Linda Francis Lee

Food really does get to the heart of so many things. We have comfort food and food that brings up memories. We all have favorites and also foods we really don't like at all. When food is right, it can be magical. And magical is the right term for Linda Francis Lee's newest novel, The Glass Kitchen.

Portia Cuthcart runs to New York City after her husband and best friend cheat on her and her marriage falls apart, moving into the basement garden apartment in the old rundown brownstone that she show more and her two sisters inherited from their great aunt. She is not only trying to escape her failed marriage but also her own brand of family magic, "the knowing," that she thinks caused her beloved grandmother's death. "The knowing" is a feeling that Portia gets when she must cook something. She has no idea why, just that she must do it. After her grandmother's death, combined with her politician husband's disapproval of this power, she has shoved her abilities down and ignored them. But now having left Texas, she's going to have to face her talent and start cooking again.

The morning she moves into the apartment is the first time in a long time that she feels compelled to cook. It's also the morning she meets her rugged, very sexy upstairs neighbor, Gabriel Kane. Gabriel is the widowed father of a teen and a preteen, Miranda and Ariel, and he's bought the two upstairs apartments from Portia's sisters. Although Portia vows to steer clear of him, especially since he wants to buy her apartment and she has no intention of selling, she cannot help but be drawn into Ariel's life and therefore into Gabriel's. As she gets closer to Gabriel, Portia also learns allow herself to be who she is, opening a take-out café/bakery of sorts in her apartment with her sisters while they look for funding to open a complete restaurant.

This is a sweet and delicious love story, a tale of second chances and opening yourself up to what comes your way. The magic portrayed here is subtle and points to the kitchen and food as the heart of home and relationship. It allows Portia, despite her very real fears, to uncover secrets that need to be aired out and to help people heal, including herself. The development of Portia and Gabriel's relationship is not too fast and not too slow and the inclusion of Gabriel's less than loving mother and selfish brother serve to make his own character that much more appealing. Ariel is a charming child character, precocious but not annoying. Miranda, on the other hand, is a typical pill of a teenager. The book is organized into a multiple course menu, giving the reader some indication of where they are and where they are still going in this quirky treat of a novel. And for those readers who love recipes, this has some very tempting ones included at the end. show less

Rating: 4 1/2 stars

I picked this book up as a quick read the summer after my sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh, one of many books that I figured might be enjoyable if I read it, but wasn’t super into starting. Once I did, though, I could hardly put it down! It’s not news that I’m driven towards books that are more character-driven than plot-driven and that I appreciate strong and independent female characters that think and speak for themselves and never turn down an show more opportunity for deliciously witty banter with a romantic interest. The Ex-Debutante fulfilled my expectations of Carlisle. Come to think of it, after I read it I was fairly certain that if I ever had a daughter, I would totally name her Carlisle.

There were many things that drew me towards the book – I’d been on a She’s the Man kick (which features debs), I’d entertained the idea of becoming a lawyer (at the time I still didn’t want to teach), and I was infatuated with a guy name Jack that’d just broken my heart. Connections abounded and reading about Carlisle and how she handled her life gave me the confidence to take a greater interest in shaping my own life to be what I wanted, not just what was expected of me as a 19-year-old-almost-college-junior.

The end of your sophomore year of college is when you’re supposed to have your mind made up (if you didn’t when you started) about what you want to be when you “grow up” and who you are as a person. Your days of finding yourself are supposed to be done – you were either supposed to take a year off to traipse through Europe before enrolling or have it all sorted by the time you’re done your first semester so that you can settle in and start working towards some nonexistent goal that is supposed to define the rest of your life.

But, as with many other things in life, we don’t all follow the same path, our development as human beings really isn’t mappable as some psychologists would try to lead us to believe. And in a time of great personal confusion, Carlisle personified that twisting, knotting, ineffable desire to be unique and individualistic to a tee. I’d spent the four months before reading The Ex-Debutante caring for family and supporting those around me. While I’m beyond glad that I took time off from college to do so, reading The Ex-Debutante was the first time I took a break that was just for me, that I took time out of the day to do something I enjoyed, even if it was just reading. So my review is less about the book, but more about what the book, and the protagonist, made me realize about myself. show less

I really liked the light touch of magical realism, linked to Portia's relationship with food, in the new book by Linda Francis Lee. Portia has tried to suppress her gift from Gram over the years, but a tumultuous divorce and subsequent move to Manhattan naturally lead to an outbreak of magical cooking. Her great-aunt's garden apartment becomes a logical place for reflecting on what she'll do next. The upstairs neighbor, Gabriel proves to be both a distraction and a job opportunity when he show more needs yet another housekeeper/cook to feed his two girls. Portia and her Shakespeare-y named sisters are purported to be part of this story, but I found that Olivia quickly faded to the background until necessary, while Cordelia's mountain of family problems kept her in the game. The other set of Shakespeare girls, Ariel and Miranda, are Gabriel's. Ariel is the one that pulls at your heart, worrying that she is disappearing. The lively woman downstairs becomes a source of hope for her. Plenty of romance, teen trials and rebuilding going on here, it's an easy, fun read for summer. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this charming tale. Emily, a talented editor falls for Sandy - a beautiful, wealthy, spoiled snob of a man when he dares her to fall in love with him. Emily unfortunately doesn't know this about her husband until she notices her marriage has started to fail and hears rumors of his many affairs. Before Sandy can do the deed and ask for a divorce he is killed in a car accident. He is infuriated that he is dead! How can this be? A man as fine as he has too much left to do show more in the world! He manages to make a deal with 'an old man' who appears at the time of his death who offers to give him a second chance. Sandy jumps at the chance and suddenly things go black. When he wakes up again he is horrified to see that his consciousness is now housed in the body of a scruffy mutt named Einstein. Adopted by Emily and thinking that he will use this time to take a vacation in a dog body, he is quite surprised over time to find that he is not going to get his human body back like he thought. He is prompted by 'the old man' to help Emily - who does desperately need help. She is being evicted by her mother in law and her job performance is not up to snuff. He is told that if he helps Emily he will move on to greatness! And for the shallow Sandy this becomes his motivator. He does not perform particularly well, as he has lived his life without honor and is just learning this now that he is living life as a dog. But in his selfish quest towards 'greatness' he does have personal growth, does indeed help his wife, and does find answers to what he's been looking for his whole life.

I loved Einsteins voice - it is sarcastic and funny and I loved the way he could not stop himself sometimes from doing the base things that dogs do naturally, that Sandy finds so disgusting. Emily was a delight as well. She is charming, trusting, imperfect and completely lovable. Too bad Sandy didn't realize this while he was alive, he would have been a lot happier. I give this book 4.5 stars. Highly recommended! show less