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At thirty-four, Hannah Gunderson is living a life she never expected. She’s back in her hometown, rather than cashing in on her culinary arts degree at a restaurant somewhere in Europe. Not only are there no children on the horizon, there isn’t even a husband. She can’t admit to anyone—her grandmother, her cousin Charlie, or her best friend Lucy—how scared she is of being hurt again. She’s tired of the dating game and is sure it’s pointless anyway. Getting ready for what she knows will be another bad first date, she startles herself by deciding she’s had it: both with shaving her legs and dating. By quitting one, she can quit the other.
As a child, she’d learned to cook and collect teacups with her Grandmother Foley, activities that now fill her days but not her soul. Her job at Kitchen Magician, a neighborhood cookware store, has her teaching classes with alliterative names (“Souper Soups” and “Presto Pesto”) to people for whom cooking is a lark rather than a passion. Her co-workers alternate between giving her unwanted dating advice and making her crazy with their cooking short cuts. She scours estate sales for antique teacups on Saturday mornings in a vain attempt to bring back the sense of wonder the world held for her as a child. One morning, lamenting the dearth of quality merchandise at a sale she’d been optimistic about, she meets Hank, who remodels old homes and is in the market for old fixtures. As they navigate first a friendship and then a budding romance, Hannah finds herself wanting all that he might be able to offer, but she still pushes him back. Tucked away memories of her parents, killed in a car accident more than ten years ago, begin to resurface and she wants to share them with Hank but is scared because the last man she opened up to left her for one of his co-workers. Better to be alone and safe, she tells herself, holding fast to her decision to quit dating.
Charlie, her cousin, and Lucy, her friend, are struggling to make sense of their own lives as well; Lucy fears that time is running out so she latches on to the idea of adopting a baby from Russia, while Charlie finally grows bored with dating each young, new woman who shows up at the ad agency where he works.
Hank gradually chips away at her defenses, partly by lowering the walls he’s built around himself. He was raised by his grandparents because his mother, pregnant and single at twenty-one, decided if she didn’t feel like being a mom, she didn’t have to be one. Luckily, his grandfather instilled in him a love of woodworking and building, and his grandmother, now widowed, still gives him a sense of family. Although both are gun-shy about romance, Hannah and Hank are ultimately brought together by the friendship their grandmothers forge; grandmothers to whom they are utterly devoted.
When he takes a two-month job in Chicago refurbishing a loft for a wealthy client, Hannah finally has to take stock. She agrees to visit him for a long weekend. While she’s there, Hank asks her to marry him because he’s in love with her, and he also understands that this lets her stay true to her no-dating decree. By the end of the trip, they are also considering a move to Chicago, which would allow Hank to expand his remodeling business and Hannah to finish up the culinary arts degree she’d started in Paris but left behind when her parents died.
Hannah finally begins to see that, while life and families aren’t always what she expects them or wants them to be, they can be much more. Hannah learns that family, just like the recipes she creates, can arise from trial and error, from mixing different ingredients and odd combinations. Hannah also discovers that just like the discarded teacups she collects, the people most worth knowing and holding onto are often those who’ve been left behind by others. She finally sees that, with luck, she’ll end up with something different, bigger and better than the individual parts. Something she never could have dreamed.
As a child, she’d learned to cook and collect teacups with her Grandmother Foley, activities that now fill her days but not her soul. Her job at Kitchen Magician, a neighborhood cookware store, has her teaching classes with alliterative names (“Souper Soups” and “Presto Pesto”) to people for whom cooking is a lark rather than a passion. Her co-workers alternate between giving her unwanted dating advice and making her crazy with their cooking short cuts. She scours estate sales for antique teacups on Saturday mornings in a vain attempt to bring back the sense of wonder the world held for her as a child. One morning, lamenting the dearth of quality merchandise at a sale she’d been optimistic about, she meets Hank, who remodels old homes and is in the market for old fixtures. As they navigate first a friendship and then a budding romance, Hannah finds herself wanting all that he might be able to offer, but she still pushes him back. Tucked away memories of her parents, killed in a car accident more than ten years ago, begin to resurface and she wants to share them with Hank but is scared because the last man she opened up to left her for one of his co-workers. Better to be alone and safe, she tells herself, holding fast to her decision to quit dating.
Charlie, her cousin, and Lucy, her friend, are struggling to make sense of their own lives as well; Lucy fears that time is running out so she latches on to the idea of adopting a baby from Russia, while Charlie finally grows bored with dating each young, new woman who shows up at the ad agency where he works.
Hank gradually chips away at her defenses, partly by lowering the walls he’s built around himself. He was raised by his grandparents because his mother, pregnant and single at twenty-one, decided if she didn’t feel like being a mom, she didn’t have to be one. Luckily, his grandfather instilled in him a love of woodworking and building, and his grandmother, now widowed, still gives him a sense of family. Although both are gun-shy about romance, Hannah and Hank are ultimately brought together by the friendship their grandmothers forge; grandmothers to whom they are utterly devoted.
When he takes a two-month job in Chicago refurbishing a loft for a wealthy client, Hannah finally has to take stock. She agrees to visit him for a long weekend. While she’s there, Hank asks her to marry him because he’s in love with her, and he also understands that this lets her stay true to her no-dating decree. By the end of the trip, they are also considering a move to Chicago, which would allow Hank to expand his remodeling business and Hannah to finish up the culinary arts degree she’d started in Paris but left behind when her parents died.
Hannah finally begins to see that, while life and families aren’t always what she expects them or wants them to be, they can be much more. Hannah learns that family, just like the recipes she creates, can arise from trial and error, from mixing different ingredients and odd combinations. Hannah also discovers that just like the discarded teacups she collects, the people most worth knowing and holding onto are often those who’ve been left behind by others. She finally sees that, with luck, she’ll end up with something different, bigger and better than the individual parts. Something she never could have dreamed.
165 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 13, 2014
About the author
Judy Merrill Larsen
4 books64 followersJudy Merrill Larsen taught high school English in Wisconsin and Missouri for fifteen years. Her debut novel All the Numbers was published in 2006; she is currently at work on her second novel. She currently lives in Kirkwood, MO with her husband and their five children."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 29, 2014
I loved this book! So, so happy to read something new from Judy. I adored her first book and have been waiting a long time for this. I appreciated the simplicity in the complex story lines, which may only make sense to me. And it didn't hurt that I just adore one of the cities part of the story takes place in. Now I just need something new, Judy!!
March 2, 2014
A very different read than this author's previous book (All the Numbers--one of my favorite books). I'd been eagerly awaiting a new work and this was a fun enjoyable read for a lazy afternoon. The feelings of women are right on target and you want to get to know the extended family and characters.
February 28, 2014
Cute, light, quick, read for when you're looking for something after some really intense reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews