The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

I am trying to do the 2021 Popsugar Challenge this year. Or should I say I am trying to complete more than eight tasks that I did last year. I am happy to announce that I am halfway there and with this book, I have completed four tasks.
When I first started reading this book, I was intrigued by the concept. Rose, the main character, develops the ability to feel the emotions of the people who have cooked anything she eats. The book starts well as Rose begins to understand her “abilities” and is written in a way that seems realistic for a girl her age who cannot quite figure out what is going on. As the book progresses, Rose begins to identify upsetting information related to her mother. While all this is going on, her brother, who is described by the author as a bit of an oddball with no real explanation, also begins to act strangely. Then there is the backstory of Rose's distant relationship with her father, which climaxes with a story about his own family that relates to Rose's own powers. The problem I had is that there was a lot of emotion in the food and it was described beautifully, but none of it played out successfully within the family. It was just sort of left hanging. Additionally, the story with the brother and his own “gifts” was almost overload, nor was it well explained. The ending felt very rushed to me, as if the author had some great ideas, lumped them all in one book. I wish some details were better explained even if that means the book would have been a bit longer. This is my first book by Aimee Bender and also my first 3-star read this year. While I gave it a lower rating than you might expect I will be interested to read something new by the author if something becomes available soon.