The Lost Recipe for Happiness | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara O'neal
Publisher: Bantam Discovery
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.41
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Rating:  4 reviews
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1
ISBN: 0553591681
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553591682
Publication Date: December 30, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
In this sumptuous new novel, Barbara O’Neal offers readers a celebration of food, family, and love as a woman searches for the elusive ingredient we’re all hoping to find….
It’s the opportunity Elena Alvarez has been waiting for–the challenge of running her own kitchen in a world-class restaurant. Haunted by an accident of which she was the lone survivor, Elena knows better than anyone how to survive the odds. With her faithful dog, Alvin, and her grandmother’s recipes, Elena arrives in Colorado to find a restaurant in as desperate need of a fresh start as she is–and a man whose passionate approach to food and life rivals her own. Owner Julian Liswood is a name many people know but a man few do. He’s come to Aspen with a troubled teenage daughter and a dream of the kind of stability and love only a family can provide. But for Elena, old ghosts don’t die quietly, yet a chance to find happiness at last is worth the risk.
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| Customer Reviews:
 I hated this. January 8, 2009
GadgetChick
I picked this up thinking it would be a fun, mindless little romantic read and more than once nearly threw it out in disgust. The characters are completely unbelievable and unrealistic. Elena, the main character, is a cardboard stereotype that we see over and over again and that I am frankly sick of - the beautiful, damaged girl who needs someone to "save her" or "bring her back to life." Every interaction with Elena has every other character is stilted and seems forced. Also, nearly every detail the author includes about Elena's Northern New Mexico upbringing and cuisine is wrong. The way people talk to each other is wrong. The words they use are wrong. The ingredients are wrong in the food. I live in New Mexico, and believe me - the New Mexican characters in this book are what former New Yorkers or Californians think New Mexicans should be. The dialogue is terrible - people don't talk to each other like this! Even if I could have gotten past that, in general the storyline was boring. The whole thing seemed really lackluster and inauthentic to me, and it was a real struggle for me to finish it. When I did, I was sorry I had wasted the time. I like some "chick lit" if it's both funny and smart, but this was neither. Not recommended, to say the least.
 The Perfect Recipe for a Great Read January 2, 2009
Alison Kent (Houston, TX United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of Barbara Samuel since reading my first Ruth Wind authored Silhouette Special Edition. I followed her into her historicals, then stayed with her as she moved into big women's fiction. For me to want to put my life on hold and read an author's work, she has to own her voice, to be a confident master of her prose, and Barbara does it every time. She is a brilliant storyteller, one who wields the tools of a wordsmith with such skill that getting lost for hours in her world is pure pleasure.
Her latest book, THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS written as Barbara O'Neal (Bantam Discovery, trade $13, mmpb $6.99, 464 pages, December 30) continues her exploration of troubled, damaged women who find their place in life, make peace with their past, and allow themselves the love of a good man. Elena Alvarez is hired as executive chef to take over a failing Aspen restaurant owned by restauranteur and movie mogul Julian Liswood. Julian also owned the Vancouver restaurant from which she was fired as sous chef the very day he asked her to resurrect what becomes The Orange Bear. Elena has her work cut out for her, dealing with a kitchen staff of illegal immigrants, a previous executive chef whom she dubs Rasputin, the pressure of being a female chef running her own kitchen (and with a boss to whom she is attracted), and working on her feet for long grueling hours with her physical body betraying her.
As a teenager, Elena was the sole survivor of a horrible car accident that killed two siblings, a cousin, and her boyfriend. Her sister, Isobel, and Edwin, whom she was to marry, still appear to her all these years later, as Elena's survivor's guilt keeps her rooted to her past -- and unable to put down roots in any of the cities where she's worked. Aspen is different, however. Whether it's being in charge of her own kitchen and bringing her New Mexican culture, customs, and cuisine with her, or whether it's the comfort of including old friends in the venture while growing close to new ones, Elena finds herself shedding the old skin of the life she's lived and trying the fit of this new one -- one in which Julian Liswood and his daughter Portia play a huge part.
