This book is such a good, heartwarming winter read. I wouldn’t classify it as a holiday book but more of a book that takes place around the holidays. This love story between Iris and Gio is beautiful and their chemistry is 🔥 The dilemma that Iris faces of having the super secret Belotti family vanilla gelato is only made worse when she finds out Gio doesn’t know the recipe. Iris decides to offer her “help” in figuring out the recipe but she can’t lead him directly to it too quickly. This ends up being a majority of the book, and then the romance begins to emerge. While I enjoyed them trying to figure out the gelato recipe, I felt it could have focused more on their romance. However, I did love the found family aspect of the book with Iris befriending Gio’s sister and developing a relationship with his daughter. Iris is basically alone, with no family (except her friends Bobby and Robin) and the family environment the Belotti’s provided was super sweet. This is my third Josie Silver book and I’ll definitely read whatever she writes next ☺️ If you’re looking for a book to get into wintery season and want a bit more depth than just romance, this is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the Advance Reader Copy of A Winter in New York.

Iris has fled to New York to escape an abusive boyfriend and luckily lands on the steps of a noodle shop where she gets a job, a best friend, and an apartment. Her best friend, Bobby, takes her under his wing and they go to a food fest in the Italian Village about 10 minutes from their apartment building. While there, Iris finds a door to a gelato shop that she vaguely recognizes and once she is home she realizes it is from her mother's scrapbook. Iris has been lost since the death of her mother 3 years before. Next to the photo of a handsome young man in front of the gelato shop is the gelato recipe that her mother had sworn her to secrecy about. Iris goes back to the store the next day to try the gelato to see if it is the same as her mother's recipe only to find that the store isn't selling gelato because the only person who knew the recipe had a stroke and cannot remember it. The man running the store, Gio, is so upset that Iris offers to use her chef's background to try to recreate the secret recipe, even though she knows it by heart.

I didn't enjoy this story. Iris's lies and constantly being in her head annoyed me. She was putting an entire family's livelihood at risk because she didn't want them to know that she had their secret recipe? I also didn't like the way the story handled Iris's past. The first half of the book just vaguely refers to her evil ex without actually telling what happened but Iris is so traumatized by it and has made it her entire personality. The chapters from her mother's point of view were jarring since there are only three of them. It's not a dual POV novel since they are only used to provide an explanation for an event that happened in the past. It felt like clunky writing.

I read my first book by Josie Silver last year and I loved it. So when I saw this book I instantly knew I wanted to read it and it did NOT disappoint! 😍

I love how Iris and Gio's story is woven between past and present. The writing was well done and once I got started reading it I was sucked in and didn't want to put the book down.

Having recently lost my mother I really related to Iris's feelings about losing her mom and it helped me to see some of myself in her.

This book is a definite must read for the holiday season! Hopefully you'll love it as much as I did!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Iris escapes from an abusive relationship in London and heads to NYC with only her suitcase and gelato maker. NYC was her late mother's favorite place and Iris grew up watching romcoms set in the city. Before too long, Iris is feeling more herself with a job, a place to live, fun neighbors and a quirky area cat. While visiting a local Italian food festival, she spots a gelato shop that she's seen in her mother's pictures. She enters and meets widower Gio who tells her that they've lost the family secret recipe-one that Iris has. As Iris falls in love with Gio, she doesn't know whether to share that she knows the recipe or not. One secret compounds over another and the story is a freight train heading for the usual misunderstandings. Besides having one too many secrets between the H and h, this was probably my favorite Josie Silver book yet. The lead characters are wonderful, the secondary characters are lots of fun, there's oodles of holiday spirit and it made me hungry for vanilla gelato! I may have priced out a gelato maker lol. There are definitely some dark moments in this with some adult themes but the holiday magic prevailed.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest, yet late review.

Josie Silver is the queen of holiday romance. I swear I look forward to her releases every single year and this one was no exception. What a delightfully wholesome story with the best best best characters! Such a win for holiday books. Making food to keep the store open? Obsessed. The secret recipe dynamic? Gold. Wins all around!

Thank you for the ARC. I found the the book too slow moving for me...thie plot line of a gelato recipe didn't seem plausible or interesting. I know Josie Silver has many fans, so I'm sure they will still enjoy this one, even if I found it lacking.

