The Wandering Season

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse for a digital advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own unless otherwise noted. Veronica has a unique business called The Kitchen Muse, and she describes herself as a food matchmaker. Everyone who knows her thinks she should open a restaurant because she’s a fabulous and creative cook. But she has doubts about what her next step should be. Contributing to her doubts are two major life adjustments: she breaks up with her boyfriend of four years and receives surprising results from a DNA test. Her sister insists she travel to the countries that are listed in her DNA profile, and even though it’s during the coldest time of the year, Veronica finds herself traveling to Ireland, France, Italy and Denmark. This gifted travel experience becomes Veronica’s quest to find herself. In each country Veronica experiences visions of her ancestors, while staying at a variety of unique settings – an Irish castle, a rustic Italian country cottage, a charming French village apartment, a newly renovated Danish rental. This novel of self-discovery with a touch of romance and a lot of magical realism was an enjoyable if predictable story. But there were several repeated words and phrases I wanted to mark with a red pen. And the visions of her ancestors seemed too abruptly inserted, without enough explanation afterwards to show how Veronica benefited from their experiences. It needed one more round of editing to take it to the next level. Nonetheless, lots of food descriptions made this a delicious read, and I appreciated the bonus recipes included.