Excellent book about a woman's return, after nearly 20 years, to her hometown to help with the family business. A hurt has festered the entire time and has eroded her relationship with her closest relative. Multi-faceted healing takes place as they work together to save the business. And, love comes her way, as well.

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Anna has studiously avoided her aunt Rose-the woman she once loved more than anyone else in the world-ever since the night Rose betrayed Anna & her mother, Rose's own fatally ill sister. In the sixteen years that have passed, Anna has built another life for herself far from her hometown on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but she can't forgive or forget. Now another betrayal, by a faithless lover, has brought Anna back to her family's restaurant, where Rose needs her estranged niece's help-and trust-more than ever before. Determined to leave as soon as the struggling business is back on its feet and her own hurt is healed, Anna joins Rose in the kitchen of the Bella Sorella, where values clash and generations collide-and outside, where their personal lives become entangled in surprising ways. Yet Anna is resolved to remain unaffected by Rose's longing to undo the past-even though her resistance could blind her to a true and unexpected love that's reaching out to grab her by the heart,

Anna, betrayed by both her Aunt Rose and her current lover, returns home to run the family restaurant and mend her heart.

A great book by one of my favorite authors!

the depictions of female friendships, with undonditional love tempered at times by brutal truth-telling. (reminds you of the avaricious way you read as a child, dying to see what happens on the next page, and the next.)

From the back cover, "A poignant and wise story of truth and layalty, of the bonds that shape, sustain and ultimately uplift us."

A richly layered tale of love, both romantic and between women friends. From the extraordinary bestseller author of The Saving Graces and Circle of Three, comes a poignant and wise story of truth and loyalty, of the bonds that shape, sustain, and ultimately uplift us.

From Publishers Weekly: Alone in a chilly loft in upstate New York, ruing the end of her affair with a two-timing sculptor, Anna Catalano, the heroine of this follow-up to Gaffney's bestselling The Saving Graces, can't resist an invitation to return home to Maryland's Eastern Shore. Her aunt Rose desperately needs a manager for her restaurant, the Bella Sorella, and it has to be family, says intermediary Aunt Iris. Rose and Anna haven't actually been on speaking terms since Anna caught Rose having an affair with Anna's father while her mother was dying. Still, telling herself it's only temporary, Anna signs on for the job. A host of clangorous, adrenaline-pumping kitchen scenes follow, and anyone who's worked in the restaurant business will especially enjoy the clash between the self-taught red-sauce chef and Anna's new hire, a culinary school grad who wants to put pesto in the minestrone. But Gaffney is unaccountably less apt in charting the romance between Anna and a bird-loving lawyer-turned-photographer named Mason Winograd, who must overcome his fear of flying as Anna overcomes her fear of nesting. Their e-mails, while blessedly free of emoticons and tech talk, are too long and too similar in voice. A delicious first kiss leads to a flat full monty: "He got her undressed and then went in the bathroom and came back nude, with condoms." In contrast, the affair between Rose and the dying Theo, Mason's stepfather, is richly nuanced, as are the relationships among the many women in the cast.

author of 'the saving graces'. well-written.

Good story of family and relationships.

nna has studiously avoided her aunt Rose -- the woman she once loved more than anyone else in the world -- ever since the night Rose betrayed Anna and her mother, Rose's own fatally ill sister. In the sixteen years that have passed, Anna has built another life for herself far from her hometown on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but she can't forgive or forget.
Now another betrayal, by a faithless lover, has brought Anna back to her family's restaurant, where Rose needs her estranged niece's help -- and trust -- more than ever before. Determined to leave as soon as the struggling business is back on its feet and her own hurt is healed, Anna joins Rose in the kitchen of the Bella Sorella, where values clash and generations collide -- and outside, where their personal lives become entangled in surprising ways. Yet Anna is resolved to remain unaffected by Rose's longing to undo the past -- even though her resistance could blind her to a true and unexpected love that's reaching out to grab her by the heart.

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