The Glass Kitchen

The Glass Kitchen

Linda Francis Lee

Genre: Women's Fiction, Romance

Summary (from Goodreads):  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.

Review:  I quite liked this book, but the title The Glass Kitchen - A Novel of Sisters was a little misleading, since the relationship between the different sets of sisters was secondary to the relationships between Portia and Gabriel, and Portia and Ariel.  So, if you are looking for a book that is primarily about sisters, this is not the book for you.

Having said that, it was a perfect summer read for me; it was well-written and easy to read, with a fun premise.  Portia's talent of being able to predict what kind of food people need added a little whimsy to the story, without being too unbelievable.  I enjoyed watching Portia and Gabriel's relationship blossom, but my favorite character was Ariel, a quirky twelve year old who is looking for a place to belong after the death of her mother. 

Rating: 4 stars