❄️🗽🍨Review of A Winter in New York by Josie Silver❄️🗽🍨

Even though about half of this book takes place outside the winter months, it gives all the cozy winter romance feels. Pair that with iconic New York locations and activities, and you get another page-turning swoony romance from Josie Silver.

Looking for a fresh start, Iris moves to New York to recreate key memories from her recently deceased mother’s youth. That fresh start brings Iris right to Gio, the man currently running the family-owned gelateria that sells vanilla gelato that tastes precisely like Iris’ secret family recipe. When Gio tells Iris that their business is in trouble because the only person who knows the recipe cannot remember it, Iris volunteers her skills as a chef to help recreate the famous Belotti family gelato. Iris and Gio catch feelings and realize that not only is the gelateria on the line, but their hearts are as well.

Thank you, @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the digital ARC of this book! My review is my own opinion

#AWinterinNewYork #JosieSilver #IrisRaven #GioBelotti #contemporaryromance #romancereadersofinstagram #bookstagram #booktok #friendswithbenefits #friendstolovers #vanillaforever #newyorkromance #nycromance

A Winter in New York is a story of hope and love. It will definitely satisfy your hunger for romance. It’ll also make you a little want a little froyo, gelato, ice cream, or whatever your frozen treat of choice is as well 😉.

Josie Silver has absolutely outdone herself with this book. I really don’t know if she could do any better. This definitely made me want to read more of her books.

I loved absolutely everything about this book. There is literally nothing I could possibly criticize about it because it hits every single emotional good spot I look for in a good romance with just the right amount of feels and happiness. The fact that it also shows growth and the possibility of moving on after a loss is the perfect cherry on top.
Iris moved to New York with nothing but the desire to escape a bad relationship and the constant reminders of losing her mom. She's made a small life for herself that consists of cooking in her new best friend's restaurant and socializing with no one but him and his husband. She's content and satisfied with what she's accomplished. Until she finds a door that seems familiar and she discovers that the gelato recipe she and her mom have shared in good and bad moments is actually the missing secret recipe from a family-run gelateria that's on the verge of closing if she doesn't help them. But how can she tell them she knows the recipe if it's supposed to be such a closely guarded secret? And what will she do about her growing feelings for the kind Gio and his family when everything is based on secrets and lies?
The story has great pacing and it really does build up in a way that feels natural so that you grow to love the characters and want them to find their true happiness. I cried a couple of times in sympathy with what Iris was going through, and just generally felt connected to the character and what she was experiencing. A phenomenal piece of writing on Silver's part.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the wonderful read!

This was a sweet romance to start my holiday/winter reading season. While a bit predictable, I enjoyed the characters and NYC setting in this one, as well as the looks back into her mom's days in the band. My biggest frustration was how long Iris kept her secrets from Gio, but overall this was a fun, light holiday read.

Another romcom set in NYC, who would have thought. This one centers around Iris who moved from London, and believes the movies version of the city is what it is. This is a common misconception, so I can't fault her fully.

This book is not a holiday read, like the cover/title would lead you to believe, which made me sad as I love those. The writing was good but the book just didn't do it for me.

I really enjoyed this book! Josie Silver did not disappoint! I would definitely recommend this book. It was a quick, fun, great Christmas book!

A perfect story for the holiday! Iris is creating a new life for herself in New York after escaping the grief of her mother's death and a bad relationship. New York was the source of one of her happiest memories, a gelato recipe that was gifted to her mom by the love of her life. Iris stumbles into a life she never expects, with a job, a place to live, and a best friend in Bobby, her boss and landlord. Bobby even forces her to leave the house and takes her to a street fair in Little Italy where Iris discovers a memory, a door that leads to a gelateria that was in her mother's photo album. Could this be the source of the secret gelato recipe? When Iris returns she meet Gio who is running the place and discovers the family recipe is lost because his uncle, the only one who knows the recipe, is in the hospital and is losing his memories. Iris is torn, she has promised her mother to never share the recipe but she wants to help Gio. keep the family business going. She decides to work with him to recreate the recipe. What she finds is a family. Can she be part of the family without destroying them with the secret she is keeping for her mother?

