Book Blurb:
A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she’s been looking for in this stunning novel. When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.
But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?
Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?
My Review: 3.5 stars
A Winter in New York by Josie Silver was another cute romance that takes place in New York that brings random strangers together.
The characters were well drawn, and the complicated family connections came across without confusion which was a feat in itself. The friendship that Iris had with Bobby was quite sweet. I’d actually like a book about Bobby and his husband!
The whole story, I mean all 384 pages, came together due to a special recipe for vanilla gelato. I know many readers loved this and were craving vanilla ice cream the “whole time” they were reading, but I had a hard time with it. It seemed a bit corny to me, and I didn’t relate to the stress over the secret recipe.
I enjoyed the listen and it was narrated well; it just wasn’t as endearing as her other books.
Quotes I liked:
Life is just so damn complicated, isn’t it, a series of random coincidences and chance meetings that add up to a lifetime.”
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