The Woman Who Wanted More by Vicky Zimmerman

          This was a joy of a book to read.  From the book cover with the delicious iced biscuit to the surprise of photographs from the author in the back I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.  The only strange thing was I started reading it on the day it dropped through my letterbox and when I picked it up the next day I found my bookmark at page 147, meaning I'd stopped at Page 146 (read the book you'll see why this made me laugh).

Kate is rapidly hurtling towards 40 and is childless and not yet married; this bothers Kate.  However, her boyfriend Nick has asked her to move in with him and now they are going on holiday to France so things are looking good.  They have a sedate relationship, no fireworks and almost parallel lives but a shared love of food.  Then, it all goes wrong and Kate just dissolves in to a puddle of self-recrimination and melancholy.

This is why it didn't get 5 Stars.  Her reliance on a mate seems to be her whole raison d'etre initially and her moping in her mother's spare room drove me to distraction.  Fortunately the inimitable Cecily Finn seems to feel the same way I do and teaches Kate the real path to happiness through the wonderful cookbook Thought For Food.

Apparently this is a story about friendship, for me this was all about the food.  The wonderful menus for quirky circumstances.  The comfort that the right dish can bring.  Although the duck lasagne did sound pretty horrendous.

The telling is warm and you really feel that you know both Kate and Cecily and you are pulling for both of them.  Even I nearly shed a tear at the end and that rarely happens.  The pacing of the plot is gentle and it really does feel like life is unfolding on the page rather than being forced to follow the "constraints of plot".  Of course there needs to be a plot or it would just dissolve in to a garble of words with no real meaning but the art of the author is in disguising it and Ms Zimmerman disguised it beautifully.

I did find that I was startlingly uninterested in Kate's friendships with Bailey and Cara and her relationship with Nick.  It was her relationship with Cecily that really drew me in and what held me there was a combination of Cecily's reminiscences of her life and all that beautiful food - double pasta is a thing of joy.  For me this book was a love letter to Cecily Finn.

Not recommended for the commute as you will become so absorbed that you are going to miss your stop.  Ideally this is one for when you are on holiday or having a lazy weekend at home as you will struggle to tear yourself away from it.

THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.