Mary C. reviewed on 3/2/2012 + 41 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

All Ollie wants to do is cook the holiday meals for the White House family. She does not count on the First Lady trying to play matchmaker; her electrician friend dying in a freak accident; the nephew of the First Lady committing suicide; being begged to "fix" the gingerbread contest so that a certain Senator's children will win; or having to take time away from her kitchen to learn how to spot hidden bombs in the White House.

In this second book of the series, the First Lady has a front stage position in the plot. The intrigue with the First Lady has little to do with public politics but with personal politics which place a damper on the holiday season yet the White House traditions must go on. A new agent is introduced who, of course, thinks that Ollie has an overly active imagination and has no qualms about dragging her away from the kitchen to participate in safety classes. It will be interesting to see if this agent ever shows up again in other books.

This was a good read. Again, Ollie doesn't want to solve mysteries, she just wants to do her job as Executive Chef as completely and well as possible. I liked the fact that the personalities within the kitchen stayed about the same. (A new chef joins the group much to the dismay of Bucky since the chef is difficult to understand and "Henry would have interviewed her first" rather than just taking her on as Ollie did.) Ollie showed her mettle as the leader of the kitchen for which I was grateful. Although Ollie misses Henry and uses some of his management techniques, she is not afraid to let her own leadership style show.

Now....on to book 3!

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