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A Novel with Food
by Brian O'Reilly
Sometimes the shortest distance between two people is the length of a kitchen table... .
Far too young to be a widow, Angelina D'Angelo suddenly finds herself facing a life without her beloved husband, Frank. Late one night shortly after the funeral, she makes her way down to the kitchen and pours all of her grief and anger into the only outlet she has left—her passion for cooking. In a frenzy of concentration and swift precision, she builds layer upon layer of thick, rich lasagna, braids loaves of yeasty bread, roasts plump herb-rubbed chicken; she makes so much food that she winds up delivering the spoils to the neighbors in her tight-knit Italian community in South Philadelphia.
Retiree Basil Cupertino, who has just moved in with his kindly sister across the street, is positively smitten with Angelina's food. In a stroke of good fortune, Basil offers Angelina (not only husbandless but unemployed) a job cooking for him—two meals a day, six days a week, in exchange for a handsome salary. Soon, word of her irresistible culinary prowess spreads and she finds herself cooking for seven bachelors—and in the process discovers the magical power of food to heal, to bring people together ... and maybe even to provide a second chance at love.
Filled to the brim with homemade warmth, Angelina's Bachelors is a sweet tale of overcoming grief, redefining family, and following your heart—through food.
"Light comedy and good food make a winning combination." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In this confection, young widow Angelina D'Angelo finds emotional and financial sustenance after her husband's sudden death by cooking for seven bachelors in her South Philly neighborhood. The characters are Capraesque, from an ex-seminarian questioning his calling to a watch-chain-wearing Mr. Pettibone.…The food's another story: described most deliciously and leaving you hungry for more. Luckily this debut from O'Reilly (creator of Food Network's Dinner Impossible) includes his wife Virginia's appealing recipes." —People
This information about Angelina's Bachelors was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Brian O'Reilly is a writer and producer. He was the creator and executive producer of Food Network's Dinner: Impossible. Angelina's Bachelors is his third book and first novel, after Mission: Cook! and Impossible to Easy. His culinary collaborator is his wife and partner, Virginia, a lifelong cook and culinary producer of their production company. In a perfect world, they believe, there'd be pie every day.
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