Two chefs are catering the fifteenth birthday parties of two girls who are definitely not friends. Only one of the celebrations will be chosen to be featured in the local paper. And both chefs have something to prove.
Tony Sanchez, the established executive chef of a New York restaurant, is on a long-overdue visit home to Miami. He’s committed to making the celebration the best it can be—for the sake of his niece, the rest of his family, and his reputation.
Sara Kelly hadn’t known much about quinceañeras before she agreed to cater one for her niece. It’s a chance to both help her family and to promote her brand-new restaurant in Miami. From her Cuban sister-in-law, Sara learns about quince traditions, appreciating the meaning behind them.
When Tony was growing up, Sara was his best friend’s little sister; now, he sees her in a very different light. But his last relationship with another chef ended in disaster…and Sara knows that, once the parties are over, he’ll be gone. Can either of them entertain the idea of a new romance?
South Beach Love is a sweet romance that can really pull on your heartstrings. It’s a return to home and a culinary adventure into the unfamiliar. Tony and Sara are a fun couple, and their trip to a relationship isn’t all sunshine. It includes plenty of thunderstorms as well. They have intense personalities – especially when it comes to cooking.
The two nieces really help make the story a success. Both are sweet girls, but they have a fierce rivalry. These two girls were really the glue of the story, bringing Sara and Tony together and maybe playing a little matchmaker behind the scenes. My only complaint here is that there weren’t differentiated enough – I never knew which was which.
I loved seeing the culture and cuisine of Cuba. It was such a large part of the story and was a driving force behind the cooking and much of the competition between the chefs and the nieces. The families played a big part in the culture, and everything came together so nicely to build an amazing picture.
The ending was sweet and believable – it seemed like everything turned out just the way it was supposed to.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
Two ordinary sisters. A long and brutal war. A heroic sacrifice…
London, 1915. As German bombs rain down on the East End of London and hungry children queue for rations in the blistering cold, fifteen-year-old Florrie is forced to grow up fast. With her father fighting in the muddy trenches, Florrie turns to her older sister Edith for comfort. But the war has changed Edith. She has grown quiet, with dark shadows under her eyes, and has started leaving the house at night in secret. When Florrie follows her sister through the dark and winding streets of London, she is shocked by what she discovers. But she knows she must keep her sister’s secret for the sake of their family, even if she herself must pay the ultimate price…
Years later Kate, running from her broken relationship, is sorting through her dead aunt Florrie’s house, which she shared with her sister Edith. As she sits on the threadbare carpets, looking at photos of Florrie during the war, she notices the change in her aunt – from carefree young girl with a hopeful smile to a hollow-cheeked young woman, with dark sad eyes.
Determined to put her family’s ghosts to rest, Kate must unearth the secret past of her two aunts. Why is there a hidden locked room in the little house they shared? What is the story behind the abandoned wedding dress wrapped in tissue and tied up with a ribbon? And when Kate discovers the tragic secrets that have bound her family together, will she ever be able to move on?
Kate’s two great-aunts, Florrie and Edith, are really the stars of this book. Watching them grow up through Kate’s eyes as she reads through a diary offers an interesting view into their lives. Kate is only going through the diary because her life is in a bit of turmoil as well, but her story really takes a back seat to the past.
Florrie and Edith’s family actually does quite well in the war compared to those around them. They have set up a garden and are raising rabbits. But the boy Edith loves has gone to war and they may never see him again. As the years go by, the worry and unknown eat at Edith, and she begins to act very oddly.
Florrie, on the other hand, is quickly thrust into the role of caretaker. Even though she is the younger sister, she seems to be the only one holding the family together at times. The relationship between Florrie and Edith is the central point of the story. The sisterly disputes never outshine the love and devotion they feel for each other.
Meanwhile, Kate is navigating her relationship and career crisis in the present. The way her life changed and she came to appreciate the little things as she learned more about the past was quite sweet. I don’t really understand why her brothers and their families were such a prominent piece of her narrative. I feel like they mainly served to distract from her storyline and make her seem like an incredible person by giving me some awful people to compare her to. The book could have done without them.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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Three Reasons You Should Read This WWII Historical Fiction:
The Edelweis Sisters by Kate Hewitt is an emotional story about the Eder family and their three daughters during World War II that is equal parts dramatic, thrilling, and romantic.
Each of the three sisters goes through a journey that allows them to find deep parts of themselves they never imagined existed – and each one is unique.
A few of the “bad” characters were different from what I expected and made several surprising choices.
Johanna Eder and her sisters Birgit and Lotte have always lived quiet lives, working in their father’s clockmaking shop and helping their mother in the house. But they find it impossible to ignore the changes in the world around them.
At first Johanna finds it hard to believe the Nazis pose a real threat. But then her father hires Franz. He’s soulful, with dark eyes that twinkle with intelligence and humor. But he’s Jewish, and as Johanna falls for him, she realizes that loving him puts them all in danger.
The only way to save Franz is to get him to the safety of Switzerland. For this, she needs her sisters’ help, and they join the resistance. As the world turns dark around them, they must slip unnoticed right under the noses of the Nazi soldiers filling their cobbled streets.
Johanna knew she and her sisters would die for each other, but as their hearts are broken afresh each day and the lives of beloved friends and family are threatened, she discovers they would also die for the man she loves, and for what is right.
Johanna could never have foreseen how falling for a dark-eyed man would take her from an innocent girl to a fearless woman; from her quiet clock shop into the very depths of hell.
In the concentration camps of Ravensbruck and Mauthausen, Johanna and her sisters must show the strength of human spirit like never before. If they are to survive, they must prove that even in the darkness, the tiniest seeds of hope can bloom…
The Edelweis Sisters by Kate Hewitt follows the story of the three Eder girls, Johanna, Birgit, and Lotte. Each one very differnt in their own ways, they’ve lived a relatively peacful and normal life until World War II approaches their doorstep. The invasion of Austria is swift and mostly non-violent, and suddenly life is drastically different.
Lotte – the youngest believes she will find peach at the convent through a vocation. Birgit finds herself falling for a soldier, and Johanna falls in love with her father’s apprentice, a Jewish man. The story of each sister wraps its way around the others – showing how connected the three are even when physical distance separates them. Each story is uplifting and heartbreaking its own way, and none of them end quite the way I expected.
The Edelweis sisters really highlighted how the lives of everyday people were altered by the war – and not everyone made it out alive, healthy, or able to return to life as it was before. Work camps, interrogations, worrying about those you care for the most, and trying to find a way to do what you think is right all take a toll on the girls, and the toll was a real one.
Kate Hewitt did not shy away from the horrors of the Nazi regime, but she did find the very delicate balance between showing what happened and being too graphic for many readers. So many very heavy topics were addressed beautifully and in a manner that really showcased how life during war might have been.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
