Narration by Dominique Salvacion
From the publisher:
From the bestselling author of Unlikely Story comes a warm, witty novel about a chef whose unexpected summer in Italy turns messier and richer than any recipe she ever would’ve planned.
Between a breakup and a burned-down restaurant, there’s nothing left in New York for Kit Roth except the ashes of her success.
Needing distance and distraction, she agrees to work for her best friend’s pasta-making nonna in the Italian countryside. But instead of providing a quiet sabbatical to eat up time while her kitchen is rebuilt, the small town of Manciano keeps pulling Kit into its rituals and rhythms. And before long, it shows her everything she’s been missing. Simpler cooking, community…and Nico Ruspoli, an olive oil producer with his own scorched past. But with Kit determined to leave after three months, and Nico rooted to his grove, their growing chemistry is at odds with what they both want for their future.
Yet with each passing week, Kit finds herself measuring less and tasting more. And when it’s time to go back to her life in New York, she doesn’t know what—or who—she’s willing to leave behind.
I visited Italy many years ago and have longed to go back. It was glorious! So any time I can read a book that takes me back, I’m all in.
Kit is a chef who doesn’t just love her job — she is her job. So when the restaurant she helms catches fire, she’s completely devastated. Her breakup with her boyfriend — who is also her business partner, and yes, they were sleeping together — barely registers by comparison. What matters is that she can’t cook.
Panicking, Kit’s best friend steps in with a solution: go to Italy and stage at her grandmother’s restaurant in the tiny town of Manciano.
And so Kit lands in Tuscany, in an entirely different world. Nonna’s restaurant lives and dies by pasta, and Nonna is no pushover. She refuses to let this celebrated visiting chef anywhere near the flour — for weeks, Kit is stuck doing scut work. But she’s in a kitchen, and that makes her happy.
Next door lies an olive grove, tended by Nico — producer of the finest olive oil in the region and, not incidentally, very easy on the eyes. He’s also genuinely kind. Kit starts spending time with him, a friendship takes root, and the slow burn begins. Very slow. Glacially slow, really. Eventually they move toward something deeper, though a complication looms: Kit has a newly refurbished restaurant waiting in New York and no shortage of other opportunities, while Nico has olive trees rooted firmly in Tuscan soil. They find a way to bridge the distance — in a manner most readers will see coming long before they get there.
What elevates this one for me is the setting. Italy does a lot of heavy lifting, and I’m happy to let it. I don’t mind a slow burn in principle, but this one tests the limits. There is a bit of steam that frankly, helps. The ending, though, is telegraphed so clearly that the drama leading up to it feels overwrought.
That said, if you love Italy and Italian food as much as I do, it’s an enjoyable read. The narrator handles the material well, and I’d gladly listen to her again. Viva Italia!
3/2026 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE SLOW BURN by Ali Rosen. Narrator: Dominique Salvacion. Brilliance Audio (January 27, 2026). ASIN: B0FNRYSVCK. Listening Length: 9 hours and 16 minutes.
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