Fiction Books About Food

by Charmaine Wilkerson

This novel opens in present-day California shortly after Eleanor's death. She has left behind a voice recording for her two adult children - Byron and Benny. She's also left them a traditional Caribbean black cake that she tells them to share "when the time is right."

Her children, it turns out, only know a small part of their mom's life story. Posthumously, Eleanor is finally ready to share her truth so that Byron and Benny can truly know and understand their family history.

As the story unfolds, everything that her children thought they knew about their lineage and themselves will be rocked to the core, and by the time they finally share the black cake, another person will join them at the table.

The Book Girls Say… Throughout this novel, you'll learn not only about the traditions of Caribbean cuisine, but also about many other ethno-foods and how the diaspora of food has helped to shape many cultural traditions.

Angela rated this book 5 stars and highly recommends the audiobook version because the accents bring the story to life.

This book is included with Kindle Unlimited as of 9/8/2022.

by Mia P. Manansala

Arsenic & Adobo is the first book in a newer series. The main character Lila returns from her life in Chicago to help her Tita Rosie's restaurant, which is going through a hard time. Lila's ex-boyfriend, an annoying food critic, visits the restaurant and dies in his dessert shortly after an argument with Lila.

She's the prime suspect, and to clear her name, she's determined to find out what really happened. The Filipino food descriptions incorporated throughout the book will make your mouth water! As a bonus, the characters also visit other restaurants in town, and the author provides detailed descriptions of those meals as well. Each restaurant is part of a different culture, so it's a bit of a culinary tour around the world.

The Book Girls Say… This debut novel reminded Melissa of the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series. If you love a modern, light-hearted, and amusing whodunit-style story, this is a great pick for you.

If you've already read Arsenic & Adobo, there are now two more books in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen series. Each has a strong food theme!

by Fannie Flagg

The book is set in 1985 Alabama as gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode recounts her younger years to middle-aged Evelyn. Her stories transport you back to the 1930s when her friends Idgie and Ruth opened a cafe in tiny Whistle Stop, Alabama. While serving up good coffee and barbecue, the café was a place for friendship ... and the occasional murder.

The Book Girls Say... While many people have seen the movie adaptation of this novel, as is often the case - the story in the book unfolds differently, and most agree the book is better. As the book is partially set in segregated 1930s Alabama, there is some unfortunate but historically accurate language.

by Sarah Kuhn

Kimi is a high school student who aspires to attend art school. Her dad owns a restaurant, and her mother is a well-known painter who wants Kimi to follow in her fine art footsteps. However, Kimi has become much more drawn to fashion design - a field that her mother strongly disapproves of.

After an explosive fight with her mom, Kimi receives a letter from her estranged Japanese grandparents inviting her to visit them in Kyoto for spring break. Even though she's never met them, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to escape her troubles at home.

When she arrives in Japan, she discovers that inspiration is everywhere - including Kyoto's outdoor markets, art installations, and the cherry blossom festival. She meets a young man named Akira, who works at his uncle's mochi stand. But he's also an aspiring med student who helps show her even more of the city.

As the week goes on, Kimi gets to know her grandparents and learns so much more about her mother back in America, herself, and her art. This sweet YA novel will completely immerse you in the sights, sounds, scents, and tastes of Kyoto, Japan.

The Book Girls Say... If you enjoy YA novels, we also highly recommend Jenna Evans Welch's Love & Gelato (set in Tuscany, Italy) and Love & Olives (set in Santorini, Greece). Additionally, we're looking forward to reading A Pho Love Story by Loan Le (about two Vietnamese American teens caught in the middle of their families' feud about their competing restaurants).

by Rani Manicka

In the 1920s, Lakshmi enjoyed a carefree childhood among the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon (which later became a part of Sri Lanka). But at the age of 14, she was sent across the ocean to Malaysia and forced into a marriage with a much older man. Lakshmi was promised a life of riches and luxury, but instead, they struggle to get by as Lakshmi gives birth to six children by the age of 19.

Throughout her life, Lakshmi endures incredible hardship and suffering, but draws upon incredible strength to face each new challenge. This includes finding a way to keep her daughters safe during the Japanese occupation of WWII.

