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The Lost Recipe For Happiness

The Lost Recipe For Happiness, January 2009
by Barbara O'Neal

Bantam Discovery
464 pages
ISBN: 0553385518
EAN: 9780553385519
Trade Size
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"The Spice of Life"

Fresh Fiction Review

The Lost Recipe For Happiness
Barbara O'Neal

Reviewed by Kamela Cody
Posted February 9, 2009

Women's Fiction Contemporary

"Along Elena's smooth white back is an ancient scar that cuts downward in grotesque beauty like a long, graceful snake." So, goes the first sentence of Barbara O'Neal's first novel, The Lost Recipe of Happiness." Like a snake charmer, O'Neal has written her first novel with beautifully crafted characters and a storyline filled with human frailties and dreams of happiness.

Everyone needs a fresh start. When that opportunity falls into Elena Alvarez's lap five minutes after getting fired from a hot Seattle restaurant, it almost seems too good to be true. Given the opportunity to run her own kitchen in Aspen, Colorado, Elena takes a leap of faith that Aspen is the fresh start she needs. However, Elena is no fool and the ghosts from her past creep up at every chance they get. Working hard to create an authenticate menu blended from her culinary and personal experiences, she also finds herself working hard to avoid her attraction to the famous Hollywood celebrity and restaurant owner, Julian Liswood. What is the Lost Recipe of Happiness? It's a blend of food, family, and love through all the ups and downs of life.

Barbara O'Neal is a selected Bantam Discovery author and travels the world teaching workshops and lectures on several subjects. One of her most popular workshops and lectures are on helping women to create an artful life "because most women are trying to figure out how to take care of themselves and everbody else!" She is currently at work on her next novel, which is tentatively another foodie book, centered in a town that has got a reputation for food culture. I can't wait to check it out!

Learn more about The Lost Recipe For Happiness

SUMMARY

In this sumptuous new novel, Barbara O’Neal offers readers a celebration of food, family, and love as a woman searches for the elusive ingredient we’re all hoping to find….

It’s the opportunity Elena Alvarez has been waiting for–the challenge of running her own kitchen in a world-class restaurant. Haunted by an accident of which she was the lone survivor, Elena knows better than anyone how to survive the odds. With her faithful dog, Alvin, and her grandmother’s recipes, Elena arrives in Colorado to find a restaurant in as desperate need of a fresh start as she is–and a man whose passionate approach to food and life rivals her own. Owner Julian Liswood is a name many people know but a man few do. He’s come to Aspen with a troubled teenage daughter and a dream of the kind of stability and love only a family can provide. But for Elena, old ghosts don’t die quietly, yet a chance to find happiness at last is worth the risk.


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