The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake, Rachel Linden (Review by Carli Monostra)

Readers get to indulge in a trip to Italy as Jules returns to her paternal family’s olive farm in Lake Garda. The plot is a medium pace with chapters that were relatively short (~7 pages) making it easy to put down and pick back up. While there is plenty of beautiful descriptions of Northern Italy and authentic Italian dishes, this book explores more serious themes of grief, fear, and self-confidence. Jules is constantly faced with addressing past trauma despite her best efforts to continue running from it. Although her problems are solved in a Hallmark manner (even including a fun epilogue!), she does have to put in some self-reflection and become mentally stronger to truly accept herself. Of course she does not do this alone. Her family and friends are there to push her along the way. Most of the book is written with Jules reflecting on the past in piecemeal. While this does create some mysterious tension for other plot lines, I felt like this really hindered my ability to care for the relationship between Jules and Nicolo. Especially since we don’t get much insight into the relationship besides surface level details on how they fell quickly in love as teenagers. Jules’s ability to completely allow herself back into a relationship with Nicolo requires her to confidently return to her old self. Her inner struggle with this wasn’t really fleshed out between the two of them for more than a few paragraphs. Since the novel is partly classified as romance, I was hoping for more across at least a few chapters. There are other relationships that do shine in this story! The bond that develops between Jules, Nonna Bruna, and Alex will have you smiling. I think everyone can relate to how food can be associated with past memories and sharing a meal can be a great way to get to know someone. Now add a magical cook book to the mix that instructs you what to bake and there is plenty of drama to keep you entertained this summer. Maybe even while you eat some orange blossom cake from the recipe included in the back!