The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake

By Rachel Linden

Book Overview

"Heartfelt, heartwarming, joyful, and uplifting. You can't go wrong with a Rachel Linden book."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

A magical cookbook and a summer on her family's Italian olive farm help a brokenhearted social media chef cook up a satisfying new life in this delectable novel from the bestselling author of Recipe for a Charmed Life.

Rising star Jules Costa loves re-creating vintage recipes for her popular online cooking show. But when personal and professional disaster strikes, her only chance to save her career is to complete her new cookbook before the end of the summer. Panicked, Jules returns to her family's beloved olive farm on the shores of Italy's stunning Lake Garda. Seeking culinary inspiration, she's hoping to convince her spunky eighty-year-old Nonna Bruna to share her precious collection of family recipes.

Jules's plans quickly go awry as she discovers that Nonna's cookbook has magical and unpredictable powers. It reveals only one recipe at a time, offering a cooking experience guaranteed to satisfy the chef's palate and bring clarity to their life. Yet the pages remain stubbornly blank for Jules. To make matters worse, the olive farm is in deep financial trouble, and Jules soon uncovers a web of family secrets involving the cookbook and a lost recipe for orange blossom cake that holds the key to everything. Then there's Nicolo, the boy next door, who broke her young heart years ago. He is now all grown up, even more attractive, and the only person poised to help Jules find answers.

In a whirlwind summer beyond her imagination, Jules begins to unravel the mysteries baked into her family's history and discovers the essential ingredients to create the future of her dreams.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593816633
• ISBN13: 9780593816639
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Heartwarming story of family, food, and forgiveness

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for a digital advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own unless otherwise noted. This is a heartwarming story about family, food and forgiveness that takes place one recent summer on an olive farm near the picturesque Italian town of Lake Garda. Jules returns to the family farm for the summer, hoping to use Nonna Bruna’s cookbook recipes to create a book that will provide financial stability so she can continue her vintage online cooking show. She brings her distant teenage half sister at her mother’s insistence and reignites the spark she had with neighbor heartthrob Nicolo from when she was last there at fifteen. But things don’t go according to plan. Added to the family drama is the magical quality of the cookbook, which Jules describes as “the heart of our family, a book of blessing, of hospitality and care. It symbolizes all that is right and good about the Costa name. It is our history and legacy.” I was often preoccupied by all the delicious food and beverages that are mentioned and prepared throughout the novel. And I was grateful for the inclusion of the Orange Blossom Cake recipe. I’m looking forward to making it. How fun it would be for a book group to serve it along with the discussion questions offered at the novel’s conclusion. Like all of Rachel Linden’s novels, this one was about hope, courage, and connection – with a hint of romance and a touch of whimsey.