RECIPE FOR A CHARMED LIFE
Rachel Linden
Berkley
January 9, 2023
384 pages
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This story is part romance, part family drama. Of course, it has the requirement of secrets, BIG secrets.
I’m not going to say much about the romance part. To me, it seems corny. It isn’t sensible. Boy meets girl, boy ignores girl, boy avoids girl, oops, boy now likes girl. The end. Of course, to be politically correct, I should have used the terms Man and Woman.
The family drama and story is quite interesting. It involves a mother who seemingly abandoned her husband and daughter almost 30 years prior. The reader does not know the backstory. Nor, does the daughter. There is a bit of magic realism involved. Usually, I don’t seek out books involving magic realism but this is pretty subtle and interesting. There is reconciliation that hits a road bump. The reader has to sit tight to see if it works out. The main character wants to become a chef, which plays an important part in the story.
I think that if the story had been restructured and the romance part left out, it could have been a home run for me. I enjoy family dynamics and drama. I love watching it play out. Each one always plays out a little bit differently.
I love the cover…..every bit of it reflects a part of the story.
The ending to the story was a happy ending though a little predictable.
And surprisingly, there were a couple of recipes that were important to the story) included after the epilogue.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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