Reservations for Two

It's not often a reader comes across a book that is so captivating that it is so hard to put it down. Reservations for Two by Hillary Manton Lodge is just such a book. Not only does Hillary write such an enthralling book, but she includes recipes that are woven into the warp and woof of the plot. This is book two in the Two Blue Doors series. I read the first one with the same kind of enrapture and even tried out a couple of the recipes. There will be more than one recipe in this book that I will be trying out too!

Reservations for Two picks up where Table by the Window left off--Julietta and Nico are working so hard to get Two Blue Doors up and running, with Julietta in Paris to find some suppliers for the restaurant and to find the answer to some family mysteries. Their mother has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is having some difficulties in spite of the treatments. Julietta's online romance has become an "in-person" romance when Neil shows up in Paris and stays throughout the rest of her time in Europe. Julietta even goes to see Neil in Memphis a short time after their European rendezvous.

Hillary has pulled the family together with strong characters, with a history of written letters that sometimes surprises, sometimes delights and sometimes brings sadness, with the pathos of an uncertain cure for a deadly illness, with the delights of a new romance, and with the heartbreak of that romance breaking up. Her recipes cause drooling, again just by reading the ingredients list. Her setting descriptions make the reader want to fly out and go there RIGHT NOW. I go to Portland frequently because of some health issues, and Hillary's writings make me wish that Two Blue Doors was a real restaurant.

Again, this is a FIVE STAR book, two thumbs up, and a jar of lavender honey.

My Thanks to WaterBrook Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.