Thursday, August 13, 2015

Hillary Manton Lodge

Dear Readers,

I am really Johnnie come lately on the review of this book.  I really really wanted to read it sooner, but deadlines and a lost book delayed it a bit for me.   Once I found my copy back, it was between the headboard and the wall.  Who knows how it got there other than I must have fallen asleep while reading one night… 

Reservations for Two by Hillary Manton Lodge was the much awaited sequel to The Table by the Window.  For anyone who read the first one you know and understand how the book ended.  It just ended, with Juliette and Neil arriving in France to follow her grandmother’s history and the mysterious photo Juliette discovered.  Yikes, who does that to readers?  J

Reservations+for+Two%3A+A+Novel+of+Fresh+Flavors+and+New+HorizonsReservations picks right up where the other left off and you don’t miss a beat.  Juliette and Neil not only are in France, they move on to Italy to follow her grandmother’s story.  What they find in Italy is a stash of letters that may or may not explain everything and Juliette is eager to get started reading.  She meets her grandmother on the pages, a young lady determined to got to pastry school despite her parent’s wishes.   As Juliette reads on she finds a part of her heritage that she knew nothing about. 

This is such an enjoyable way to tell a story.  Hillary has really hit it out of the park with the mixture of contemporary and historical.  Throw in the wonderful recipes and she has you captured right from the beginning of the book.  Of course she leaves us totally up in the air at the end of this book also.  So once again we will wait patiently (maybe) for the next book to find out what happens not only with Juliette, but also her grandmother.

On a little side note, I did find reading this book at night is maybe not the best idea.  With all the wonderful food described and recipes given it will basically make you want to get up and create a dessert and devour it all on the spot.  Okay maybe go buy a wonderful dessert and then eat it all.  Whichever works for you.  Just be forewarned.


Happy Reading,

P.S.  The picture shows the original cover, there is a different one now that matches the first book better. 

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