A sweet foodie love story. This would make a great TV movie for the Food Network :)

Katie has some food issues. Her dad is overweight and her mom obsessed about keeping Katie skinny.
But Katie missed pasta badly. Katie found a way to eat what she craves but stay skinny, she created a line of diet friendly frozen pasta meals.

Now in her 30's, Katie has an exceptionally bad week. First she finds out her fiancée is cheating on her, then her diet meals make a bunch of people sick.

She's in damage control mode. She lines up a deal with a well known family in Italy for a new line of pasta dishes.

She meets twins Luci and Luca. Luci is onboard with the deal, Luca is hesitant to be associated with diet, frozen pasta.
So Katie flies to Italy and agrees to Luca's deal, she will learn how to cook (and eat) real pasta before he will agree to her partnership.

There's something very charming about the storyline. After all, there is a handsome Italian man practically begging the skinny woman to eat more homemade Italian food and to gain some weight.

I'm going to overthink it a bit and say it could be insulting that he says he's not attracted to her because she's so skinny but clearly it's not true.

Anyway, sweet story. The cursing was a bit silly and it said "food orgasm" way too many times. But the food did sound amazing.

I can assure you that I had pasta for dinner while reading this book. It wasn't homemade but it still took care of the pasta craving that will absolutely happen when you read this book. Read with pasta in the house, ok? :)
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Fun, light, very predictable. Very quick read. ( )

The premise of this story is what drew me to pick it up in the first place. Also the fact that it was 50% off at Barnes and Noble. Meet Katie Cravens. She is the creator and CEO of the company Pasta Pronto, which makes low-carb frozen pasta meals. She is engaged to a man she believes is the man of her dreams. And to top it off, she maintains a slim size two waistline (thanks to her diet pasta meals). Katie thinks she has it all, until of course, everything comes crashing down. Within the span of two days, she finds her fiancé cheating on her and a quality control issue with her Pasta Pronto line sends customers to the hospital and sets the press a buzz.

After kicking her fiancé out of the house, Katie is sent to Italy in order to try and salvage the brand’s name. There she is to meet and set up partnership with the Caramelli twins, brother and sister, Luca and Luci. The partnership would be mutually beneficial as their restaurant and company could use a boost as well.

The descriptions of the food were one of the best parts of this book. I could practically taste the scones topped with berries and cream, or smell the pasta and sauces Luca made. It made me want to jump on a plane to Italy and stuff my face with as much food as possible.

It was surprisingly funny. The humor was subtle, sneaking up on you when you least expected it.
“Luca looked as if he’d rather be doing something more productive, like alligator wrestling or attending a paint-drying convention.”

I didn’t care for the drawn out love story between Katie and Luca. I don’t mind a slow-burning love story. Those are often the best in the end. But this felt unnecessarily delayed. The book in general took me a while to get into. However, I think the things Katie came to realize over the course of the book were some of the most important parts of the story.

“I’d come to realize that I never wanted him back. I just wanted him to want me back. That’s always what hurts more - them not wanting you anymore. They move on so quickly; so easily, as if you meant nothing to them. As if their memory of you was erased. It hurts more than the original wrong doing, I think, and it’s what you never really get over.”

This book was about more than just two people falling in love. Katie learns a lot about herself. Through her trials, she’s taught what matters most is loving yourself for who you are. Not what you look like, what job you have, or what others think of you. That is one of the most powerful lessons in the book. The romance is just an added bonus.

"Shortly before he died, he told me, "Marry a woman who feeds you in every way. And you must feed her too. In every way."" ( )