A Winter in New York A Novel

Josie Silver — 2023

A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she's been looking for in this stunning novel from the New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December When Iris decides to move to New York and restart her culinary career, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic, New York-set movies she'd watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe ice cream didn't quite do it justice. And after spending the last few years in a relationship with a man who kept her world as small as possible, she's feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. But Bobby, Iris's best friend, isn't about to let her hide away. He convinces her to come with him to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy. As they walk around enjoying all the food and life the neighborhood has to offer, a little family-run gelato shop catches her eye—it's the same shop that's in an old photo of her mother's. When Iris returns the next day out of curiosity, she meets the handsome Gio and learns that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their secret family gelato recipe, is in a coma so the family can't make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato recipe and her ice cream recipe are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows it, when she's not sure why Gio's uncle gave it to her mother in the first place? So Iris offers her services as a chef to help them recreate the recipe and begins to find herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio's uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she's been building all winter long.

Reviews

Katie Buchanan@katieirene

Feb 15, 2024

Now i want gelato….

Kristen Claiborn@kristenc

Feb 2, 2024

Do you ever finish a book and are just satisfied? It wasn’t the best book you’ve ever read, it wasn’t the worst book you’ve ever read; it was just…satisfying.

Iris needed a fresh start after fleeing an abusive relationship, so she landed in New York, determined to discover as much as she can about her mother’s time there. Down the street from the Gelato shop where her mother fell in love, she lands a job at a noodle restaurant, found friendship, and embarked on a journey to get her life back together. She soon meets Gio, and embarks on her own journey of love…and gelato.

Iris starts this book as a hot mess, which is a good state of being after ending an emotionally abusive relationship and running halfway across the world. She has a journal and some pictures that her late mother left behind, and because of one of those pictures, she finds herself inside the gelato shop owned by a man her mother once loved. The progression of her relationship with Gio feels organic, not like many romance novels where the two mains hop into bed with each other in the first chapter. Gio and Iris danced around their attraction a respectable number of pages, so it didn’t feel forced. I appreciated Gio being attentive to how his daughter might feel about him dating again after his wife died. Iris’s bestie is the GBF every girl wants, and the shared cat seemed like the icing on the cake in this story.

It was a decidedly PG-13 romance, including the abusive ex-boyfriend and how menacing he turned out to be. I loved the way Gio’s family rallied around Iris and accepted everything about her, even after they discovered the connection she had to their family. This book highlights the importance of being honest when exploring the possibility of a new relationship. I do feel like Iris wouldn’t have had as much turmoil had she been honest with Gio from the beginning. However, I also realize that a story isn’t much of a story if there isn’t a conflict.

In the end, like I said at the beginning, it was just a satisfying romance novel. The girl got the guy, the girl discovered more about her mother…and along the way she discovered more about herself. Yes, this fits the stereotype of a cheesy romance, but that’s what I love about the stereotypical cheesy romance.

Tatiana@tahtey

Jan 17, 2024

A Winter in New York: 3/5 This was a cute light hearted read. There was a pretty significant plot in it but I felt like there could have been more romance in it lol, but I did enjoy it overall. My main issue with this book was that the stakes never felt high enough to justify the plot points or main character's actions. I found myself needing to suspend my disbelief multiple times, since the entire problem that the plot holds onto could have been solved from day one. The whole thing was basically a large miscommunication so if you dislike that trope this book is definitely not for you.