Emily and Jessamine Bach are two sisters, each strong in her own way. Although, in personality and behavior they are the opposites, they are very close as sisters and rarely hide any secrets from each other, since their mother died when they were children and the older Emily mothered five years younger Jess. Their father Richard has married since and has two other children by another woman.

The ambitious and rational Emily works as a CEO in a dot.com company in Silicon Valley. Emily’s boyfriend and later fiancé is Jonathan who also works in similar dot.com company.

Bookworm and romantic Jess works in bookstore owned by George that deals in antique books. Jess is also deeply involved in a tree-hugging group and has a boyfriend in the same group. George has made a lot of money in his dealings with old books and has lavished money on the restoration of his home, filling it with antique typewriters and maps and first editions of volumes and volumes of books. Unbeknownst to Jess, the much older George has fallen for her.

A set of cookbooks become the bond between Jess and George. Will the impulsive Jess realize in time that she and George have a lot more in common than her tree-hugging politically inclined boyfriend? Will the ambitions of Emily and Jonathan clash for the welfare of their different companies? And how will the events of 9/11 affect the lives of these very strong characters? These are for the reader to find out.

In this novel, not only the main storyline is superb, but also the secondary characters, family secrets, and the old recipes add a magical connection to the story which has an even pace throughout.

In this literary novel, the writing is masterful and the reading-despite the unexpected twists— is smooth and easy. In addition, each character is drawn with depth and delicacy, giving the novel an aura of an old-time classic.

to enjoy a slow-paced romance and other human stories.

George's character.

read other books by Allegra Goodman.

is Allegra Goodman who was born in 1967. She has a Ph.D. in English Lit and is based in Cambridge Massachusetts.

She has written Total Immersion, The Family Markowitz, Kaaterskill Falls, Paradise Park, Intuition, The Other Side of the Island and stories in The New Yorker and Commentary.

I enjoyed it very much, since it is in the literary genre and is slow-paced. The style of this novel has been compared to that of Jane Austen. Those who prefer the more dynamic and fast-paced stories may not like it.

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Created Oct 07, 2014 at 6:52pm • Submit your own review...