Rating: 
Summary: This book has it all!
Review: A well developed character (Rosa) whom I liked and cared about, delicious recipes I could almost taste (and look forward to making), passionate lovers, humorous family members and neighbors, and beautifully rendered portraits of Italian landscapes in various seasons that transported me there. Most of all, Lily Prior, weaves an excellent story that kept me interested from the first page to the last. I savored every chapter like a fine wine. Looking forward to her next book. I read this book after reading another fine story with food as its central theme that other readers might also enjoy: Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl. Our book club (The Roudy Readers) is reading either or both of these great books for the month of May.
Bon Appetite!
Rating: 
Summary: Very delicious & lovely book
Review: Following brilliantly in the romantic, senusal writing styles of Laura Esquivel, Isabel Allende, and Joanne Harris, with their equal flair and cache for magical realist nibbles, Lily Prior has created an unforgettable woman in her hot and voluptuous librarian named Rosa Fiore. From her agrarian roots in the sunswept Sicilian countryside, learning to cook in more than one sense of the word, to her rare books librarian days, when she meets L'Inglese, the mysterious Englishman who releases her oceans of pent-up passion, Rosa is a complex and loveable human being, despite her many quirks and foibles. The story is consummately readable and lots of fun; the prose drips with all the sensability (no, this is NOT Jane Austen!) of olive oil and tomato sauce in its richness and savory flavors. The few sex scenes (not in the least gratuituous and again immaculately written) are erotic, without being pornographic and hot, hot, hot. A highly literate romp through the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: I liked this book!!
Review: I like this author alot, I read her other book also and that also was good. This book is about a young girl who takes out her frustrations in life by baking and cooking wonderful Italian meals. She moves away from the family after her "lover" is murdered by his own family and starts a new life. Rosa then meets a new man and then the cooking and loving intensify! WOW!! I would recommend this to anyone who likes to cook or likes to love!! LOL
Rating:
Summary: A Feast of Passions
Review: La Cucina is a delightful novel of food and love. Our heroine, Rosa, is a masterful cook but naive in the ways of love. After losing the love of her youth, Rosa moves away from the family farm and moves to the city of Palermo, where she works for twenty-five years as a librarian. Her only love is food and cooking, until one day, a stranger walks into the library, L'Inglese, and steals her heart.
Rosa teaches L'Inglese the secrets of the Sicilian kitchen, and L'Inglese teaches her the secrets of love. Together, they share great passion for food and love, until one day, L'Inglese disappears. Rosa is devastated, because in Sicily, when someone disappears, they are often dead. After a terrible fire in her apartment, her brothers bring her back to the family farm, and Rosa begins her life anew.
This is a lush, full, story. Reminiscent of Like Water for Chocolate, La Cucina celebrates love, food, and family.
Rating:
Summary: Great Little Sicilian Story
Review: La Cucina is a novel full of sensuous experiences, the pleasures of both love and food. Prior has written a love story set in Sicily, a land of intense passions, in which she celebrates all of life's pleasures. The novel is full of eccentric characters who create situations bursting with emotion. Rosa Fiore grows up in a rural Sicilian house where the kitchen (la cucina) is the center of life, its heart and soul. Rosa is the only daughter in a large family where cooking is a labor of love. She is an accomplished and legendary cook by the time she is a teenager. Rosa leads a self-imposed, solitary life as a librarian in Palermo after fleeing her country home when her lover is murdered. Twenty-five years later, a mysterious Englishman enters her life, captivates her, and together they have a summer of intense physical and culinary passion. This is a rollicking story of love and life as feasts to be enjoyed to the fullest.
Rating:
Summary: An assured first novel, beautifully crafted
Review: The descriptions of the food and its preparation are so very good, and there is the most hilariously funny sex scene I've read for many a year. Read and enjoy, but dont go shopping for groceries immediately after!
Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: This is a terrific summer read! If you liked "Like Water For Chocolate", you will love this story. The author uses humorous quips throughout that I can relate to with a giggle. I found myself captivated by this far-fetched protagonist who watches life happen to her in most unusual ways. This will never become a classic, but it was fun, fun, fun!
Rating:
Summary: A PLEASING BOOK
Review: This is the sort of read you will either love or hate. Myself, I liked it! The style, as well as the main character are quirky.
I like that. The author's ability to place supporting characters to the side, almost blurred, brings the first person protagonist into sharp focus. It is quite skillfully done and I am afraid some of the reviewers of this book missed the point completely. All in all, a good story, well done. Would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A NICE READ
Review: This is the sort of read you will either love or hate. Myself, I liked it! The style, as well as the main character are quirky.
I like that. The author's ability to place supporting characters to the side, almost blurred, brings the first person protagonist into sharp focus. It is quite skillfully done and I am afraid some of the reviewers of this book missed the point completely. All in all, a good story, well done. Would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A PLEASING BOOK
Review: This is the sort of read you will either love or hate. Myself, I liked it! The style, as well as the main character are quirky.
I like that. The author's ability to place supporting characters to the side, almost blurred, brings the first person protagonist into sharp focus. It is quite skillfully done and I am afraid some of the reviewers of this book missed the point completely. All in all, a good story, well done. Would recommend it.
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