Review: The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee

Title: The Glass Kitchen   

Author: Linda Francis Lee        

Published:  June 2014, St. Martin’s Press

Format: ARC paperback, 366 pages   

Source: Publisher  

With The Glass Kitchen,
Linda Francis Lee has served up a novel that is about the courage it
takes to follow your heart and be yourself. A true recipe for life. 

Portia
Cuthcart never intended to leave Texas. Her dream was to run the Glass
Kitchen restaurant her grandmother built decades ago. But after a string
of betrayals and the loss of her legacy, Portia is determined to start a
new life with her sisters in Manhattan . . . and never cook again. But
when she moves into a dilapidated brownstone on the Upper West Side, she
meets twelve-year-old Ariel and her widowed father Gabriel, a man with
his hands full trying to raise two daughters on his own. Soon, a promise
made to her sisters forces Portia back into a world of magical food and
swirling emotions, where she must confront everything she has been
running from. What seems so simple on the surface is anything but when
long-held secrets are revealed, rivalries exposed, and the promise of
new love stirs to life like chocolate mixing with cream. The Glass Kitchen
is a delicious novel, a tempestuous story of a woman washed up on the
shores of Manhattan who discovers that a kitchen—like an island—can be a
refuge, if only she has the courage to give in to the pull of love, the
power of forgiveness, and accept the complications of what it means to
be family.

My thoughts: This is the first book I’ve read by Linda Francis Lee and I loved it! It’s the type of the book that you can’t put down but you don’t want to end. It’s sweet and whimsical, with a touch of magical realism thrown in.

I loved the character of Portia. Like her grandmother, she has “the knowing.” Out of the blue, she will get
the urge to bake something, or make a specific meal that someone needs for whatever reason. Moving to New York, she realizes that cooking is a huge part of her, and she slowly starts allowing it to come back to her.  I also loved the bond that she has with her sisters, Olivia and Cordelia. They truly act like only sisters can – they love each other, fight with each other, and are there for each other when it counts. 

I also loved Ariel, Gabriel’s youngest daughter. She’s smart and sassy in her own way and makes quite an interesting narrator. I love that Lee chose her as a narrator – it paired well with Portia’s chapters. She’s still struggling after the death of her mother and trying to not become invisible to those around her.

Between the beautiful cover, the mouth-watering recipes, the steamy relationship between Portia and Gabriel that simmers from their first meeting right until the end (he uses the fire escape ladder to visit her at night – how hot is that!!!), and the cast of fun characters, I devoured this book!   

I actually have one of Linda Francis Lee’s other books on my shelf, Emily & Einstein, but just haven’t gotten around to reading it. Now, I can tell you it’s getting bumped up on the reading list!

Do you ever choose books based on the cover? Would this cover tempt you?