Helpful Score: 3
First of all, I'm not quite sure why the cover shows a house on the beach, but that is basically irrelevent...
This is the story of 2 grown women, although more often than not, 36 year old Anna is acting like a petulant child, when she returns home to work in her aunt's restaurant (after finding her lover in bed with her best friend). Anna harbors some deep resentment of her Aunt Rose, somewhat founded due to some infidelities in the past. The reader is clued in to Rose's side of the story long before Anna finds out the truth.
A good deal of the book is about working in the family restaurant, and all the people who are considered "family" because of their employment there. The other, connected subplot is the romance of Anna and Mason, Rose and Theo. I actually felt these relationships should have been more fully developed. It seemed a little unrealistic to me that Mason would continue to desire Anna, seemingly without much in common, after she continuously pulls away from him.
The story, always in 3rd person, is told clearly from both Rose and Anna's viewpoints in alternating chapters, and I thought Patricia Gaffney did an excellent job of articulating both sides, without making either woman the more sympathetic character. However, for me, the greatest flaw of this book was that I really couldn't empathize with either of the women, until near the end.
This is the story of 2 grown women, although more often than not, 36 year old Anna is acting like a petulant child, when she returns home to work in her aunt's restaurant (after finding her lover in bed with her best friend). Anna harbors some deep resentment of her Aunt Rose, somewhat founded due to some infidelities in the past. The reader is clued in to Rose's side of the story long before Anna finds out the truth.
A good deal of the book is about working in the family restaurant, and all the people who are considered "family" because of their employment there. The other, connected subplot is the romance of Anna and Mason, Rose and Theo. I actually felt these relationships should have been more fully developed. It seemed a little unrealistic to me that Mason would continue to desire Anna, seemingly without much in common, after she continuously pulls away from him.
The story, always in 3rd person, is told clearly from both Rose and Anna's viewpoints in alternating chapters, and I thought Patricia Gaffney did an excellent job of articulating both sides, without making either woman the more sympathetic character. However, for me, the greatest flaw of this book was that I really couldn't empathize with either of the women, until near the end.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent book about a woman's return, after nearly 20 years, to her hometown to help with the family business. A hurt has festered the entire time and has eroded her relationship with her closest relative. Multi-faceted healing takes place as they work together to save the business. And, love comes her way, as well.
This is a light, enjoyable read. The characters are likable, & the storyline is fun & interesting. Good stuff about relationships, too.
Okay book but quite sad and depressing at times.
Anna, betrayed by both her Aunt Rose and her current lover, returns home to run the family restaurant and mend her heart.
A great book by one of my favorite authors!
the depictions of female friendships, with undonditional love tempered at times by brutal truth-telling. (reminds you of the avaricious way you read as a child, dying to see what happens on the next page, and the next.)
author of 'the saving graces'. well-written.
Wonderful story of love and family bonds
I am a fan of Patricia Gaffney! The book started a bit slow for me, but the characters became alive as the story progressed. The main charecter was able to evolve in her maturity, and was believable. I loved Gaffney's ability to delight me with her charecters of all ages. Definitly a multi layered story with much to offer.
A good story about betrayals in families and the different ways to deal, or not deal, with it,
Anna has studiously avoided her Rose- the women she once loced more than anyone else in the world- ever since the night Rose betrayed Anna and her mother,Rose's own fatally ill sister. In the sixteen years that have passed, Anna has built another life for herself far from her hometown on Maryland's Eastern Shore,but she can't forgive or forget.
If you are into homey, family based reads, then i think you'll really like this one. I loved it. Anna has been gone for 16 years and has avoided her Aunt Rose who runs the family resturant. There was a betrayal in the family and hard feelings took over. Now Anna chooses to return home after another betrayal within her new life. I love the way family based love and forgiveness happens and how life plays funny tricks on us all. This book pretty much covers all that and makes for a wonderful touching, entertaining read.
two women struggling to come to terms with the past that haunts them
Good, heartwarming story about reuniting with family.
nna has studiously avoided her aunt Rose -- the woman she once loved more than anyone else in the world -- ever since the night Rose betrayed Anna and her mother, Rose's own fatally ill sister. In the sixteen years that have passed, Anna has built another life for herself far from her hometown on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but she can't forgive or forget.
