ADVANCE PRAISE for ~ Italian Love Cake, a novel

I T A L I A N   L O V E   C A K E

SUMMARY  

As World War II approaches, Marie Genovese mourns the recent loss of her mother, struggles to manage the family’s failing Five & Ten as well as a brother flirting with Fascism, and meets a man who is dangerously off-limits. Isolated and uncertain, she draws on the wisdom and strength of Italian-American women, turning to her ancestresses to find the necessary ingredients in which to survive, and to thrive. Italian Love Cake is a novel about charting your own course, creating your own recipe for happiness — a sweet dessert in which to indulge and enjoy.

–Maria Laurino, Were you Always an Italian? 

A D V A N C E   P R A I S E 

Elena Ferrante’s American counterpart. . . a beautiful journey of a woman asserting her sexuality while a small town witnesses her feminist and political awakening in late 1930s America. A real gem.

–Kim Chernin, In My Mother’s House

Much like the great works of realism written in the 1930s, Italian Love Cake focuses in crisp detail on the daily life of the powerfully attractive, Marie Genovese. The dramatic tensions between Marie and the men in her life are lived against a backdrop of warring democratic and authoritarian visions of the future. A strikingly original and inspiring narrative.

–Mary Lawlor, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter

Sparks fly from the first page to the last in this unconventional novel written with mastery and daring about relationships.

–Renate Stendhal, Kiss Me Again, Paris

My friend Cathy Sanchez-Corea (right) and me in her “test kitchen.”