Monday, March 7, 2011

Book Review and salad

"A Heart Most Worthy" by Siri Mitchell



"The elegance of Madame Forza's gown shop is a far cry from the downtrodden North End of Boston. Yet each day Julietta, Annamaria, and Luciana enter the world of the upper class, working on finery for the elite in society. The three beauties each long to break free of their obligations and embrace the American dream--and their chance for love. But the ways of the heart are difficult to discern at times. Julietta is drawn to the swarthy, mysterious Angelo. Annamaria has a star-crossed encounter with the grocer's son, a man from the entirely wrong family. And through no intent of her own, Luciana catches the eye of Billy Quinn, the son of Madame Forza's most important client. Their destinies intertwined, each harboring a secret from their families and each other, will they be found worthy of the love they seek?"

This was an interesting book for me as I wasn't aware of the historical aspect of this period, the early 1900's in the United States.  The three main characters were interesting and I really "got into" two of the characters Annamaria and Luciana and really liked their stories.  However I found the character Julietta very annoying and didn't like her storyline.  It wasn't the easiest of stories to get into and I didn't feel the need to have to read the book to see what was going to happen next.

One good thing about the book is that I didn't totally guess the full outcome of the story.  A couple things I knew what was going to happen, but generally it kept me guessing which is the way I like it.  One thing I will say I loved the cover of the book, that dress is just gorgeous with all the detail work.

Stars out of 5: Probably 3.5 the story was a bit slow but I did enjoy the historical aspect of it.


"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

I decided to make some salads for us to eat for supper's and for dh to take to work for lunches.  I made potato salad, coleslaw and rice salad.

I don't really have a recipe for the rice salad, however here is sort of a recipe.

cooked rice (I used leftover from the other day)
olive oil
white vinegar
salt and pepper, or seasoning that you like to use
frozen mixed veggies

put rice in bowl, sprinkle a bit of olive oil and vinegar, add seasoning and mix well.  Have a taste to make sure it's okay.  Mix in the frozen veggies a cup or two will do.  I tend to make this in the morning using frozen veggies right out of the freezer and by supper time all the flavours have mixed together and the veggies have defrosted.

5 comments:

Stella Jones said...

and you didn't cook the vegetables for the rice salad first? Oh! I thought they had to be cooked before eating. That's interesting.
Like you I loved the dress on that front cover. It's gorgeous, isn't it. I too would be very interested in the historical interest of the early 1900's America. Does the publisher pay you to review these books you show us?

Jane and Chris said...

I WANT THAT DRESS!!!!
Jane x

Scrappy quilter said...

I'm hoping my books are here today. I love Siri..she is one of my favorite authors. I just read A Hope Undaunted by Julie Lessman. If you can find it at the library, it was really good. Hugs

Lib said...

The salads look yummy!
I like to cook up salads and have enough for a few meals.
Have agreat wk.
Blessins',Lib

Rose said...

I need to make some potato salad....I have never heard of nor had rice salad but it sounds interesting.

{{{SIGH}}}

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