THE GLASS KITCHEN by Linda Frances Lee

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...

My first book by this author and I finished it the day I started reading. Yes, it's that good. I love Portia's character, she is a full blown Texan now living in NYC. So out of place yet she fits right in. I couldn't believe the kind of clothes she wore, I laughed throughout the book at her outfits, her snappiness, and her way of dealing with people. Her neighbors are interesting and the apartment she lives in is so outdated it reminds me of my great grandmothers.

Portia's story is one of intrigue, betrayal, and finding love again. She has the "knowing" that was inherited from her grandma, the gift of knowing what food to prepare and how much. Her upstairs neighbor wants her apartment which is all she has left and he always gets what he wants.

A delightful tale of rebuilding a life from scratch. Great characters, fast moving, and recipes in the back of the book. Gotta say I love the cover as well.

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.