All the way through, I kept thinking this could have been better. More bite. Less gross Italian dish which is supposed to lead to true love. It was not bad, but I wanted better. ( )

Entertaining. ( )

D'accordo che da un chick-lit non ci si può aspettare alta letteratura, ma che almeno sia credibile quello sì! Qui invece siamo ai livelli di fantascienza, con una protagonista che pur non sapendo cucinare nemmeno un risotto pretende di tenere un corso di cucina - e ci riesce pure! No comment. ( )

Funny sometimes they way you run into books. One of the recommendations on this site was sitting next to this book on the library shelf. I loved opening page - well the page before the book began, "I was thirty-two before I started cooking; until then, I just ate." Julia Child.

The main themes in this book, beside Italian cooking(!) are the relationships between mothers and daughters. Secondly, relationships between fathers and daughters.

Throw in a love story or two and you have this book which takes place on a the fictitious place in Maine called Blue Crab Island, only a mere 10 minutes away from Portland by bridge.

So much easier than a ferry.

This is what I call a potato chip of a book verses a meat and potato type of book -i.e. Gone With the Wind.

You can't stop! ( )

I picked this up at the bookstore one day when I was thinking of my sister-in-law and channeling my mother, who had a fondness for this type of book. She loved a love story, which this was, with a dash of magical realism and cookery thrown into the mix. I did like some of the relationships, wish Holly's Nonna had been around a bit more, liked the growth of the two father/daughter relationships, and sorrowed for Holly's relationship with her mother, and the mother's relationship with her mother. The recipes at the back of the book didn't excite me, though the idea of cooking with wishes and memories did. One slight disappointment: unlike Peak's Island, Maine (which is mentioned in the book, and the setting for two wonderful books by Jacqueline Sheehan), Blue Crab Island is not a real place. ( )