The Little Italian Hotel

 

A tender, hopeful story about a woman who, after her marriage comes undone, sets off on an inspiring Italian holiday with four strangers.

Five strangers are brought together on an Italian holiday in The Little Italian Hotel, a sweetly immersive novel brimming with the hope of new beginnings by Phaedra Patrick.

 

To celebrate 25-years of marriage, Ginny Splinter--a 49-year-old,  problem-solving, British radio talk show host--surprises her husband, Adrian, by planning an upscale trip to Italy for just the two of them. But when she presents the gift, Adrian announces that he doesn’t want to go on a vacation. He wants a divorce. Shaken and jarred, heartsick Ginny decides, on a lark, to invite four loyal listeners, at random, to accompany her on the trip instead. This is accomplished by her swapping out the pricy luxury accommodations she’d planned for her and Adrian in Vigornuovo, a small Italian village in Bologna, (10, 48) in exchange for more modest lodgings for she and her guests. The five strangers--ranging in age from 27 to 80--meet for the first time, where they all set off, touring Venice and Florence. The sights of Italy may be wonders to behold, but the life stories of the strangers--each on the cusp of change in his and her own life--prove equally enriching amidst the journey.

 

Patrick (The Messy Lives of Book People) is a beautiful writer of optimistic stories that probe the true meaning of life and the human quest to find happiness and fulfillment. In The Little Italian Hotel, she once again mines the bittersweet landscape of the human heart with great tenderness, insight, and wisdom.

 

 

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

Park Row (Harlequin/Harper Collins), $18.99 original paperback, 9780778387121, 320 pages, Publishing Date: June 6, 2023

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 on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 6, 2023), link HERE

The Five-Star Weekend

A juicy story about a widowed food blogger who invites four women from different eras of her life to a Nantucket weekend getaway.

Elin Hilderbrand’s storytelling is in top form with The Five-Star Weekend, an intricately plotted, juicy novel about a popular, internet food blogger who hosts a girls’ weekend of food, fun, and togetherness.

 

After Hollis Shaw’s husband of 23-years dies in a car crash, the affable food blogging sensation tries to stabilize her life by inviting four women from different phases of her life to her picturesque home in Nantucket. The guests includes Tatum McKenzie, a local islander; Hollis’s friend since they were teenagers. Dru-Ann Jones, Hollis’s college roommate, who is now a premiere sports’ agent for professional female athletes. Brooke Kirtley, a friend from the prime of Hollis’s life—a woman instrumental in helping Hollis through the profundity of her grief. And Gigi Ling, a pilot from Atlanta, Georgia, whom Hollis has never met—the two have become online friends via Hollis’s blog. Hollis also invites her rebellious daughter, Caroline, with whom she shares a contentious relationship—one she’d really like to heal. As a film student at NYU, Hollis pays Caroline to attend the weekend, encouraging her daughter to film the event.

 

Hilderbrand (The Hotel Nantucket) delivers a five-star read that beautifully traces the essence of contemporary women and the complexities of their lives. Readers will be fascinated by the surprising drama of bringing--and braiding--together such disparate personalities. In the end, it’s not just Hollis at a crossroads. Each woman faces trials, challenges, and changes in which readers will identify and be eager to invest in.

 

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

Little, Brown and Company, $30.00 hardcover, 9780316258777, 384 pages, Publishing Date: June 13, 2023

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 on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 16, 2023), link HERE

The Chicken Sisters

A fun, lively story about the long-simmering rivalry between two legendary families that serve "the best" fried chicken in Kansas.

Comfort food and family feuds are centerpieces of the fun, first novel by KJ Dell'Antonia (How to Be a Happier Parent). The author plunges readers deep into the complicated lives of two families, the Moores and Pogociellos--rivals who share roots dating back to the 1800s in Merinac, Kan., where two sisters originated a fried chicken business. Familial tensions flowed through generations, down to Amanda Moore, who worked for her mother's traditional, old-school fried-chicken establishment, Chicken Mimi's--and fell in love with and married Frank Pogociello. Amanda's romantic choice created a mother-daughter rift that deepened when Amanda went to work for Chicken Frannie's, the competing restaurant offering a more innovative fried chicken menu.

 

With both eateries facing financial crises, Amanda reaches out to a reality TV show where two restaurants compete for a $100,000 prize. Once Amanda's pitch is accepted, it's game on for the fighting, frying families. Amanda enlists her widowed mother-in-law at the helm of Chicken Frannie's to battle against the Chicken Mimi's team: Amanda's estranged mother and Mae, Amanda's Brooklynite sister, who returns to Merinac after her successful TV career and marriage suddenly start to fray.

 

As the two eateries face off ruthlessly amid the limelight of TV cameras and producers eager to stir the drama pot, long-simmering family history infused with old resentments and scandalous secrets rises to the surface. Dell'Antonia's delightful story dishes up juicy messages about the strength and fortitude of the female spirit, the meaning of happiness and the valuable bonds of family.

