Rating: 
Summary: Pretty bad, but the setting/food are great
Review: I loved Like Water for Chocolate and other novels in the magical realism genre, but this one doesn't measure up. The pace is jerky (and what's the spring, summer, etc structure all about?), the texture all wrong (she gives equal weight to everything that happens to the heroine so that when events occur that are supposed to be significant, you have no idea why), and there is a distance between the reader and the main characters. Some of the writing is just laughably bad ("Why did he go? When would he be back? Would she ever know who he was?"). This woman really, really needs writing lessons and a good editor. Sicily sounds fab though, and Prior certainly seems to know her Sicilian cooking.
Rating: 
Summary: Great way to spend a weekend
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "La Cucina." The characters are quirky yet very likeable. It made me laugh. It made me cry. That's entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I thought the intensity of the passion for love and food mixed with humor and family was awesome. I don't know if I'll ever eat oysters the same way again! If you love romance, Italy, cooking, and food you've got to read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Beauty is found on every page
Review: I wish I could describe the incredible intensity of this book in this commentary. Unfortunately, I am not too gifted with words and therefore cannot fully express how I feel about this book. But, because of my intense love and faith in it, I will certainly make an attempt in describing this beautiful masterpiece. I picked this book up in a local bookstore and began reading it. I decide upon buying a book by reading the first paragraph on the first page to see if this author is any good. In a few, short minutes, I read two chapters of La Cucina and walked swiftly to the cash register to purchase the book. I got home and read around eighty pages, forcing myself to put it down because of my activities the next day. Believe me when I tell you - This book will not allow you to put it down. It was as if I was addicted to a Spanish novella. The book combines the passions that are aroused deep inside all of us: love, sex, and food. I found myself imagining every image that was presented. I found myself laughing out loud (embarrassingly, at times). I found myself crying. I even found myself holding the book as if it were a child. The main character is Rosa Fiore, who narrates this book and reveals at times what goes on in a woman's heart. Her story is full of rapture, sadness, and sweetness. We all have our ways of releasing our anger and Rosa's way is in her cooking. I am sure that there shall be no regrets on purchasing this book. And I am quite sure that anyone would enjoy it and read it again and again, as I have begun to read it for the second time.
Rating: 
Summary: "La Cisterna"
Review: It is a rarity for me not to enjoy a book about romance, about Italy, or about food, so this seemed like heaven when I read the description. I must agree that the heroine is portrayed as rather uncomely, and is stereoptyped as the "old maid" who hides herself in books and finds joy only in food. This story was UNbelievable and silly - trying to be a take off on the exquisite "Like Water for Chocolate" just does not work for this authoress. I was on a six hour plane ride and read the entire book by time we were at the halfway point and was BORED by the end. Do not waste your lire!
Rating:
Summary: A delight
Review: La Cucina is a celebration of the passions. A truly super book, full with color and life, it is a lovely tale from start to finish. Great reading, you'll not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A jewel of a Read
Review: La Cucina is a clever, deliciously, wonderfully sexy book. Prior did an excellent job of protraying the Sicilian lifestyle and traditions, in the engaging story of one Rosa Fiore.This book carries you from hilarity to sympathy and tears, back to joy once more. I loved the odd eccentricity of the various characters, there is so much imagination and emotion involved. This was the most interesting read that I've experienced in quite awhile. I would recommend this book to anyone with a grand sense of humor, who can appreciate great food, sex and yes, even a little intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: La Cucina is a delicious tale that excites all the passions. Prior has written a page turner of a novel that you just don't want to end. Rosa and l'Ingelese - what an appetite! A great read.
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: DELICIOUS !!!!
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.
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