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.
Camilla’s Cucinotta: Italian Cooking Classes. Fresh
take-home pastas & sauces dailyBenvenuti! (Welcome!)
Holly Maguire’s grandmother Camilla 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, Liam, from marrying his phony
lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week,
adding Camilla’s essential ingredients of wishes and
memories in 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.