Barbara O'Neal tells the story of Elena Alvarez's spiritual and emotional recovery with unmistakable authenticity. The colorful details of the Colorado and New Mexico Southwest flavor the book as fully as the recipes she's included, and the food is as much a character as is Elena's dog Alvin - and anyone who regularly reads Barbara's blog knows of her enjoyment of cooking, her passion for her heritage, and her love for her animals. I found myself hungry for tamales and churros and pork pie, and dying to try the pomegranate baklava. (I did try Juan's Carne En Su Jugo, and loved it!) My only quibble with the book was never feeling as if I knew Elena's old friend Patrick (who has a substantial role) as fully as I knew her new friends Juan and Ivan and Julian and Portia, or even as fully as her long dead sister Isobel. But that doesn't keep me from recommending this book highly. It's big and lusty and delicious, and well worth taking a day away from real life to spend in the world Barbara has created.
a tasty nod to The Importance of Being Earnest January 1, 2009
Harriet Klausner
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although two decades have past since the horrific accident in Espanola, New Mexico that killed her sister and boyfriend and scarred her, Elena Alvarez remains mentally disturbed. Her only escape from the nightmares and ghosts is cooking, which she studied in Europe before returning to Vancouver as a chef at the Blue Turtle where her Santa Fe roots and his French cuisine merged. When the local paper features her instead of her boss Dmitri, he fires her.
Slasher film director and Blue Turtle restaurant owner Julian Liswood tasted talent in Elena's meals at the Blue Turtle. He offers her the position of executive chef at his new Aspen restaurant; she accepts. In Aspen, she works diligently on the menu in order to compete with a city known for food almost as much for skiing. She also finds herself falling in love with her employer, the divorced several times Julian.
Although a passionate contemporary culinary romance has been done many times, THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS is kept fresh by the haunting of Elena who literally cannot go home and the failures at marriage of Julian; although the latter pales in comparison on the trauma indicator. The pair shares in common a passion for food and each other while both fears relationships as they always end in failure. With a nod to The Importance of Being Earnest, Barbara O'Neal cooks up a tasty gourmet meal.
Harriet Klausner
Barbara O'Neal Writes a Winner! December 31, 2008
Lee Rhuday (Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Barbara O'Neal offers a scrumptious feast in The Lost Recipe for Happiness, a Bantam Discovery book. If you like food and love - and who doesn't? - there's plenty to savor in this story of Elena Alvarez, a chef who must free herself from the ghosts of her past in order to secure her future.
Life got an early start in teaching Elena that nothing lasts forever. Abandoned by her single mom, she found a new home and new loves, only to have tragedy rip her away from them. When movie producer Julian Liswood offers her a second chance - at love and at carving her own name in culinary fame - Elena searches for signs and the strength to believe in a forever kind of love.
The Lost Recipe for Happiness offers terrific insights into the demanding world beyond the dining room's swinging doors as Elena and her staff of delightfully wounded souls create the Orange Bear, Aspen's newest world-class restaurant. This is a man's world, one that seriously challenges even the hardiest individual. Elena, who fights daily battles against the ravages of a tragic car accident, relies on sheer strength of will as she pits herself against the daunting physical demands of her new job as executive chef. But will her strength of will be her undoing? Will it prevent her from embracing true love when it's finally her turn at the table?
The Lost Recipe for Happiness tells a great story in a wonderfully engaging manner. Those with a passion for food will drool over the sumptuous descriptions and mouth-watering recipes (I've tried a few and they are fab.) A delightful supporting cast, including a gorgeous bear of a dog and a guileless teenager who reminds Elena of possibilities, add to the ambiance. With a story of love and redemption that brings the reader to tears and warms the heart, Barbara O'Neal has gently folded all the right ingredients together to make The Lost Recipe for Happiness a must-have for every bookshelf.
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