This was truly a delight! I loved this winter set story and the element of a chef, had me hook line and sinker!

I thought the writing was eloquent and the story was well developed. This will truly get you in the holiday spirit, even if you read it in September!

This is the 2nd book by the author that I have read (I own the other two but I haven't read them yet).
I really enjoy the author's writing style, characters and setting.

This book was like a warm hug. I loved the setting (fall/winter in New York) and it reminded me of all of the rom coms set in New York (there is a correlation). If you are looking for a nice cozy fall or winter read - I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the Advanced Reader Copy!

Gelato lovers rejoice this book will have you reaching for the nearest container as you consume this book!

Iris has come to New York to explore her mothers life, and to escape an emotionally abusive relationship. This is her opportunity for a fresh start to find a job as a chef. She lands a position at a local noodle shop, befriending the owner, Bobby, his partner Robin and a cat Smirnoff.

A beautiful door in Little Italy falls in her sight invoking memories of a photo in her mother's albums. Its a family run Gelato establishment that is infamous for its vanilla flavor. Temporary closed as its patriarch has fallen ill, Iris discovers the secret recipe to their sought after flavor in her mothers scrapbook. A recipe she's grown-up with her whole life. What's the connection?

Gio's uncle Santo's holds the secret to family recipe, and without him the shop has closed because they can't make the gelato. Iris finds herself stepping through the door offering to help "recreate" the recipe without sharing she has it written down back in her apartment on a napkin.

Gio's been heartbroken since his wife's passing, reluctant to even date or consider finding love again until he meets Iris. They've met before but it was some months earlier at a local bookstore where comments were made leading Gio to believe certain truths about Iris. Past the point of no return, Iris must reveal the secrets hoping that it doesn't melt away the life she built in NY with Gio and his family.

This story is more than a romance, its a book about family, grief, hope and healing. Gio and Iris have the most amazing banter, chemistry and fun dates. I'm swooning over Gio's Italian sexy talk. This cast is everything!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for the complimentary copy.

Ok, I thought I had this book pegged - I mean seriously, the premise is about a lost gelato recipe. I was just bracing myself for the cheese factor. But I needed a fun easy read so was here for it. But no no no… as soon as Gio and Iris has their first smooth (hello PG-13 dream scene!), to the emotional way everything came to a head (I ugly cried through the last 25% of this dang book), and was so unexpectedly surprised! Worth a read - don’t let the first 25% be your only impression…

𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 🍨

𝑨 𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌
𝑩𝒚 𝑱𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓
𝑷𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆: 𝑶𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 𝟓

Here’s to a fabulous book by Josie Silver! I really loved it from the first page all the way to the last. The love story of Iris and Gio felt like fate and definitely enjoyed reading their relationship unfolding. I loved the flashbacks of her Mom’s relationship with Santo. The whole Belotti family is fun and filled with so much love! (Coming from a big Italian family, Josie definitely described it perfectly)

This book was a sweet, heartwarming, light read that is coming out in time to get ready for the holiday season 🩵❄️

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice. But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s? Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place? Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

Oh my heart! This story is just so precious! I read this in 2 sittings. What a special winter romance read! I loved that this wasn't an overtly Christmas book, but had Thanksgiving and Christmas aspects included. I enjoyed how much these two families were intertwined without really knowing it. It had a strong family presence while also have a strong found family connection which I loved. Gio must be protected at all cost! He's such a cinnamon roll hero. All he wants is to do right by his family and get the girl in the end except the girl is keeping a big secret that could ruin it all! Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 10/3

