| Title | : | The Restaurant (The Nantucket Restaurant #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 282 |
| Publication | : | First published April 21, 2020 |
Three sisters. An inherited Nantucket restaurant. One year before they can sell.
Mandy, Emma and Jill are as close as three sisters who live hundreds of miles apart can be. They grew up together on Nantucket, but Mandy is the only one that stayed.
Jill lives a glamorous life in Manhattan as a co-owner of a successful executive search firm. Never married, she is in her mid-thirties and lives in a stunning, corner condo with breathtaking views of the city and Hudson river. Everyone thinks there's something going on with her partner, Nick, because as a workaholic, she spends more time with him than anyone else. But there's never been anything but friendship between them and Nick loves being a bachelor in NYC.
Emma lives in Arizona and is an elementary school teacher and aspiring photographer. She met her college professor husband, Peter, in grad school and they've been married for over fifteen years. In recent years, she's noticed that Peter has grown distant. But when he shares a surprising secret, she doesn't see it coming and her world is turned upside down.
Mandy followed her high school boyfriend, Cory to Boston College, and after graduation, they married and Cory joined a successful hedge fund in Boston, while Mandy stayed home and had two children, Blake and Brooke. They moved home to Nantucket when Cory opened a competing hedge fund. Now that the children are older, Mandy is eager to do more than coordinate local charity events. But Cory doesn't want her to work. He thinks it doesn't reflect well on him and appearances are everything to Cory. Though when Mandy finds a second cell phone in his gym bag, she begins to question what is really going on.
When their beloved grandmother, Ethel Ferguson passes peacefully in her sleep a week before her ninety-ninth birthday, she leaves them quite a surprise. In addition to her Nantucket home, they learn that she was the silent owner of Mimi's Place, one of Nantucket's most popular year-round restaurants.
There is of course, a catch--she left the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma, and Jill--and also to Paul, the restaurant chef for the past fifteen years.
And before they can sell, all three girls must work at the restaurant for one year--or their shares of the restaurant will go to Paul.
The same Paul that broke one of their hearts many years ago.
The Restaurant (The Nantucket Restaurant #1) Reviews
-
Short Ribs and Chardonnay would be a better title for this book. The ribs showed up constantly at the restaurant and chardonnay seems to be the only white wine in the author’s world. I noticed this from other books of hers. Odd choice, nearly everyone I know stopped drinking chardonnay in the 90s. Sauvignon Blanc, Chablis, Pinot Gris, anyone?
The book could be set anywhere at all, it is that generic. I never got the feeling that I was being transported to Nantucket (where I lived for a decade so know what to expect). The characters in the book were not well defined and I spent the first third of the book trying to remember which sister was married to which guy. There were far too many paragraphs devoted to detailed descriptions of the food – what it was, how it was prepared, etc. (those damn short ribs). And they only ever went to the same three restaurants on Nantucket – Millie’s, Black-Eyed Susan’s and the Club Car. Even in NYC – there are how many thousands of restaurants and Jill and Billy always went to Rosa Mexicano – a chain restaurant of all choices! And the street name where the Rose & Crown isn’t even correct. It’s not Water Street, it’s South Water Street.
When I need a Nantucket fix, I’ll stick to Elin’s books from now on, at least I get a nice big serving of nostalgia when I read her books, not short ribs! -
This must be one of the worst written books I have ever read. A story about three sisters that inherit a restaurant, with a healthy dash of relationship challenges. I thought the restaurant theme would be totally up my alley, considering I am a huge foodie. Instead I got pathetic dialogue, flat characters, sickly sweet endings and zero complexity. I really need to stop listening to my Amazon algorithm, it clearly does not understand me.
-
This was an easy and fast “chick lit” book for me. Sometimes these kinds of stories are just what I need and sometimes I need something a bit more substantial.
The Restaurant starts out with 3 sisters who lose their grandmother and then they find out that their grandmother was actually the secret owner of the family’s favorite restaurant whenever they were visiting her in Nantucket. The Restaurant is left to the 3 sisters as well as the chef in equal parts on the condition that they all work together at the place for a year.
There will be lots of descriptions of food as you read this story and true to a cozy chick lit book, everything is wrapped up in a neat bow at the end. I can tell you that this book made me want to eat some lobster pot pie and seafood chowder!
Don’t jump into this one thinking it’s going to be a deep and epic family saga. Have fun with it and enjoy! -
The Restaurant by Pamela M. Kelley, from the USA Today and Wall St. Journal bestselling author of Nantucket Neighbors and Nantucket White Christmas is a novel about three sisters, an inherited Nantucket restaurant, and a one year wait before they can sell it. Mandy, Emma and Jill are as close as three sisters who live hundreds of miles apart can be. They grew up together on Nantucket, but Mandy is the only one that stayed. When their beloved grandmother, Ethel Ferguson passes peacefully in her sleep a week before her ninety-ninth birthday, she leaves them quite a surprise. In addition to her Nantucket home, they learn that she was the silent owner of Mimi's Place, one of Nantucket's most popular year-round restaurants. There is of course, a catch--she left the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma, and Jill--and also to Paul, the restaurant chef for the past fifteen years. And before they can sell, all three girls must work at the restaurant for one year--or their shares of the restaurant will go to Paul; The same Paul that broke one of their hearts many years ago. The author has added several subplots to support the main plot filling out each of the main characters including the restaurant itself.
-
Emma, Mandy, and Jill were raised by their grandmother for many years. Upon her passing, they find out she was a silent owner of a local restaurant. In Gram's will, the restaurant is left to the three sisters and long-time chef Paul, under one condition. The girls must run the restaurant for a year, or it goes to the chef.
