Elizabeth LaBan

Lila and Sam Soto have moved to Philadelphia from New Orleans in order for Sam to take his dream job of restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Record. Lila was a very successful point person heading publicity and crisis management for a hotel chain, but in any event she got pregnant, so she reluctantly gave up her job. Now Lila is pregnant again, and soon has another baby, Henry, who is greatly resented by his 3-year-old big sister Hazel. Lila has her hands full.

Although Lila excelled at show more crisis management for her career, her home life seems to be one disaster after another. Lila is constantly exhausted (Sam didn’t help as promised after Henry was born), Hazel is a spoiled brat, and Lila responds to Hazel’s whining and tantrums by shoving something sugary at her, reinforcing the bad behavior.

Sam not only is insistent that Lila not work, but doesn’t even want her to have any friends, lest he somehow get outed as the new food critic. He even wears disguises (that are usually ridiculous) to area restaurants. Lila feels bored and unfulfilled on account of no longer working, and is disheartened by experiencing nothing but failure and frustration at home.

Lila does eventually try to make a few friends, but picks up on Sam’s paranoia and becomes suspicious of them, which negatively affects the relationships.

Sam, inconsiderate, almost pathologically self-centered, obsessive and controlling, seems borderline psycho. Frankly, I only kept reading in the hope Lila would wake up and get the heck out.

In addition, the story was very repetitive; Lila nursing Henry, Lila dealing with Hazel’s tantrums, Lila dealing with Sam’s paranoia, Lila sneaking social interaction - interspersed with descriptions of restaurant meals. Repeat.

Lila’s mental reasoning to reconcile herself to, and work with, her situation was disappointing, and not totally convincing for such a competent person in the workplace.

Evaluation: I was disappointed with this book, which I thought had so much potential. But the story was too repetitive, the husband was too crazy, and the wife too accommodating for me to have enjoyed it. show less

I love to eat. Our local magazine just published the list of the 50 best restaurants in the city and I am trying to convince my husband that we need to eat our way through the list. He is mostly amenable. In our relationship, I am the food snob and he is happy with anything (unless it's eggplant--don't serve him eggplant or he will have a hissy fit). As critical as I can be of restaurant food, I am no where near the level of expert that a restaurant critic is though. And I certainly couldn't show more live with the need to be so circumspect in my life that I had to worry if someone close to me was connected to a restaurant and currying favor for a good review. How much harder to be the spouse of the critic and be subjected to the same vigilance, as Elizabeth LaBan so cleverly details in her foodie novel, The Restaurant Critic's Wife.

Lila Soto is extremely pregnant with her second child. Having recently moved to Philadelphia, she hasn't yet made any friends. She's had to keep her neighbors at arm's length because her husband Sam is the Philadelphia Herald's restaurant critic and he is determined to stay anonymous for as long as possible. This means that Lila has to vet everyone she meets to make sure that they have no connection at all to the restaurant world in case she blows her husband's cover or causes his professional integrity to be questioned. While she wants to support her husband, she is incredibly lonely and bored. She misses the high powered job averting crises for an international hotel chain which she gave up when she got pregnant with her now three year old daughter Hazel. Lila was once a superstar at crisis management but she really struggles with being a full time stay at home mom, facing the monotony, repetition, and isolation with deep unhappiness. But Sam cannot see beyond his own obsession with his job to recognize just how lonely and miserable Lila is, chafing under the restraints he's imposed on their lives. So it's not much of a surprise that Lila not only cultivates two friendships she shouldn't, one with an old college friend, who is married to a chef, and one with Sebastian, a friendly and understanding waiter at a restaurant Sam reviewed, but after baby Henry's birth also agrees to do some contract work for her old boss, something that makes her feel alive in a way she hasn't for a long time indeed but will bring her into conflict with her husband.

Told in the first person by Lila, the reader will find much in Lila's days unchanging and dull but that is because Lila also views her life this way. Sam's over the top demands keep her trapped and alone until she can find her voice and push for her own fulfillment. Each of them tugs at the other as they try to find a balance that works for them, their marriage, and their individual needs. Along the way, there is a lot of frustration. Readers will sympathize with Lila and find Sam to be ridiculously dictatorial. He all but begs the reader to spit in his food the way he treats his wife as an accessory to his job. Sam's reviews are the epigraphs for each chapter and they give even more insight into the obsessive quirks that make him up. Lila's character is written to be most colorful and alive when she is working rather than during the sameness of her days as a struggling mommy, at least until she finds her own niche in the neighborhood and in her professional life. Very much a domestic drama, there's not a lot of plot driving the novel as Lila comes to some realizations about herself, Sam, and her needs. The conceit of being married to a restaurant critic and the contortions that causes in life is interesting in its own right but this is really a novel about the compromises of marriage, friendship, community, belonging, and finding yourself and your happiness to lead the life you want to lead. show less

Even for those who aren't foodies, this was a really fun book that showed a lot of growth.

Each chapter begun with a partial review of a restaurant, and the language was fantastically over the top. I don't commonly read food reviews so maybe this isn't abnormal, but I enjoyed these immensely and felt that they really added to the chapters.

I really enjoyed how there was a lot of focus on Lila's growth as a character and a person, and ultimately on how she found her place in life in a new city show more with two small children. I came into this book thinking it would have a lot more romance to it, but surprisingly, the plot focused much more on Lila's growth than on a growing romance.

Lila's continual pursuit of her career was really an inspiration. There were some fun scenes where she managed crisis scenarios that happened, mainly in the hotel chain she had previously worked at. It was intriguing to see how she had evolved since meeting her husband and how important her career had been and would be to her--she had a total fixation on her suitcase, which was a representation of this. There was an underlying message about work and the way people play different roles as life progresses.

The setting of Philadelphia worked really well for this book, and as Lila and Sam had just moved there at the beginning of the book, there were some hilarious and heartwrenching moments with Lila struggling between making friends and maintaining her husband's anonymity. Simultaneously, the community around them had its own pros and cons and ultimately also showed Lila's growth.

Small children can be a nuisance in books, but I loved the way LaBan portrayed Lila's three-year-old daughter Hazel and all of her friends. There was a highly entertaining birthday party amongst other antics.

I really appreciated that this book focused on a lot of deeper issues and really looked at how life changes us not necessarily for the worst and highly recommend this. show less

I picked this up after seeing a photo of the author with Jennifer Weiner, who I enjoy. Elizabeth LaBan is the wife of a well known restaurant critic here in Philadelphia and I bought this book as a nod to supporting the local community. Honestly, I wasn't expecting it to be good and I was really surprised with how much I enjoyed it!

The book is about Lila, an executive turned mother of two who is living in a new city with her slightly paranoid restaurant critic husband. She's struggling to show more adjust to a new baby, the new city, and a future that might be nothing but motherhood.

I really enjoyed all of LaBan's characters, I thought she did a great job of showing the conflict between Lila's past and present and the antics of Sam the critic were funny and sometimes over the top but mostly believable. I'm curious how much of this is actually lifted from Craig LaBan himself!

Overall, it's a nice dose of chick lit, an easy read and fun for a Philadelphian who will recognize some of the location details in the book. show less