A fun, delicious romcom about a down-on-her-luck chef who returns to her small Maine hometown and rekindles a relationship with an old friend.
Second-chance romance, culinary culture, and a beautiful seaside
setting sweetly combine in Effie
Olsen’s Summer Special, a deliciously appetizing romcom by Rochelle Bilow (Ruby
Spencer’s Whiskey Year).
Broke and without
a backup plan, Effie Olsen--a single, 33-year-old, professional chef--loses her
“dream job” in San Francisco. She packs up her “knife bag and a few chef’s
coats” and returns, after 16-years, to her “absurdly small, insufferably
chatty” hometown of Adler Isle, Maine. Effie takes refuge under the pretext of a
summer visit with her father and her younger sister, a “Generation Z financial
prodigy.”
Effie’s return
reunites her with Ernie Callahan, her still-single, former high school BFF. Ernie
works as a chef at “Brown Butter,” a “farm to table… Michelin-starred
restaurant” operated by a sexist male head chef who offers Effie a job. With
Effie and Ernie working under the same roof, the two easily fall into favor and
rekindle a “bucket list” of planned field trips of watching sunsets, indulging
in giant lobster rolls, and even salsa dancing. Along the way of their making fun, new memories,
a situation arises at the restaurant that calls professional integrity into
question—might the dilemma impinge upon the old friends turning into lovers?
Bilow’s insider knowledge of
the restaurant industry is a key ingredient that adds depth and authenticity to
this spicy, richly satisfying story that blends the pleasures of true love with
elements of self-discovery.
Effie
Olsen’s Summer Special by
Rochelle Bilow
Berkley, 18.00 paperback,
9780593547908, 384 pages
Publication Date: April
30, 2024
To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE
NOTE: This review is a reprint and is
being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this
review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (May 2, 2024), link HERE