Like Water for Chocolate

Rating:
Summary: A Spirits Cookbook
Review: Like many close families, the De La Garza family does a lot of things by tradition. In this family, Mama Elena is the head of the family. In this family, it is a tradition that the youngest daughter, who is Tita (the main character), is to stay unmarried in order to take care of her mother until the day she, Mama Elena dies. This causes Tita to not be able to be with the man that she loves, Pedro. But instead, Mama Elena tells Pedro that the closest that he will get to being with Tita, is marrying Tita's sister Rosaura. So Pedro and Rosaura get married. In this book, "Like Water for Chocolate", Tita was born in a kitchen and actually has a weird connection to cooking. Tita cooks a lot, and however she feels when she is cooking rubs off on whoever eats her food. When Rosaura was getting married to Pedro, Tita was very sad. While cooking the cake for their wedding, Tita starts to cry and some of her tears fall into the cake. Everyone who ate the cake began to mourn immediately. I liked this book because it seemed like a mix between fact and fiction.

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Summary: The Secret of Good Food and True Love
Review: Like water for chocolate is a luscious master piece of Laura Esquivel that will surely capture your heart for its delightful novel about true love and good food that is hard to resist. A monthly novel full of recipes and remedies that brought passion and longing for the good taste that was hard to savor by Tita and Pedro for Tita's life is destined to take charge of her Mama Elena's life until she' s alive and can control her future. The epicure life serve to Tita by Mama Elena have brought exile and resentment of life and love. Yet no matter how hard, sour and bitter the taste like, if there's love and if it is meant to be, love will find its own way to taste and savor the wonders of true love. For love is the main dish, remedies, ingredients, and the secret of the lingering taste that tickles our tongue through our body, heart, and soul.

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Summary: True love with a taste of good home cooking
Review: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel/ A customer review

"A book of true love with troubled relationships between family members"

I enjoyed reading the book Like Water For Chocolate. I believe anyone involved in a mixed up love quarrel will easily relate to this novel. I am convinced that Laura Esquivel did a well organization of the way the book is arranged together by every month, as the chapter with different cooking recipes that ties to the main characters' feelings and emotions. The relationship of the characters continuously move up and down. As Mama Elena tries to control her youngest daughter's life, the story makes you want to keep your eyes reading to the next page without wanting to put the 164 page novel down. As the book revolves around the main character Tita, the supporting characters each have a story of their own up their sleeves. This is full of drama and true love with a diminutive touch of comedy as Tita's sister is spotted riding naked on a horse. As this wonderful book moves along, the ending is quite surprising. The reader will never expect it to happen as it tends to be bring a laugh to your face. Like Water For Chocolate is definitely worth its price to spend a few dollars. I recommend this to anyone who is stuck between two lovers and interested in the relationship between family members that they should pick this up.

Rating:
Summary: This book is fun to read!
Review: It was very fun and exciting to read Like Water for Chocolate. I believe that this is the perfect book for readers who love an exciting up tempo fiction book. I believe that Laura Esquivel did an excellent job of keeping the reader focused by adding great romance, drama, and action scenes. It was fun to read because from the beginning to the end of the book, it was funny and exciting, but at the same time very, very romantic. There wasn't any kind of reasons or explanations to actually dislike the book. I was actually very surprised on how the author Laura Esquivel has the great ability to write a novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances and home remedies. I really enjoyed this book and I believe everyone should get the chance to read it. I also believe that if you're the type of reader who loves romantic novels, then this is definitely the book I strongly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Love vs. Family Tradition
Review: If you're interested in a romance, cookbook, and drama-filled novel, "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel is the book for you. This novel is about Tita, a young Mexican girl who is in love with Pedro, but is banned from marrying him simply because of a Mexican family tradition in which the youngest in the family cannot marry for she has to take care of the mother. Pedro thought that the only way they could be together was by marrying Tita's sister Rosaura. Heartbroken over the news, Tita believed that she could never love another. Does she find another love? You'll have to read this book to find out. I really enjoyed this book because once I started reading, I didn't want to put the book down. I gave the book a rate of 5 stars because it kept me captivated, wondering what would happen next, not to mention the recipes and remedies. There were times when I was very frustrated and wanted to yell at Mama Elena, Tita's mom because she was so mean to Tita. She wouldn't even let her have a simple conversation with Pedro without watching their every move. I was mainly fascinated by the way Tita handled things and still got what she wanted. I also enjoy reading romance novels for the fact that they have a more profound impact on me emotionally. Laura Esquivel does a good job of clearly explaining what was going on and describing everything in detail. It allowed the reader to picture exactly what was going on and feel the emotions of each character. With the diction she utilizes, the book is easy to read. There are a few native words and phrases throughout the story, but there are clues in the text that can help you figure out what a word means if you don't know. I came across a couple of these, but figured out what they meant by the text around it. So, for a romance, drama-filled cookbook novel, you have to read "Like Water for Chocolate."

