Fiction for Food Lovers

Type A Fallon and happy-go-lucky Chloe couldn’t be more different. The girls used to be best friends, but last summer they hooked up right before Chloe left for college, and after a series of misunderstandings, they aren’t even speaking to each other. In fact, they are doing everything they can to avoid each other. Which is turning out to be easier said than done, since their moms run a business together–a gourmet ice cream truck where both girls work. As the two girls are forced to work together in the cramped truck, they face unexpected detours–and more than a little roadside attraction.

Ramón Montez is on a mission to grow his father’s fast-food empire, and nothing–and no one–is going to stand in his way. Celebrity chef Julieta Campos has worked so hard to build her sea-to-table taqueria, and is absolutely crushed to find that her new landlord is the family who stole her mother’s taco recipe decades ago. When fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together on the Day of the Dead, the star-crossed pair must make a choice: accept the bitter food rivalry that drives them apart or surrender to a love that consumes them.

Reese has just landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the too-charming-for-his-own-good intern who is her competition for the fall job. Reese plans on keeping her distance, but when they are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, Reese is finding it harder and harder to keep love on the back burner…

Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has written a delicious novel about appetite, temptation, and holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays.

Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past–and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake–in this immersive family saga. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

Renowned cookbook writer Paul Stuart is desperately trying to finish his latest book, but life keeps getting in the way. So, when his eccentric cousin Chloe suggests that he join her at the house she’s rented in the French countryside, he jumps at the chance. But, as the two quickly befriend the locals, including the owners of an infamous local restaurant known to be the second-worst eatery in all of France, Paul soon learns that distractions are the same at home or abroad, and he’ll have to call upon all his experience–with food and with people–to bring order back to the village.

Liza Yang and her mom don’t always see eye to eye, especially when it comes to dating. But the one thing they do have in common is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang owns the popular Yin & Yang Bakery, and is getting ready to host the bakery’s annual junior competition. Liza has agreed to help out, but on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there’s a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date! Will Liza realize that there’s no tried and true recipe for love?

Sadie is a rising star in the restaurant scene, and to take her career to the next level she is joining the next season of her favorite TV show, Chef Supreme. On her way to start filming in New York, Sadie has sizzling chemistry with her seatmate, Luke. When they go their separate ways, Sadie is sure she will never see Luke again…until she shows up to set the next day and makes a shocking discovery about who Luke really is…If Sadie wants to win, she’ll have to ignore the simmering heat between her and Luke, but how long can she do that before the pot boils over?

This honest, laugh-out-loud novel brimming with body positivity, bite-sized nuggets of feminism, and commentary on eating will have readers rooting for sixteen-year-old BB as she navigates her world while maintaining her plucky zest for life even in the most trying of times.

In the middle of World War II, in an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is holding a cooking contest–and the grand prize is a job as the program’s first ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives. These four women are giving the competition their all–even if that sometimes means bending the rules. But with so much at stake, will the contest that aims to bring the community together only serve to break it apart?

Nikki DiMarco knew life wouldn’t be all sunshine and coconuts when she quit her dream job to help her mom serve up mouthwatering Filipino dishes to hungry beach goers, but she didn’t expect the Maui food truck scene to be so eat-or-be-eaten. The competition gets even hotter when Callum James rudely sets up shop next to her coveted beach parking spot. The solution? Let the upcoming Maui Food Festival decide their fate. But as Nikki starts to learn more about Callum, she sees a much kinder side. But does trusting Callum with her heart mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

In this intriguing dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband—and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.

Eager to escape stifling small-town Indiana, Elliott Black moves to Prague, where he gets a job teaching English. Elliott meets his students in a variety of pubs and conducts his lessons over pints of local Radegast beer. This is where he meets Amanda, an English teacher from the UK, with whom he falls in love. Together, Elliott and Amanda explore the dark history and surprising wonders of their adopted city, touring the twisting ancient streets and encountering expats, movie stars, tobacco executives, a former Soviet informant, and the president of Poland. But soon they’ll realize that change is the only reality you can’t outrun.

This effervescent debut takes readers on a journey to the place where trends are born–Seoul, South Korea–where Melody Lee unwillingly moves with her family and must start a new life. At first, Melody loves discovering the alluring aspects of living in Korea–trendsetting fashion, delectable food, and a cute boy to hang out with. But soon, cracks begin to form on its shiny surface. Claire Ahn’s charming novel lets you taste every bite of kalbi, bathe in the glow of Seoul’s neon lights, and feel every high and low of Melody’s journey across the world and within her heart.

