A Winter in New York — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Josie Silver
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 384

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she’s been looking for in this stunning novel.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.

But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.

First Impressions

This was another book that was on a holiday reads Goodreads list. It wasn’t one that immediately jumped out at me because of the cover. Honestly, it was the title that made the best first impression since I had recently spent some time in New York this winter.

What I thought

This book is so much more than the cover and summary make it seem.

Iris has fled London for New York after falling into an emotionally abusive relationship. It’s been 3 years since her mother has passed and she always spoke highly of New York, so Iris knew it was where she needed to be. When she is at a food festival, she discovers a familiar door. This door turns out to be to a geleteria that her mother visited over 30 years ago. She also happens to have the secret recipe to their gelato that only two family members are supposed to have at a time. When she discovers that the recipe is recently unknown due to the owner having had a stroke, she decides she needs to secretly help Gio and the rest of the Belotti family.

I wish that the cartoon trend wasn’t a thing because I think it does a disservice to this book. The cover and even the description make this book seem like it’s a light romance that takes place in New York. But in reality, there is family secrets, drama, love, and growth. Iris becomes a completely different person from the start of the book to the end. It also takes place over the course of months which I love. I really enjoy books that you get to grow slowly with the characters.

Gio is a wonderful character as well. He is a good man who has his own things he’s working through and the instant chemistry between him and Iris is perfect for the romance side of this book. There is a lot that happens in this book and I don’t want to unravel it for you because that is part of what I enjoyed. Learning about the Belotti family and their secrets was satisfying.

Silver does a great job with developing all of the characters but also balancing them with light side characters that you immediately fall in love with. She also makes New York City its own character, and if I hadn’t already visited, I would want to go now. I read her debut, One Day in December, and remember thinking it was just ok. I haven’t picked up any of her other books since then, even though I know that people love them. This book makes me want to go back and look at her previous novels and give them a chance.