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Narrated by Xe Sands
This is a sweet, old fashioned tale – so old fashioned, I’m really not sure when it is supposed to take place. Could be the 1950’s-60s, but sometimes feels more modern and then with a jolt, no cell phones, back to another era. I guess the author, the Executive Producer of Food Network’s Dinner: Impossible, was going for timeless, and perhaps it was achieved.
I listened to the audio book, so had a different experience from the printed version. For one thing, there are no recipes in the audio, just a note at the end to check out the website for recipes. Some of the print reviews made note of the fact that recipes were interspersed throughout the chapters, in the midst of story, which some felt were jarring, but the audio book avoided that issue.
So this novel of food is exactly that – if you don’t want to read lavish descriptions of meals on a regular basis, then this is not the book for you. I love that stuff, so it worked for me.
Angelina is a young woman whose husband dies suddenly in her kitchen. The young widow quickly loses her job and when a neighbor comes knocking on her door, offering to pay her to cook him breakfast and dinner six days a week, she decides that food may be her salvation, in more ways than one. Soon other men come knocking, and almost immediately Angelina’s dining room table is full of bachelors looking for a good meal.
The men quickly become a family of sorts, with Angelina the glue that binds them together. When she finds out she’s pregnant some months after her husband’s passing, the bachelors all rally around and support her.
If it hasn’t slapped you in the face yet, the message here is that when one door closes, another opens and Angelina steps through into a good life, despite her tragedy. And despite her tragedy, this is a light hearted read, interspersed with humor and love. It is a lovely read, and a memorable one.
11/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
ANGELINA’S BACHELORS by Brian O’Reilly. Tantor Audio (December 30, 2011). ASIN: B006RCYUFQ. Listening Length: 7 hours and 22 minutes.
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