This review is published on Reedsy/Discovery.
The story begins with Sarafina (Sara) in an emotional crisis from loss across multiple spheres of her life, including her family connections, business ownership, the love of her life, and her passion for cooking. Sara leaves behind her identity and mourns the loss of her support system, leading her escape to a small town where she knows no one.
The genre is women’s fiction, written in the first person, an apt point of view for this story as you meet the various characters with whom Sara interacts. Her personal history informs her perspective of the people who welcome her and those who don’t. The dark places of her past affect her receptiveness to friendship, disdain for the closed-minded, and combat with her authoritarian brother.
Sara begins to grow roots in this small town where she is an enigma to residents, and the feeling is mutual. Everyone knows your business, a seismic shift from her life in New York City where privacy is the tacit code of behavior. But she learns to accept the lack of privacy as she develops reverence for the close personal ties possible in this environment.
As Sara’s life blossoms, she continues to have conflicted feelings about many aspects of her life. That is the element of the book that most held my interest. Life is complicated, and issues are not swept away in unison once you get a job, make friends or fall in love. For example, Sara loves her niece, Carla, but when Sara ambivalently takes Carla into her home, Sara acknowledges that the life she was building around “me” has shifted to “we”:
We. She said we. I was still struggling with the idea of this young woman living in my house, moving freely in and out of my day-to-day life, but she had already decided. We.
I also enjoyed the author’s humor:
Oh, honey, nobody needs a man. But they’re nice to keep around, you know. For killing spiders and such.
Cooking is integral to the story, and the descriptive passages are delightful:
The cassoulet was delicious: chicken falling off the bone, the sausage lightly spiced but full of garlic, the beans with just a hint of resistance as you first bit in, then melting away to a silky richness.
I recommend this book because it demonstrates steps forward and backward, sincere dialogue, and honesty about the jagged footpaths you encounter when starting over.
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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