Iris has escaped to New York in the hopes of getting over the death of her mother and getting away from her abusive ex boyfriend. Her mother had a history in New York, so Iris hopes that if she goes back to the places where her mother was happy in her youth, maybe some of that happiness will come to her. While she’s working in a noodle store, she has become best friends with the owner and his husband and they let her live in the flat above the store, which makes life simple for Iris. One day while she’s wandering the neighborhood, she notices a doorway that she’s seen before-in one of her mother’s pictures in her scrapbook from her days in the band while she was in New York. The doorway belongs to a gelato shop that’s been in business for several decades and is now struggling since the patriarch of the family has been injured and can’t remember the recipe. Iris meets Gio, his nephew who works at the shop, and together they try to recreate the recipe to try to save the store.
There were a few flashbacks from her mother’s POV which added another dimension to the story and helped to push the story along in the current timeline.
I can totally see this being made into a Hallmark movie!
Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

This book is a great read to get you into the holiday spirit while also making you wish you lived in New York. I appreciated the slow burn romance and found family aspects of this story and of course who doesn't love a romance involving gelato. At times the pacing was a bit slow and felt like the mob character could have spoken to the love interested and lessened the third act miscommunication conflict, but it was a fun read. Thank you to random house publishing and netgalley for the arc.

Josie Silver’s book are always crazy to me because, every time I pick one up, I start it and think, “okay, I guess this is cute, idk,” and then BOOM! I get halfway through and suddenly I’m completely obsessed. I think it’s the power of her writing. She creates characters that are just so endearing that you can’t help but fall in love with them.

Which is exactly what happened here. Normally I think I’d find a story about a family’s lost gelato recipe kind of ridiculous, but, nope, I was all in. The MC and her love interest were perfection; the dialogue was cute and swoony; there was so much depth to their relationship and they dealt with some extremely serious obstacles. Checked all the boxes of a great romance for me.

My only issue is that I sort of wished for dual POVs because there were some interactions between Gio and his family I wanted to see that happened off page, but other than that, this was pretty perfect. Definitely recommend if you are looking for a cute holiday romance that will get you truly misty-eyed!

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC. A Winter in New York comes out October 3rd!

4.5/5 stars

A Winter in New York
By Josie Silver
4/5⭐️
Publication date: October 3, 2023

🍨Vanilla gelato
🗽New York
👨🏼 single dad
❤️‍🩹Found family
🤫Family secrets
❄️ Winter/Christmas time
🥺coping with grief
💡self discovery

Iris comes to New York after getting out of a toxic relationship and after the death of her mother. She wants to make a new life for herself and see all the places her mother loved. She is out and about one day and comes across a gelateria that seems so familiar to her yet she can’t place why.

Enter in the Belotti family. Gio is a single dad trying to run this family gelateria in the middle of a family crisis.

This story is such a whirlwind of emotions! I loved the winter New York setting and the enjoyable characters. The whole Belotti family is just so welcoming and loving. This story is told in present time and it also had some flashbacks.

I love the way Josie Silver develops her characters and how different they are. This is such an atmospheric novel and it just made me feel so cozy. This is definitely a great winter read for the holiday season coming up!

I did deduct a star because I felt like this was just one giant miscommunication between Iris and Gio. I wish she would have just come clean with what she knew and didn’t wait till the very end. Other than that, I did love this story and I love Josie Silver’s other work.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House- Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I thought this was going to be a fun, light romance based mostly on the cover and a bit from the skimmed description. I was wrong, it is a heavier coming of age of sorts for Iris as she is reeling from a bad breakup and the loss of her mom - and it is all centered on vanilla gelato. There is a dual timeline too, and it didn't work as well for me as it has in other books. It was a quicker read and I didn't dislike it, but it was just o.k. for me. I did very much enjoy the setting in NYC as I have just visited, that was fun! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine - Random House Publishing for an early e-copy in exchange for my opinion. A Winter in New York will be available on 10/3/23.

3.5 stars

A Winter in New York had one of the best meet disasters I’ve read in a while and was such a great way to open the book. It set the stage for the awkward reunion perfectly. The book was like 2 stories in one (past and present) and I really loved how the author wove all these different threads together. There is a significant romantic subplot, but I would consider this more women’s fiction than romance since the story focuses on Iris’s journey and healing.

