The Kitchen Charmer

WARNING: Cliffhanger ending. Also trigger warning for animal death.

After waiting 3 years for the final book in the MacBride trilogy, there's a cliffhanger ending and Lucy and Gus don't even meet in person! I have to admit that once I realized that sad fact, I couldn't fully engage myself in the story. Deborah Smith has already left me hanging since 2014 with the little snippet of Where the Foxgloves Bloom, supposedly the first story in a planned trilogy sequel to A Place to Call Home and I just can't have my heart broken again like that. So Lucy and Gus will just have to wait until I can read the next installment and the next - however many novellas and years it takes to get to their HEA.

I will say that the book has Smith's trademark offbeat Southern humor, heart-wrenching drama, appearances from Cathy and Delta from The Crossroads Cafe and lots of adorable farm animals. And it's absolutely 100% crystal clear how Smith feels about our current presidential administration and the racist, anti-feminist, anti-LBGTQ, anti-Semitic fervor that has come out of the shadows since January 2017. I was going to say that her villains are a little over the top. And then I remember Charlottesville and I decided nothing is over the top these days, sadly.

So the book, like this review, is open-ended and subject to revision.