The story is a charming story, but lacks some of the depth and character development I was hoping for. If you are looking for a quick, pick-me-up read this may be for you. -
A perfect palate cleanser. The writing stayed on the surface and definitely lacked any “meat,” but I read it in a day and enjoyed it even though I won’t remember anything about it tomorrow. Some books are like that and that’s ok!
-
A heartwarming story that will melt your heart.
Very well written with amazing characters that draw you into the story. I lovedevery minute of the story and hated to see it end! -
This book was not good. The characters were one-dimensional, the dialogue was flat, and it was way too descriptive about mundane details. It may have been a thinly veiled marketing ploy for Charles Krug vineyards and/or Cakebread Chardonnay. It also came across like someone’s hyper detailed diary entries. It was schmaltzy & predictable, but it was also a wee bit comforting & comfortable in the midst of a pandemic. This was the only reason I didn’t throw it across the room in disgust. It was like cheap comfort food that you know will upset your stomach, but you eat it any way.
-
Sometimes you just want to sink into a story and let it cover you like a warm blanket--this book did just that. I loved this story of three sisters in Nantucket and having worked in restaurants, found the details accurate. A good read!
-
Like a bad Hallmark Channel or Lifetime Movie. But sometimes that is what you need.
-
This is the 5th book I’ve read by this author, with the other 4 being those in the Nantucket Inn series. They are all quick and easy reads, fairly shallow, but entertaining. This book, like its sisters, has just the faintest thread of a plot.
My biggest beef is the terrible editing of all of them- it’s obvious the writer edits and publishes her own books, and she could really use a professional hand! There are often mild grammatical mistakes to be found. In this book, there are also glaring printing issues - the margins and paragraph indents in the first hundred pages or so are a crazy quilt, all over the place. It just looks and feels cheap.
These books would be better suited to a cheap, mass upload to a Kindle to take on a vacation, than they are for serious reading. -
I love sisters, Nantucket, and restaurant stories, so this was a perfect weekend read for me! Cozy, light and low-angst.
-
Fast, light hearted reading. Mostly about relationships, an inherited restaurant from Grammy, an abundance of references to food and wine.
-
At my grandma’s for thanksgiving and stole another book off her shelf. As usual, she has great taste!!! Love this author 🥰
-
This was my first book by Kelley and I really enjoyed it. I love all three sisters. All the talk of food was heavenly, it was such a gem to read. I have to say that I was left wanting more. So happy to find out that there is another book for me to read to close up some loose ends maybe. This was a fun read. I recommend it.
-
3.5 звезди, за да сме максимално точни. Приятна история - от онези уютни и разтоварващи книги, с които празнуваш някой съботно-неделен следобед. Беше интересно да се проследи как се променя животът на всяка от трите сестри, след като наследяват ресторанта. Храната и всички кулинарни описания в книгата определено отварят апетита :)
-
Skim read, well written but very predictable. Grandmother passes away and in her will she leaves a popular restaurant no one realized she owned to her 3 grand daughters. Nice premise. Little did they know their lives needed changes. Apparently, the happy executive needs to find love. The married sister with no children, needs to move on as her husband is having an affair with another man. And, the third sister's married with children and husband has been discreetly on a dating site. Does everyone's life need to be in a stagnant or bad place? Skip to the end. The executive is marrying her business partner, the sister without kids is moving in with the head chef, and the other sister is divorced.
Honestly, could one of the three have had a healthy relationship start with?
ETA: The grandmother's diary was the best part of the book. -
Absolutely loved this book. I'm a lover of Nantucket and the author nailed the setting perfectly. This is a light summer read about three sisters that inherited a restaurant. Would highly recommend!
-
Very simple read. Predictable story but I was ok with that since I started reading it on vacation, and I had lots of distractions.
-
Perfectly mindless and lovely. Great beach read!
-
Someone further down in the reviews said this felt like the outline of a book, and the author needed to sit down to write it, but instead published the outline. I'm going to have to agree.
eg, two characters have been in a will-they-won't-they situation for most of the book. When they finally get to will-they, they go on a date and have a great time. Do we SEE it? No. We are told by the narrator, they went on a date and had a great time. But the reason we read stories with romance is to see the romances unfold, not to be told, "Yeah, the romance unfolded, and they fell in love." Where's the detail? Where are the feelings of excitement and warmth and anticipation?
I'm going to take it one step further, though: the individual situations are interesting. Only nothing comes of them. eg, a character is getting divorced, and the divorcing spouse is like, "Well, yeah, we just want it fair and simple." Someone wants to adopt a cat, and she goes to the shelter and there's the perfect cat and they adopt the cat right away! And there need to be changes and updates to the restaurant, and they're easy to make! And everybody loves them!
eg, in the back cover copy, we find out Emma needs to work with Paul, "who broke her heart." The heartbreak was, seriously, Some heartbreak, huh? Then, "Are you sure you'll be okay to work with him?" "Yeah, it'll be fine." And we won't even discuss Grandma's situation with Jay and how amicably that worked out. We're all best friends now!
After a while I'm like, come on, could we PLEASE have some tension? If you read my reviews, you know I love a good low-tension story with a Mary Sue character, but when four POV characters are going through life rolling with the punches and EVERYTHING working out perfectly, I start getting bored. I had picked the audiobook to listen to during a long distance drive, and after about two hours of everything working out perfectly for everyone, I was...meh. Lots of lines like, "I see now that the divorce is the best thing that could have happened to me," she says with a smile. (Not a direct quote. It's hard to pull direct quotes on audio.)