I loved Gio and the entire Belotti family. The top secret vanilla gelato recipe was a fun twist on the forced proximity trope and the gelateria almost became another character. As much as I was rooting for Iris and applauded her strength, I was also incredibly annoyed by her. The lack of communication and all the lying by omission really grated on me. Yes, it would have been painful to backtrack and reveal everything, but doesn’t everyone deserve the truth? Iris had so many opportunities to come clean, but she kept talking herself out of it. I know it wasn’t technically her story/secret to tell, but it still bothered me. Also, the final conflict with Adam felt over the top, but I can understand it was necessary for her growth and to finally move on. The epilogue was very sweet though and I loved how the beginning and end connected.

I really enjoyed the narration by Emma Appleton and thought she did wonderful switching between New York and British accents. She was perfect as Iris.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4 stars
Performance 4.5 stars
Story 3.5 stars

CW: death of parent (cancer, past), death of spouse (past), grief, parental abandonment/absentee, FMC flees an abusive and controlling relationship, MMC’s father figure has a stroke resulting in memory deficits, stalker/threatening

*I voluntarily read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*

While this book has some scenes that take place at Christmas time, it wasn’t a holiday book like I thought it was going to be based off of the cover. It was a nice read about moving on after loss and grief, but a huge portion of the book is built on miscommunication and it bugged me a lot. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if Iris was honest with Gio and I just kept waiting for the massive fallout from her lies.

Thank you for the chance to read this book! I’ve read all of the author’s books and this one did not disappoint. Chef Iris moves to New York for a fresh start. She stops into a gelateria and meets Gio. They have amazing connection and it’s fun as she develops relationship with his family as well.

ARC REVIEW|| A WINTER IN NEW YORK by @josiesilverauthor

Release date: October 3, 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️/5

I read One Day In December last winter and loved it, so I was excited to find out Josie Silver releasing another wintery romance just in time for the holidays! It was such a great read, however I deducted one star because Iris hiding so many secrets gave me a little anxiety.

I loved the friendship dynamic between Iris, Bobby, and Robin. Gio was the perfect cinnamon roll bf, and he and Iris had great chemistry. I loved how he was so patient and gentle with her emotionally especially since she’d dealt with an abusive past relationship. I also loved seeing the relationship grow between Iris and Bella. Lastly, I loved the Belotti family…they were so warm and welcoming to Iris and were also very loving and respectful of each other.

Read this if you like⬇️:
•Gelato
•MCs in their 30s
•Winter NYC setting
•A cat named Smirnoff
•Single dad
•Found family
•Big Italian families
•Charming side characters
•Coping with grief
•Self-discovery

Add this to your holiday TBR for a heartwarming, cozy romance!

Thank you to @netgalley and @josiesilverauthor for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

🏷️: #awinterinnewyork #josiesilver #onedayindecember #gioandiris #netgalley #igreads #goodreads #bookworm #book drs #booktrovert #bibliophile #bookish #earc #arcread #holidaytbr #holidayread #holidayromance #romanceread

A Winter in New York // Josie Silver
Release Date: 10/3/23
Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for this advance copy!

I feel like it’s the mark of a great author when I read a book and while unbelievably frustrated with the decisions the main character makes, I still find myself rooting for them.

In A Winter in New York, Iris is making a new life for herself after escaping an abusive relationship. She moves to NYC, the place her now deceased mother loved. Her mother’s past comes back in chunks throughout the book and throughout the scrapbook Iris has, which includes a secret recipe. Iris finds herself telling white lie after white lie and getting wrapped up with the Belotti family, to the point she feels she cannot pull herself away but also cannot expose the truth. Eventually everything will come clean, but what will be left?

While reading I wanted to yell at Iris for her choices, while understanding them at the same time. I felt her sadness to the point of tears multiple times which is unusual for me when reading a book.

