Archive for October 9th, 2010

Melissa Senate’s latest Chick Lit release, The Love Goddess’ Cooking School is out later this month on October 26th and sounds really great! I’ve never read any of Melissa’s books, but I’d definitely pick this one up if I had the chance, because it sounds like my kind of read! I quite like the cover too, and I’m usually a bit hit and miss with US covers but this one seems to sum up the book nicely!

Camilla’s Cucinotta: Italian Cooking Classes. Fresh take-home pastas & sauces dailyBenvenuti! (Welcome!)

Holly Maguire’s grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine—a Milanese fortune-teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can’t make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that’s why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla’s Cucinotta, she’s determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother’s legacy.

But Holly’s four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla’s chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter’s heart. Juliet, Holly’s childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can’t find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla’s essential ingredients of wishes and memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed—and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.

Because it’s nice to help out other Chick Lit sites, and to let our readers know about fantastic contests that are going on, I knew as soon as Danielle mentioned it that we would be posting about Chick Lit Shorties’ Extra Shorty Contest! All you need to do to enter is to come up with a story, but it can only be 10 words long. Yes, you read right, 10 words!

All the stories will then be judged by 10 judges (Danielle is one of them!) and 10 of the stories will be picked as winners and you can win a whole host of goodies! Good luck, and do let us know if you win!

See more details on how to enter over at Chick Lit Shorties!

Released in February in hardback Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani is now coming to the States in paperback with a fresh new cover. The paperback edition coming November 19 features a more whimsical city scene that I rather prefer, not as serious as the first. I’m definitely looking forward to reviewing this one in the near future for an upcoming book tour. Tell me, what do you think? Regardless of hardback or paperback, which cover do you prefer and why?

As Brava, Valentine begins, snow falls like glitter over Tuscany at the wedding of her grandmother, Teodora, and longtime love, Dominic. Valentine’s dreams are dashed when Gram announces that Alfred, “the prince,” Valentine’s only brother and nemesis, has been named her partner at Angelini Shoes. Devastated, Valentine falls into the arms of Gianluca, a sexy Tuscan tanner who made his romantic intentions known on the Isle of Capri. Despite their passion for one another and Gianluca’s heartfelt letters, a long-distance relationship seems impossible.

As Valentine turns away from romance and devotes herself to her work, mentor and pattern cutter June Lawton guides her through her power struggle with Alfred, while best friend and confidante Gabriel Biondi moves into 166 Perry Street, transforming her home and point of view. Savvy financier Bret Fitzpatrick, Valentine’s first love and former fiancée who still carries a torch for her, encourages Valentine to exploit her full potential as a designer and a business woman with a plan that will bring her singular creations to the world.

A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Valentine from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together. More so, she longs to create one of her own, but is torn between a past love that nurtured her, and a new one that promises to sustain her.