Review: A Winter in New York: A Novel

A Winter in New York: A Novel by Josie Silver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chef Iris is an orphan. Devastated by the untimely death of her vivacious mother she got into an abusive relationship with Adam but finally managed to extricate herself. She fled England and flew to New York with just one suitcase and her trusty gelato machine. Iris' mother had a secret recipe for vanilla gelato, one which must never be shared with anyone, written only on a napkin which Iris treasures, her mother's gelato was the background to all her childhood memories, the ultimate celebratory food, but also what she ate when she was sad.

After escaping from Adam's clutches Iris finds it hard to meet people or socialise, her only friends are Robin and Bobby, her boss and landlords who live upstairs above the noodle bar where she now works six days a week. On a rare day out with Bobby enjoying a local food festival, Iris notices an unusual painted glass door to Belotti's Italian Gelateria, one that is identical to a picture her mother treasured of a young man standing outside that same door. It turns out that Belotti's is famous for its vanilla gelato, a secret family recipe known only to two people at any one time, but tragedy has struck and the only family member alive who knows the recipe has had a stroke and lost his memory. Iris gets talking to the latest generation of Belotti's who work in the Gelateria, Gio, a young widower single father, and his sister Sophia, Gio is trying to recreate the recipe whilst Sophia and her sisters are urging him to diversify, at least until their father Santo recovers enough to recall the recipe. Once she tastes a mouthful of the last precious batch of gelato, Iris realises that she has their secret family recipe - but how did her mother come to have the napkin and how can Iris help the family without revealing that Santo must have betrayed the family by sharing the recipe with her?

As romance blossoms between Iris and Gio she feels trapped by the lies she has told him about her ex and about her mother's relationship with Santo and his brother Felipe, but most of all about having the secret family recipe, how can he ever forgive her?

I was invited to read this book and I hesitated because it felt a bit too sickly sweet for me, I succumbed but I was right in my first assessment. I spent most of the time reading this book internally shouting at Iris to just sit down with Gio and tell him the truth, at least about Adam, instead she gets mired deeper and deeper, it was frustrating and ultimately I felt the drama was manufactured. It was a pleasant enough romance but not for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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