Now another betrayal, by a faithless lover, has brought Anna back to her family's restaurant, where Rose needs her estranged niece's help -- and trust -- more than ever before. Determined to leave as soon as the struggling business is back on its feet and her own hurt is healed, Anna joins Rose in the kitchen of the Bella Sorella, where values clash and generations collide -- and outside, where their personal lives become entangled in surprising ways. Yet Anna is resolved to remain unaffected by Rose's longing to undo the past -- even though her resistance could blind her to a true and unexpected love that's reaching out to grab her by the heart.
Now another betrayal, by a faithless lover, has brought Anna back to her family's restaurant, where Rose needs her estranged niece's help -- and trust -- more than ever before. Determined to leave as soon as the struggling business is back on its feet and her own hurt is healed, Anna joins Rose in the kitchen of the Bella Sorella, where values clash and generations collide -- and outside, where their personal lives become entangled in surprising ways. Yet Anna is resolved to remain unaffected by Rose's longing to undo the past -- even though her resistance could blind her to a true and unexpected love that's reaching out to grab her by the heart.
A richly layered tale of love, both romantic and between women friends. From the extraordinary bestseller author of The Saving Graces and Circle of Three, comes a poignant and wise story of truth and loyalty, of the bonds that shape, sustain, and ultimately uplift us.
From the back cover, "A poignant and wise story of truth and layalty, of the bonds that shape, sustain and ultimately uplift us."
Anna has studiously avoided her aunt Rose-the woman she once loved more than anyone else in the world-ever since the night Rose betrayed Anna & her mother, Rose's own fatally ill sister. In the sixteen years that have passed, Anna has built another life for herself far from her hometown on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but she can't forgive or forget. Now another betrayal, by a faithless lover, has brought Anna back to her family's restaurant, where Rose needs her estranged niece's help-and trust-more than ever before. Determined to leave as soon as the struggling business is back on its feet and her own hurt is healed, Anna joins Rose in the kitchen of the Bella Sorella, where values clash and generations collide-and outside, where their personal lives become entangled in surprising ways. Yet Anna is resolved to remain unaffected by Rose's longing to undo the past-even though her resistance could blind her to a true and unexpected love that's reaching out to grab her by the heart,
Good story of family and relationships.
Haven't read it.....sorry
From Publishers Weekly: Alone in a chilly loft in upstate New York, ruing the end of her affair with a two-timing sculptor, Anna Catalano, the heroine of this follow-up to Gaffney's bestselling The Saving Graces, can't resist an invitation to return home to Maryland's Eastern Shore. Her aunt Rose desperately needs a manager for her restaurant, the Bella Sorella, and it has to be family, says intermediary Aunt Iris. Rose and Anna haven't actually been on speaking terms since Anna caught Rose having an affair with Anna's father while her mother was dying. Still, telling herself it's only temporary, Anna signs on for the job. A host of clangorous, adrenaline-pumping kitchen scenes follow, and anyone who's worked in the restaurant business will especially enjoy the clash between the self-taught red-sauce chef and Anna's new hire, a culinary school grad who wants to put pesto in the minestrone. But Gaffney is unaccountably less apt in charting the romance between Anna and a bird-loving lawyer-turned-photographer named Mason Winograd, who must overcome his fear of flying as Anna overcomes her fear of nesting. Their e-mails, while blessedly free of emoticons and tech talk, are too long and too similar in voice. A delicious first kiss leads to a flat full monty: "He got her undressed and then went in the bathroom and came back nude, with condoms." In contrast, the affair between Rose and the dying Theo, Mason's stepfather, is richly nuanced, as are the relationships among the many women in the cast.
