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: A very good read...
Review: After reading the customer reviews of this book, I have decided that a simple, summing up would be "to each his/her own". I, personally, thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it to be engrossing yet simple to read. The imagery presented by the author was quite realistic -- while I might not have wanted to know the process of killing the hog, I felt it only helped to complete the story. The sights and sounds of Rosa's experiences were lifelike. I was a fly on the wall in every scene."La Cucina" has inspired me to pursue Italian cooking. I found that I could "taste" the dishes being prepared by Rosa. As the dishes developed and ripened, so did Rosa. As the dishes got more involved to prepare, so did Rosa's awareness and development of herself. One reviewer spoke of not understanding the purpose of the divisions of the book -- Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. If looked at as Rosa's life and her development as a person, it fits. I highly recommend this book to all and I am looking forward to Lily Prior's next work.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved "Like Water for Chocolate". . .
Review: Another great read that combines passion with food in a very passionate, mystical way. This was a fun read, and I had it finished in 2 days. If you've read "Like Water for Chocolate", or "Chocolat", and enjoyed them, add this one to your list. . .it's very good and has a plot to boot! I might have given it 5 stars had the parts about butchering the animals for dinner had not been so graphic, I found that upsetting and not necessary for the story.
Rating:
Summary: Hot sex and delectable eats: all the pretty appetites.
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: Animal carnage - not sexy.
Review: I agree with all of the comments made by the other reviewers who gave this book a one-star rating. I was very, very disappointed - all the more so because it seemed so promising. As the others have said, it's poorly written, boring, trite...and just...blah! However, her seemed delight in portraying animal suffering and carnage bordered on offensive. We've had a sheepdog beheaded, numerous farm animals slaughtered - the pig in graphic detail - a pug trampled to death and a parrot burned to death. Perhaps this is part of her attempt at dark humour, but personally I think her descriptions are just tasteless and, actually, disrespectful of animals in general:"Of course they all knew that the pug was dead and was still lying stiff in the trash can at the corner of the street..."; "The pig looked up at me in sorrow...I took its head in my arms and stuck it with my sharpest knife in the throat, just in front of the breastbone...I let the knife slip forward...slicing with the point of the knife...as I severed the artery the porker seemed to come to life again...".
Rating:
Summary: Great Little Sicilian Story
Review: I have Sicilian roots and just loved this story. If you like reading about food, passion and Sicilians, then you'll enjoy this. This is a great story of a woman's life in Sicily. The author has an uncanny ability to make the ordinary seem quite extradionary...I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, passionate, lusty book
Review: I have to say I have a advantage here - I did start to read Lily Prior's book whilst travelling to Italy for a food and wine festival, but I think I would have loved it anyway. I'm not familiar with southern Italy - I know northern italy better, so I can't comment on what other readers have described as cliches (generous figured women always in the kitchen) - I can assure you that some of the same prejudices still exist in Italy between the north and the south. (Not a defence I know). I started to read the book catching the train from Leeds to Stansted and couldn't stop reading it until I was flying into Italy. I found it to be many things, but I think the uppermost sensation was passion - about food and sex. It certainly made a heady mix and I couldn't stop talking about it for a week! Please read it - it really isn't an obvious book, but you can switch off whilst reading it and it still will take you places you'd blush at. Regarding what other reviewers have said, I have to say I didn't find myself appalled by the sometimes brutal descriptions of creatures meeting their end, but then I'm a vegetarian and I don't have a great deal of guilt about what I eat! Sorry, but life's not all frilly.
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: 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: Almost Lascivious
Review: I listened to the audio version of the book via Audible.com. The narrator, Lisa Passero, was fantastic, and probably makes this book better on audio. The book had value, as there were very good parts, but overall was uneven and the ending, hmmm@#%.... At any rate, without any great expectations, it was worth the 6 hour listen. The descriptions of the food were exquisite (and the depictions of the slaughtering of animals for feasts were perfectly appropriate for the setting, except to those willy-nilly antiseptic reviewers who should remain in their hole so as to be safely removed from the realities of the food chain). Moreover, beyond the food, the descriptions of the relationships were truly enjoyable and often salacious for this male reader (who believes that this book would be enjoyed even more so by female readers). I have to comment on Aidan from London's review that some of the author's use of dialogue is laughable as "she refers to her lovers organ as a 'willy'. Willy??? Are we talking about adults here?" Well, Aidan, maybe you're just too adult for the rest of us - here in Chicago among my group of educated bohemian friends in there 40s, willy is a commonly used term. More importantly, the character Rosa was in a playful mood when she thinks this phase to herself, which for me seems perfectly appropriate. Overall, this is a lighthearted and frequently lively read/listen, but is not quite Like Water for Chocolate.
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