An excellent read, especially for those who love cooking, romance, and realistically poignant LGBT themes.
In Bailey’s debut novel, a blossoming relationship between a gay man and his allegedly straight neighbor begins through the art of cooking.
Pierre Jackson moves to Toronto from Detroit to be with his wealthy news anchor fiance, Dre. But after they have a dramatic fight, Pierre spends some time living on his own and enrolls in a French cooking class. His messy apron quickly catches the eye of his new neighbor, Vijay Khakwani, who invites him to come to his apartment every Thursday night to teach him how to cook. Pierre is instantly attracted, but due to Vijay’s swaggering, “straight-boy” persona, he tries to subdue his emotions as they develop a strong friendship. Vijay has his own problems, particularly with his overbearing, high-powered lawyer mother, who wants him to follow through on an arranged marriage to a woman. He tries to channel his frustration into meditation and studying the teachings of Buddhism, but he soon becomes overwhelmed with confusion about his true feelings for Pierre. The plot becomes increasingly absorbing when Dre reappears in Pierre’s life in an attempt to repair their relationship; meanwhile, Vijay tries desperately to suppress his attraction to men during a complicated identity crisis. Bailey’s novel is smart, captivating, and hilarious, seasoned with spicy moments of intimacy, hip and witty dialogue, and a hefty serving of drama. It tackles a wide range of subjects, including difficult-to-navigate gray areas of LGBT relationships, Buddhist philosophy, cultural identity, and the subtle yet prevailing homophobic tendencies of a supposedly welcoming modern society. The author beautifully melds the art of cooking with rising romantic desire and also examines engaging cultural dynamics as Pierre, an African-American man from Detroit, teaches Vijay, an Indo-Guyanese man who’s fairly far-removed from his cultural heritage, how to cook and enjoy traditional Indian cuisine. Also, although Pierre and Dre move to Toronto in order to be legally married, Dre still harbors anxieties about his family’s homophobia, and he worries that he’ll be treated differently at his workplace as an openly gay man. Although the novel’s ending is a surprise, readers won’t be disappointed.
An excellent read, especially for those who love cooking, romance, and realistically poignant LGBT themes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Very slow off the mark, though once blackmail and murder enter the picture, Scottoline moves things along with her customary...
In Scottoline’s latest family-centered thriller (Accused, 2013, etc.), Jake Buckman lets son Ryan drive the family car on a back road. Very bad idea.
The car hits someone, and she’s dead. Faced with the prospect of his teenager’s life being ruined, Jake tells him to get back in the car, and they drive away. “[D]on’t tell Mom,” Jake warns; he loves his wife, but Pam has the personality you’d expect of a superior court judge (judgmental), and their marriage is still recovering from Jake’s decision to start his own business, which has made him a mostly absentee husband and father. He’s now “one of the top-ten ranked financial planners in southeastern Pennsylvania,” though his planning skills aren’t evident as Jake ineptly tries to cover their tracks. He also has a terrible time keeping his son from confessing once they learn that the dead girl is Ryan’s high school classmate Kathleen Lindstrom. It takes more than 100 pages for the plot to involve anything other than Jake’s nerves, Pam’s suspicions and Ryan’s guilty wails, all of which are believable but not very interesting. Sleazy blackmailer Lewis Deaner livens things up, especially after he turns up murdered. If the police find those cellphone pictures Deaner had of Jake and Ryan at the scene of the crime, Jake will be a suspect. And once Ryan has blurted out the truth to his mother, furious Pam might be just as happy to see Jake in jail. The killer’s identity isn’t much of a surprise, since he’s the only character with any individual traits apart from the Buckmans and the cops, but the final twist comes out of nowhere, 10 pages from the end.
Very slow off the mark, though once blackmail and murder enter the picture, Scottoline moves things along with her customary professionalism, if scant credibility.Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-01009-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
A sweeping romantic tale of thwarted love.
Sixty years after her first love failed to meet her in a market square, Roya Khanom Archer finally has the chance to see him. But will he break her heart again?
Back in 1953, she was a 17-year-old schoolgirl, raised in a progressive home in Tehran, where her father encouraged Roya and her sister, Zari, to take advantage of the recent reforms that allowed women to go to university. While he hoped she might become a chemist, Roya loved escaping into novels, which sent her to Mr. Fakhri’s stationery and book store every Tuesday afternoon. There she first sees Bahman Aslan, a breathless young man already well-known as a political activist. Kamali (Together Tea, 2013) sets Roya and Bahman’s love against the tumultuous days of Mohammad Mossadegh’s rise and fall as prime minister of Iran, infusing their affair with political passion and an increasingly frantic sense of the shortness of time. Tuesday after Tuesday, the couple falls more deeply in love, and Bahman soon proposes marriage to Roya. While Roya’s family welcomes Bahman—although Zari warns Roya that his heart cannot be trusted—Bahman’s emotionally volatile mother refuses to accept the engagement, because she has already chosen Shahla, the daughter of a man closely allied with the shah, for her son. Roya determines to weather her future mother-in-law’s storms, but when Bahman and his family disappear, she can only turn to Mr. Fakhri for help. Although he cannot tell Roya where Bahman has gone, Mr. Fakhri offers to exchange secret letters between the lovers. The plan works, and the two even plan to elope, but Bahman does not show up in Sepah Square. Sixty years later, Bahman’s confession will finally expose the secrets that cast shadows over the lovers so long ago.
A sweeping romantic tale of thwarted love.Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9821-0748-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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