Rich with traditional folklore, Eastern magic, Indian celebrations, and Malaysian cuisine - this long novel spans 85 years and four generations as it tells one family’s saga. Although Lakshmi (the “Rice Mother”) is the main character of this story, each chapter is narrated by a different member of the family. This gives readers different perspectives on various events, creating even greater depth and layering to the story while maintaining a consistent plot from beginning to end.

by Alexis Hall

Rosaline Palmer knows that the key to successful baking is to always follow the recipe... but in her personal life, she hasn't always done the same. She dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie, her house is falling apart, and she's barely making ends meet financially.

When she lands a spot on everyone’s favorite British baking reality show, she can envision all the ways that the prize money could turn her life around.

The best thing she could do is to focus on her baking, and only her baking... but she soon finds herself torn between potential love interests. While there is romance in this story, the heart of this contemporary book is about the baking, not bisexual Rosaline’s potential suitors.

The Book Girls Say... This is the first book in the new queer rom-com series, Winner Bakes All, from Alexis Hall, the best-selling author of Boyfriend Material. The second book in the trilogy, Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble, will be published in October of 2022, with a third book to follow.

by Joanne Harris

In a tiny town in the south of France, newcomer Vianne Rocer arrives at the beginning of Lent and opens an exquisite chocolate shop on the square opposite the church. She immediately begins to wreak havoc with the Lenten vows of villagers during the traditional season of fasting and self-denial.

Each box of bonbons she sells includes the gift of Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and her bewitching cure for them. She awakens the village to joy and sensuality as the parishioners abandon themselves to temptation and happiness.

The Book Girls Say... Just go ahead and buy yourself a big box of chocolates to enjoy while reading this book. You're going to need it!

by Samantha Verant

Sophia has a big dream. She wants to join the 1% of female chefs running a Michelin star restaurant.

While she was born in France, Sophia grew up in America and attended CIA (Culinary Institute of America). She’s on track for her goal when two events collide to change her path forever. First, a fellow chef sabotages her career. But even worse, her beloved grandmother, who originated Sophia’s love of cooking, had a stroke.

Sophie takes a red-eye back to France to get to her grandma. While she’s been in America, the quant French home she remembers has turned into a lux hotel, vineyard, and restaurant. It’s the perfect opportunity to rebuild her career and learn some things about herself along the way.

by Viola Shipman

Samantha grew up in her family’s northern Michigan orchard and pie shop. She left the idyllic setting to make her own mark on the culinary world in New York. However, her dream life isn’t a dream after all. Instead, she’s overworked and undervalued at a bakery owned by a reality star.

After suffering a final embarrassment by the chef, Sam returns home to spend the summer working on her family’s orchard and baking with her mother and grandmother. One recipe at a time, she learns more about her family’s history and passion for food as they work through a treasured recipe box together. Each chapter starts with a delicious recipe for you to make along with the family.

by Michelle Huneven

While this book is fiction, it’s written in the style of a memoir from the main character Dana, a food writer, restaurant critic, and active member of a progressive UnitarianUniversalistt church.

As Dana wraps up a book tour and finds herself struggling to come up with her next book idea, the church asks her to join the search committee for their next minister. In a stroke of genius, she decides to quietly write a memoir that will include recipes and follow both the committee and candidates.

She couldn’t have dreamt up a better cast of characters for her book. From a microbrewer to an environmental warrior, the committee has a big decision about the future of their congregation. Along the committee’s journey, you’ll read about many delectable meals.

The Book Girls Say... While this book is a work of fiction, author Michelle Huneven is also a James Beard Award-winning food journalist and spent time at the Methodist Claremont School of Theology.

by Elizabeth Acevedo

High School senior Emoni has her hands full between having her own daughter, plus an Abuela to take care of at home. Her only escape from stresses beyond what most adults experience happens in the kitchen. Not only does she love cooking, she's good at it. Her food tastes like magic.

Emoni's school has a culinary arts program, but it requires time she doesn’t have, plus money she doesn’t have for the class trip to Spain. But she has so much talent, it’s hard to keep it hidden.

The Book Girls Say… This YA book contains a creative recipe at the beginning of each section.

by J. Ryan Stradal

This unique novel follows approximately 30 years in Eva Thorvald's life and her journey to become the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club. Rather than seeing Eva’s life through her own eyes, everything we know about Eva is told to us through the filter of another character.

In a series of eight short stories that will ultimately become intertwined, we see Eva evolve. The stories are told by a wide variety of people, from her father to her first boyfriend and even a jealous rival, who each introduce their own perspectives and prejudice to Eva’s life story.

