The Promise Kitchen was such a great, heartwarming read that was just what I needed at the time. Peggy Lampman is an author I've come to enjoy and I'll be looking for more by this author in future.

This book is about family, love, food and friendship. A cute, lighthearted read. Loved that recipes were included at the end of the book.

Shelby Preston and Mallory Lakes are two women from two different worlds who end up meeting each other in Atlanta, GA. Shelby is trying to make a better life for her and her child while Mallory is fighting for her career due to changes at the newspaper that she works at. There is only a little bit of romance in the book but the book is mainly about friendship and how the two of them cope with circumstances thrown at them.

This is a Southern book about friendship and family and food and even provides recipes at the end for some real Southern down home food. It's the story of Shelby and Mallory, two friends in Georgia who over the course of a year need to be strong women to try to make their dreams come true. It's a fun book to read and my advice is not to read it on an empty stomach because the food descriptions will make you even hungrier.

A cute, lighthearted tale ..... nothing that’ll keep you up all night with, but definitely worth the read! Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity.

A fab read. Well written with great characters. Loved that recipes were included at the end of the book. I love books with food involved.

This book was really not for me. I wanted to like it, and I wanted to root for the characters, but I really just didn’t connect with it. I started and stopped it so many times until I finally just forced myself to finish.

The story started off very slowly and took a lot of time to build. Things didn’t really start going until halfway through the book, but even then it progressed very slowly. Until the last few chapters which kept jumping ahead, leaving things out. I would have preferred some of the beginning content to have been skipped over and to have actually experienced some of the parts that were glossed over in the end.

Maybe if I had been able to identify with either Shelby or Mallory, I would have enjoyed the story more. Unfortunately I was never invested in the characters and actually found them to be unlikable at times. I wanted to root for Shelby to succeed, but had a hard time believing in her. And Mallory just wasn’t real for me.

It’s always hard for me when I don’t enjoy a book, especially one that I need to review. But unfortunately this one just didn’t hit the mark for me.

A sweet Southern story about family, friends and delicious food. A really enjoyable, cosy read.

(incomplete review)

Due to the false impression I had for this book (see the last part of this on my GR review), The Promise Kitchen turned out to be a total surprise for me. Is it the most unique book out there? Probably not. Most positively not. I mean, just how different can a story about food be, really? I may sound ignorant, and I admit I'm likely very much so, seeing that the number of food novels I've read was 1 ( 食堂かたつむり (Shokudō Katatsumuri) ; now 2 when counting this one); but I do imagine that when it comes down to it, the majority of those novels would be about people struggling with daily issues and finding comfort in cooking. Books in all genres would have to have a special something to stand out from its peer, and it's the same here. Perhaps, like I said, it is because I just haven't read enough books from the same genre, but this book REALLY worked for me.

The book follows the two POVs from our main gals, and occasionally a third POV from Miss Ann, Shelby's adorable daughter. Personally, I'm more fond of third-person limited narration (and that's just because I don't believe in true-objectiveness; every situation could be rather subjective, which is why third-person objective or omniscient isn't that great to me), and I don't usually prefer alternating POVs regardless of the way it was written (1st person, 3rd person etc.). That being said, I have in fact come across works with narration styles not of my preference that I happened to greatly appreciate; it's all about how smoothy you articulate the plot so the transitions of different POVs can be seamless.

I've read stories that made me feel "well, it's time to know what this other person is currently doing in another part of the world", aka POV switch felt rather forced, due to an ensemble cast being separated in multiple locations. I've also read ones that although having the majority of the characters all being near one another, the POV still switches, aka "it made me feel like it was only switched for the sake of letting the readers know what a particular character was thinking in a particular moment". THIS BOOK IS NEITHER OF THE ABOVE. Like I said, it could be just me, but I can't stress it enough that this book just works for me. One chapter flows to the next quite organically; the POV switch, to me, was timed finely that it felt natural; I was directed to expect checking upon the other character without feeling like it was a fix schedule, which is kind of an oxymoron cuz I am indeed complimenting on how it is mostly actually the case, just that it was done meticulously to make me overlook it and without feeling forced.

When reading the description of the book, you have expectations. I started it and wasn't sure if it I wanted to continue because it didn't start as I expected. However, as I continued reading it, I found myself wanting to get to know Mallory and Shelby even better. In Shelby's case, life was hard but she felt she could "be an example, proving to her that when you set your mind to do something you can make that something happen" which is such a motivating way to look at life. The author definitely did a great job describing and growing the two main characters and helping the reader to really feel what it was like to be living in rural Georgia and Atlanta -- two very different places indeed.

Both Shelby and Mallory were cooks. One started in a rural town with down home recipes and ingredients. The other was more sophisticated and came from a more refined life. Both loved food and sharing it with friends and wanted more from their lives. This story brings them together in an unusual twist. I love to cook and the food aspect definitely appealed to me but the contrast between the two women and the direction of their lives kept me turning the page to see what would happen next.

A favorite passage was "Carefully chosen words threading into a sentence, paragraph, then story -- as colorful patches sewn into a quilt -- comfort me, weaving me into a bigger life, a life that matters." This in itself describes why we continue reading book after book and enjoy it so much!

This was one of the ARC from Netgalley which I am thankful I have the opportunity to be a part of the community of readers.

The characters are my kind of women, and the writing style, mm. Ms. Lampman writes about food and love the way I write to my lover about sex, and after 50 years of experience I claims some expertise.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing (they never fail me in good books to read!) for the e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I love, love, love books with a Southern flair, and this title didn't disappoint. I love that recipes were included at the end. It's about frienship, strength, and challenges in life. I definitely recommend this book.