Stella and her roommate just arrived in Italy for a friend’s wedding. It’s a beautiful day, and the hotel they are staying at is draped in flowers everywhere they look. Things haven’t exactly gone her way on this trip so far though – her luggage was lost at the airport and now she just ran into her ex-boyfriend Samuel for the first time in 9 years. It only gets tougher for Stella when she realizes Samuel isn’t here alone and their friends keep conspiring to push them together. Everyone can see they are still in love with each other…but will they see it themselves and give it a second chance?
Ali Rosen’s debut novel Recipe for Second Chances delivers a cute romcom story with split timelines allowing readers to see their current story and their history unfold together. Rosen, known widely for her cookbooks and TV gigs, is an award-winning chef. That experience is brought to the pages of her novels through characters in the food industry. Best classified as a romcom, this book delivers a small-town romance feel while being set in the Big Apple. This book is about the power of friendships and long-lost loves.
I give Recipe for Second Chances 4 out of 5 stars. This is a cute story that could easily be made into a TV movie, but is almost too tropey. There were a few pieces of location detail that didn’t add up, and I felt like the characters motivations weren’t always clear. However, I really liked the inclusion of recipes at the back of the book based on the story, along with the detailed discussion of Indian wedding traditions throughout the novel. I do wish the author would have taken more time to build the connections between the characters and flesh out the why behind their decisions earlier in the novel.
With discussions of drinking, divorce, and sex, this book would be best directed to more mature audiences over 16. This would be a wonderful read for a group of friends looking to read the same book, or for a quick weekend read. There were so many times I wanted to pickup the phone to call a friend and ask them why one of the characters would have made that decision!
I chose Recipe for Second Chances this week for the prompt a TBR Stack book. I’ve had this one since last year, but hadn’t had the opportunity to dig in. With our monthly theme of travel for March, I felt like this was a great fit as the novel follows the characters on their trip to Italy as well as their collegiate travel overseas for studies. What is your favorite book about travel?
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller
- Current audio book: Fangirl Down, Tessa Bailey
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
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