Additionally, each story revolves around a single dish of food, making Kitchens of the Great Midwest an excellent foodie novel!

The Book Girls Say... Angela really enjoyed the unique structure of this novel. She also really loved the references to music and bands that were popular in each time period as the book progresses. However, some readers are turned off by the use of foul language in the book, so keep that in mind if it's a deal-breaker for you.

by Jenny Colgan

After Polly’s last relationship fell apart, she escaped to a small seaside town in Cornwall, England. She moves into a small flat above an abandoned shop and fills her days baking bread. As it turns from hobby to passion, she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, and each loaf is more delicious than the last. Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, olives and chorizo, and the local honey-courtesy of a handsome local beekeeper.

Not only do the locals discover Polly’s delicious bread… thanks to the recipes in the back, you can, too.

The Book Girls Say… All of Jenny Colgan’s novels are light and uplifting reads that will leave you feeling good. Little Beach Street Bakery is the first in a series of four novels.

by Karma Brown

Alice leaves her publicity career in 2018 to become a writer and follows her husband to the suburbs of New York. Learning to fill her days in a big, empty house, she comes across a vintage cookbook in the basement. Within the book, she discovers hidden notes left by the home's previous owner, Nellie - a quintessential 1950s housewife. Alice cooks her way through Nellie's recipes, and she starts to uncover clues about her life.

Juxtaposing Alice's life against Nellie's life 60 years ago, this is a story of how everything has changed, but in some ways, nothing has changed.

The Book Girls Say… This novel includes recipes, as well as some depressing but hilarious marriage advice from the 1950s.

by Laura Esquivel

This modern classic crosses genres from historical fiction and romance to magical realism. Set in 1910-1917 Mexico, Like Water for Chocolate is the story of the all-female De La Garza family. The youngest daughter, Tita, is expected to follow the Mexican tradition of caring for her mother instead of having her own husband and family.

However, she’s fallen in love with Pedro. And he has been seduced by Tita’s magical food. So, knowing the tradition, Pedro takes the extreme action of marrying Tita’s sister Rosaura so he can stay close to Tita. And that is just the beginning of Tita’s problems, which include everything from a kidnapped sister to war.

The story is told in monthly installments, with recipes and home remedies mixed into the romance.

The Book Girls Say… Originally published and translated in 1989, the novel topped the bestseller charts in both Mexico and the US for over two years. If you missed it back then, now is a great time to see what all the excitement was about!

by Ruth Reichl

After traveling from her California home to New York to work for Delicious, the iconic food magazine, Billie is shocked when the magazine is shut down. As the staff, who are more like a family, try to move on, Billie is offered a job working the “Delicious Guarantee” hotline, which helps readers with recipe issues and takes complaints.

This shift in her career leads to a life-changing discovery in the form of the letters a twelve-year-old named Lulu wrote to chef James Beard during WW2. As Billie reads the letter, she learns more about world history and food history than she ever expected. More importantly, she learns courage and how to overcome her own challenges.

The Book Girls Say… Author Ruth Reichl has also written several highly rated non-fiction books about food over the past two decades, including Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir.

by Bonnie Garmus

Elizabeth Zott is a quirky and brilliant female chemist working with an all-male team at the Hastings Research Institute. But it's the 1950s, and her scientific qualifications don't stop the "good old boys" from being frustrated that she won't get the coffee or make copies for them. When Elizabeth meets Calvin Evans, another scientist at the Institute, another type of chemistry results.

Fast forward a few years. It's 1961, and Elizabeth is a 30-year-old single mother. She's taken a bit of a detour in her career. Instead of working for Hastings, she's now (somewhat reluctantly) the star of a much-loved cooking show called Supper at Six. Her cooking methods are unusual ("combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride"). As her popularity grows, it turns out she's not just teaching women to cook, she's also daring them to change the status quo.

The Book Girls Say… This novel is funny, but not in a laugh-out-loud sort of way - more in a sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry sort of way. The descriptions of the misogyny that Elizabeth faces (and specifically some of the language that is directed at her) offends some readers, but it's an accurate representation of what she and so many women faced in the 1950s and 1960s.

by Jennifer Ryan

Two years after the start of WW2, Britain is struggling. The Blitz has destroyed homes and businesses, and U-boats have cut off many food supplies. With rationing on the forefront of everyone’s mind, BBC Radio decides to start a cooking program to help housewives with creative meals. While this book is historical fiction, it’s based on the real wartime cookery program.

