Book Review - The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate

Synopsis:  Holly Maguire's grandmother 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 from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend.

As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla's essential ingredients of wishes and memories into 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.

First Line:  "According to Holly Maguire's late grandmother, revered on Blue Crab Island, Maine, for her fortune-telling as much as her cooking, the great love of Holly's life would be one of the few people on earth to like sa cordula, an Italian delicacy."

Random Quote:  "Forget about great love and focus on great cooking, she ordered herself now, the final ingredient hovering over the ravioli.  When she was little, she used to think the sad memories in the food would make those who ate the food feel sad, but her grandmother had assured her time and again that only the heart's call went into the food and not the memory or wish itself.  It had taken Holly awhile to understand what that meant."

Review:  Once again I am won over by a book that transcends its genre and makes me think I should be more broadminded about that genre - chick lit.  I've pretty much hated every chick lit book I've ever read.  So much of it is about women who care most about shopping, getting into the latest hot new club, their weight, their makeup, and snagging that enormous diamond ring and great big expensive wedding.  These characters tend to be so shallow and the books tend to be so thinly written that I end up loathing them.  One exception to this is The Devil Wears Prada, although I probably adored the wrong character - I think Miranda Priestly is a goddess and loved that the book was filled with the kind of couture that transcends fashion and becomes art.  The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate just made this list.

Seafood risotto - Image via Wikipedia

The best thing of all about this book is how simple it is - a good story, simply told.  No unnecessary embellishments, no cliches, no stereotypes, just an honestly told story about being in your thirties - a time of life when for most people everything is up for grabs.  Everyone in this book is at a crossroads in their lives with their old life down the toilet for whatever reason and the course of their new life still uncertain. 

It made me think of the time after my divorce when I had to try to sort out who I was going to be, how I was going to live.  It was a hard time for me, for my son, and for my ex-husband.  Although I never thought it would come to the great place it has today, it did work out for the best. 

The thread that runs throughout this book is all the ways that cooking and eating and sharing both things bind people together and how having a strong connection to the past, like the one Holly has with her grandmother, is so essential to grounding you in the present.  The cooking in this book isn't highlighted in any special way, but rather is a constant in the book, as it should be in real life.  It's full of as many burnt bechamel sauces as it is sublime risotto.  It acknowledges that the fun is in the process, not necessarily in the product (although it never hurts when the product is great, too).  There's an important message here about not being afraid to risk, not being afraid to fail that really resonates with me.

The other thread is Holly's relationship with her recently deceased grandmother.  They had a very special relationship and that touched my heart.  It made think of my grandmothers, both gone now, and how much they each meant to me and how many things I learned from each of them even though they were very different from each other.  They were both an enormous part of helping me become the person I am today and I miss them both almost every day.

This is a warm and beautiful book with an honest simple story that is filled with the good smells of garlic and onion and olive oil filling the house with love and companionship.  I adored this book.

FTC Disclosure:  Advance copy received from Inkwell Management for review

Rating:  Orange