Monday, January 15, 2024

A Winter in New York

Title: A Winter in New York
Author: Josie Silver
Published: October 3, 2023 by Delacorte Press
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Romance
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: You know when a high-octane scene in a movie goes slo-mo for dramatic effect, and you hold your breath and ask yourself will the person on the screen leap the burning chasm between high-rise buildings or catch the priceless vase before it shatters into a hundred pieces?

Blurb: A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she’s been looking for in this stunning novel.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

My Opinion: What begins strong, bogs down with repetition in the middle, then finishes with tears and laughter.

I’m not usually a romance reader, but there is something about Josie Silver’s books that has me waiting in anticipation of her new releases. My practical side has me typically talking to the book, but I always hold on, knowing that there will be something around the next corner that will draw me back in and make her moments resonate with truth and beauty.

If you aren’t a regular romance reader, Josie Silver just might open you up to the genre and a different way of looking at the sweetness in life.

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