To find the show’s first female co-host, BBC has a cooking contest. The four candidates couldn’t be more different, but each need the job. A young widow, a kitchen maid, a Lady with a wealthy but hostile husband, and a trained female chef trying to take on the men at the top of her field must compete for the single hosting position. They’re ready to give it their all, even if that means bending the rules.

by Erica Bauermeister

Every Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian’s restaurant for a cooking class. Each of them are searching for more than just food technique, they also need a new recipe for life. From a young mother to a widower, the students have unique backgrounds and different challenges in life.

The aromas, flavors, and texture of Lillian’s food slowly transforms the lives of her students. As the characters begin to intertwine, the depth of what can be created in the kitchen is revealed.

by Heather Webber

Anna Kate’s grandmother owned the Blackbird Cafe in the small town of Wicklow, Alabama. When Granny passes away, Anna Kate returns to Wicklow to settle her estate. She intended it to be a very quick trip, but for some reason she finds herself drawn to the quirky town that her mother ran away from many years ago. She wants to get to know the people of Wicklow, including her father’s side of the family, and she wants to learn more about the mysterious blackbird pie everybody is talking about.

As she discovers the truth about her past, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird can finally take her broken wings and fly.

The Book Girls Say… This charming Southern novel includes both romance and magical realism.

This book is included with Kindle Unlimited as of 9/8/2022.

by Leylah Attar

Join one Greek family and one Indian family as they board a yacht for a wedding on the Aegean coast in this fun rom com!

Moti has felt jinxed her whole life. Take her name, for example - pronounced correctly it with a soft "t" (MO-thi) it means "pearl" in Hindi. But pronounced incorrectly with a hard "t" (Mo-Tee), as most people do, it means fatty or chubby.

She'll be joining her family to celebrate her cousin's wedding, but to do so, she has to overcome her fear of the water. Moti is also saddled with her mother's expectations that she find and win over Nikos - the ONE man that she's fated to marry, and the only man her mom will approve of. But things get complicated when she meets Alexandros, the private chef aboard the yacht. His food is like magic, and Moti can’t help but fall under the spell.

The Book Girls Say... We both enjoyed this laugh-out-loud funny rom-com last year! You'll fall in love with Moti and find yourself craving all the food they enjoy aboard the yacht! This book gets pretty steamy and includes some open-door scenes, so skip it if that's not your thing.

by Uzma Jalaluddin

Hana Khan is a young Muslim woman born and raised in Toronto, Canada to immigrant parents. Like many 20-somethings, she works numerous jobs while trying to make her own dream a reality. Hana interns at a local radio station, anonymously runs a podcast, and works part-time at her family's struggling halal restaurant. However, her true ambition is to have her own radio show where she can highlight her fellow Muslims' life stories.

When a new family with a handsome son named Aydin, arrives in town with plans to open an upscale halal restaurant that threatens to put her family out of business, Hana is determined to do whatever it takes. In a You've Got Mail-esque storyline, she turns to one of her podcast listeners for advice.

Things are complicated further by a hate-motivated attack on the neighborhood and Hana's growing attraction to her rival, Aydin.

The Book Girls Say... While this book is squarely in the rom-com genre, it also provides insight into the young Muslim experience.

The More You Know: If you are not familiar with the term halal, it means lawful or permitted under Islamic law, and in the context of food it is similar to the concept of kosher in Judaism. Halal does not refer only to meat, but in that context, it refers to meat that has been slaughtered in a particular manner. You can read more and find links to some halal recipes here.

by Danielle Hawkins

Lia and Anna are friends who opened a cafe near a seaside town in rural New Zealand. They're spending all their free time working, planning Anna's wedding, and trying to get Lia's ex-boyfriend to understand that it's over. Then, one night, a gorgeous stranger appears at Lia's window in the middle of the night. Is it worth fitting a new relationship into her already hectic life?

The Pretty Delicious Cafe reminds us of the joy - as well as the challenges - to be found in family, friends, and good food.

The Book Girls Say... Our readers say that this book is laugh-out-loud funny at times with fun characters, but The Pretty Delicious Cafe also has some serious and darker topics interwoven into the book.