This book had the essence of While You Were Sleeping (one of my favorite movies). The found family trope features heavily in this book, as Iris has no other family. I found myself in love with the Belotti’s, and easily able to remember all the Belotti characters (I usually forget characters easily when it’s a large cast).  

The character growth in this story is wonderful to experience as a reader, the plot resolution was unpredictable, and the imagery of gelato will have you wanting ice cream even in the middle of winter.

Josie Silver is an auto-read author for me and I was not disappointed with A Winter in New York.

Iris recently moved to New York to restart her life. New York is one of her Mum's favorite spots and the memorable movies/tunes are full of whimsy. Bobby, her best friend, set not to let her spend all free time stuck up in her apartment. drags her out to an autumn street fair in Little Italy. At this time, Iris happens upon a family-run gelateria that has potential to be the same one seen in her mother's photos.

Not letting this out of her mind, Iris travels back to the gelateria and meets Gio. Gio, handsome co-owner, quickly breaks the news that the family has to figure out the gelato recipe or else close doors. The exact gelato recipe that Iris is secretly hiding in her pocket. With secrets in her mind yet an attitude to help the family out, Iris may find more than what she bargained for during a winter in New York.

I enjoyed reading Josie Silver's latest and found myself quickly invested in Gio's family. I laughed at their antics and adored everytime they appeared on the page. A Winter in New York has fast pacing and some flash backs that allowed me to picture myself in the setting. However; I felt the domestic violence plotline to be either unnecessary or not fully fleshed out. I found those scenes to be unnecessary. Readers who have enjoyed previouis Josie Silver novels will enjoy this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group — Ballantine, Dell for the gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely adored this book. Having grown up in New York, I got so much joy out of visiting places I frequented in my childhood through the eyes of Gio and Iris. From the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy to the enchanting light displays in Dyker Heights, Josie did a wonderful job of making New York another character in the story and I loved recognizing locations as I read.

This is so much more than a holiday romance — it's a story about love, loss, grief, family, abuse, and starting over. I appreciated Iris' backstory as someone who also went through an emotionally abusive relationship, and I completely empathized with her situation and even that she claimed he was dead. My ex is dead to me, too, and I can understand the panic that went through her when communicating with a total stranger about it.

What I didn't totally love was the fact that it took Iris so long to come clean and that there wasn't much fallout from the big reveal. I think it happened so late in the story that we weren't afforded the opportunity to see it play out on the page, so instead some of the important reveals happened away from our eyes. I think it makes sense that Gio's family would inform him of Iris' connection to the family, but we spend so much time building up the anticipation of Iris telling him herself that I was kind of bummed we missed out on such a definitive interaction.

That being said, I loved the relationship between Gio and Iris. The chemistry was intense, the soft moments so beautiful, and they complemented each other well. I also loved the emphasis on family and the relationship between Iris and Sophia and Iris and Bella. Watching Iris get the big family she never had after losing her only family really was a treat, and I'm happy that despite the baggage and past connection, Gio's family welcomed her with open arms, protecting and loving her like she was their own.

If you're a fan of Rebecca Serle and Emily Henry, you'll enjoy this book immensely. I can't wait for you all to read it when it comes out next week!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoy Josie Silver’s writing and this novel is no exception. She creates beautiful characters with well-developed relationships that leap off the page.

I didn’t love this novel quite as much as some of her others if only because miscommunication trope is a big plot driver here and I don’t like that personally. But overall still a nice cozy read.

Thank you @delacortepress @prhaudio for a copy this book. If you love gelato, this book is for you. Iris goes to NYC as she deals with the recent passing of her mom. She discovers a little gelato shop and meets Gio and they form a friendship. I am not a fan of miscommunication which is a big plot of this book. I did enjoy seeing Iris' growth and seeing her and Gio's relationship develop. Emma Appleton did a great job with the voices and Italian accents.