*An Appetite for Violets

bfbc appetite for violetsThe first chapter creaks like the floorboards in an old house. Who’s there? A distressed character, an abandoned home, a horrid stench. By the end of the scene you’re hooked.

The next chapter and all subsequent chapters begin with recipes of the eighteenth century.  Wait until you see the food our ancestors ate.  Yikes! Of course, I never understood how anyone survived the plague or the years after of starvation and war. The mince pie at the end of the book gave me gastrointestinal nightmares, but I’m a finicky eater (aren’t I lucky that I can be).

The protagonist, Biddy Leigh is an undercook at Mawton Hall in England.  She wants to marry her childhood boyfriend and possibly open a tavern someday. She does what is expected of her, but there is always a little push back, a little hesitancy to do what she is told without question.  A why?

The lord of Mawton Hall, the elderly Sir Geoffrey, has married a much younger woman, Lady Carinna.  Her ladyship arrives at Mawton and announces she’s leaving with some of the staff for Italy. Biddy is part of a small party that has to go with her.  Crestfallen, Biddy goes and leaves behind everything she loves.

As the reader travels to France and then to Italy the author aptly shows the differences in the regions with the recipes.  France and Italy are more advanced in their culinary delights then England was at the time. Biddy is fascinated by the differences and is focused on making the dishes of the regions they travel through.

Biddy is constantly pulled away from her cooking to do errands for Lady Carinna.  Those errands become odder and odder as the trip continues.  Is there a reason for these strange requests by her ladyship?  Is Biddy misreading her ladyship’s friendliness towards her?

The floorboards are creaking again.

And what’s up with the title?  Who eats violets?  I ruminated on the title for a while before I read the book.  I liked it.  I hated it.  I figured it was a clue.  Was I right?

My book club loved this book. It had something for all of us.  Some liked the historical fiction, some the romance and others the mystery. We had book club this month at a restaurant and marveled at how lucky we are to live in this time period especially when we talked about the recipes.  “Yuck,” I said about them as I sipped a Cosmo and ate a French fry. Hmmm….

We spent some time on the other characters that rounded out the story, Kitt, Lady Carinna’s brother, and the sweet minded Loveday, Jesmire, Mr. Pars and Renzo. We liked some of them and thought the others got what they deserved.

Overall we would recommend this book – not so much the recipes.

Rating: 8.0