Title: Georgia’s Kitchen
Author: Jenny Nelson
ISBN: 9781439173336
Pages: 336
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Publisher: Gallery
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:

Georgia is at the top of her game.  She’s a chef in one of New York City’s hottest restaurants and has a fiancé who she loves.  Of course, everything’s not perfect – Georgia’s boss, Marco, is a piece of work and her fiancé, Glenn, has seemed distant as of late – but on the whole, things are really good.  All of that comes crashing down on her in just one day, though, and Georgia’s left to pick up the pieces and determine what she really wants out of life.

Review:

I love books about food and chefs, so when I first heard about Georgia’s Kitchen, I was really eager to delve into it and immerse myself in a world of great food.  Happily, I wasn’t disappointed – Jenny Nelson’s descriptions are spot-on and I absolutely loved the glimpse into the world of chefs and cooking she provided.

Georgia is a great character who thinks she has it all when the book begins.  If you look closely, though, you can see the cracks just beginning to form in her facade.  It’s clear that her relationship with Glenn isn’t as wonderful as she thinks it is, and the reader knows from the very beginning that things at the restaurant aren’t going to stay good.  It’s interesting to see how despondent, yet free Georgia feels when everything collapses and she has to start over again with nothing.

Georgia’s Kitchen pulls the reader in a lot of directions.  That might not work as well in some books, but for some reason it fits in this one.  Georgia goes a lot of places, does a lot of things, and embarks on a lot of projects (both professional and personal) before she settles on what she wants to do and who she wants to be.  This mirrors Georgia’s inner turmoil at what she’s been going through.  I appreciated how much Georgia grew throughout the novel, and how she was able to suck up her pride in order to get things done.  These kinds of gestures really endeared her to the reader.

I also appreciated the message in Georgia’s Kitchen – you have to work extremely hard for what you want, and even if you do, there’s no guarantee it will work out.  There are no happily ever after endings.  That might make it seem like the book is depressing, but that’s not true at all.  It’s just that Georgia has to learn that life definitely isn’t fair the hard way, and it makes the book seem very realistic.

Georgia’s Kitchen was a solid debut.  I enjoyed getting to know the main character, and loved reading about her work as a chef.  I look forward to seeing what Jenny Nelson does next, and hope that there might be a sequel in the works!

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