As a captivating ode to love, truth, growing up, and Italian food, Melissa Senate's THE LOVE GODDESS' COOKING SCHOOL is a hands-down keeper with a unique story and characters that I couldn't help but love.
Holly Maguire has been searching for love most of her life, even more heartily since her fortune-telling Nonna told her that he would love sa cordula, an old world delicacy of lamb intestines and peas in a butter sauce. When her world is turned upside down by her current love's rejection and beloved grandmother's death, Holly moves back to Blue Crab Cove determined to preserve her grandmother's memory and cooking school, and carve out a life for herself in the process.
Taking up the charge to run Camilla's cooking school, Holly realizes that students flock to the Cooking School for more than cooking lessons; they come to learn lessons in healing and love. It was sweet getting to know the four students that make up her class. Simon, Tamara, Juliet and the young apprentice Mia, add just as much to the story as the Italian food that courses through the tale. I found myself rooting for them as they overcame life's challenges, and my heart went out to them in their struggles.
Believable, unique, and satisfying, Senate pens a touching story that will make you hungry for Chicken alla Milenese and creamy Tiramisu.
Camillaβs Cucinotta: Italian Cooking Classes. Fresh
take-home pastas & sauces dailyBenvenuti! (Welcome!)
Holly Maguireβs grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of
Blue Crab Island, Maineβa 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 canβt make a
decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe thatβs
why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when
Holly inherits Camillaβs Cucinotta, sheβs determined to
forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking
teacher worthy of her grandmotherβs legacy.
But Hollyβs four students are seeking much more than how to
make Camillaβs chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single
father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughterβs
heart. Juliet, Hollyβs childhood friend, hides a painful
secret. Tamara, a serial dater, canβt find the love she
longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook
will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony
lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week,
adding Camillaβs essential ingredients of wishes and
memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and
romances are formedβand tested. Especially when Holly falls
hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding
her own recipe for happiness.
No excerpt available.
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