BLOG TOUR & REVIEW: The Love Goddess’ Cooking School by Melissa Senate

Description

Camilla’s Cucinotta: Italian Cooking Classes. Fresh take-home pastas & sauces daily

Benvenuti! (Welcome!) Holly Maguire’s grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine—a Milanese fortune-teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can’t make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that’s why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla’s Cucinotta, she’s determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother’s legacy.
But Holly’s four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla’s chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter’s heart. Juliet, Holly’s childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can’t find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla’s essential ingredients of wishes and memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed—and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.

About the Author

Melissa Senate is the author of eight novels, including the bestselling See Jane Date, which was made into an ABC Family TV movie and has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. She’s published short pieces in Everything I’ve Always Wanted to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume, It’s a Wonderful Lie, Flirting with Pride and Prejudice, and American Girls About Town. A former romance and young adult editor from New York, she now lives on the southern coast of Maine with her son.

Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Gallery; Original edition (October 26, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439107238
ISBN-13: 978-1439107232

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

Melissa Senate knows how to craft the perfect Chick Lit book without being cliche, although I think this one would probably fall into the category of Contempory Fiction. I am pretty sure I proclaimed her last book, The Secret of Joy as her best book ever, but she keeps getting better. Can you tell how much I enjoy them?

Holly has her heart broken and in her search to repair it, she starts teaching cooking after inheriting her grandmother’s shop. Camille has a lot to teach Holly and the lessons come through as touching and poignant. Holly finds true friendship through cooking and sparkles when Juliet, Tamara and Mia (an almost teen) meet up with Simon. Holly falls for Liam, Mia’s dad and tries to work through her past. They all have deep dark secrets and when they learn to share, the story really takes off. This reminded me a lot of The Friday Night Knitting Club, so if you enjoyed that, you will love this one!