‘Love Goddess’ Cooking School’ has right ingredients

Holly Maguire thought her life was headed toward perfect, but when her “dream” man dumps her for another woman, Holly heads to the one place she has ever felt loved — her grandmother Camilla’s home on Blue Crab Island, Maine.

Camilla is well known on the island as being a supreme Italian cook and a splendid cooking teacher, but she is also renowned as being something of a fortune teller, but no one could predict that two weeks after Holly’s arrival that Camilla would quietly pass away, leaving Holly her home and her business, Camilla’s Cucinotta.

In Melissa Senate’s delicious novel, “The Love Goddess’ Cooking School,” love, heartache and great cooking combine to deliver a luscious experience in reading that will leave readers happy and hungry.

Holly is determined to live up to her grandmother’s expectations and attempts to carry on her reputation for cooking as well as teaching. She is thrilled to have four students sign up for her first cooking classes, never dreaming that the four would each have romantic problems that would need soothing as much as they needed to learn to cook. But could the granddaughter of the “Love Goddess” be able to handle both situations?

Simon, a recently divorced single father, comes to the classes in hopes of cooking his way back into his young daughter’s heart and life. Juliet, a friend from Holly’s childhood, is grieving the death of her daughter plus the separation from her husband and needs to find a way back to the land of the living. Bold and brash Tamara is looking for a man, any man, to show her family that she is capable of being loved.

But it is 12-year-old Mia who captures Holly’s heart when she comes to the class with her own agenda — she wants to learn to cook to drive her father’s bimbo girlfriend away. Much to her glee, she is successful, but when Holly falls hard for her handsome dad Liam, well, let’s just say the kitchen gets a little hot and steamy.

Through all the ups and downs, adventures and mishaps Holly discovers that if she has faith in her grandmother’s recipes and advice, she’ll be successful, and if she listens to her heart, love will come back to her in abundance.

Senate creates a warm and loving story with this delightful novel that will please foodies, romantics and fans of great women’s fiction. Her descriptions of Holly’s kitchen are cozy, her characters are unique and eccentric and the romance is hot and lively — everything you need for a great novel to warm up a cold winter’s night!