The Chicken Sisters: A Novel by KJ Dell’Antonia

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $16.00 Paperback, 9780593085141, 304 pages

Publication Date: December 1, 2020

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (December 4, 2020), link HERE

The Cookbook Club

Three women--strangers facing new beginnings--bond over a communal love of food, cooking and sharing recipes.

Over the course of 13 novels, author Beth Harbison (Every Time You Go Away; Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger) has demonstrated that she knows what makes women tick--and what ticks them off. In The Cookbook Club, her 14th book, she dishes up an ensemble cast of richly drawn characters: three women, strangers from the Washington, D.C., area, who are each in the throes of a personal conflict and romantic dilemma.

When solid and sensible Margo throws out her philandering husband, she discovers an online cookbook club founded by Trista, a single, take-charge, former lawyer. Trista, fired from her job, ditches her legal career, invests in a bar and restaurant and forms the cookbook club in an effort to nurture her passion for trying out new recipes. Her solicitation for group members also draws the attention of jilted Margo and Aja, a loving, good-natured yoga instructor--single and pregnant with a child for whom the baby's very handsome, wealthy, ne'er-do-well father has no interest.

The three women--all near 30 years old and facing new beginnings--forge a friendship bonded by their culinary cravings. When the group gathers each month, they whip up and share a dish, along with recipes. The meetings allow the women to indulge their gastronomic appetites while supporting each other through respective challenges.

Harbison's storytelling is full-bodied and sharp. Wit and humor, along with delicious plot twists and a trove of included recipes, sweeten contemporary women's issues.

The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship by Beth Harbison

Morrow Paperbacks, $16.99 Paperback, 9780062958624, 384 pages

Publication Date: October 20, 2020

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 27, 2020), link HERE

 

Little Big Love

A lovable, determined, 11-year-old boy seeks to unravel a decade-long mystery in his family and finally find his birth father.

One night in June 2005 changes the lives of a family in Little Big Love by British author Katy Regan. Set in Grimsby, a small fishing village in England, the story is told from three distinct perspectives of the Hutchinson family. Zac is a precocious, inquisitive 11-year-old, who has blue eyes just like his father's. He is obsessed with food, the memory of his deceased Uncle Jamie, a chef who died a tragic death, and finding his father, Liam, who left before Zac was born.

Zac's mother, Juliet, is a single mom who has a tendency to overeat and to shoplift food from grocery stores. She still carries a torch for her old flame, Liam Jones. Her inability to get over his departure makes dating a challenge--often quite comical. Finally, there is Mick, her dad, ensnarled in the devastating situation that tore his family apart--a situation that has kept his daughter and his wife in a state of inertia for 10 years, and has burdened him with secrets.

The inability of the three narrators to move beyond the impact and implications of the night that changed everything--a night that, in its aftermath, has perpetuated lies and mystery--forms the impetus for this moving, bittersweet story that seeks to unravel the truth of what really happened and why.

Little Big Love is Katy Regan's U.S. debut; as in her U.K. releases (How We Met, The One Before the One), she delivers an affirming, buoyant novel populated by authentic, empathetic characters, young and old, who infuse her adventurous story with great poignancy, humor and heart. 

Little Big Love by Katy Regan

Berkley, $26.00 Hardcover,  9780451490346, 368 pages

Publication Date: June 12, 2018

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 15, 2018), link HERE

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kings River Life Magazine has featured one of my mystery short stories in their Thanksgiving issue. "Last Licks" is bound to make you sit up and take notice of the potatoes on your Thanksgiving table in a whole new way. The story can be read online for free. See the link below...Enjoy!

"Last Licks" is a featured in the anthology, THE KILLER WORE CRANBERRY (mystery series) published by Untreed Reads.  The book is available for purchase wherever ebooks are sold. 

To learn more, link HERE

Last Licks

by 

Kathleen Gerard

I didn’t know what hit me. All of a sudden there was a thud! and a wet splat! that triggered everything to go flying everywhere—atop the sparkly crystals of the gently swaying chandelier; the steaming gravy boat that sat alongside that big, trussed up bird, half of it carved up on a platter; the beads of sweat rolling down the glass water pitcher; and even onto the cheek of this runny-nosed kid, who was sitting in a highchair across from the scene of the crime. After it happened, there was silence. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. Every face looked at every other face, pale and stunned. But it wasn’t until one of the tall, wax tapered candles singed and launched a curly ribbon of smoke in its wake, and that snot-nosed kid started crying, that I knew things were bad. Real bad. And here I was, just a few forkfuls away from cleaning up in the betting pool.

It’s a long story that started back when we were surrounded by this oppressive darkness. There was lots of it. The two of us, Spud and me, we had been stuck in a heap for three months, covered by mounds of well-drained, moist-textured soil that smelled of clay and compost. It was a small plot of land tended by folks who had way too much time on their hands and believed in tomorrow. Every morning, noon and night, I could feel their determined footsteps trampling all over us. The ground quaked with their hard work and ambition. The heavier one wore clod-hopper boots whose soles sank into the earth like dull spikes. He got down on his knees and dimly mumbled his prayers aloud while he dug in the dirt until his fingernails turned black...

To continue reading the story, link HERE