Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block, Jesse Q. Sutanto (Review by Aura Johnson)

Rating: 4.0/5 Stars

Mebel is a trophy wife, who never had a hair out of place or a piece of lint on her clothes. From young age, she was raised to be a trophy wife and she accomplished exactly that.

Except…well, her husband chose to leave her for a much younger woman, who happens to be their chef! After initial shock wears off, Mebel stops feeling sorry for herself, as ugly crying is unbecoming for a well-mannered trophy wife after all, and decides to win her husband back by enrolling in a culinary school.

Except…well, she accidentally enrolls in the wrong one – NOT Paris – as was the original plan, but a town in England, in one of their “smaller” campuses.

After initial struggles to not only peel potatoes, wear required uniform (um, it’s not Hermes?) but also fit in with the cool kids who are younger than the woman her husband left her for, Mebel ends up befriending a few “young people” who end up teaching her a thing or two outside of cooking class.

I am a big fan of this author as all her books with a mystery component make me laugh out loud and this particular one was no exception. At first, I could not decide if it was ridiculous or not for Mebel to start cooking school in order to win her husband back and he seemed like he would leave Mebel no matter what, but she started to learn new things and grow as a person, and for that alone it was worth it. Sometimes we don’t like the way things turn out or the changes that happen in our lives, but those changes make us grow, learn new things, and make new connections. It seems that Ms. Mebel (Auntie Mebel as she would want me to call her) was ready for a new chapter, teaching us that it is never too late to bet on yourself.