Book Review: The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee

Reviewer: Samantha

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

With the glass kitchen,
Linda Francis Lee has served up a novel that is about the courage
it takes to follow your heart and be yourself.
A true recipe for life.

Portia Cuthcart never intended to leave Texas. Her dream was to run the Glass Kitchen restaurant her grandmother built decades ago. But after a string of betrayals and the loss of her legacy, Portia is determined to start a new life with her sisters in Manhattan . . . and never cook again. But when she moves into a dilapidated brownstone on the Upper West Side, she meets twelve-year-old Ariel and her widowed father Gabriel, a man with his hands full trying to raise two daughters on his own. Soon, a promise made to her sisters forces Portia back into a world of magical food and swirling emotions, where she must confront everything she has been running from. What seems so simple on the surface is anything but when long-held secrets are revealed, rivalries exposed, and the promise of new love stirs to life like chocolate mixing with cream. The Glass Kitchen is a delicious novel, a tempestuous story of a woman washed up on the shores of Manhattan who discovers that a kitchen—like an island—can be a refuge, if only she has the courage to give in to the pull of love, the power of forgiveness, and accept the complications of what it means to be family.

Review:

Books like these are becoming a fast favorite for me. There’s just a hint of a magical twist, something beyond black and white. For Portia, it is the knowing. Passed on from her grandmother and women in her family before that, they have a special ability to predict which foods need to be made and baked before requested. But it’s more than that, it’s having the power to bring a comfort in her meals, and no one needs comfort more than Ariel and Miranda, the daughters of Gabriel, the man Portia shouldn’t be attracted to – but is. A beautifully written story that will take you on a journey of sisterhood, life after divorce, and finding your true self, I highly recommend The Glass Kitchen to bring you a serving of happiness. And make you hungry!

 4 stars