Recipe for Second Chances

Stella Park flies to the Italian countryside for her best friend's wedding, glad of the celebration and glad of the escape. Her work writing recipes has lost its appeal, and her personal life is no more settled. She expects a weekend of good food and little else.

Then she sees Samuel Gordon, the ex she left ten years ago, a breakup that hurt him badly. Seeing him again forces her to look at the choices she made back then, and she would rather not.

The wedding blends Indian and Italian traditions, and the schedule keeps putting Stella and Samuel side by side. Meals, rituals and unplanned detours through beautiful places leave them little room to avoid each other. Stella has always kept to safe, careful rules, and she tries to brush off the idea that Samuel was the one she should have held on to.

This is a second-chance romance set over a single wedding weekend, with food at the centre of nearly every scene. The tone is warm and light, and the pull is the old attraction against Stella's habit of playing it safe. The author is a James Beard Award-nominated writer who hosts Potluck with Ali Rosen.