Comfort Food

I was a HUGE fan of Kate Jacobs first book, Friday Night Knitting Club, so I was a little iffy about whether I wanted to read this book at all. Sometimes the second one is not as good as the first, you know? But I bought it and read it in one afternoon straight. It's actually even better than Friday Night--don't want to spoil that ending so I'll just say that this ending is very different--and the characters are just as much fun. It reminded me alot of my own family and there were some romances that were fun and real and not cliche'd. Kate Jacobs also puts in plenty of yummy descriptions of food and cooking that seriously made me hungry as I read it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who liked her first book or to anyone who just enjoys a great read about food and family and life.

Kate Jacob's "Comfort Food" revolved around Gus, a popular TV show host for the Cooking Channel. Despite that Gus's program was the longest running series on the channel, the number of viewers had gone down, and Gus' bosses begin to wonder if Gus is too old for the program. Gus, was afterall in her fifties. In order to spice up her series, Gus was paired with a former beauty pageant from Spain who will join her in her cooking show. Her working life was obviously not going well, and even her personal life was problematic. Gus' two adult daughters were complete opposite of one another. Aimee, an Economist, was serious, studious, and felt she was neglected due to the neediness of her younger sister, Sabrina. Sabrina had commitment problems and despite many engagements, she's still unmarried, and unable to commit to one person. To make her life worse, the producers decided to put her entire family, and a few others (including Sabrina's ex-boyfriend, Gus's friend who is a recluse).

This was an okay read for me. The pace of the book was a little slow for me, The book was fairly well-written, but unfortunately not very engaging and rather predictable too. It wasn't one of those books where you can't put down. If you are a huge fan of Kate Jacob, this may be for you. But if you are looking for a more interesting read, there are definitely better ones out there. Very average!

I am now a true follower of Kate Jacobs! I have just finished Comfort Food and I really believe this one is better than the first! And the Friday Night Knitting Club is #1 on the NYTimes Best Sellers list! I do enjoy cooking and am a cooking show fanatic, so it was only natural that I would love this book. MUST READ!

I expected this to be a sequel to Friday Night Knitting Club (which I loved) and so was very confused at the beginning of the book. It is not a sequel. Once I figured that out, I was able to really get into the book. It was very good! Gus is a widow, a mom of two grown daughters, has a cooking show on TV and is turning 50. We get to see her working through the issues of turning 50 and having her world and her insecurities turned around a bit. I definitely recommend seeing what happens. It is a quick read and one well worth your time.

I was very excited for Comfort Food as I LOVED Friday Night Knitting Club and I was completely disappointed with this book. The book just seemed very slow and boring, there was a focus on food but the food didn't bring the characters together like the knitting store did in her previous book. I think that she tried to use that same common thread again and it just didn't work.

The characters in the book appear unrealistic with cliché dialogues. There's not too much depth to the characters and they're all so neatly categorized. I liked Friday Night Knitting Club but cannot finish this book. I felt like I was reading a dumbed down book!

Following The Friday Night Knitting Club (which is a really good read), this book comes as a slight disappointment. While the cooking show setting and the food-central focus of the book is entertaining at time, the book never seems to ascend beyond a superficial storyline or develop its characters fully. The author can write about food and cooking well, but something in this story seems to be missing. It's not a bad read, just not up to the level of her first effort.

Comfort Food is disappointing. After reading The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I enjoyed thoroughly, I realized after the first few chapters that I was not going to like Comfort Food as much. It chronicles the life of Gus Simpson as a celebrity cook on the Cooking Channel and her lessening popularity with viewers...the other characters are her family and one reclusive friend. Gus's revamped live cooking show is basically a train wreck. Carmen Vega, Gus's on-screen cooking rival chef, uses other people to her advantage. Meanwhile Gus's love life heats up but somehow I did not buy her romance with the new culinary producer/chef of the live cooking show. It was not a "delightful" read at all and I cannot recommend this book to others.

This is the first Kate Jacobs book I have read, and I was a little disappointed. The premise was interesting, but it felt like it was written in the style of too many other "chick lit" books, unfortunately. The love lines were predictable, and while some parts seemed to read extremely slow, there were holes in other areas. Not to ruin it for anyone, but the ending comes together in a neat little package without much room for the reader to draw their own conclusions or wonder what might have happened next.

This book was disappointing. I was hoping for the 'can't put it down' moments with this book, but it just didn't happen. As a result I ended up skipping a few chapters to the end. And when I did, I felt that I didn't miss that much in between. I gave it three stars because overall the author is a good writer, but this story wasn't engaging to me.