I know this book is hugely popular, but it just didn't excite me. I loved the idea that each chapter is governed by the cooking and realisation of a particular dish. The plot line was promising- a young woman, condemned not to marry because she must look after her mother for life, falls in love with the man who marries her sister so he can keep close to the woman he really loves....

In the end, it depended a great deal on magic realism. I don't do magic realism. Not at all. I couldn't wait to finish this book. ( )

Hyperbole and a sort of spiritualism that is not part of our culture. Are these real recipes? ( )

Like water For Chocolate is a classic! Many know it for the film - watch the film too as it is one of the best book to film adaptations ever done (and probably because the filmmaker was married to the author at the time).

Here we're introduced to the De La Cruz family consisting of Mama Elena and her three daughters Rosara, Gertrudis, and Tita, head cook Nacha, and later on, house maid Chencha.

Tita at a young age attracts the attention of Pedro, who is madly in love with her and wants to marry her. As Tita is the last child born of Mama Elena since her father died after hearing unsettling news about his family she is forced to carry the curse of her mother's family - to live as her mother's caretaker until she dies and never marry. Mama Elena orchestrates Pedro marrying Rosara, whom he claims is to be near her. This spawns a lifetime of sneaking and freaking for them trying to be together intertwined with the lives of the sisters. Tita eventually breaks free of Mama Elena's grip and falls for another man who intends to marry her. After that, Tita's on the warpath to protect her niece Esparanza, whom her sister has vowed to bestow the same family curse upon her as she can't have any more kids.

The story is beautifully crafted under Tita's role as head ranch cook, a job she inherited the day of her sister's marriage. The way the recipes are introduced and the circumstances around each dish is a stroke of genius.

Read this one, you won't be bored. ( )

When I read this as a teenager I was bewitched. But reading it now almost 25 years later I have a very different opinion. I loved the magical realism but not the main love story or the two lovers. Rosaura's life I found the saddest of all. But Gertrudis' adventures would make a more compelling book. ( )

bit surreal love story, based around a mexican family and expresions of feelings through food ( )