Giveaway and Review of The Food of Love Cookery School by Nicky Pellegrino

I am a huge fan of novels set in Italy and was very excited about reading The Food of Love Cookery School. It the first book by Nicky Pellegrino that I have read and I thought it was fantastic. 

Four women arrive in Sicily to begin a one week cooking course in the Sicilian town of Favio. They are all from different walks of life and different parts of the world. Poppy is from Australia and is recently divorced, Valerie has come from New York and is grieving for her partner who sadly died a year earlier, Tricia is a high flying barrister from London and Moll is a food blogger also from London. By the end of the week, each of their lives will have changed in different, even Luca Amore, the owner of the cookery school will find his life altered.

My favourite part of the book was the description of all of the food that they cooked and tasted on the various day trips. It sounded delicious and my mouth was watering just thinking about it. Pellegrino has clearly spent a lot of time researching Sicilian dishes and this comes across very strongly in the novel.

 This is a lovely, heart warming and compelling story that combines holidays, delicious food, romance and friendship. I really enjoyed reading this book and read it over the space of two days. The setting was very evocative and the characters felt like old friends by the last page. Pellegrino has cleverly interwoven the narrative, so that each of the four women and Luca have an equal voice. I thought that this helped me get to know them and also to see what they are thinking about certain situations.

The Food of Love Cookery School is a wonderful book that I highly recommend. There are also some recipes at the back of the book, which make a lovely addition. I was also very excited to see that Luca’s cooking school was based on a real cookery school in Sicily which the author attended, this has given me a couple of ideas for future holidays!

5 stars

Thank you to Orion for sending me a copy to review.

 

Orion have kindly allowed us to giveaway 5 copies of The Food of Love Cookery School by Nicky Pellegrino. The giveaway is open to UK entrants only and closes on 31st July 2013. To enter, please re-tweet this post or leave a comment below.