Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Author: Rachel Linden
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: January 9th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

After a day of unrivaled disappointments, a promising young chef finds every bite of food suddenly tastes bitter. To save her career, she travels to the Pacific Northwest to reconnect with her estranged mom, and discovers a family legacy she never suspected in this delicious novel from the bestselling author of The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie.

American chef Georgia May Jackson has one goal—to run her own restaurant in Paris. After a grueling decade working in Parisian kitchens, she is on the cusp of success. But in one disastrous night, Georgia loses her sous-chef position, her French boyfriend, and her sense of taste! Renowned for her refined palate and daring use of bold flavors to create remarkable dishes, Georgia is devastated to discover her culinary gift has simply…vanished.

When she receives a surprising invitation from her estranged mother, Georgia flees to a small island near Seattle hoping the visit will help her regain her spark in the kitchen. There she tentatively reconnects with her mom, a free-spirited hippie eager to make up for her past mistakes. But there’s something about the enigmatic island Georgia just can’t piece together. Good luck charms keep appearing in the oddest places. Her neighbor is a puzzlingly antagonist (and annoyingly handsome) oyster farmer. And her mom keeps hinting at a mysterious family legacy.

With the clock ticking and time running out to win her dream job in Paris, Georgia begins to unravel some astonishing secrets that make her wonder if the true recipe for a charmed life might look—and taste—very different than she ever imagined.

Thank you Berkley for my gifted copy.

DIDN’T QUITE CLICK.

Well folks, this one let me down a bit. Started off well and I was interested, and then things never picked up. It kind of felt one note throughout and I was waiting to feel INVESTED and that point never hit for me.

The cooking content was good, I love a book that makes me hungry. I liked the setting and there were aspects of the romance that I enjoyed too. It’s a slow burn with a dash of banter and forced proximity.

All of the family drama and secrets started to bug me too. I was tired of hearing I can’t tell you yet, OHMYGOSHJUSTTELLME. It felt added in to stretch out the book and I felt annoyed by this.

I liked that that Georgia had some growth and found where she wanted to be. I love a good full circle moment and this had the ones I was after.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Fiction + romance
• Language: low
• Romance: kisses
• Trigger/Content Warnings: cheating boyfriend, a mother with drug abuse issues, parental abandonment, driving under the influence causing a car crash

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