Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies + Giveaway



Book Details:

Book Title: Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies by Evy Journey
Category: Adult Fiction, 240 pages
Genre: Literary / Women's Fiction
Publisher: Sojourner Books
Release date: December 2017
Tour dates: Feb 1 to 16, 2018
Content Rating: R (Two bedroom scenes)

Book Description:

Cooking a wonderful meal is an act of love. An act of grace. A gift that affirms and gives life—not only does it nurture those who partake of a meal; it also feeds the soul of the person who creates it. These are lessons Gina learns from her mother.

Gina is a young woman born to poor parents; a nobody (her words) who wants to taste life outside the world she was born into and her passion for cooking is all she has to help her do so. She gets lucky when she’s chosen to cook at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area where she finds a world of a privileged class with money to spare for dinners that cost hundreds of dollars. A world of new friends and new challenges—one that exposes her to fascinating people who’re also gripped by dark motives.

Amidst her culinary adventures, she becomes good friends with pastry chef Marcia, and falls in love, in different ways, with, two very different men: Leon, a rich regular client who has been dating Cristi, her friend from childhood, and Brent, a brooding homicide detective. This other world, it turns out, is also one of unexpected danger that eventually threatens her life.

Can the lessons she learned from her mother about cooking and life help Gina survive and thrive in this other world of privilege, pleasure and unexpected danger?

To read reviews, please visit Evy Journey's page on iRead Book Tours.



My Review

I was very looking forward to reading this book as I absolutely loved this author's prior novels and writing style. The author could just spin a lovely story of real people and their stories to make me get transported into their story.

Sadly, this book took a step back for me. I honestly struggled to find my footing with this book. It was very slow to read for me. This is because I found myself lacking the human character connection that I had started to grown and know from this author. Plus, the story while light hearted seemed like it wanted to be a bit darker by dipping its toes into the water.

Gina was fine. She was not as strong as I wanted. Also, I was not feeling the two romances. Leon came off as creepy and stalker like. Gina had her reservations about him but she ignored them. Brett on the other hand was nice but Gina didn't pursue him as much in the beginning. All and all, this was not a favorite read of mine from this author. I hope that the next book brings back the magic I enjoyed from the prior novels.
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About the Author:



Evy Journey, writer, wannabe artist, and flâneuse (feminine of flâneur), wishes she lives in Paris where people have perfected the art of aimless roaming. Armed with a Ph.D., she used to research and help develop mental health programs.

She's a writer because beautiful prose seduces her and existential angst continues to plague her despite such preoccupations having gone out of fashion. She takes occasional refuge by invoking the spirit of Jane Austen to spin tales of love, loss, and finding one’s way—stories into which she weaves mystery or intrigue.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest

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There are many novels out there that feature food. What makes yours different?

I don’t include recipes. That will disappoint people who’ve come to expect them in novels that feature food and eating. My focus in this book is not on how to make things—the internet can usually give you that—but on what a great meal can do both for the cook and the eater. A big source of inspiration for this book is the film Babette’s Feast, based on a short story by Isak Dinesen.

How long have you been writing?

Quite a while but most of my earlier writing has been academic. I wrote short stories and editorial pieces for my high school paper. After that, undergrad and grad school papers, a thesis, a dissertation; then in my professional jobs—research proposals, more papers, rehashes of studies (mine and those of others) for the consumption of “lay readers.”

What genre do you write and why?

I write in a genre you sometimes won’t find on book sites: Women’s fiction. The genre is a problematic, too broad catchall for books that often have love stories in them, but don’t follow the usual structure and tropes of romance novels. My novels tend to focus more on the female character’s growth as well as love in the context of a character’s life with its occasional and inevitable messiness.

What is the last great novel you’ve read?

That has to be my current #1 favorite although I’ve read several very good books since: Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See. Besides a storyline I found intriguing, it has some of the most beautiful writing I’ve read since G.K. Chesterton and Evelyn Waugh.

Favorite travel spot?

Love this question. Paris. For a thousand reasons. I’ve “lived” there a few times but only as a transient (two to six months at a time).

Favorite dessert?

Fig tart with almond cream, a dessert served in the book. I first tasted this at a patisserie in Paris. Figs are plentiful there in summer and fall and the French use them in many dishes including savory ones.

I live in a city that spawned California cuisine but I’ve never seen this tart offered at any of our wonderful bakeries. So, I recreated it at home and make it during fig season.

 
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