This is a story of family and loyalty and finding a way to be true to yourself and not let family secrets destroy the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for this ARC. I've read Josie's books before and I've LOVED them. I can't say the same about A Winter In New York. It felt slllloooooow in so many parts, with the middle of the book just dragging and going nowhere, while the end wrap up quickly and with the perfect bow on it. There were so many other parts of the book that I thought could have been written in more detail and would have added to the story. Since there are two different stories happening- the main character and the mother's- the mother's story could have been told in much more detail and would have made a big difference to the overall book . Not my favorite book and took me way more time than usual to read it because I couldn't get into it. I hope her next one is better and doesn't feel as rushed to get out, more thoughtful like her past ones.

This was a solid weekend escape read. While ‘A Winter in New York’ isn’t exactly a festive holiday read, there is snow falling, iconic city locations and a huge holiday dinner with a delicious menu. There is a lot about grief, loss and toxic relationships wrapped into the story that make this a bit heavier than a light and fluffy romance read. But overall, I recommend it. I really enjoyed all of the characters, and appreciated a few flashbacks to the mother’s perspective. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a delightful story! Holiday time in New York City! This is the story of Iris and Gio and all of the stories that came before them that got them to where they are. It’s a story of families and loyalty and secrets. It made me hungry for a bowl of gelato. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you #NetGalley. For the ARC #AWinterinNewYork in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It has been a while since I truly enjoyed a book. I love Josie Silvers style of writing. From the first page to the last I was hooked. I found myself not wanting this book to end. I wanted to be in New York and to know Bobby and Robin and Gio, Sophia and Bella and the rest of the family. I cried during parts of the book. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to say that.

Run, do not walk, and grab this book. You will not be disappointed!

Really cute but I felt like something was missing and it didn't captivate me like I was hoping. I think it was partly the love interests and the frustration from the storyline there.

I first feel in love with Josie Silver's writing when I read One Day in December, so to have a chance to read an ARC of A Winter in New York was such a treat. This is a perfect read for the holiday season, and while I adore the leads Iris and Gio, I'm living for the Belottis, Bobby, Robin, and Smirnoff. Iris is a bit of a mess, but given she's lost her mother and had an abusive ex, frankly that's the only way to be all things considered. Gio is a bit stuck in his ways, but Iris thaws him out a bit, gets him to live a little from his self imposed life of adhering to responsibility.

This whole book I could have seen the mess coming, but Josie Silver enchants you so thoroughly with her depiction of Little Italy and the love surrounding Iris that you forget an inevitable blow up to Iris' life is coming.

Loss, love, and found family wrapped up in the heartwarming package that is A Winter in New York is enchanting.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
A Winter in New York came out on October 3rd, 2023
3/5 Stars

This story is set in New York and revolves around Iris and Gio and their unlikely connection via a secret family gelato recipe. After losing her mother to cancer, Iris leaves London and her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend and makes a new start in New York, following in her mother's footsteps. When she attends a festival in Little Italy and sees a storefront that she recognizes from one of her late mother's photographs, she feels compelled to learn more. The photo is of Belloti's Gelateria, a family-owned shop with a much beloved and well-kept secret recipe. The only problem? The only living person who has the recipe recently had a stroke and is unable to remember it. Iris discovers that her mother must have a connection to the family, as her photo album includes an old napkin with the exact recipe written on it. Soon Iris is swept up into the Gelateria business - and a budding relationship with the shop's grandson, Gio - as she helps them rediscover the family recipe while harboring secrets of her own.

This book is a great atmospheric read as winter approaches. It is broader than a Christmas book and really encapsulates the setting of New York over the holidays. As someone who married into an Italian family, I enjoyed the Belotti family and their cast of characters and really liked Gio's character. That being said, you definitely need to suspend belief in order to buy into the plotline of this book as there are multiple coincidences that are difficult to believe. The book utilizes some flashbacks to tell some of Vivian's (Iris' mom) story, which I liked, but felt like I didn't get enough of. I wish the author had either not included them or had fleshed it out more to make the then-and-now timelines more even. Finally, I had a difficult time forgiving Iris for her deceit throughout the book, and especially as she got more enmeshed with the Belotti family. Clearly Iris was struggling with maintaining the web of lies, but it certainly didn't make her likeable.

Overall, on the surface this was a quick and cute holiday read, but if I let myself sit and think about it for too long I find myself being more and more critical. I liked it for the atmosphere, the gelato, and the Italian family but had a hard time with the deceit.