

[Nancy Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. If you like bacon and a book, this is your getaway on a page!

[Maddy W.]

For the second read, I enjoyed it! I think the theme is never dought who people really are

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suzanne Nelson's novel You're Bacon Me Crazy is a great book to read! At first I thought it would be to immature for me but it surprised me! I'm very happy that I read this book! It has a good lesson that everyone can learn from.

You're Bacon Me Crazy is about a teenage girl name Tessa who works at her Auntie Cleo's food truck. She loves to cook, especially if it has bacon in the recipes. As you read through the book you experience her struggle with her best friend, Mei, and the food truck.

I highly recommend reading this book if you are a young girl. Not only is a fun book to read it also has a plot that, I think, a lot of girls can relate to.

[Ciara croom · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has a lot of stuff to do with your real-life or some peoples real life but when you open the book you would really see that it is not the type of book where you just stay one one topic

[Rosie Green]

When I started this book I was a bit skeptic about is.But once I started to get deeper and deeper into this book I couldn't stop my self from reading on. This book never was boring and always had something going on to make you want to read more.I would recommend this book to girls around the age of 12-14 because the main character is in her middle school years and it really shows that middle school is not that bad if you make the best of it.My absolute favorite part of this book was at the end when Tessa's dreams come true when...Well if you want to know you'll just have to read it for yourself.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tessa loves working at her aunt Cleo's food truck untill Asher the most popular boy in school is forced to work there because his mom is making him pay for a vase he broke even though he and his mom both already have the money being rich. Asher is rude messy and does ot know what he is doing but soon he shows Tessa he has aother side too him but how will she put up with him being two faced also not to forget the food truck celabration with awards is annceled and replaced for sit down restraunts festival instead Tessa haas to fix this so her aunt can keep her bissness running and tessa's dreams going!

[Lenni Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tessa loves working at her aunts food truck after school. But that quickly changes when Asher, the most popular guy in school, starts working there too. He's an awful cook and can't do anything right. Such a jerk.
And then, the food trucks one chance of surviving is crushed by a world famous chef! Tessa has to do something to save the day for all the food trucks! But how can she when Asher is so awful at cooking. And can she really embrace how she feels about him?
I loved this book and i had been dying to read it. It's only available through scholastic at the moment, though. Can't wait to get Hot Cocoa Hearts!

[⚘ Itz Lia the Bibliophile ⚘ · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY INTERESTING!!!

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

The absolutely only thing Hallmark used from this book was the name and that it was about food trucks. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed this light YA book.

[Madi Cermak · Rating 4 out of 5]

You're Bacon Me Crazy by Suzanne Nelson was a romance, fiction book. This book was cheesy and a cliche. However, it did drag you into the book until the very end, being happy and gleeful.

The book 'You're Bacon Me Crazy' was about a middle school girl, Tessa, whom works with her aunt in her food truck,exploring new tastes and experimental foods that seem to be working out. The only thing that isn't working out is the food truck. In order to ave business her aunt signs the food truck up for an festival that is huge for food trucks and maybe they had a chance to dave the food truck, well until they got new it was cancelled and they had to find another way to save the food truck. This wasn't the only challenge Tessa was facing, she was also facing a arrogant boy name Asher, who got himself into a mess he couldn't dig back out of, which ended him up working for tessa's aunt. Asher is literally the opposite of Tessa, that is when food is involved.This doesn't stop tessa from finding out he true asher out. Over the period of time Tessa and Asher start to get along and try to coem up with an solution for the food truck save. This will include lots of hard work, recipes and of course a food truck.

Suzanne Nelson had an interesting plot of a story with many twist and turns and unexpected spins that sent you wondering a bit. Over the course of the book, she had character development especially with Tessa and Asher. Pointing out the real reasons behind the choices they made, making us, the readers, connect to them better. The story is told from the one and only, Tessa, creator of new recipes no one has tried before. You could tell that even from Tessa's point of view, suzanne got the emotions and description of the events and their surroundings. The imagery helped picture the middle schooler working in a food truck making new creation/ menu items.