Winnie and Helen have kept each other’s worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie’s story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events that led to Winnie’s coming to America in 1949.

Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Just as she’s finishing the book tour for her latest bestseller, Dana is asked to join the church search committee for a new minister. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she agrees, and resolves to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates–and becomes its own media sensation. Wry and wise, this novel will take you on a delightful journey.

Oscar Olsson doesn’t care about school and is just waiting to graduate so he can focus on the food truck he and his grandfather run full-time. So, when valedictorian Mary Louise (Lou for short) hijacks Oscar for help with her Girl Scout Gold Award project–reducing food waste at their high school, Oscar is faced with spending countless hours with a girl he can’t stand. The future is anything but certain in this alternately funny and heartbreaking contemporary story about food trucks, festivals, and first loves.

After forty-one years stuck in a loveless marriage, Marianne has had enough and decides to leave her life and Paris behind for the coast of Brittany, also known as “the end of the world.” Not knowing what this new locale has to offer, Marianne is delighted with the locals’ warm welcome, and their natural ease at taking pleasure in life’s small moments. Here, Marianne learns it’s never too late to begin to search for what life should have been all along.

This classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother’s womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixing for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef, using cooking to express herself and sharing recipes with readers along the way.

Stephanie Danler’s novel takes you into the heart of the restaurant scene in downtown New York City. New to the city, Tess lands a job working front of house at a celebrated restaurant. But she discovers that this job is much more than seating guests and she embarks on an education into the ins-and-outs of fine dining and the complicated realities of love. A coming-of-age story with bouts of glitz and grime, Sweetbitter takes readers through the beauty, fragility, and brutality of being young and adrift.

Kim Fay’s Love & Saffron, is the perfect embodiment of how food and a good life go hand-in-hand. When Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter to food writer Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that not only gets them through difficult times, but helps them appreciate all the good things already at their fingertips. A respite from our chaotic world, this novel is a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

1946: Writer Juliet Ashton is trying to put her life back together, just like all of London, and the world, emerging from the shadow of WWII. What Juliet never imagined would be a letter correspondence with a man on the island of Guernsey. As Juliet and her new pen pal exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends, a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, literature lovers all. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. This novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Following a horrible breakup, Lila moves home to recover and help out at her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who also happens to be Lila’s ex-boyfriend) drops dead at the restaurant, Lila’s life instantly becomes an Agatha Christie case. When Lila becomes the police’s one and only suspect, she sets out to conduct her own investigation, but soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

From the sharp and wise mind of Nora Ephron, comes a hilarious novel about the breakup of a perfect marriage. Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. So, this cookbook writer turns to food for solace. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Nora Ephron’s irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes. Heartburn is a sinfully delicious novel, as soul-satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect souffle.

A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate, and the secrets of making a world-class beer, from the bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest. Here you’ll meet a cast of lovable, funny, quintessentially American characters eager to make their mark in a world that’s often stacked against them. In this deeply affecting family saga, resolution can take generations, but when it finally comes, we’re surprised, moved, and delighted.

From the celebrated food writer, Ruth Reichl, comes a novel about Billie Breslin, a young girl who has just started her dream job at the iconic food magazine, Delicious!. At first she feels like a fish out of water, but soon she is welcomed by the magazine’s colorful staff who open up her world to the culinary delights the city has to offer. But when Delicious! is abruptly shut down, Billie takes a job maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills. While there she finds a cache of letters written during WWII by Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu’s letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history, and a feeling of deep connection to the young writer and inspires her to open her heart to love.

Mãn has three mothers: the one who gives birth to her in wartime, the nun who plucks her from a vegetable garden, and her beloved Maman, who becomes a spy to survive. Maman finds Mãn a husband — a lonely Vietnamese restaurateur who lives in Montreal. Thrown into a new world, Mãn discovers her natural talent as a chef. She creates dishes that are much more than sustenance for the body: they evoke memory and emotion, time and place, and even bring her customers to tears.  But when she encounters a married chef in Paris, everything changes in the instant of a fleeting touch, and Mãn discovers the all-encompassing obsession and ever-present dangers of a love affair.