Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking schools. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens, and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project . . . and the perfect place for her to forget the past. But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist...

Here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found "her true calling." From the moment she and her husband Paul, who worked for the USIS, arrived in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors...

Odd Thomas, a short order cook at the Pico Mundo Grill, keeps his ability to speak with ghosts a secret from all but his girlfriend, Stormy, and the local police chief who he occasionally helps solve or prevent crime, but his unusual talent leads him and his fellow citizens into big trouble when a strange man comes to town followed by a horde of borachs--ghostly harbingers of mayhem.

After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah's eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother's neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town . . . and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as...

"Rising sous-chef Kelly Matlock's sudden collapse at work is a wake-up call. Disillusioned and burned out, she's retreated to her sister Jillian's house in Virgin River to rest and reevaluate. Puttering in Jill's garden and cooking with her heirloom vegetables is wonderful, but Virgin River is a far cry from San Francisco. Kelly's starting to feel a little too unmotivated, until she meets Lief Holbrook. The handsome widower looks more like a lumberjack...

Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha "Sam" Mullins felt trapped on her familys orchard and pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality stars New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed. When the chef embarrasses Sam, she quits and returns home. Unemployed, single, and defeated, she spends a summer working on her familys orchard cooking and baking alongside the...

"Mateo Castillo is a rising star chef on the Manhattan culinary scene. But just as he’s about to reap the rewards of his skill and hard work by being featured on a major TV cooking competition, Mateo collapses in his restaurant’s kitchen—and regains consciousness in a hospital emergency room. If it weren’t for a security guard finding him in time, Mateo would have bled to death. The cause of his sudden illness is as mysterious as it is worrying,...

"Set in 1950s Louisiana, the story of an unforgettable woman whose quest to provide meals for death row prisoners leads her into the secrets of her own past"--

In the summer of 1919 young Mac joins the Forest Rangers who teaches him the meaning of hard work. He also clashes with the cook who turns out to have a secret talent other than just cooking and bonding with his dinner bell.

"The New York Times bestselling author of The Lost and Found Bookstore returns to Perdita Street with a can't-miss tale of friendship, hardship, redemption, and love between a San Francisco baker and a barbecue master from Texas"--