However, i do wish she had more than one perspective on the story, like Asher's or the Aunt. This could have gave a more connection, as a reader, to the book and make us feel for those characters and how they were doing. The beginning of the book was kinda slow but once you get into the book, you literally are swept into the book and carried to a new world. She could have also included the recipes like at the beginning of each chapter instead at the very end of it.

The book was detailed and describes the adventures and their challenges along the asto their dream. Where giving up isn't an option for you only success. She had a strong, detailed, dialogue that matched her character so well.ALmost as if they were actual people living.THe book flowed perfectly average challenging and easy words that fits the range appropriate for the book.

I would recommend this book, You're Bacon Me Crazy, it shows the dreams, challenges,struggles, action, opportunities like in the real world, where many readers could relate to the book. However, this book is more towards a teen, romantic novel were adventures come with challenges.People who don't like food trucks or cliche, might want stay away from the book I recommending just finsihinging hte book and don;t stop because you will just end up thinking abpotu what can happen next, and what the author has planed out for it. The chapter are longer, but have small pauses in case you do want to stop.

[Sofie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This realistic fiction novel, You’re Bacon Me Crazy, written by Suzanne Nelson, is about a girl named Tessa, who’s world is perfect the way it is for her, working at her aunt’s food truck and making new sandwiches for the truck. But, soon her aunt hires a new worker at the truck and things get a little chaotic. The new worker is Asher, one of the people Tessa calls the “Beautiful People”, or the popular kids, who in her mind, get whatever they want and do nothing for the community or anyone else besides themselves. Tessa thinks this is the first disaster coming, but then the one thing Tessa was depending on, Flavorfest, the food truck fair of their town, is canceled. This year, Tessa will have to work with Asher to gain Flavorfest back. In this story, there were many great characters that made the book so great, but one of them, Tessa’s mom confused me a little. Even though she did confuse me, it was obvious she cared about her daughter and wanted to be closer to her. She didn’t seem supportive of her daughter a lot of the time, was always very invested into her work, and always told Tessa she needed to focus more on school than the food truck, but she was jealous of the relationship that Tessa and her aunt had through their cooking. For example, when she was asking Tessa for some bonding time, “‘Do you want to go get some ice cream at the marina?’... ‘Sorry, Mom, I've just had a bummer night so far. All I want to do is get my hands on some veggies and a cutting board.’... ‘Stress relief. I get it.’ I knew she was trying to draw a connection, but she looked like she was drawing a complete blank. … When I passed mom's office, she had fallen asleep in her chair. I bent to wake her, and I saw that, instead of her stock market numbers, the screen glowed with a different internet page: cookingfordummies.com” (70-72). This shows that her mother really does care and wants to connect more with her daughter, try to relate to her, and share something in common, so they can do activities together. In the end, I gave this book five stars because it was super interesting, and I loved reading about all the drama in her life.

[Rachel Hu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all the books in this food series and I think this one has the strongest plot, with the best ending, in my opinion. I think you should definitely read this book if you want to put yourself in someone else’ shoes. The main character is Tessa, and she loves to work at her aunt’s food truck. When the food truck festival comes around, it’s really cool to see Tessa’s determination to win, and the tension makes you read so fast to find out who won. This part of the book was my favorite because it had a balance of her priorities. At the time, her love life was not going well, and although she had to fix it, she set her mind on the goal shes tried to achieve for so long. She was focused on the festival the entire time, and this was really inspirational. *SPOILER ALERT* Another part of the book I really liked was the celebration of their victory at the end. I felt so genuinely happy for the characters in the book, and that's why I think it was such a good book. Suzanne Nelson did a great job of introducing the characters in a way where you feel so connected. Definitely read this book if you like food and romance.

