Böcker av Terri-Lynne DeFino

"Gorgeous and curvaceous, with cascading black hair and signature red lips, Regina Benuzzi is Queenie B: a culinary goddess with Michelin Star restaurants, a bestselling cookbook empire, and multimillion dollar TV deals. She had it all. Until she didn't. After an epic fall from grace, Queenie B vanishes from the public eye, giving up everything: her husband, her son, and the fame that she'd fought to achieve. Her shows are in rerun, her restaurants still popular but her disappearance remains a mystery to her legions of fans. Local line cook Gale Carmichael also knows a thing or two about disaster. Newly sober and struggling, Gale's future dreams don't hold space for culinary stardom; only earning enough to get by. Broke at the end of the week, he finds himself at a local soup kitchen in one of the roughest parts of New Haven, Connecticut. But Gale quickly realizes that the food coming out of the kitchen is not your standard free meal - it is delicious, and prepared with gourmet flair. Gale doesn't recognize Regina, the soup kitchen's cranky proprietor, whose famous black mane is now streaked with gray. It's been more than ten years since Queenie B vanished into her careful new existence. But she sees Gale's talent, and recognizes a brokenness in him that she knows all too well. The culinary genius in hiding takes him under her wing. Teaching Gale, Regina's passion to create is re-ignited, and they both glimpse a shot at the redemption that had always seemed out of reach. When Gale is chosen to compete on the hit cooking show, Cut!, it's a turning point for them both. It's Gale's time to shine. And that means Queenie B might just have to come out of hiding"--

"Varina Palladino's Jersey Italian Love Story is fun and funny, wonderfully exuberant, and incredibly wise. These endearing characters--their voices and stories-- will be with me for a long time to come. I didn't want to say good-bye." -Jill McCorkle, New York Times bestselling author of HieroglyphicsAn utterly delightful and surprising family drama--think Moonstruck and My Big Fat Greek Wedding set in New Jersey--about a boisterous, complicated Italian family determined to help their widowed mother find a new boyfriend. Lively widow Varina Paladino has lived in the same house in Wyldale, New Jersey, her entire life. The town might be slightly stuck in the 1960s, when small businesses thrived and most residents were Italian, but its population is getting younger and the Paladinos are embracing the change. What Varina's not embracing, much to her ninety-two-year-old mother's dismay, is dating. Running Paladino's Italian Specialties grocery, caring for her mother, and keeping her large, loud Jersey Italian family from killing one another takes up all of Varina's energy anyway.Sylvia Spini worries about her daughter Varina being left all alone when she dies. Sylvia knows what it is to be old and alone, so when her granddaughter, Donatella, comes to her with an ill-conceived plan to find Varina a man, Sylvia dives in. The three men of the family--Dante, Tommy, and Paulie--are each secretly plotting their own big life changes, which will throw everyone for a loop.Three generations of Paladinos butt heads and break one another's hearts as they wrestle with their own Jersey Italian love stories in this hilarious and life-affirming ode to love and family.