Reservations for Two

Reservations for Two by Hillary Manton Lodge     305 pages

Reservations for Two is the second book in the “Two Blue Doors” trilogy. I wasn’t able to get my hands on the first volume, A Table by the Window, before I started reading this installment. When I first started reading, I wondered if I should wait to get a copy of the first novel. However, Juliette and Neil pulled my quickly into their story.

Juliette is a food-writer turned restaurateur, soon to open her own place with her brother Nico in Portland.  Neil is a scientist living in Memphis. The only thing they are sure about is that they love each other. Neither is in a position to pull up roots and move across the county. Not only is the new restaurant keeping Juliette in Oregon, but her mother is rapidly deteriorating from ovarian cancer. I never did get how they met, and I think that’s probably in the first book.

They are headed to France and Italy where Juliette is not only spending time with her extended family, learning more about cuisine and her relatives. One of the things that has sent her on this trip is the knowledge that the man she called Grandfather was not her biological ancestor. She’s hoping that some of the family, especially a grand-aunt suffering from dementia, can provide some information.

None of the family seems to have the answers. Yet Juliette finds a treasure-trove of letters between her grandmother, her great-aunt, and even the man who may be her ancestor that were written in the late 1930s and through the 1940s. She photographs the letters into her laptop so handling them doesn’t make them crumble.

Juliette doesn’t have much time to read them with all the things that are on her plate. But beginning about halfway through the book, she starts to dive into her grandmother’s past.

I was pulled quickly into the story. Before I reached page 20, I felt as if what happened in Book One no longer mattered. Reservations for Two is a great read until the end. Then the story just ends; it just stops. I went to turn the page and was greeted by a Reader’s Guide. I was so irritated that I wanted to throw my paperback copy across the room. There’s not conclusion to what’s happening now. There are a few clues as to what Book Three will bring, but I have to wait until May 2016 before it will be published.

I have mixed emotions about whether I would recommend this book to my friends. I LOVED the plot and characters, but that abrupt ending did me in. I hate to inflict that on any reader.

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books.