[dailyminty · Rating 3 out of 5]

i accidentally deleted my review so i'm gonna just try and type it again...

okay suzanne...slightly more to this. first and foremost we..slightly got a jerk character. for like a little more than one chapter. two chapters after and it's "oh i'm sorry that was a misunderstanding" (which is basically what is said on the back/plot of the book). also, the love interest happens to be yet again a rich boy with parent problems.

the mean girl rival was slightly more involved, which makes me more sad she didn't get a little more justice. she's clear that she doesn't like the female protag since the beginning but with rich boy in mind, naturally she keeps trying to prod at the protag. i would have wished for her to get ragged by the female protag, but instead rich boy just goes in the background a bit and then the next chapter he tells her he resolved everything. in the end she just kind of does the same with the rival girl from cake pop crush and is forced to apologize after trying the food.

in terms of whether the food language used in the book could sway me to feel hungry for bacon/blts, i'd say a 7/10. for cake pop crush i'd say 5/10.

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suzanne Nelson's food series are the perfect intro to romance stories for the upper elementary crowd. Of course, from a grown up perspective they're a bit on the cheesy side, but it's hard to be anything but that and still remain squeaky clean.

Tessa loves cooking and helping her aunt Cleo in her food truck business. Then popular boy, Asher, shows up to work and things go south. He clearly doesn't want to be there. On top of that, rich restauranteur, Mr. Morgan, is canceling the annual Flavorfest event which food trucks rely on for publicity. On top of that, Tessa's best friend Mei seems to be ditching her for her new boyfriend. And finally, on top of THAT, popular (and jealous) girl, Karrie, wants to sabotage their business.

Simple and cute story about a girl's passion for cooking, misunderstood attraction, and all the typical drama of the teen years. Readers who love bacon will appreciate the bacon infused recipes at the end.

[Staciel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this one for my 12 year old daughter as she really loved this series...but apparently, that was last year, and she feels that as a 7th grader, this one wasn't her thing any more.

So, in an attempt to tempt her to read it, I dove in first and that did the trick-- she couldn't let me read one of 'her' books without reading it herself..In her opinion, while the range of appeal on the book says 5th-7th grade, she would say 5th-6th grade

We both liked it and were happy that the main character, Tessa, was a girl with a passion who was comfortable in her own skin.

We also really enjoyed the bacon theme throughout and the recipes provided in the back! We are not normally fans of BLTs, but we made the BLT recipe that was so beloved in this story, and I know that we will make it again and again.

[Melanie Bracco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tessa Kostas loves working with her Aunt Cleo at the Tasty Truck, the food truck she helps out at in San Francisco where she resides, cooking and making delicious sandwiches, especially the Bacon Me Crazy BLT with her aunt's special sauce. However Tessa's world is turned upside down when Asher Rivers, the handsome, most popular boy at school starts working at the truck with her; he's arrogant and a terrible cook, he can't seem to do anything right. Things get even more frustrating when the annual food truck festival Flavorfest is cancelled and the fate of the Tasty Truck hangs in the balance.
What an awesome, delightful book! I was hooked the moment I started reading this story, I loved the character of Tessa, and was salivating at all the BLT's and bacon related recipes that she makes. Love the Wish series and plan on reading them all!

[Arwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’re Bacon Me Crazy! By Suzan Nelson is a GREAT book, about how a girl named Tessa who loves to cook recipes that include bacon! She even tried making bacon jam!!!!! Tessa works in this tiny little cart/truck where she can cook up some BLT’S. Then the jerk in school is punished and now poor Tessa has to work with him in that small little food truck! As she works she assigns him something and says he can do it. But when Tessa Turns around after like about a minute,
she sees him and his pretty little pampered self sitting perfectly, in rush hour!!! Then when they finally make progress, she finds out that something at 1 of their dances. Then she jumps to conclusions and thinks he is lying! Is he, or is he not?! Find out by reading.