Rating:
Summary: Jealousy,Love and Hate all in one family
Review: The novel "Like Water For Chocolate" I enjoyed very much, it was an interesting novel that had a lot of confusion but most of all jealousy, love and hate. I rate it an 8. The jealousy comes from the two sisters Tita and Rosaura. Rosaura was jealous of Tita and Pedro's love for one another. Rosaura hated her sister for the simple fact that Pedro and Tita was embarrassing her with their closeness when Pedro got burned. Tita hated the traditions that was in her family because she felt it was not fare. The youngest child had to care for the mother until she died. That's not what she hated most, she hated that she could not marry because of this tradition. And the person she loved dearly was forced to marry her sister. Then when Rosaura gave birth to her daughter Esperanza, she felt that Tita was taking her place because when the child was born, she loved the kitchen and if you took her out the kitchen she would cry until she felt that she was in the presence of the kitchen again by smelling the food.

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Summary: Like Water for Chocolate Book Review by Megan Haycock
Review: Like Water for Chocolate is a creative story intermixed with romance, sex, war and homemade recipes. When Tita De la Garza's hopes of marrying her one true love, Pedro, are crushed by her obligation to take care of her mother, Mama Elena, for the rest of her life, her heartfelt emotions become inbedded in the delicious meals she cooks for her family and friends. Everyone who eats her meals experiences the same love, anger or sorrow that Tita felt while cooking her meals. Tita's forbidden love with Pedro begins the many challenges the De la Garza family faces. Each separate character struggles to overcome the challenges and betrayls of marriage, the bindings of tradition, and the search for one's inner self. Each month presents a new, unpredictable story accompanied by a De la Garza family recipe for dinner, love, and common ailments such as burns and bad breath. Through each separate story and character, Esquivel effectibely conveys the importance of following one's heart in order to achieve happiness. Tita follows her mother's wishes rather than her own and remains despondent for the greater part of her life. Each character's personal struggle exemplifies the innermost desires and passions felt in all of us. The conquering of these struggles to reach our desires often comes from breaking traditions, breaking bonds, and breaking hearts. Esquivel uses clever fictious element sto exaggerate the feelings of each character, such as when Gertrudis, Tita's sister, rides off naked with a revolutionary soldier and doesn't return for years. her exaggerations allow the reader to experience the personal feelings of each character, observing their challenges and prediciong their dicisions. Esquivel's novel is simple and enjoyable to read. although it's a romance story filled with inrealistic events, predictin the outcome of Tita and Pedro's struggle for their love allows the reader to become involved in each character's life. The fiction elements, however incredible unrealistic, exaggerate the innermost feelings that each character experiences. the reader can actually feel the resentment and hatred that Tita has for Mama Elena, tha passion that Gertrudis feels when she runs away with her long awaited soldier and the torture Pedro endures while trying to stay close to Tita. the fact that Tita's guests experience her feelings through their food, adds a creative element to the novel. although it's highly improbable, Tita's feelings become magnigied since they are felt by numerous people rather than a single person. At the outset of Esquivel's novel, the Dela Garza's recipes and preparations seem out of place. But the further one reads into the book, it becomes apparent how important the recipes are and the creative touch they add. All feelings and events in Like Water for Chocolate are related to food. When Tita feels lonely, she relates her situation to the last pepper will remain untouched becuase no one wants to feel selfish, taking it for themselves. Like Water for Chocolate stresses the importance of following your heart and discovering your inner self. it's impossible to discover happiness if it's the happiness that someone else in life. Esquivel wrote about the importance of choosing your own paths, even if they aren't necessarily the best ones. It's unavoidable to discover the right choices in life without making wrong ones first. The surprising final chapter of Esquivel's novel brings a sense of conclusion to the problems that the characters deal with throughout the entire book. the closing chapter explicates the realization that in order to achieve happiness, traditions and hearts sometimes have to be broken. as a bystander to the character's lives, it's obvious which choices they should make to find the utmost happiness and resolution. But it was the anticipation of discovering which choices they would make for themselves that make the novel intriguing.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy and lush.
Review: This is a story filled with the sort of simplicity and symbolism of legends and fairy tales. And, like water for making chocolate, it boils violently - with passion!

In both book and movie, this is a tale of the tortures of repressed emotion. The youngest daughter of a cold, powerful, and autocratic mother, Tita learns (only after she has fallen in love!) that she is forbidden to marry because she is designated to care for her mother in her old age. Rejected as a baby by her mother, Tita grew up in the kitchen, nurtured by the loving cook. Blocked at every turn from acting on her emotions, Tita magically transmits her frustrated and repressed feelings through her food.

The food is stunning and complex, and adds yet another level of sensuous symbolism. With either the book or the amazingly faithful movie, you will be swept into romantic allegory.

Rating:
Summary: Like water for chocolate
Review: I thought that this book was great. I loved it because the book related to my life itself and the book and I have many dilemmas in common. I would recomend this book to anyone that is intested in romance and love affairs. This book is so well written that at times I thought that I to was a part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING Story
Review: I have read this book about 5 times, seen the movie about 10 times... I read the book first, and fell so in love with the characters. This is truly one of those magical love stories where love doesn't always have to be here on earth.