Emily and Jess are mismatched siblings who love and care for each other despite their different outlooks on love and life. The routes their lives take over the course of two years show that life is unpredictable despite the best of intentions. The surrounding characters are fully realized and add depth to the story. However, sometimes the change in focus from one of the main characters to a secondary character pulled me away from the story rather than deeper into it.

The group as a whole enjoyed the book. We would recommend this to other book clubs.

2 1/2 stars. I so wanted to really love this book. I don't get the overblown comparisons to Jane Austen at all, but that didn't draw me to it, nor did it put me off, I just don't get where this comes from. With cookbooks and a rare books store supposedly central to the plot, coupled with a relationship between sisters, I expected to love this story. Turns out there was too much going on and none of it hung together very well. Many of the characters were somewhat trite and cliche. Having said that, there were some truly beautifully written passages and that kept me going.

This book did not hold my interest. I pushed through because I wanted to speak at book club. The characters were flat and uninteresting stereotypes. The interesting things like the Jewish family and the references to 9/11 were background "flavor", not needed for the story.
Do not waste your book club's time. We decided it was a "beach read".

It took a while to learn the \\\"tie\\\" to \\\"cookbook\\\" but I enjoyed the female entrepreneur and computer software slant. It definitely maintained my interest throughout.