Author picture

Peggy Lampman

Author of The Welcome Home Diner

4 Works 44 Members 13 Reviews

Works by Peggy Lampman

Tagged

Common Knowledge

There is no Common Knowledge data for this author yet. You can help.

Members

Reviews

Thank you to the author and Alliance Press for this book.

I really enjoy reading about families. This one was no exception. A lot going on in this book set in Key West, FL. Living in a historical lighthouse, there is Poppy and Thomas Chandler and their daughter Ivy. Ivy has "issues" but her mother refuses to acknowledge them to her own family and sweeps it under the rug until something horrible happens. It is not stated until it comes to fruition that Poppy's mother had an mental illness but she "got over it" and thought Ivy would too. Delphina is one of the twins who lives with her mother-in-law, husband and baby who runs a snorkeling business. LInnea is Dephina's twin who has her own issues and lies about them all and comes to Key West from Boise where she moved to get away from her phobia of water. That truth comes out too. Along comes Hurricane Irma when everyone evacuates except for Ivy who lies about it and that's when it all comes to a head with heartache. It ended sort of abruptly and who knows what happens to this family trying to hea… (more)
 
Flagged
sweetbabyjane58 | 1 other review | Nov 14, 2020 |
This is one of those rare books that I had to wait a few days before I could write my review. The characters continued to resonate in my thoughts after the last page and I wanted to make sure that I could wait to give an honest review. My short review is YOU MUST READ THIS NEW NOVEL by Peggy Lampman. My longer and more in depth review follows:

This beautiful and well written novel is about a family in Key West, Florida - not just the Key West that we've all seen but the Key West that isn't full of tourists and souvenir shops. Twin sisters Linnea and Delphina were very close when they were younger but now they are nothing alike. They are in their early 30s and Linnea has moved to Idaho and returns home rarely while Delphina runs a snorkeling company with her husband and is proud to be part of the island. They have a younger sister Ivy who spends most of her time at home alone creating art. The girl's parents run a b&b and the twins think they are overly protective of Ivy and vow that they will spend some time with their sister.

All of the sisters are hiding secrets from each other and as those secrets are gradually reveled throughout the book, the reader can only feel more compassion for each of them. Parts of the novel are fun - parades in Key West, chickens roaming the streets but parts of it are very difficult and deal with mental illness and dysfunctional families. ”You tell me about a family with some sort of dysfunction, and I’ll tell you that family is lying.” A hurricane heading towards Key West makes the family members realize the things that are most important in life.

Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
… (more)
 
Flagged
susan0316 | 1 other review | Nov 24, 2019 |
I hail from the South---Arkansas to be exact, and Southern Arkansas at that—and I’m always to drawn to stories that take place in that part of the U.S. And to make the pot even sweeter, it’s a story that evolves around food.
Lampman’s debut novel is the story of two women: Shelby Preston and Mallory Lakes. The story evolves over the course of one year,from December 20, 2010, to December 30, 2011.
Shelby is a young mother, living with her mother, with dreams of becoming a chef. Not only does she love to cook, but she knows that she can never make a good life in Coryville. Determined to make a better life for herself and her six-year-old daughter, Shelby takes the four-hour bus ride to Atlanta to apply for a job as a cook for in the downtown deli of Grasso’s, a supermarket chain.
Mallory Lake writes for the Life Style Section of one of Atlanta’s papers, The Sun. Like many newspapers in 2010, The Sun is facing declining advertising and readership. Rumor has it that the paper is about to close its print doors and go strictly digital. Not only does Mallory have to worry about losing her job, but she’s still trying to figure out why her lover unceremoniously dumped her without a hint of warning.
I enjoyed Simmer and Smoke. It’s a story of strong women who aren’t strong because it’s the cool thing to do. They are strong because they have no choice. It’s also a story of family---the one we’re stuck with and the one we choose to make. It’s a story of food. I wish the recipes hadn’t been regulated to the back of the book. The story would have been more effective if they had been listed in the text. The plot was interesting and entertaining. For half the book, it was a page turner. For the other half, it bogged down.
I give Simmer and Smoke: A Southern Tale of Grit and Spice 3 out of 5 stars.
… (more)
 
Flagged
juliecracchiolo | 2 other reviews | Feb 27, 2018 |
Peggy Lampman previously owned a specialty food store, The Back Alley Gourmet, in her college town of Ann Arbor before writing a weekly food column for the Ann Arbor News. Now she writes a food blog, dinnerfeed.com and all this led her to write two novels- The Promise Kitchen (2016) and this year's The Welcome Home Diner.

Addie and Sam, two cousins from Birmingham, Alabama, move to Detroit to open a diner. Detroit has been through some rough times, and the cousins hope to help resusitate an area of Detroit with their neighborhood diner.

They got their love of cooking from their Babcia, their Polish grandmother. She inspired them, and her photo hangs up in a corner of the diner to remind them of how they got here. Addie and Sam share a two-story house- Addie lives upstairs with her boyfriend David and they seem very happy and well-suited to each other.

Addie is the organizer and planner, she handles the ordering, and the paperwork, along with the front of the house issues. She sees a future for her and David, marriage and children, but David is happy with things the way they are.

Sam runs the kitchen, she is beautiful and a great cook and after getting out of a bad relationship in New York, she is trying to find her footing again with men. Meanwhile, she has Hero, her dog who watches over her.

The Welcome Home Diner has money issues, as most new businesses do. They don't have much money leftover after payroll and food costs, but Addie and Sam are committed to making the diner work, sacrificing much to make it successful.

They draw a decent crowd from the young professionals in the area, but they are perplexed as to why the neighborhood residents do not eat at the diner. Their prices are reasonable, the food is delicious, and there isn't another comparable restaurant in the neighborhood.

In addition, there is a person giving them bad and inaccurate Yelp reviews, a next door neighbor who is openly hostile to them, and a business vendor who is menacing them.

I loved the characters in The Welcome Home Diner. Along with Addie and Sam, they have an interesting staff- Braydon, who started with them on day one and has worked his way up to floor manager, Quiche, a cook who brings her smart young daughter Sun Beam to work with her, and Sylvia, a young woman rescued from sex traffickers whom Addie and Sam take under their wing.

Having owned a restaurant with my husband, I found The Welcome Home Diner fascinating. Lampman gets so much right, such as the stress, the hard, physical work and the comraderie of the team effort. You get a great look at the day-to-day grind of running a restaurant.

The setting of Detroit is a character as well. We get a real feel for what a once-vibrant city is now going through, the struggles of the residents to get back on their feet. Some people appreciate the efforts of newcomers investing in their city, others fear the gentrification and the strangers moving into their neighborhoods.

I recommend The Welcome Home Diner for those who like foodie fiction, and family stories mixed with serious issues and there are even some recipes at the end, like Lamb Burger Sliders with Tzatziki and Beetroot Relish, and Sylvia's Heartbreakers, which are similiar to the amazing Levain's Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, famous in NYC (and my guilty pleasure).
… (more)
 
Flagged
bookchickdi | 5 other reviews | Nov 4, 2017 |

Awards

Statistics

Works
4
Members
44
Popularity
#346,250
Rating
½ 3.5
Reviews
13
ISBNs
8