Thursday, September 29, 2016

The Promise Kitchen by Peggy Lampman


Title: The Promise Kitchen
Author: Peggy Lampman
Genre: Adult, Women's Fiction
Length: 380 Pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: August 16, 2016
Source: Goodreads FirstReads
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Food, friendship, family, and a fresh start. Shelby Preston, a young single mother, is at a crossroads. She feels suffocated by her hardscrabble life in rural Georgia and dreams of becoming a professional chef. Lord knows her family could use a pot of something good. In Atlanta, Mallory Lakes is reeling from a bad breakup. The newspaper food columnist is also bracing for major changes at work that could put her job at risk. Determined to find the perfect recipe for how to reinvent herself, she gets involved in the growing farm-to-table movement. But an emotional setback threatens to derail everything she’s worked for. Shelby and Mallory couldn’t be more different. But through their shared passion for food, they form an unlikely friendship—a bond that just might be their salvation. This heartwarming and lyrical tale reminds us that family isn’t necessarily whom you’re related to—it’s whom you invite to your table. This is a new release of a previously published edition titled Simmer and Smoke; it contains twenty delightful recipes.


*****
The Promise Kitchen is quite an in-depth look into the lives of small town southern areas. Shelby comes from a low-income family in a town with no prospects or promises for her or her daughter. Shelby has big dreams, she wants to be a chef. And she appears to have the talent, but there's no place for her to find out at home.

So she ventures into the big city, leaving her daughter behind, to follow her dreams, get a job, and move her family to be with her. Shelby's struggle was incredibly real. I could feel the frustration as every time she got a couple steps ahead, something would go wrong and she'd end up almost back at the beginning. When her daughter gets sick, she thinks it's all over for good. But she has found a guardian angel she didn't know about.

Mallory is on the opposite end of the spectrum. She has a good job that she says she loves. To all appearances she has everything on track and going the right direction, but it's all a lie. Her life begins to spiral out of control and her friends aren't who she thought they were. As she fights to find her new way, her path corsses with Shelby and our stories collide in quite an interesting fashion.

I loved this book - but at times Mallory's story was a little too depressing. I know depression is real and very difficult to pull out of, but this drop into depression seemed a little more like wallowing in self-pity than an actual downward spiral. But don't let this little comment scare you away. I think the writing and storyline of The Promise Kitchen was amazing.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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