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purplepenning's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Gaslighting, Child death, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Infertility, Cancer, Death, Grief, Homophobia, and Miscarriage
Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Blood, and Car accident
edietz22's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Infertility, Miscarriage, Death, Grief, and Chronic illness
greatexpectations77's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I really enjoyed this book, and I was impressed at how the author could so intimately describe the characters' emotions. It was also a really complex look at the characters, which made them feel really human. People are extremely imperfect and make mistakes that hurt people, but we can't easily put them into boxes that are as simple as "good" and "bad." Will definitely read this author again. He had some really good turns of phrase.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Infertility, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Outing, and Homophobia
kyriannaj's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Completely disregard the summary. It doesn't accurately set the book up, and having read and expected that to be what was delivered, I spent the first 100 pages confused and frustrated that what I was promised was no where to be found. However, after that 100 pages? I fell in love. I was fascinated by the characters, their choices, their development, everything. Ned was a confusing character to me and I have mixed feelings on him. His relationship with Mariel also perplexed me. To me though, Florence stole the show. Her innate humanity throughout, the good choices, bad decisions, compromises, consequences, successes, and changes throughout her life were the heart of the book. I felt the ending was rushed and st uggling to figure out a way to wrap it up. I think it would've benefitted from another few chapters to really finalize and let the ending build.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Outing, Pregnancy, Infertility, Child death, and Grief
Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Child abuse
kmad's review against another edition
3.0
Loved the MN setting, hated the confusing time jumps
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Infertility, Grief, Child death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer
brianna97's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I was NOT expecting this book to be heavy and sad? I guess that’s why they say to not judge a book by it’s cover! It was a slow burn (for me) but it was well written and enjoyable over all. The ending was a little disappointing; I just wished there was slightly more to it. Overall it’s a good book ~ 3.5!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Infertility, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Homophobia and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, and Terminal illness
sytaylor's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Infertility
Moderate: Miscarriage and Homophobia
katiejohns's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Infertility
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Cancer
lindsm94's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This books jumps around between characters and timelines a lot, honestly I was lost/confused for a lot of it. The book has animal death right away and discusses infertility, miscarriage, child loss, and parental loss/illness so avoid if those topics are hard for you.
The story was sweet at times covering 4 generations of women, but not my favorite read.
The story was sweet at times covering 4 generations of women, but not my favorite read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, Child death, Cancer, Miscarriage, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
mthereader's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book just did not hit the mark I was expecting from Stradal's third Minnesota-Midwest-foodie-novel, and in my opinion, it's the weakest of the three. (Lager Queen is best, Kitchens is second-best.)
As we follow four generations of women and their ties to this northern MN supper club, there is a LOT of generational trauma that's continually perpetuated from mother to daughter to granddaughter, and none of that ever really gets unpacked or properly addressed by any of them. The perpetrators (mothers) either die without resolving their issues, or the daughters just *poof* get over it.
Florence was a particularly sticky and somewhat problematic character. At first I was appalled at her actions and thought "this chick is a villain, like on the same level as Briony from Atonement" but after thinking about her life path and the "choices" foisted upon her, I think a lot of her questionable actions were her way of acting out against her perceived lack of control over her own life. The situation that made me see Florence as more of a victim than a villain was her marriage to Gustav Sr, who, instead of delivering her a life free from her mother & the restaurant she never wanted, basically coerced her into having a child when she adamantly did not want one. Florence was very clearly not cut out to be a mother, and she knew that about herself. Yet that man still made her "compromise" and have a kid, and Florence then proceeded to take out her own traumas on that child in wildly inappropriate ways. And what peeved me more, is that Stradal just lets Gus skate on by without addressing that misogyny? Gus just dies and we get like one sentence about that, and he's never forced to take any responsibility for how he messed up several women's lives.
There are a couple other instances where the men in the book do just as much traumatizing/emotional abuse as the women. There are also several instances of implied homophobia that didn't sit well. Other trigger warnings are warranted for miscarriage, infertility, and child death.
And finally, this has nothing to do with the plot or the writing, it's more of just an added insult: I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator kept mispronouncing the name of a minor side character. "Edina Sue," so called because she's from Edina, MN, should be pronounced ee-DYE-nuh Sue, not uh-DEE-nuh Sue. I'm not even a native Minnesotan and I know that.
As we follow four generations of women and their ties to this northern MN supper club, there is a LOT of generational trauma that's continually perpetuated from mother to daughter to granddaughter, and none of that ever really gets unpacked or properly addressed by any of them. The perpetrators (mothers) either die without resolving their issues, or the daughters just *poof* get over it.
Florence was a particularly sticky and somewhat problematic character. At first I was appalled at her actions and thought "this chick is a villain, like on the same level as Briony from Atonement" but after thinking about her life path and the "choices" foisted upon her, I think a lot of her questionable actions were her way of acting out against her perceived lack of control over her own life. The situation that made me see Florence as more of a victim than a villain was her marriage to Gustav Sr, who, instead of delivering her a life free from her mother & the restaurant she never wanted, basically coerced her into having a child when she adamantly did not want one. Florence was very clearly not cut out to be a mother, and she knew that about herself. Yet that man still made her "compromise" and have a kid, and Florence then proceeded to take out her own traumas on that child in wildly inappropriate ways. And what peeved me more, is that Stradal just lets Gus skate on by without addressing that misogyny? Gus just dies and we get like one sentence about that, and he's never forced to take any responsibility for how he messed up several women's lives.
There are a couple other instances where the men in the book do just as much traumatizing/emotional abuse as the women. There are also several instances of implied homophobia that didn't sit well. Other trigger warnings are warranted for miscarriage, infertility, and child death.
And finally, this has nothing to do with the plot or the writing, it's more of just an added insult: I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator kept mispronouncing the name of a minor side character. "Edina Sue," so called because she's from Edina, MN, should be pronounced ee-DYE-nuh Sue, not uh-DEE-nuh Sue. I'm not even a native Minnesotan and I know that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Infertility